Reborn As An Overpowered Villain

Lucien entered the class and made his way to the front and centre, while his attendant Connor remained at the near corner of the classroom beside the door.

Lucien was still bothered by the fact that his attendant seemed hellbent on believing that something was going on between Lucien and the Vice-Headmistress, and despite how many times Lucien had attempted to tell Connor otherwise, the man refused to be convinced.

Lucien pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, knowing well enough that Connor was not going to believe him anytime soon, even though Connor had nodded and said that he understood there was nothing going on between Lucien and Charlotte. Shaking away the last of his lingering thoughts, Lucien turned toward the students.

Lucien let his gaze sweep slowly across the classroom. Whoever his eyes landed on shifted uncomfortably in their seat, fidgeting their fingers nervously, most of them dropping their gaze downward and not daring to meet his eyes. Except for a few. And one shone very brightly among them all: Prince Jasper Eldoryn, who was smiling cutely at Lucien, his yellow eyes twinkling with a brightness that suggested he adored and dearly loved Lucien. Lucien felt his stomach churn and turn at the boy's act of feigned innocence and wide-eyed sweetness.

Lucien did not linger on the prince any longer. His gaze moved on and found Hero Mark glaring at him with razor-sharp eyes, a resolve burning in them like he wanted to kill Lucien at any given moment if he only could. Instead of being afraid, Lucien felt his blood stir with anticipation for the day Mark would finally grow strong enough to challenge him, though for now Mark was falling terribly far behind any hope of catching up. Lucien smirked at Mark, making the latter freeze for just a brief second.

Then Lucien’s eyes moved to the other notable faces: Judy, followed by the princess, both of whom looked slightly tense under his gaze, not as visibly rattled as most but carrying a quiet tension nonetheless, as though they had been cornered by some primal fear and wanted nothing more than to run away.

As his gaze continued to sweep across the room, it suddenly stopped on Eleena. Her eyes were throwing daggers at him, red veins threading through them, the dark circles underneath carefully hidden beneath layers of makeup. She looked like she had just walked out of an apocalypse. Yet despite all of that, she met his gaze, and for a moment something almost like fire seemed to be igniting in those azure eyes of hers. But as if it had never been real to begin with, the fire dissolved, and with a quiet click of her tongue she turned her head away from him and refused to meet his eyes any longer. Was she embarrassed that he had seen her crying yesterday on the bench? Or was it because she had mistaken him for having an affair with the Vice-Headmistress?

Lucien did not know the answer, and he did not linger long enough to search for one.

His gaze swept through another handful of students and came to rest on Melissa, a naive little girl who had nearly shattered her core the day before had he not stopped her midway through the duel. And he had by no means played fairly, he had mocked her and pushed her to unleash her full strength so he could gauge her true limits, and it had backfired badly. She had in turn exhausted every last reserve she had in an attempt to form a tier-two spell, and had Lucien not knocked her out when he did, she would have lost the very ability to use mana for a very long time.

Lucien sighed quietly inside himself. A faint pang of guilt rose through him as his gaze met her black eyes, which today looked refreshed and brimming with energy, a far cry from the drained and hollow look she had carried even before yesterday's duel with Lucien began. He had not had the chance to find out what had weighed on her then, but something clearly had. Maybe it was due to Patrick challenging her to a duel? Whatever the reason be, today, however, there was nothing in her eyes that could remotely resemble that sadness or pain. Not yet. But she might soon find herself in another trouble making her once again torn in displeasure because she was one of the main characters, and trouble had a way of finding them, knocking them left and right, time and time again, so that one day they could grow strong enough to matter.

Melissa, seemingly unable to hold his gaze any longer, turned her head toward the window, and for the briefest of moments he thought he saw her cheeks turn the faintest shade of pink. But when he narrowed his eyes to look more closely, her complexion had returned entirely to normal. Perhaps he was hallucinating. But how could someone at Sky [Mid] rank hallucinate?

Before Lucien could linger any further on that thought, his eyes moved past Melissa and came to rest on Patrick, who for some reason had been frozen like a statue, as though he had seen a ghost. When Lucien's gaze met Patrick's eyes, the latter creased his forehead deeply and looked very nearly on the verge of combusting from the inside, sweat beading at his temples and rolling steadily down his forehead in long drops. Before Lucien could even begin to interpret what was happening, Patrick stood up abruptly from his seat and bowed at a sharp ninety degrees.

"I am sorry, Professor Lucien. I did not know you cared so much about Melina. Had I known, I would have never challenged her. Please forgive my impulsive decision to challenge her to a duel yesterday." Patrick began mumbling out words one after another in a broken voice with no sign of stopping. "I will never lay a hand on your proper-"

"Stop your nonsense." Lucien's voice exploded across the room, making the already trembling Patrick go completely still like a statue. "What garbage are you talking about? And who in the world is Melina?" Lucien asked, his voice cold enough to cut through every heart in the room.

Patrick lifted his head immediately and stared at Lucien with a face stretched wide with fear, looking very nearly on the verge of a heart attack. With a visibly shaking hand, Patrick pointed at Melissa, who was seated directly in front of him.

Lucien's breath caught in his throat. He nearly wanted to laugh at Patrick's inability to remember and correctly say a name, despite being one of the characters supposedly destined to challenge the main hero in a meaningful way, a rivalry where both would sharpen one another through competition and mutual defeat. And yet Patrick struggled to recall names correctly for most of the people around him, save for a precious few. Lucien himself was among those lucky ones. From what Lucien remembered, Patrick had stumbled terribly over his name when they were both children, calling him Lukan, or Ludien, tripping over it every single time. But after losing to Lucien repeatedly and swallowing defeat again and again, Patrick had begun to idolize him, and from that point onward had never once mispronounced his name again.

Lucien drew a slow, deep breath and with a voice that was restrained only by the thinnest thread of composure, he said loudly and clearly, "You little punk. If I ever hear you saying anything remotely close to the garbage you were just spouting..." He paused for a long moment, letting the silence stretch and sharpen. "I will cut you in two. Do not take my warning lightly."

Patrick began nodding like a startled chicken, sweat dripping steadily from his forehead, and he most certainly did not take the warning lightly.

But since Patrick had dared to tarnish Lucien's image in front of the entire classroom, Lucien decided that a small act of revenge was in order. A slight smile formed on his lips, and the classroom, seeing that smile, seemed to tremble to their very boots.

"I will not let you go unpunished for this," Lucien said, his gaze settling on Patrick with a slow, deliberate weight. With a slight shake of his head and a thin smirk of his own, he continued, "You will be wearing the same bracelet as the princess and Eleena. But that alone does not feel like enough, does it?"

Lucien let the words sit for a moment before adding, "Since your energy is on the very verge of breaking through into Master Lower Rank, I will be a little lenient and raise your challenge slightly instead. You will have to break through within a month and cast a tier-three spell while everyone else casts tier two during a test."

Patrick went still as stone, frozen to his very core. His lips parted slightly as though he meant to object, but before a single word could escape, Lucien's voice rose just a fraction higher and cut cleanly through the silence.

"Do you have a problem with that, student Patrick?"

"No." Patrick's voice came out low, barely audible, a whisper squeezed through barely parted lips.

"Then sit down quietly," Lucien said, his tone settling back into something flat and final. "And do not ever let such filth come out of your mouth again."

***

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