Reborn As An Overpowered Villain

Lucien could have stopped Eleena from walking away and demanded a sincere apology from her, or if she was unwilling to apologize, he could have registered a complaint against her to the vice headmistress or to the student council.

However, he could not punish her by himself since the fight had been mostly verbal, except for Melissa who had slapped Eleena, and mostly because it had taken place outside of his class, so there was little he could do.

The academy was not particularly restrictive, and professors were not mandated to intervene between students unless matters escalated to deathly blows.

In an academy that admitted students who were eighteen or older, it was believed and informally followed, without any proper written rule, that students were capable of handling themselves and should deal with their problems among each other on their own.

If a situation proved unsolvable, students could approach the student council for help, but that was the extent of it. They could not go to a particular professor, the vice headmistress, or the headmaster, as it was considered beneath those figures to intervene in student affairs.

More than that, if professors or the headmaster were to insert themselves into student matters, it could create favoritism, and in the worst case, the silent discrimination that nobles harbored toward commoners could deepen, as most conflicts broke out due to nobles and commoners failing to find common ground.

A professor or headmaster intervening would inevitably have to take one side, granting that side greater power and thus stoking the hatred between commoners and nobles even further.

Even though the academy's motto was that everyone stood as equals, and it upheld that principle within its academy building as much as possible, what happened outside was something most turned a blind eye to, because no one wanted to entangle themselves in the endless tug of war between nobles and commoners, a struggle that showed no sign of ever truly ending.

Lucien sighed thinking on the friction between commoners and nobles that would likely never end and was likely one of the plots where the protagonist being a commoner would raise up the commoners to an equal status like nobles within the academy. Yet, Lucien doubted that could be achieved easily and he would be waiting to see how Mark would achieve it because this did not happen until Lucien’s death in the original story where Lucien in his previous life stopped reading the book, so Lucien was not sure whether it would happen or not because it was only a likely plot that he thought after understanding the dynamics between nobles and commoners.

Lucien kept his eyes on Eleena until she disappeared into the distance. His ex-fiancée was a nuisance, and it was plain to see that she was jealous because he had been favoring Melissa. He was not dense enough to miss the reason behind Eleena's hostility toward Melissa, and after stepping in to stop Eleena from slapping her, he had heard more than enough to piece together a fair understanding of it. Eleena hated Melissa because she believed Melissa had ensnared him with her looks or her charm, which was entirely false and, frankly, laughable. He rubbed his temples and turned back toward Melissa, who stood behind him with her hands wringing restlessly before her waist and her head lowered.

The girl was pitifully pitiful. Being hated by Eleena must have been something Melissa could never have anticipated. Her village had only ever had commoners, so she likely had never experienced the particular kind of hatred that nobles directed at commoners.

Even though Eleena's hostility had not risen from Melissa being a commoner but rather from Lucien training her personally, which had led Eleena to believe he was bewitched by Melissa's beauty, the pain of being accused so cruelly was no less real. Being spoken to like that must have been wounding for Melissa, a girl who had been dearly loved by her parents her entire life and had almost certainly never been accused of anything of that sort before.

Lucien patted the girl's head. Melissa lifted her gaze to meet his. Her cheeks were streaked with dried tears, her eyes still glistening, and her lips bore faint marks where she had been biting them.

A pang of guilt settled in Lucien's chest, because if he had not trained her so early in the morning or given her this much attention, attention he did not extend to the others, Melissa might have at least been living a quieter life.

And had he never admitted her to the academy at all, she would have been blissfully settled in Duskbane's capital city with her parents.

No, that is not possible, Lucien knew that could never have been a real possibility. Lucien knew better than anyone that Melissa, being a favored child of heaven and one of the heroines, would have inevitably found herself tangled in this sort of trouble sooner or later.

Since the world was doomed to be destroyed one day, an end that Lucien had to prevent at any cost. Melissa was an integral part of that fate. More than that, at some point Melissa would surely have been found by the Church of the Goddess of Light regardless of where she was. So this was the better path. Melissa would learn to harden herself earlier in life, and her determination and resolve would grow stronger due to all of these turbulent things. She would become stronger in every way, and he had to ensure that she became strong mentally and physically.

"I am not a bad girl," Melissa murmured, looking up at him, her eyes brimming with tears once more as she clenched her fists tightly in the fabric of her leggings.

"I know you are not," Lucien consoled her gently. "You are a good girl. Forget what just happened."

"Umm," Melissa nodded.

"You have to make your mind strong," Lucien added.

"U-umm," Melissa bit down on her lip. "But those words are not easy to hear."

"No one has ever said things like that to me before," she continued, her tears threatening to spill over again. "I don't understand why Eleena hates me so much."

"Do not worry yourself over Eleena's words," Lucien replied, resuming the slow, steady patting on the girl's head. "Eleena is blinded by her emotions right now. She will come to realize, in time, just how wrong she has been."

Melissa said nothing. She kept her fists clenched in her leggings and pressed her lips tightly inward.

"Do not dwell on this too much," Lucien advised, his voice measured and calm. "There are good moments and bad ones in everyone's life. Think of this as one of those bad moments and let it pass. Use it to make your resolve stronger."

Lucien stopped patting her head and withdrew his hand. Glancing around the training ground, he found it still empty. No one had come out to train, which was hardly surprising given that the academy had only just begun its term. Most first year students likely had no desire to rise early after everything they had endured preparing for the entrance examinations, and were probably still sleeping soundly in their dormitories. And, as for the second years, they too would want to laze around at the start of their new term.

Since Lucien had no wish for anyone to stumble upon him standing this close to Melissa and set new rumors into motion, he decided to send her back to her dormitory. He himself had been intending to return to his villa.

"Now that Eleena has apologized, I do not think she will try anything further against you," Lucien said. "Melissa, you should head back to your dormitory room."

But rather than nodding or turning to leave, Melissa took a step toward him instead. And, before he could process what was happening, she wrapped her arms tightly around him and pressed herself against his chest, clinging to him as she began to cry, her tears soaking into the fabric of his shirt.

***

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