(A/N: Their relationship dynamic progresses and doesn't stay exactly like it is at the start (The one-sided love doesn't last long). Pacing is also relatively fast at the start, but slows down in the future in romance arcs.)

In his old life, he was an assassin, invisible, efficient, and utterly alone.
His only escape came from the pages of a fantasy novel, Crown of Thorns, and the character no one else seemed to understand: Lady Evelina D’Arclight, the proud and brilliant villainess fated to lose everything.

After his death, he wakes up inside that very story, not as a hero, but as Cael Arden, a student at Eryndor Royal Academy. The world is just as he remembers it, right down to the woman destined to fall.

But this time, he’s not a bystander.
With a lifetime of deadly skills and the knowledge of what’s to come, Cael sets out to rewrite the story itself, to protect Evelina, rise through the academy’s ruthless hierarchy, and change a fate written in stone.

As alliances form and secrets surface, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur.
And in a world built on power and prophecy, he’ll prove that even a villainess deserves her happy ending.

It was the only thing I could see the moment that huge green spell circle appeared and blotted out the sky.


And before I knew it, everything turned into just this...


Agh... Even though I didn't know what had happened, I could still feel the pain. That thing... it probably completely annihilated the entire aircraft.


I snapped out of unconsciousness and opened my eyes, black flames bursting around me as I sprang to my feet, fire surrounding everything while I scanned the area.


I looked around, but she was nowhere. In fact, everything around me was in ruins: dead soldiers, dead engineers, dead mages. Even the aircraft lay in pieces right where I had been lying a moment ago.


I stood in the middle of a forest clearing, surrounded by towering trees and dense flora, each one likely older than I was, judging by their sheer size.


Chapter 187 - Elves...