A New Beginning in Chains
My name is Orion Valor. Once, I was an ordinary high school student, living an unremarkable life in an unremarkable world. I wasn't a genius or a star athlete. Just a guy who sat in the middle of the classroom, avoided trouble, and got by with mediocre grades. My biggest struggles were math homework and figuring out whether to buy snacks after school.
That was my life—simple, predictable, and painfully ordinary.
And then I died.
It wasn't anything dramatic. No truck barreling down the street, no daring act of heroism that ended in tragedy. Just a cold, rainy night and a patch of wet pavement that sent me falling headfirst onto the asphalt. One moment, I was walking home, umbrella in hand. The next, I was gone.
When the light faded, I didn't wake up in heaven or hell. I didn't even see my life flash before my eyes. Instead, I opened my eyes to screaming, hatred, and a pain that burned into my chest like molten fire.
That's when I realized—I wasn't me anymore.
I was reborn into a world of magic and monsters, but not as some destined hero or chosen savior. No, my "new life" came with a price. A curse, ancient and cruel, carved its way into my flesh before I could even take my first proper breath. It wasn't visible to me at first, but I could feel it—the way it made every human's gaze turn hateful, the way their emotions twisted into rage and disgust the moment they looked at me.
The curse didn't care that I was a baby. It didn't care that I hadn't done anything wrong. To them, I was a monster.
You might think being a reincarnated soul would prepare you for something like this. It doesn't. I screamed and cried like any newborn would, but my cries were met with curses and spit, not compassion. The humans who should have protected me turned their backs—or worse, tried to end my life outright.
The only reason I survived was sheer luck. Or maybe fate.
I don't know what god—or demon—decided I deserved this second chance. All I know is that I was left in a wasteland, abandoned like trash, surrounded by the corpses of people who had died trying to kill me.
And that's where the story of Orion Valor truly begins.
At first, I didn't understand the extent of my curse. All I knew was that humans hated me. Their loathing was instinctual, primal, as if the very sight of me offended the core of their being. But then came the beasts—the wolves, the birds, the creatures of the wild.
They weren't afraid of me. They didn't lash out or try to kill me. Instead, they watched me, their gazes curious and reverent, as if I were something sacred.
I still remember the first beast I encountered—a wolf with silver streaks in its fur, its eyes glowing faintly in the darkness. It approached me slowly, cautiously, but there was no malice in its movements. When it reached me, it didn't attack. It bowed.
At the time, I didn't understand why. But looking back, I think that was the moment everything changed. The curse that made humans despise me was the same force that made beasts and other races drawn to me. They didn't see me as an enemy. They saw me as a leader.
When I touched the wolf, something incredible happened. A surge of energy coursed through me, and in an instant, I felt a connection unlike anything I'd ever known. The wolf wasn't just a companion—it was part of me.
That's when the system activated.
[System Activation Complete.]
[Welcome, Host.]
[You have been marked by the Ancient Curse of Exile. Humans will loathe your existence, but beasts and other races shall revere you.]
[You have tamed your first companion: Silverfang (Wolf, Tier 1). Bond established.]
The words appeared in my mind, clear and mechanical, like the voice of a narrator in a video game. But this wasn't a game. This was my life now.
From that moment, I began to understand the curse—and the power it granted me.
The more beasts I tamed, the stronger I became. The system awarded me abilities, shared skills, and raw strength through the bonds I forged. But there was something more, something darker.
The system revealed another function—intimacy. I learned that forming deeper bonds with those who joined me, whether through loyalty or love, would amplify my power even further.
At first, it sounded ridiculous. In my past life, I'd never been particularly good at relationships. The idea of relying on others, of building a harem of non-human companions to grow stronger, seemed absurd.
But this world didn't care about what I thought was absurd. It demanded survival, and survival required strength.
So, I made a choice.
I would embrace the curse. I would use the power it gave me to rise above the hatred, to carve out a place where I could live freely—where my companions and I could thrive.
I wouldn't bow to the world's rules. I wouldn't waste time trying to convince humans to accept me. If they saw me as a monster, so be it. I'd become the monster they feared.
My name is Orion Valor, and this is my story. A tale of curses and beasts, of love and ambition. Of a man reborn into a world that hated him and his rise to power as its cursed sovereign.