I Enrolled as the Villain

I waited a bit longer in silence.

Eventually, the rest of the students started coming in the ones who had gone to watch the duel.

Some just walked in like it was any normal day.

Others… didn't.

Selene Dais entered quietly, but you could feel it.

Her presence shifted the room, even without saying a word.

She didn't look at me. She didn't need to. Her steps said enough she saw everything.

Everyone walked back to their seats, but I could tell from their eyes:

They were still thinking. Still calculating.

Trying to figure out what I did in the arena.

Then came the last one.

Lucia.

Her hand was bandaged, and her steps were slower than usual but not weak.

The academy healer must've done good work for her to show up this soon.

She didn't look at me either. I didn't expect her to.

The class settled.

And then… the instructor entered.

A woman in a sharp coat, with thin gloves and heels that clicked louder than necessary. She walked like someone who wanted to be noticed.

She stopped near the center of the platform and let the silence stretch.

Establishing dominance.

I've seen this before.

There was a whole tutorial about it on SyncWatch.

"Twelve Ways to Control a Room Without Speaking like an alpha."

Step One: Enter late.

Step Two: Walk slowly.

Step Three: Pause for dramatic effect.

She was following the script perfectly.

Haa… This again?

I'm not good at this politics and presence game.

Let them posture. I'm just here to survive the next hour.

———

Her eyes scanned the class like she was cataloging us not as people, but as entries in a report.

When her gaze landed on me, she lingered a moment longer than she should have. Then moved on like nothing happened.

Instructor Elsin.

"Good morning, students," she said.

Everyone stood up in unison. I was half a second late.

Voices echoed together:

"For the Union."

Ah. The mandatory morning chant.

Every class. Every day.

Another ritual no one questions.

"Sit," she said.

Chairs slid back. Everyone sat.

Straight backs. Composed faces.

Some were just relieved to sit.

Others looked like they were waiting for war.

She continued, voice flat and precise.

"As you know, today marks the return from your three-day break. Although…"

Her gaze drifted again not toward me, but near enough to make it obvious.

"One of you didn't attend the final class before the holiday."

Right. That would be me.

Sorry, I was busy not dying.

"But I digress," she said smoothly, moving on like it didn't matter.

Then she turned fully to face the class. With just her voice.

"Let's begin with a simple truth," she said. "Power is never the whole story."

Silence.

"This morning, certain… events occurred. I will not name them. I will not repeat them. They are already being analyzed by the administrative board, as well as the Union Office of Security."

A few students stiffened at that. Even the top-ranked ones.

"But this is the Elite Division. You are expected to do more than react. You are expected to interpret."

She paused, eyes sweeping across the room.

"Strength without understanding is chaos. Control without purpose is weakness. And restraint… restraint is not always mercy."

Her tone never changed. But the weight of her words pressed against the room like a slowly tightening rope.

"Five of you will speak. Briefly. Give me a tactical breakdown of what you observed in the morning duel with emphasis on method, efficiency, and risk."

A pause. Then

"Rank 1. Aurelia Artoria. Your analysis."

Aurelia rose with practiced grace.

Every movement smooth. Every line of her uniform crisp.

She stood not like a student but like a sovereign giving a report before a council.

Her voice was refined.

"The engagement was brief. He responded to aggression with proportional force until escalation deemed restraint inefficient."

"Fire was used first not to damage, but to unsettle. It forced distance.

Ice followed not to immobilize, but to control space."

"His techniques bypassed conventional casting structures. No affinity signals Or chant delay And aura distortion. Elemental output was not projected it was manifested."

She paused for exactly two seconds.

Long enough to draw silence. Not long enough to be rude.

"When the arena was flooded, he neither moved nor retaliated. He observed. Then removed the obstacle."

Her tone never shifted but every syllable felt like it carried the weight of something personal.

"It was not dominance It was judgment."

She turned slightly not toward Kael, but away from him, chin held high.

"The duel ended with precision.

She was defeated without humiliation.

Disabled without injury."

Another pause.

"There is power in that."

And then, softer just enough for those listening closely to catch:

"But mercy…Mercy does not erase memory."

She sat. Eyes forward. Back straight. Not a single tremble in her voice.

"Rank 2. Selene Dais. Your breakdown."

Selene stood without theatrics.

Hands clasped behind her back. Posture perfect.

She didn't speak until the room was fully silent.

Her tone was Surgical.

"The engagement began with predictive restraint. Kael Valery utilized elemental offense at point-blank without casting lag, glyph burn, or aura compression."

"This suggests a bypass either through innate compression, molecular command, or foreign interference. I lean toward the first, due to lack of artifact traces."

"He responded to Lucia's zone denial her dragon construct with neither movement nor counter-cast. The construct was removed through an unknown vector. No displacement. No overload. No reverse current."

Pause.

"It did not fail. It was erased."

Her gaze swept across the class.

"From a combat strategy perspective, this duel violated every foundational rule we train under:"

"1. No mana readings before effect."

"2. No element affinity signals."

"3. No tactical intent broadcast only execution."

She turned slightly toward Kael — not in challenge, but observation.

"That means either he's masking intent with god-tier control… or the system itself is responding to him differently."

"Neither possibility should exist at Tier-1."

Pause. Then flatly:

"We are not qualified to measure him. Not yet."

She returned to her seat.

"Rank 3. Azaira Red Cosmos. Your breakdown."

Azaira rose, expression unreadable, eyes sharp.

"The duel was won before it began."

Her tone was Controlled. But something in it carried weight like a blade that hadn't been drawn yet.

"He opened with pressure elemental assaults from impossible proximity. Fire, ice, wind… appearing without sequence or motion. The opponent couldn't predict, only react."

She clasped her hands behind her back.

"But it wasn't just the spells. It was the timing. He allowed Lucia space, then closed it instantly. He didn't escalate. He edited."

A murmur ran through the class, but Azaila ignored it.

"The water dragon one of the most complex Tier-2 first year constructs in this academy was removed from the field with no contact. Just… absence."

"I don't know how he did it. I won't pretend to."

"But I will say this: in Keshar, we are taught that unknown techniques are the deadliest. Not because they are stronger. But because they rewrite the rules."

She looked straight at Elsin.

"And I believe Kael Valery fights like someone who already knows how this story ends. And every move he makes… rewrites the page before we read it."

Then, quieter almost to herself, but just loud enough:

"We call that Red Silence. The moment before a nation falls."

Then she sat.

Well. She's not wrong.

I thought that as I leaned back slightly, eyes scanning the room.

Sitting in the farthest row had its advantages.

From here, I could see all of them.

The pride. The fear. The questions no one wanted to ask out loud.

"Rank 8. Leon Zadrin. Speak."

A brown haired boy stood stiffly. His uniform was wrinkled from how tightly he'd been gripping the sleeves.

He didn't bother hiding the edge in his voice.

"I… I don't even know what I watched."

"One second he was standing there, then spells just—just happened. No casting.No nothing."

"He didn't move. He didn't chant. And the dragon—"

His voice caught.

"It just… vanished. Like it was never real."

He looked around the room.

"Do you all think that's normal?"

No one answered.

"Do you know how long it takes to learn one elemental control pathway? How many hours, how many damn setbacks just to get one spell consistent?"

He pointed not at Kael, but toward the video where the duel had taken place.

"He didn't even break a sweat."

His tone cracked.

"I've bled for this rank. I've fought and trained and failed and climbed just to hold my spot in this class."

"And now I'm supposed to sit here and pretend I understand what he is?"

Silence.

He realized what he'd said.

His voice dropped.

"…I'm sorry, Instructor. I'm just—tired of pretending that makes sense."

He sat down hard, jaw clenched.

"Rank 9. Mira Ceylon. Your thoughts."

A girl with short silver hair and silver-rimmed glasses stood slowly, arms crossed behind her back.

Her uniform was pristine, not a thread out of place.

Her voice was Measured. Almost cold.

"I do not believe what we saw qualifies as spellcasting in any traditional sense."

She adjusted her glasses slightly.

"There was no projection phase. No element-specific runes and No aura. Just result."

"That's not a combat technique. That's system interference."

A few students stirred at her wording.

"If the Mythrigan can bypass core casting mechanics, then it's not magic it's manipulation of the system architecture itself."

"Which raises a question."

She looked toward Kael not afraid, just curious.

"If someone can erase a Tier-2 spell with a glance… what are the rules for defeating them?"

Silence.

"We're all taught to work within structure. To learn affinities. To shape our paths."

"So what happens when someone like him steps in and rewrites the laws?"

She gave a slight nod.

"It's not that I fear him. I just don't believe he belongs in a classroom built for humans."

Then she sat back down.

The room was quiet too quiet.

Her words still lingered:

"I just don't believe he belongs in a classroom built for humans."

I didn't plan to speak.

But then, without thinking—

"It's not magic."

My voice was calm. Barely above a whisper.

That was all.

I didn't explain.

I didn't look at anyone.

I just sat there.

And the silence that followed lasted longer than anything else that day.

Elsin didn't speak. But she didn't dismiss it either.

She simply nodded once the kind of nod that meant she was already reporting it to the people who mattered most.