(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.

The man's hand shot to his holster. In one smooth motion, he drew a gun and leveled it at my head before I could even blink.


But in the end, it still wasn't enough.


I grabbed the barrel of his revolver and squeezed, metal groaning as it warped under my fingers. At the same time, I drove my foot into his chest, slamming him into the mansion's outer wall and pinning him there with tendrils of darkness that wrapped around him, cutting off any chance of escape.


"You look trained, you know... so why are you wandering around like a lost rat, struggling to find a way in? Did you seriously not plan this out?"


The shadows coiled tighter around his arms, wrapping and twisting like a vise.


"You don't have a choice. Tell me—is this your first time here?"


Chapter 226 - Driving Someone to Madness...?