Villain With A Side Quest

The winds gentled. The crushing pressure that had built in the room eased like a storm deciding to pass. Kael straightened, his stance relaxing into something less lethal, though no less graceful. When he spoke, his voice carried none of the tension from moments before.

"I yield," he said simply, offering a slight bow to Kieran.

Whispers erupted anew among the students, this time tinged with disappointment and confusion. They'd expected blood, thunder, a climactic clash of powers. Instead, they got... restraint.

Selene Ardent did not share their confusion. Her sharp amber eyes flicked from Kael to Kieran, then back again, reading the unspoken tension between them. Something had shifted in that final moment. Not just in the battle—but in Kael himself.

He disappeared.

Not physically. No, his form had remained solid. But for the briefest instant, he had vanished from her perception. Even with her honed instincts, sharpened over years of real combat, her senses had blanked. It was like trying to grab a shadow that had never been there to begin with.

Selene had seen a lot in her life—too much, really. But very few things unsettled her. This did.

'Not just wind magic,' she thought, her mind racing. 'Something else. Something hidden.'

She knew Kael's name, of course. Knew where he came from. The Academy required its instructors to review student files, but Kael's records had been frustratingly sparse. The son of an old but unremarkable family. No great lineage, no notable achievements from past generations. Yet here he was, standing among the Academy's best, wielding wind magic with an unnatural level of control—and stopping himself from using more.

Selene had never met his family, but she had heard rumors in circles most noble-born mages never tread. The kind of rumors that made even powerful people careful. The Aerius name carried little weight in the eyes of the world, but among those who knew better? It was a whisper in the dark. A question with no answer.

And now, after watching Kael fight, she was beginning to suspect why.

His restraint wasn't discipline—it was necessity.

Selene exhaled slowly, rolling her shoulders as she reined in her thoughts. Whatever Kael was hiding, it wasn't her job to expose it. Not yet.

Kieran, however…

Her gaze settled on the boy who had shocked the entire class. A so-called dark affinity user, seamlessly wielding multiple elements. A fighter who adapted mid-battle with an intelligence that spoke of experience beyond his years. He hadn't just been showing off—he had been crafting a narrative, deciding exactly what people saw and what they didn't.

She knew the look of someone hiding their true strength. She had worn it herself, once.

This year's class was going to be very interesting.

Selene clapped her hands once, drawing all attention back to her. "Enough. Match is over. You all have a lot to think about, but we're not here for gossip. We're here to learn." Her gaze swept across the room, pinning students into silence. "Kieran, Kael, well done. Take your seats."*****

Victoria narrowed her eyes, fingers tightening over her desk. This wasn't what she had expected. Kael was too much of a mystery already, and Kieran—well, he had just rewritten everything she thought she knew about him. His affinity was supposed to be dark, yet he had wielded multiple elements with ease. Too much ease.

She had been watching Kieran closely since his match against Alexander Vale, but today, something changed. The way he moved, the way he countered Kael's attacks—it wasn't the fighting style of someone struggling to keep up. It was the precision of someone who had already mastered it and was merely choosing how much to show.

Her mind raced through everything she had gathered. His background, his rapid low rank, the rumors about his unusual matches. It all pointed to one thing—he was hiding something. But so was Kael.

And then there was Selene. The young professor had barely reacted when Kael vanished. No surprise, no alarm, just a brief tightening of her jaw before she masked it with that same watchful calm. She knew something. Maybe about Kael. Maybe about Kieran. Maybe about both.

Victoria tapped her fingers against the desk, her mind sharpening into focus. This wasn't just about curiosity anymore. This was something bigger.

'You've been careful, Kieran,' she thought. 'But I see you now. And I won't stop until I find out the truth.'

As the class settled, she made her decision. It was time to start asking the right questions. And if Kieran wasn't ready to give her answers, she would find them herself.*****

The moment Kael uttered his surrender, the weight of the battle lifted from Kieran's shoulders, but the tension in his mind remained. He could still feel the pulse of magic in his veins, the fading embers of adrenaline thrumming beneath his skin. Even as he walked back to his seat, the whispers of the crowd like distant echoes in his ears, something far older and far more insidious slithered into his thoughts.

*You have shed another scale.*

The voice came from within, a presence coiled deep in his soul. It had no shape, no warmth—only an ever-present whisper, coiling through his thoughts like smoke through cracks in the stone.

Kieran didn't respond immediately. He slid into his seat, back straight, keeping his expression neutral. Around him, the noble-born students continued their murmuring, some impressed, others dismissive.

*It has been long since you fought like that,* the entity continued. *I bet you liked it.*

Kieran exhaled slowly. The entity wasn't wrong. For the first time since stepping into the Academy, he had moved as he once did in the streets—not bound by rigid spell formations or textbook-perfect sequences, but by instinct, by survival.

A Tier Two spell meant little in the eyes of the nobility. They dismissed them as inefficient, a waste of essence, mere stepping stones to the power that began at Tier Three and beyond. But on the streets, a well-placed Tier Two spell could be the difference between life and death. Nobles had the luxury of dismissing spells beneath a certain threshold; street rats like him had no such arrogance.

And he had survived long enough to exploit that arrogance.

A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, but he quickly erased it. No need to give anyone more reason to look his way.

*I know you can also sense it,* the voice hummed, almost amused. *Kael has killed before. The way he moves. The way he breathes.*

Kieran's fingers curled slightly against his desk. He had felt it—subtle, but unmistakable. The controlled stance, the way Kael's body flowed without hesitation, without wasted movement. There had been a moment, right before he yielded, where something sharpened in his eyes. A flicker of something primal, honed.

Killing intent.

Kael had buried it well, tucked it away beneath his composure, just like Kieran had learned to do. But killers recognized their own.

*I bet you can sense the little killing intent,* the voice mused. *He buried it deep, but not deep enough.*

Kieran released a slow breath. It was another question added to the growing list. Who was Kael—truly? He had fought with only wind magic, yet Selene hadn't seemed surprised. And then there was that moment—when he had vanished, not physically, but from perception itself. Like a shadow slipping out of reality. Kieran had spent his life recognizing threats before they came. That moment had sent every warning in his body screaming.

But he wasn't the only one hiding things.

The nobles had reacted as expected—some intrigued, others unimpressed. A few still eyed him with curiosity, murmuring about his ability to seamlessly switch between elements, but most dismissed his display for what it was in their eyes: a waste of potential. A Tier Two spell? So what? Why use something so weak when there were greater heights to reach?

Kieran nearly scoffed. That very arrogance had saved his life more times than he could count. They thought a Tier Two spell lacked the power to be a threat. Let them think that. Let them underestimate him, just like so many others had.

That mistake had gotten people killed before.

But it wasn't just survival anymore. This was the Academy. And if he wanted to carve out his place here—if he wanted to move beyond merely surviving—he would have to start thinking bigger.

And that meant understanding threats before they could see him coming.

Kael had just become one of them.