
by Sliver Landlady
In the tiny rural village of Holly-on-Green, terrible things keep happening. Whispers in the trees lure the village children into darkness. Strangers in the inn bring violent intentions. Strange lights in the lake snatch fishermen from the shores. And the new Baron of the land only travels by black coach in the dead of night.These young evils are on the rise, each looking to claim the black throne left empty by the Dark Lord Vladimir Grimm. The breaker of armies, the grave of a thousand failed quests....the village alchemist?!In an unfortunate twist, these nascent villains are about to discover that the rumors of Mir's death are the best lies he ever told. Now, if they want to live, they're going to live under his rules. Because if their actions bring the Heroes to his doorstep there will be hell to pay.This story contains:♦ A loving power couple of husbands.♦ An unrepentantly evil MC who's capable of healthy relationships.♦ Wholesome daily life segments.♦ The bad guys getting snapped in half offscreen.♦ Villainous monologues (look he's trying to quit, he swears).♦ The occasional cooking scene.♦ Cozy interruptions to the high-fantasy narrative.♦ OP magic used in negligently mundane ways.♦ Found family? He didn't sign on for this...
#8
7/16/2026
Peak #49
1d
#7
7/3/2026
Peak #35
14d
#6
7/3/2026
Peak #16
22d
#5
7/3/2026
Peak #41
8d
#4
7/3/2026
Peak #48
0d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 06:58 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 06:58 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Coupled 14-day outlook
rs-joint-entry-copula-v1
Any eligible RS entry
13%
Two or more lists
2%
Likely threshold order: Comedy → Romance → Fantasy → Main.
Leading bundle: Comedy (11%).
Estimated from one fitted shared story path; category probabilities are not multiplied as if lists were independent.
Separate entry forecast; this probability does not enter the ranking score.
Overall Rising Stars Shadow RS rank
#9069 of 12,161 · 9019 below RS #50
By genre
beats 80% of similar stories
beats 37% of similar stories
beats 86% of similar stories
Firing on all cylinders
Traffic and conversion are both strong for a story this size. Readers are finding it and sticking — if Rising Stars is the goal, this is the moment to push.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
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