I'm in Love with the Villainess!

[Dark Step]

Evelina snapped her fingers, and one of her pawns appeared inside the building, a random academy janitor, materializing right beside the inquisitor. He blinked in confusion, eyes wide, still trying to understand what had just happened.

"W-What...?"

The inquisitor managed, but he didn’t get to say anything else.

SPLAT.

The janitor’s head burst like an overripe fruit. Bone, blood, and brain matter sprayed across the inquisitor’s mask and robes as the man’s body dropped limply to the floor.

For a heartbeat, there was only silence.

"Oh no," Evelina cooed, tilting her head as if genuinely surprised.

"Would you look at that... you killed an academy member. Looks like I have the jurisdiction to... well... handle you~."

She let out a soft, sadistic laugh, cupping her cheek with one hand as she drank in the inquisitor’s expression — that mix of confusion, horror, and dawning realization.

Whatever questionable things he’d done for his precious purge, he still believed it was all righteous.

That meant he was still unaccustomed to ’cruelty’ like this.

And to the inquisitor, who believed everything he did was for the gods, that belief became the perfect excuse in his mind to be as cruel as he wanted to be.

In his mind, this was the will of the gods, and that he did no evil.

Evelina, however, had no divine right to justify her cruelty. To him, she wasn’t merely an enemy — she was evil made flesh.

She was the kind of person who would use and hurt others just to get what she wanted.

"Lord Elion was correct, you dark mages—"

His words cut off in a strangled gasp. An invisible force wrapped around his throat and squeezed. His hands flew up on instinct, clawing at nothing as he tried and failed to pry it away.

"You’re quite weak..." Evelina said, her tone flattening with disappointment. She tilted her head, her smirk twitching, as if the whole thing suddenly bored her. She’d expected a real challenge, a monster of faith and fire.

Instead, she’d caught a pawn.

One of the weaker inquisitors.

"You have no idea what’s actually going on, do you?" she asked quietly.

She stepped toward him. The inquisitor tried to stagger back, still clutching at his throat, but ran out of room as his back hit the wall.

"Stay still."

Evelina raised a finger and pressed it against the smooth surface of his mask. A thin crack spidered out from the point of contact, then spread, the material splintering until it gave way. Her fingertip met his skin at the center of his forehead.

"Right. You there. Keep investigating the academy," she said without turning.

The professor behind her bowed his head and vanished in a swirl of displaced air.

"Now..." Evelina murmured, eyes locking on the inquisitor’s as he wheezed soundlessly, "time for me to probe your mind and see if you have any connection to those flies back in Berian."

*** Cael’s POV

[Darkfire Serpent]

"Cael Arden... winner!"

The professor announced it, sounding unsure, as he took in the scene: dozens of students sprawled unconscious all around me.

What was supposed to be a simple one-on-one match had turned into a full-blown free-for-all the moment I said that anyone who could beat me could become my new student.

To my surprise, the professor hadn’t stepped in at all.

"I’m curious—how are you even supposed to grade them?"

I asked, glancing at the other professors overseeing the gym.

There were more than enough of them to shut this down if they wanted to, but they didn’t.

"That will remain confidential. But if you’re wondering why we didn’t stop your little provocation... well, the headmaster gave us explicit instructions to prioritize your growth above all else."

Ah... I guess that tracks?

It was easy to forget this academy wasn’t exactly a beacon of virtue. Like any elite institution, it had its fair share of cutthroat competition lurking just beneath the polished surface.

That meant elite students like me got priority over pretty much everyone else.

And that, of course, reminded me of something.

"Everything’s still way too quiet..."

I folded my arms. I should’ve heard someone yelling by now from the other gyms — Kevin, Vivianne, Evelina, Julius, or any of the other powerhouses.

But for some reason, there was nothing. Just silence.

"Am I done for now?"

"Yeah, you’ve completed the examination already."

Good. That meant I could finally look into whatever had been bothering me all day.

[Darkfire Step]

I teleported to the academy’s biggest courtyard and... nothing. No explosions, no screaming, no chaos—just students who’d already finished or were waiting for their schedules, lounging around and chatting.

[Darkfire Step]

I warped again, this time to one of the academy’s gyms, and... same thing. Completely normal. People dueling, talking, minding their own business.

Then I jumped again.

And again.

And again.

By the time I’d checked half the academy, there was still nothing happening. And that was more suspicious than anything. Even if I wasn’t the one causing trouble, you’d think Kevin or Vivianne would’ve made some kind of scene by now.

But there was nothing.

In fact, most of the stronger students weren’t even around.

[Soul Sense]

I swept my gaze around, extending my senses, and somehow it only gave me more questions than answers.

Lillian was in the library with another girl—probably helping her with something and, of course, skipping the test. Julius was the same as always, but this time he was deep in the city doing charity work, blowing off his own assessment. Kevin, from the feel of it, had just straight-up overslept and missed it altogether.

Wait... why is everyone missing this?

I tried looking for Vivianne next, and she wasn’t any different either. She was also wrapped up somewhere in the city, busy helping deal with another group of people—and absent from the test as well.

Didn’t take a genius to know that there was a pattern going on.

"What...?"

I could understand Kevin’s reason, but the others? There’s just no way all three of them just happened to be busy.

I went around again, this time checking on the other S-Class students, and... they were missing from the exam too.

And just like the four I’d already checked on, they were all tied up with something else.

"W-What the hell...?"