I Enrolled as the Villain

As I locked eyes with Lucia, the Mythrigan Eye tightened not in pain, but recognition.

Something old.

Something that should've stayed buried across three eternities of dream.

The arena had gone quiet.

The students that had encircled the field began to part, slowly, wordlessly, as if instinct told them I wasn't someone to stand in front of.

I stepped forward.

Alone at first.

Then, the faintest sound behind me soft shoes against stone.

One of the Valery blood. A petite girl. No older than me, maybe younger. She walked with hesitation but didn't stop.

Then another followed.

And another.

Soon the Valery students were behind me — not out of fear, not entirely — but as if something ancestral in them still remembered what the Eye meant.

I could hear their whispers now, low and brittle:

"Why is she like this?"

"Something's wrong with her… right?"

"Is Kael going to punish her?"

"Shouldn't he?"

Their voices weren't sure.

They weren't asking me.

They were asking themselves.

Lucia's gaze hadn't wavered. It was calm and neutral.

She broke the silence with ease, brushing her braid back over one shoulder like none of this mattered.

"You should be careful," she said, tone flat. "Factions are watching. They'll use kindness against you."

I studied her.

"And what was that?" I asked quietly.

She blinked. As if the question didn't register.

Then smiled thinly.

"Just a spar."

A pause. Then softer, but pointed:

"He volunteered, you know."

Behind us, someone murmured about blood limits. Another whispered something about provoked duels.

But no one blamed her.

No one questioned her.

And that…

That made it worse.

Lucia took a step forward.

Then without expression she bowed.

Low. Formal.

Not out of apology. Not out of shame.

But out of recognition.

"I am your sword," she said. "Your enforcer of rule. I will follow your will… in silence."

The words echoed louder than any scream. Not because of volume — but because of what they implied.

Power handed back.

Control, ceded willingly.

And yet, as I looked at her eyes lowered, posture still a single thought surfaced.

Renan's voice.

Quiet. Honest.

"If the leader stays silent… someone else will speak for you."

And now here she was.

Not waiting for orders but claiming the silence.

Filling it.

So that's what Renan meant.

If I stayed silent… they'd speak for me. Act for me. Interpret my will without asking.

I need to step forward. Not as a god. Not as a tyrant.

But as a leader.

"I see," I said flatly.

"Don't do that again without my permission."

The silence stretched taut and expectant.

Then I stepped forward, turning toward the gathered Valery students.

"The Velvet Eye faction will convene an emergency council."

My voice didn't need to rise. It cut through the air regardless.

"Highest-ranking members. Valery blood only. Effective immediately."

Murmurs followed. A ripple of uncertainty. Obedience.

Then I turned to face Elsin, who had remained watchful at the edge of the arena.

"Instructor Elsin," I said, calm but clear

"Velvet Eye will be holding a formal meeting. Senior through junior ranks. Please record our absence for official record."

She nodded once, and that was enough.

As the seven students walked in silence toward the Velvet Chamber, the air grew heavier with each step. The chamber's heart a circular arrangement of carved obsidian seats awaited us.

I took my place at the center.

One by one, they entered behind me. Seniors, all of them. Upperclassmen bearing the weight of lineage, reputation, and rank. They took their seats across from me without a word.

Even if they outranked me in age, prestige, or experience…

Valery tradition left no room for ambiguity.

You don't bow to the person.

You bow to the Eye.

I stood.

The room didn't stir.

Seven pairs of eyes on me none louder than Lucia's.

I let the silence stretch. Not to command, but to remember what it used to mean.

Then i spoke.

"I was raised believing the Eye saw everything —

truth, lies, weakness, worth.

And if you held it long enough… it began to see even more than you did."

I let the words settle.

"But it never taught me how to lead.

It never told me what to say when someone you trust breaks.

Or when you're the one who broke them."

The chamber stayed still. Too still.

"I didn't call this meeting to punish anyone.

Not to lecture. Not to remind you of who I was.

You already know. Or think you do."

I stepped forward.

Not as a tyrant.

But as Kael.

"What I remember about ruling is…

it was easy when I didn't care who got hurt.

Easier still when I convinced myself no one else did."

My voice didn't tremble. But it wasn't steel either.

"I know the shadow I left behind.

Some of you followed it.

Some feared it.

Some just tried to survive under it."

I looked to the girl who had followed me earlier.

Then to the quiet senior on the far left — the one who hadn't spoken a word.

"And now I've returned.

Changed, maybe.

Or pretending.

I don't expect you to trust that — not yet."

My eyes turned to Lucia.

The one who bowed.

Who followed rules in silence.

"But I won't rule in silence anymore.

Not because I've grown soft.

Not because I want forgiveness."

I let my hands fall to my sides — open.

"But because if I don't speak…

someone else will speak for me."

A breath passed.

"And you deserve better than that.

Even if I don't."

I took one more step toward the circle's center.

The Eye burned faintly in my gaze. Not in threat — but in weight.

"I'm not asking for loyalty.

Not yet.

I'm asking for your attention.

Your patience."

"Because the path forward won't be built on strength or bloodline alone.

It's how we carry each other when no one else will.

It's how we stop being just a house…

…and become a home."

The silence that followed wasn't empty.

It was full.

Then my voice dropped softer, nearly unheard:

"The mythrigan can see through stone, through lies, through time itself.

But lately…

I'm trying to use it to see people."

I sat back down.

No order given. No command shouted. Just presence.The kind that didn't demand loyalty

but invited it.

A long pause stretched after i sat.

No one moved.

Until from the far edge of the circle a voice rose. Low. Even.

Male. Older. Senior.

"Then tell us…"

The heads of the others turned toward him. He didn't flinch under the sudden attention. His uniform was pristine. A band of silver traced the collar one of the oldest Valery bloods still in the academy.

"What did you see?"

I looked at him.

The student didn't ask it like a challenge.

He asked it like a prayer.

"You were gone. Then you came back.

You gave up your inheritance, and yet the Eye still listens. So answer us Valery, Eye-bearer, Kael…"

"What did the Eye see?"

The question hung in the chamber like smoke.

Heavy. Hungered for.

Somewhere in the quiet, someone swallowed.

I didn't answer right away. But When i did, my voice was quieter than before. Almost raw.

"It saw… everything," I said.

My voice didn't shake. But inside — something cracked.

I remember Arthur.

A boy, bloodied and small, shoved down a marble stairwell while Valery uniforms laughed above him.

"It saw what I was."

I remember my end. Dragged high above the clouds, arms broken, voice gone… And the gods watched in silence as I screamed.

"It saw what I became to protect what I loved."

I saw Arthur again

Years later.

Standing at the gates of the Valery estate alone.

No sword drawn.

No speech given.

Just… watching the flames take everything.

The great banners had already fallen.

The marble eye cracked at the jaw.

And inside… the Valery bloodline was crawling.

Not just weeping but

Screaming.

Each one clutching at empty sockets where their eyes used to be. Not taken in battle. But Taken one by one. Deliberately.

Lumigan eyes.

Ketsugan eyes.

Even the unawakened ones.

Gone.

They weren't begging for mercy.

They were begging for meaning.

For someone to explain why their sight their legacy was stolen.

But no one answered.

Because there was no one left to speak for them.

"It saw that when power isn't led, it devours."

I remember Arthur again — older, weathered.

Standing beneath a sky stitched with red threads of fate.

Across from him stood a figure.

Cloaked in shadows.

Wearing my left eye in its skull like a stolen flame.

The Mythrigan Eye.

No longer mine.

No longer human.

Seeing through time — and cutting through it.

And with it…

That thing split the three eternities in half.

"It saw I could rend the world…

And it saw what happens when someone else does."

Then I saw him again.

Alone.

Before the Valery compound — nothing left but ash and concrete.

His hands trembling. Not from fear… but something worse.

Regret.

"It saw what regret looked like."

And then…

He walked beside Evelyne.

Her eyes were gone stolen, not closed.

Wrapped in a red cloth, not to protect her but to hide what was taken.

Chains rattled softly with each step.

Her hands didn't tremble. They hung.

Not silent by choice. BUt Silent because whatever voice she once had…

was left somewhere in the ash.

Arthur reached out his hand.Slow. Hesitant. Not to lead. But to say: I'm still here.

And she took it. Not because she trusted. But because there was no one else left to.

"And I remembered what happens when a throne is left empty."

That's why I'm here.

Not to end the world.

But to change how it ends.

I imagined them the Valery blood walking forward blindly, eyes empty, hands outstretched for meaning.

And for a long time, I just watched. From above. Detached.

But not anymore.

I stepped down.

Walked forward.

And with both hands, I pushed everything aside tradition, fear, silence

…and took the front.

Not to lead them into the same path.

But to carve another.