Chapter 47: A Deal
Damian whirled around, his eyes burning with an intense, toxic fury as he faced the girl standing behind him.
"What stupid deal?" he spat out, his voice a low, venomous hiss. "You have already done enough by ruining everything that was supposed to make her like me!"
His accusation cut straight to the bitter truth. Back then, things had been entirely different.
Damian truly liked Adeline, and his mind hadn’t been consumed by the ugly, suffocating jealousy that choked him now.
In those days, Adeline was a naturally reserved type, quiet, yet fiercely bold when the situation called for it.
She had an impeccable sense of timing, always doing and saying the right things at exactly the right moments. Because of this effortless perfection, the girls from the elite and S-rank classes absolutely despised her.
She seemed entirely flawless, attracting the undivided attention of every boy in the academy.
The boys became so infatuated with Adeline that they completely ignored the girls in their own classes, fueling a deep, resentful hatred among the female nobility.
Isolde had been one of those envious girls, desperate for attention. Damian, on the other hand, was one of the many boys who pursued Adeline, but he had been unique.
He was the only boy Adeline actually deigned to speak with on a regular basis. That bond had driven Isolde completely insane with rage and jealousy, well she was obsessed with Damian so who could blame her.
She was utterly obsessed with Damian, but Damian wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. His heart belonged solely to Adeline.
When he finally gathered the courage to ask Adeline out, she hadn’t rejected him, nor had she explicitly agreed. To Damian, that hesitation was a promising sign and a quiet invitation to try harder.
But Isolde had spoiled everything, just like she always did, she thinks impulsively and could do anything to get what she wants.
Driven by malice, Isolde had systematically brainwashed Adeline. She whispered toxic lies into her, convincing her that Damian merely used girls for their status and inherited traits.
She fed Adeline a fabricated story, claiming Damian possessed a forbidden skill designed to rip people of their magic, and that he was secretly planning to steal hers.
Adeline was well aware of the nature of Damian’s powers, but she had never suspected such a dark, predatory motive.
Believing the lie, her budding affection instantly withered into profound hatred. When Damian finally discovered that Adeline’s sudden loathing was entirely engineered by Isolde’s whispers, his heartbreak turned into a murderous resentment.
He hated Isolde so deeply that he was willing to stain his own blood and hands if it meant executing her himself.
Isolde flinched slightly under his gaze, but she quickly masked her fear with a defensive pout.
"Well, it wasn’t my fault I did that! I loved you, Damian. But instead of seeing me, you chose ’her’ of all people, I and her who’s even more prettier." Then she rolled her eyes and folded her arms.
Damian’s face contorted into a powerful, terrifying frown, his jaw clenching so hard the bones popped.
Seeing the sheer danger radiating from him, Isolde’s defensive posture crumbled. "I’m sorry," she whispered, raising her hands in a rare moment of submission. "I was just blinded by jealousy. I hope you can forgive me... even though I know you can’t forget what I did."
Damian let out a long, ragged sigh, his chest heaving as he forced down the urge to strike her down right there on the assembly stones. He gave a single, stiff nod.
"I will never forgive you, and I will never forget what you did," Damian stated, his voice dangerously cold. "My nod is simply telling you to go on with the deal you were trying to make. So get on with it."
Isolde smirked, attempting to regain her leverage. "Well, you have to forgive me first before I spill the details—"
Before she could finish the sentence, Damian snapped his gaze back to her. He unleashed a sudden, suffocating death stare so sharp and filled with unbridled malice that it felt like a physical blow, practically fracturing her very heart.
Isolde gasped, staggering back a half-step as her breath caught in her throat. "Okay! Okay, fine!" she stammered, raising her hands again.
"While we are camping in the other dimension, or the dungeon, whatever the instructors are calling it, today I will handle Adeline for you. Meanwhile, I’ll have that pretty guy, Lucien, all to myself. I want to take him completely away from Adeline. I absolutely love the thought of seeing her in agonizing pain."
Damian narrowed his eyes, processing her words. "Well, I wouldn’t say you are stupid for saying you want to see her in pain... which, of course, I don’t originally want. But the humiliation and pain she has put me through lately is just too much to bear."
He paused, his gaze drifting across the crowded yard back to where Lucien stood. His eyes locked onto the purple-haired girl wrapped around the boy’s torso.
"So, how about a counter-proposal? You bring me that unfamiliar girl hugging his back and Adeline too. It will be fun watching him lose the two of them."
Isolde tilted her head, a morbid curiosity sparking in her eyes. "What do you want to do with her?"
Damian’s smirk returned, entirely devoid of humanity. "Maybe use her... and then kill her."
Isolde’s face lit up, a twisted, delighted smile spreading across her lips. "Well, I love that idea. It’s perfect."
She then paused, casting a brief, wary glance up at the bright, cloudless sky. "But the heavens are watching us. The academy has monitoring arrays, and the angels themselves keep tabs on these trials. How exactly are we going to hide our conspiracy from them?"
Damian turned back toward the assembly stage, his hands slipping into his pockets as a dark, confident aura settled over him.
"Don’t worry about the monitoring," Damian whispered, his voice laced with absolute certainty. "I already have a plan."