Inside the academy's vast training hall, a handsome boy with black hair and crimson eyes moved purely on instinct, tilting his head to dodge a punch from some irrelevant extra.

But even as his body reacted, his mind was stuck on one looping thought for what felt like the hundredth time.

'What if that bastard Azriel summoned Varek… to kill me?'

The possibility was far-fetched but not impossible.

'What if he was summoned by another professor? Or for something completely unrelated?'

'I mean… even Azriel isn't deranged enough to try killing me using another Demon King's Successor. Right?'

His head spun with a dozen more theories while his body dodged another punch, only this time, the punch was a decoy.

A knee shot straight toward his solar plexus.

Tsk.

Rael clicked his tongue, understanding it was too late to dodge. He braced himself, crossing his arms just in time as the blow hit his body.

The impact sent Rael's body flying through the air as he forced himself into a backflip before landing lightly on his feet.

He looked at the culprit.

Sylvie.

The main boss of the first act but to him, she was just another future corpse on his to-kill list.

Three hours had passed since his meeting with Azriel and his… lovely encounter with Varek and now he was in his final class of the day — Martial Arts Sparring.

Since it was the first official day of this elective, Fiona, Bearlo's new master and the professor in charge of this elective, had simply told everyone to pair up and spar to warm up.

Naturally, most students immediately grabbed partners, leaving only two people unpaired — Rael and Sylvie.

So, of course, it was decided they should spar together.

Rael sighed.

'If people weren't so blinded by my glorious self and gotten so hopelessly intimidated, I would've never ended up sparring with her.'

Honestly, he preferred keeping his distance from that woman. Getting too close to someone you were eventually supposed to kill felt… awkward and weird.

Naturally, Sylvie didn't care about his internal suffering and lunged at him again. This time, Rael put all his useless thoughts aside and actually focused on the spar.

Her leg snapped toward his head in a vicious arc but Rael dipped under it effortlessly with his flexible frame at the very last moment.

And immediately he swiped his leg out in one clean motion, catching her off-balance and sending her crashing onto her butt.

Tsk.Why was she even in this class?

Sylvie was a swordsman and yet here she was, trying to learn martial arts.

Sure, she was talented enough to overwhelm normal people… but Rael, who had learned high-ranking combat arts, mixed with the inhumane training he suffered back in the Ashborn estate thanks to that bastard Razek, defeating someone like Sylvie was easier for him than stealing candy from a child.

Sylvie, now fallen onto the ground, glared at Rael as if she was going to stab his eyes with a sword.

But Rael just shrugged.

'Suck it loser.'

Throughout the entire spar, not a single word passed between them but plenty of emotions did.

Every strike Sylvie threw carried suspicion. She was watching, reading and dissecting him.

Rael could see all of it and he simply did not care.

His eyes shifted toward the red-haired woman overseeing them, Fiona, who watched their match with a sharp, analytical gaze which was completely different from the clumsy disaster he had met that morning.

When their exchange ended, she gave him a small nod.

"With this, the final spar of the day is over," she announced.

"Hope all of you learned a lot from each other, because starting today…"

She paused, her eyes crossing across the class.

"…the one you sparred with today will be your official partner for the rest of the year."

'What the actual fuck?'

Rael couldn't stop the curse from exploding in his mind and judging from the frown Sylvie shot him, she clearly wasn't thrilled either.

Not that he cared about her feelings in the slightest.

Fiona, of course, continued as if she hadn't just thrown live grenades into everyone's lives.

"Class dismissed."

He stood there for a moment, utterly speechless.

It wasn't that he hated Sylvie or anything.

He just felt… deeply awkward around her. Mostly because she kept staring at him like a weirdo.

He had saved her in the forest from being swallowed alive by that disgusting goat monster. Sure, it was for his own benefit, but she didn't know that.

She should have been grateful.

And maybe even praised him or shed a tear or two, or at least not looked at him like he was a walking conspiracy.

But no, instead she was suspicious about how he got out of that monster's stomach alive.

Tsk. Such an ungrateful woman.

He turned around to leave with a sigh, ready to pretend this day never happened but then a voice echoed directly in his head.

"Bearlo and I are going on a training trip. We won't be back until tomorrow. So he won't be home today."

The voice was undeniably Fiona.

"I'll tell him you accepted. Goodbye."

Rael froze.

A deep frown appeared across his face as he turned around to reject her but Fiona was nowhere to be seen.

'Tsk. Now I even have to cook my own food.'

'Today was officially the absolute worst day.'

—

And that was how Rael's first official academic day came to an end but the day itself was far from over because he still had a few… minor tasks left on his schedule.

Like, for example, talking to a psychotic, possibly one of the strongest women alive… and somehow manipulating her into killing one of her closest subordinates for the sake of a completely made-up future scenario he invented five minutes ago.

'Yeah,' Rael thought dryly. 'A lot of work, I guess.'

He stepped out of the elective hall and immediately spotted the lavender-haired girl, Sylvie, casually leaning against the wall like she had been waiting specifically for him.

Naturally, Rael ignored her and continued walking.

"Hey. Wait a minute."

Her voice cut through the hallway.

Rael stopped and turned around with a frown.

"What is it?" he replied coldly but thanks to his stupid flaw, the expression on his face twisted into a smile instead as if he was happy to see her.

'Is she finally going to thank me for saving her back then?'

Rael wondered.

"What was in that secret space?"

'…Of course not.'

Naturally, Sylvie had zero intention of being grateful and somehow, she had even deduced that the monster's mouth had been an entrance to a hidden space.

'Well… she was supposed to be one of the smartest and freakiest characters in the novel…'

'I mean, only a freak would attend twelve different electives when the mandatory ones are only three.'

He stared at her for a moment.

"There was a giant castle made of cake and chocolate inside," Rael said with the most exaggerated seriousness he could muster. "Rivers of ice cream too."

Sylvie didn't even blink.

"Stop joking around." Her tone sliced straight through his nonsense. "I know there was something special in that space and you somehow knew about it from before."

Rael let the smile fade from his face, shifting into a seriousness that almost felt weird on him.

"The one joking is you, Sylvie."

He took a slow step closer to her.

"I risked my life to save you back then and this is what I get? An interrogation as if I am some criminal?"

His voice softened, just enough to sound wounded.

"You have no idea what it was like inside that monster's belly… It was hell. Pure hell. My skin felt like it was melting from the acid, there was no secret entrance, no hidden space, nothing you are imagining."

"It was just pain… endless pain of being digested slowly… until"

He paused, taking a deep breath.

"…until Arza saved me. She tore the monster open and pulled me out. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here. I would be dead."

He turned his back to Sylvie.

"And despite all that trouble you treated me like a stranger… I still didn't mind but now…

Now… you are confronting me like this."

He let out a quiet sigh.

"I thought maybe we had something in common.

That's the only reason I even wanted to save you.

I saw the same sadness in your eyes that I carry."

His shoulders lowered slightly.

"But it seems I was wrong."

"You are nothing more than a selfish woman and please don't ever dare to speak to me again."

With those final words, he turned and walked away.

'And that, kids,' Rael mused smugly, 'is how you bullshit properly. It's all in the delivery and the emotions.'

Not a single word he had said was true, not even close, but his acting had been flawless… So flawless, in fact, that Sylvie just stood there… frozen and completely disarmed.

Most of the students had already left, leaving the hallway mostly empty, just Sylvie standing like a statue behind him and Rael walking away toward the elevator like the world's most dramatic con artist.

'Hope this keeps her away from me before I kill her.'

He had tried keeping his distance by simply ignoring her… but that only made her more curious, more suspicious and more annoyingly focused on him.

So he hoped the guilt bomb he had just dropped would finally push her back.

Though honestly, he doubted someone like her could even feel guilt.

Still, if there was even the tiniest corner in her heart capable of feeling it… who knew? Maybe when her time came, she would even willingly let him kill her

and hand the Seed over herself.

A pleasant thought, really.

With that thought he walked towards his final destination for the day.

Morvana's office.

It was now time to take advantage of his mother-in-law once again.

—

Left alone in the silent hallway, Sylvie looked at the boy who had just left.

She doubted the boy's words but the emotion he had shown seemed too genuine for that… completely opposite to the smiles of people she hated.

'Was my deduction wrong?'

'Did he really try to save me selflessly?'

The thought seemed wrong as she knew nobody was that selfless but somewhere in her a seed of doubt started spreading.

'Still, what if he really did try to save me?'

'But why would he do that for a complete stranger?'

She had only heard about such sacrifices in books and legends from heroes or… from some prince of fairy tales.

His smiling face before she accused him came to her mind.

'Why was he smiling like that towards me?'

'Does he love—'

She shook her head and also the thought with that before it could be completed. She was here to grow stronger and not worry about some useless emotions.

She didn't care if the boy did it selflessly or for some advantage…

Because just the thought that someone was trying to save her selflessly made her feel something strange… something she hadn't felt before.

An urge to depend on someone.

[A/N: Read AUTHOR NOTE Below.]

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