The Return Of The Exiled Villain

Gray felt a little troubled by the sudden confrontation. His eyes flicked toward Aurora for a brief moment.

Aurora immediately understood the meaning behind his gaze.

She gave a small, graceful nod and quietly retreated without saying a word, disappearing down the hallway to give them privacy.

Gray turned back to Lyra.

In the months he had been away, she had clearly matured.

Her face no longer carried the soft youthfulness from before as it now had a more refined, elegant vibe.

Her light brown hair was tied into a high ponytail, with noticeably more golden strands shimmering through it.

Her emerald eyes were still as stunning as ever, but they currently burned with a mix of hurt and barely contained anger.

Her chest, which had already been impressively large, seemed to have grown even fuller. She had also grown two or three centimeters taller.

"Shall we go to a more silent place?" Gray proposed gently.

Lyra didn’t answer with words, and simply nodded before grabbing his wrist tightly, and began pulling him away.

They entered the dormitory building. When Gray realized where she was taking him, he frowned.

"Lyra, I can’t enter the girl’s dormit—"

"—Shut up!"

Her sharp shout made Gray instantly close his mouth.

Just as he expected, she dragged him straight into her own dormitory room.

The room wasn’t overly girlish.

It had a clean, simple aesthetic with dark wood furniture and soft lighting.

A few framed photos decorated the walls and shelves, pictures of Lyra with her friends, laughing during training sessions, and group photos from academy events.

But right on her bedside table, in the most prominent position, stood a single framed photograph of the two of them.

In the photo, they were smiling brightly, walking hand-in-hand through the streets. Lyra looked radiant, and Gray had a relaxed, gentle smile on his face.

’When was that photo taken...?’ Gray wondered silently.

Before he could think further, Lyra pushed him firmly onto her bed and immediately climbed on top, straddling his lap.

She glared down at him with intense emerald eyes.

"Explain..." Her voice was extremely cold.

Gray let out a soft sigh and began speaking calmly.

"I entered a deep meditative state to get stronger, as it was something I had been preparing for a long time. "

"I left a note on my chest so no one would worry, and I asked Aurora to watch over my body. I didn’t expect it to take this long, but the breakthrough I gained was significant. I’m now at Late Great Grandmaster Realm."

He looked straight into her eyes and spoke in a sincere tone.

"I’m sorry for making you worry, Lyra. I never intended to disappear for so long without telling you properly."

Lyra stayed completely silent for a long moment after he finished.

Then, something changed.

"Gray..."

Her emerald eyes slowly turned red... not red from tears, but the beautiful green shade actually changed into a deep, glowing shade of pure red.

At the same time, her beautiful light brown hair began transforming, the color shifting into a brilliant, radiant golden hue, just like the faint golden strands she had before, but now dominant.

[...W-what? She can already use a God’s Descent!?]

Jasmine’s shocked voice rang inside Gray’s head.

Gray frowned deeply.

God’s Descent was an extremely powerful divine ability that allowed the user to temporarily channel a little bit of the strength of their patron god.

Lyra was the avatar of the Five Main Gods... the strongest existences among them. If she was already able to use it...

"L-Lyra...?" Gray swallowed hard.

He could feel the terrifying mana fluctuations rolling off her body.

’...Wait?! She’s already at the Early King Realm!?’ Gray was beyond shocked.

Her cultivation realm, which had somehow already reached the Early King Realm during his absence, was rising even further at a frightening speed.

It kept climbing until it stabilized at the Early Sovereign Realm... the same realm as both Gloria and Aurora.

"Gray..."

Lyra whispered his name, trembling with dangerous obsession as she leaned closer, her now golden hair cascading around them like a curtain.

Her glowing red eyes bored into his with a scary and terrifying intensity.

"If you ever disappear on me again without telling me... I’ll chain you to my side so you can never leave me. You’re mine... and only mine. I don’t care if I have to burn this entire world down to keep you with me."

Lyra’s glowing red eyes narrowed dangerously as she leaned even closer, her golden hair framing her face like a divine halo.

"You can’t leave me to go to another academy, Gray. I won’t allow it."

Gray quickly tried to calm her down.

"Lyra, listen. Even if I move to Aurora’s academy, I can come back every weekend through a portal. We can still meet regularly. I’ll make sure of it."

But Lyra wasn’t satisfied at all.

Her expression darkened further. She grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands, gripping it tightly as if afraid he might vanish again.

"Weekends? That’s not enough!" she hissed, her voice trembling with barely restrained emotion.

"I want to see you every single day. Every morning. Every night. I don’t care about portals or weekends. I need you here. With me."

She gritted her teeth, her red eyes flashing with both pain and obsession.

"It’s your fault... It’s all your fault for not telling me you would be gone for so long! When I heard you were in a ’meditative state,’ I thought you were in a coma! I thought you might never wake up again!"

Her breathing grew heavier, her grip on his shirt tightening until her knuckles turned white.

"Because of that... I gritted my teeth and trained like a madwoman every single day. I pushed myself until my body screamed. I bled, I cried, I broke my own limits over and over again... all so I could become strong enough to protect you. So that if anything ever tried to take you away from me again, I could destroy it."

She let out a shaky breath, her golden hair shimmering with suppressed power.

"And yesterday... I finally broke through to the Early King Realm. I was so proud. I couldn’t wait to show you when you woke up... I wanted to run to you and tell you that I had become stronger for your sake..."

Her voice cracked slightly.

"Then today... the very next day... I hear that the person I love more than anything is standing in the Headmistress’s office saying he’s going to quit this academy!"

Lyra’s eyes burned with terrifying intensity as she stared down at him.

"Do you have any idea how mad and terrifying I felt at that moment?! The joy of finally seeing you return after waiting for almost half a year... completely shattered in an instant! I wanted to scream. I wanted to destroy everything around me. I wanted to chain you to this bed so you could never disappear on me again!"

She pressed her forehead against his, her glowing red eyes inches away from his own.

"And that’s why... you’re not allowed to leave me, Gray." Her voice dropped into a dangerous whisper filled with obsessive love towards him.

Her fingers trembled as they clutched his shirt even tighter, her entire body radiating the overwhelming power of the Early Sovereign Realm.

’...She’s controlling her power extremely well...’

Even with a crazy Lyra in front of him, Gray still spotted something strange. She was controlling her power way too well.

Usually... just a mana fluctuation from the Early Sovereign Realm should’ve been able to destroy the entire city, and yet...

’Many fluctuations... but they are destroyed the moment they’re about to cause some kind of damage.’

He frowned deeply.

’This meant that Lyra... was already like this, and isn’t acting because of her emotions. But how... how come I didn’t notice her true personality?’

He turned to the frame in the bedside table.

’...That photo also proves it. After all, it must have been taken in secret since I don’t ever recall taking a photo with her while strolling the city’s streets.’

Lyra noticed his momentary distraction.

"LOOK AT ME!"

Her glowing red eyes narrowed as she shouted coldly.

Before she could say anything more, Gray suddenly leaned forward, cupped her face with both hands, and kissed her lips strongly.

"Mhhmm!!!~"

He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, locking her in place so she couldn’t pull away.

However...

Lyra broke the kiss almost instantly.

With frightening ease, she shattered his grip and pushed him back down onto the bed, her eyes madly glaring at him.

"That won’t work on me anymore..."

Her voice was cold, trembling with barely contained obsession.

She raised her right hand, and golden-red mana began to swirl violently around her palm, forming the shape of a mana oath contract.

"I want you to swear right now," she said, her tone leaving no room for negotiation.

"You will never ever leave me. You will stay with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You will stick to me like glue. You will never go to another academy. You will never disappear again without my permission. Swear it, Gray... Swear it on your soul!"

The mana oath hovered threateningly between them, waiting for his words to bind it.

Gray looked at the swirling contract, then back at her glowing red eyes.

He shook his head slowly.

"...I refuse."

Lyra’s expression twisted with a mixture of pain and fury.

’...I didn’t expect my one true love to turn into a yandere,’ Gray sighed inwardly.

’I don’t know if I should be happy that she loves me this much... or annoyed about how I’m going to deal with her next.’