Reborn As An Overpowered Villain

Eleena sat alone on the bench, her back resting against it, hands tightly clenching the hem of her red skirt. Her red coat lay beside her, her tie hanging crookedly around her neck, and her white shirt was marked with creases that had not been bothered to smoothed out properly.

Her head rested haphazardly against the back of the bench, her azure eyes gazing dimly at the stars twinkling above and the moon that hung in a banana shape, glowing pale white and illuminating the world beneath it. She pulled a strand of hair away from her face that had been obstructing her view, her azure hair flowing freely down her back with some strands fluttering around her face, though she did not care so long as they did not obstruct her view of the night sky.

She looked like she had walked away from a battle, and that was not entirely false. Or more accurately, she was currently in the middle of one, an internal battle. She looked nothing like her usual self, yet her appearance did not matter to her right now.

Eleena wanted nothing more than to gaze at the night sky and drown herself in the beauty of the stars, for she was unable to contain the emotions raging within her. Her chest was tight with heavy feelings and her heart was thumping with a deep sadness, as though it wanted nothing more than to sink itself into the depths of agony. These emotions were something she had not felt in quite a long time, and it was extremely difficult for her to give a name to what she was feeling. Was it sadness? Was it a longing for something she had missed out on? Or was it simply jealousy, jealousy of Melissa who was so terribly close with her ex-fiancé, Lucien?

Eleena did not know the answer, but she knew that all of these feelings stirring inside her had begun after seeing Lucien walking alongside Melissa, who was beautiful and dazzling like an untouched flower, her face carrying an innocence that seemed wholly unaware of the world's harsh reality. The girl had gotten admission into the academy seemingly with ease, solely through Lucien's recommendation, and he was also the one sponsoring her, which meant he was backing her completely, and if anyone had a problem with Melissa they would have to go through Lucien, who stood before her like an immovable mountain.

Eleena's nails dug deep into her palm as she struggled to hold herself together against these intoxicating and strange emotions. Why did he have to bring the girl into the academy? There would be quite an uproar if other people who despised Lucien, and there were quite a lot of them, were to find out that he had gotten a girl into the academy through a backdoor using his influence and connections.

"Haah." Eleena let out a long sigh, wanting to release the feeling that was bubbling inside her. She did not understand why a man like Lucien, who did not care for others and was almost entirely focused on growing stronger, would involve himself with a girl who was likely from a rural place, a commoner with no backing and no name. Wouldn't he face problems because of this?

Eleena did not know what was going on inside Lucien's mind. He never let himself show, his face always a mask of impassivity that hid everything churning within him. She had even begun to doubt that he had stopped feeling emotions altogether, had she not witnessed how he had utterly turned into a demon during the class, anger flaring out of him as he raged at them who had arrived late, calling them worms. Worms.

How dare he raise the stakes of our challenge by claiming we held more potential. Tsk. Liar.

She knew he was a man who worshipped strength and was rigid to his core, a man of iron discipline who spoke his mind freely and without fear. Yet he also knew how to lie, which was quite fascinating, because as a child he had always struggled to do so. She still held fuzzy memories of how he would always end up telling the truth back when they were both still a kid, unable to conceal things, his eyes and face giving him away the moment any lie passed his lips.

I miss the old you. Eleena truly missed the old version of Lucien more than anything else in the world. The old Lucien had been kind, a person who had wanted nothing more than to fight for the weak, but he had begun changing slowly, as though something demonic was corroding him from the inside, and the final nail had been driven into the coffin at the banquet when his mother collapsed and he ended up grabbing Eleena by the throat and nearly killed her, stopped only because others had intervened.

What happened to you? It was still a mystery to her, what had snapped inside him that day. There had been earlier signs, moments where his anger would ignite too quickly or he would venture deep into the forest to hunt beasts alone, but he had remained kind to her throughout all of it. She had known he liked her and cared for her, yet since that day at the banquet, everything had changed.

The Northern Duke had cancelled the engagement between her and Lucien in the days that followed, and she had fought so desperately to prevent it. She had even gone to meet Lucien personally, pleading with him to speak with his father and stop the cancellation, because she had held real feelings for him. Her younger self had wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, and had hated the thought of anyone else getting close to him. But Lucien, like a wall of ice, had not budged. He had called her a slut, told her that he was the one who had told the duke to cancel the marriage, that he wanted nothing to do with someone like her, that the sight of her disgusted him, and then he had slapped her across the cheek.

Eleena had been utterly devastated that day. She had broken down completely in front of him, weeping with tears flowing like a river down her face, yet Lucien had not budged even slightly. He had spat on the floor, stepped past her, and had not even offered her a hand or a single word of parting. He had dismissed her as though she were nothing more than a fly, and it had been the maids and servants who came to fetch her from the ground.

She had returned home that same evening still crying and had locked herself in her room, refusing to come out for an entire week.

Suddenly, tears began filling her eyes, threatening to break free as the memories of the past surfaced in her mind. She had wanted so badly to forget those memories, but found herself unable to do so, not when she could see with her own eyes how much Lucien cared for Melissa.

Lucien had even intervened during Professor Max's class, stepping in himself to duel with Melissa and refusing to let Patrick, who was notorious for using his powers with reckless disregard, lay a hand on her.

And after the duel, he had even carried Melissa, who was covered in dust with tear streaks running down her face, which he should not have done by any stretch, given that he despised getting dirty to his very core. Yet he had carried her all the way to the infirmary, and from what she had heard from others, Lucien had only left the infirmary after Melissa woke up.

Eleena tried so hard to stop her emotions from coming out but in the end she could no longer hold herself back. She bit her lower lip hard and tears began streaming down her cheeks as she felt the full weight of the betrayal settling over her, the realization that he had moved on and had begun falling for someone else, while she, despite everything she had done, despite the mantras she had repeated to herself and the walls she had painstakingly built, was failing so terribly. She had tried so hard to move past it all and had succeeded for so long, held together by sheer will and repetition, but her mantra was no longer working. The deep and heavy emotions in her chest had risen past their limit and she could no longer contain them.

She clenched her skirt tightly in her fists and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop her tears, but they did not stop. She feared that someone would see her in this pitiful state, but it was well past dark and the street was empty as a ghost town, with only the faint glow of the lamp light reaching across the path. All of the students had long since retired to their dormitories, and she too should have been in hers, but she had lost all track of time as she drowned herself in her thoughts.

Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of a shadow from her right side, and the shadow was growing larger with every fraction of a second. She immediately turned and froze in place, her breath hitching and her eyes ceasing to blink as the tears blurred the image standing before her.

Lucien stood to her right. Then, suddenly, her eyes dropped to his neck and her body went cold as she found a bite mark on it, smeared with a red lipstick stain.

***

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