The Return Of The Exiled Villain

A brief silence settled over the arena before the referee’s voice called for the next representative from Gloria Academy.

Instantly, the three remaining students from Gloria looked at each other, and after a small moment, Selene was the one who stepped forward.

She walked onto the burned and cracked platform slowly.

There was none of the fierce energy the earlier fighters had shown.

Her light-blue hair was tied back neatly, and she still held her usual calm posture, but every part of her body showed clear hesitation.

The cyan light that normally gathered around her sword stayed weak and unsteady, as if she could not fully bring it out.

Selene stopped in front of Gray and only looked at him for a short second. Then her eyes moved away, searching the stands, then higher... specifically toward the VIP seats.

There sat the Northern Duchess, her mother, watching with the same sharp and slightly amused look she had worn the whole time.

Selene’s eyes stayed on her mother a little too long before she forced them back to the platform.

The hesitation in her stance grew stronger.

She adjusted her grip on the sword once, then again. Her fingers tightened and loosened, as if the weapon felt heavier than normal.

Selene’s eyes lowered for a moment.

"Gray... I..."

She stopped, unable to finish the sentence.

The cyan light along her blade flickered and nearly faded. Her shoulders stayed tense. It was clear she did not want to take the first step.

Gray’s expression changed.

The calm look he had worn through the earlier matches disappeared. His face instantly turned colder as he looked at the woman in front of him.

"If you don’t fight... don’t ever look at me again."

The words were simple and flat.

Selene’s fingers locked tightly around the hilt of her sword.

The hesitation in her eyes did not vanish completely, but something firmer rose behind it.

The cyan aura along her blade strengthened, no longer flickering. She drew a short breath, set her feet, and raised the sword into a proper guard.

The referee’s staff came down.

"Begin!"

Swoosh!

Selene stepped in with a clean diagonal cut, water mana already coating the edge of her sword.

The blade left a thin trailing arc of compressed water that sharpened the cut.

Gray lifted his right hand.

Dark purplish mana gathered in his palm and lengthened into a short, solid sword of the same color.

He met her cut with a simple horizontal block.

Cling!

Water and dark mana sparked against each other.

The impact was light but firm.

Selene used the rebound to slide her blade down and aim a thrust at his shoulder.

Gray turned his body, let the tip pass close to his robe, and answered with a short rising cut toward her wrist.

She pulled her sword back in time and reset her stance.

They circled once.

Selene advanced again, this time with a series of flowing cuts that kept the water mana moving in continuous motion.

The water along her blade stretched and contracted with every change of direction, trying to limit Gray’s timing.

Gray parried the high cut, redirected the low one, and stepped inside the thrust so that the water edge passed harmlessly past his side.

His return strike was a straight thrust aimed at her center. Selene twisted and caught it on the flat of her sword.

Clang!

They separated by a single step and closed again immediately.

Selene changed rhythm.

She lowered her stance and swept her sword in a wide horizontal arc, releasing a thin crescent of high-pressure water that flew toward Gray’s legs.

He hopped the crescent, landed cleanly, and met her following overhead cut with an upward block.

Clunk...

The two blades locked for a brief moment.

Water mana hissed against the purplish edge. Selene pushed harder, trying to force his guard down.

Gray angled his blade, let her force slide off, and cut toward her exposed side.

She stepped back just far enough to avoid a clean hit, the tip of his mana sword grazing the edge of her uniform.

Her eyes stayed focused now.

The earlier hesitation had been pushed down by the need to keep responding.

She came forward with faster footwork, blade moving in tight, controlled lines.

A thrust to the shoulder, a cut to the hip, a rising slash toward the neck.

Gray’s dark sword met them one after another.

Cling!

Clang!

Selene feinted a high cut, then dropped her weight and swept low again, this time sending a stronger wave of water along the stone toward Gray’s feet.

He stepped through it, the water breaking against his boots, and closed the distance before she fully recovered.

His mana sword thrust toward her midsection.

She brought her blade across in a hurried block. The impact forced her back half a step.

She did not stay on the defensive.

Cyan light flared brighter along her sword as she gathered more water mana.

She stepped in with a strong diagonal cut meant to overwhelm through pressure rather than speed.

Gray met it directly.

CLAAAANG!

The two swords locked again.

This time Selene twisted her blade, trying to use the flowing water to slide past his guard and cut his arm.

Gray rotated his wrist, kept the contact, and pushed her sword wide. His free hand stayed at his side; he continued to fight with only the short dark-mana blade.

They moved across the scorched platform in a continuous exchange.

Selene’s style relied on smooth transitions and the flexible reach of her water-coated edge.

She would cut, let the water trail extend, then pull the blade back into a new line without breaking flow.

Gray’s responses stayed simple and direct, with small, short blocks, small redirections, and immediate counters that kept her from settling into a comfortable rhythm.

Whenever she tried to create space for a stronger water technique, he stepped in and forced another close exchange of blades.

A sharper sequence began.

Selene launched a rapid series of thrusts, each one aimed at a different point—shoulder, chest, midsection, then shoulder again.

The water mana around the tip of her sword tightened into a narrower, more piercing form. Gray’s dark sword moved in small, precise motions, knocking each thrust aside.

On the fourth thrust, he stepped offline, let the blade pass, and cut toward her extended arm. Selene retracted quickly and answered with a rising cut that forced him to lean back.

The tip of her sword passed close to his chin.

She pressed the slight opening, advancing with a heavy horizontal slash that carried a thicker band of water.

Gray blocked it cleanly.

The water exploded outward against his mana sword in a brief spray. Before the spray cleared, he thrust forward.

Selene parried, but the force of the thrust still pushed her guard back. She slid her rear foot to keep balance and immediately returned a cut toward his waist.

Cling!

Their swords met again.

"Hagh... G-Gray..."

Selene’s breathing had grown more controlled.

The initial reluctance was still present beneath the surface, yet the act of fighting itself had taken over.

She adjusted her grip, shifted her weight, and began mixing wider sweeping cuts with sudden short thrusts, trying to keep Gray from reading a single pattern.

Swoosh!

Water mana flared and dimmed along her blade in time with each change.

They crossed the center of the platform multiple times.

Selene attempted a more complex combination: a high feint, a low water crescent aimed at the ankles, followed by a rising thrust toward the chest.

Gray hopped the crescent, parried the thrust, and stepped in close enough that their swords locked near the hilts.

For a moment the two blades pressed against each other, cyan water mana hissing against dark purple.

Selene’s eyes met his at close range. Something complicated passed through her expression before she broke the lock and jumped back.

She did not stay away.

The moment her feet touched stone, she pushed forward again, sword moving in continuous flowing arcs. Each cut left a thin line of water in the air that hung for a fraction of a second before falling.

Gray cut through the lines when necessary and ignored them when they posed no threat. His counters remained short and accurate.

A thrust that forced her to raise her guard. A slash that made her step offline. A sudden low cut that she had to block near the ground.

Clank!

The rhythm of the fight stayed unbroken.

There was no long pause, no reset to full distance. Every time one of them created a small gap, the other closed it.

Selene’s water techniques grew slightly more aggressive as the exchange continued; she began releasing short bursts of high-pressure water at the moment of contact, trying to disrupt Gray’s blade control.

The bursts sprayed across his arms and chest, cold and sharp, but he adjusted his grip and continued without change in expression.

The crowd looked at the fight with a strangely... bored expression, but just then, someone pointed out.

"Wait... doesn’t the girl in the arena seem to be getting stronger with each exchange?"

"Right...? It really looks like that!"

"Wait! Is Gray actually teaching her swordsmanship mid-fight?!"

The crowd went into an uproar.

This was indeed true.

Gray had a little bit of affection towards Selene, so of course, he wanted her to get much stronger.

So... he thought of imparting swordsmanship insights mid-fight, expecting Selene to at least absorb a little bit of them.

Just then, a much stronger exchange followed.

Selene gathered a larger amount of water mana along the full length of her sword and delivered a powerful downward cut.

The water formed a brief, dense blade that extended past the steel. Gray raised his dark-mana sword and met the cut head-on.

The impact was heavier than the previous ones.

SPLAAAAAASH!

The platform under their feet gave a small tremor.

Water exploded outward in a wide spray.

In the same motion, Gray turned his blade and thrust toward her shoulder.

Selene twisted aside, the tip of the mana sword grazing her sleeve, and answered with a quick horizontal cut that he blocked near his ribs.

They stayed close.

Selene tried to use the proximity to her advantage, shortening her cuts and relying on the flexible water edge to find small openings.

Gray matched the closer range with shorter movements of his own. The sound of steel and mana meeting became almost continuous.

Cling-cling-clang-cling!

Selene’s face showed concentration and strain.

The need to keep responding left little room for the earlier hesitation to surface.

She launched another sequence: thrust, cut, thrust, then a sudden sweeping slash meant to force Gray backward.

He stepped in instead of back, let the sweep pass behind him, and cut toward her midsection.

She blocked late, and the force of the block pushed her back two steps.

"Fuck... Y-you really are strong with just swordsmanship alone... aahha..." Selene took a deep breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Her eyes narrowed slighly.

And just then... her eyes suddenly turned blank as she noticed a faint aura surrounding Gray’s body, almost clinging to his entire being.

"T-that..."

A cyan aura suddenly flared up from her body, causing almost everyone in the VIP section to stand up in complete shock.

Just then...

Gray stopped on his tracks as his lips curled up into a faint smile.

"Finally..."

Selene fell into a state of trance.

People usually called this...

An epiphany.