The Return Of The Exiled Villain

Gray opened his eyes.

The ceiling of the eastern residential block looked back at him, unfamiliar enough that he spent half a second reorienting before everything from the previous day filed itself back into order.

”Right...”

He sat up and instantly felt a faint ache in his shoulder, causing his face to contort in discomfort, but he ignored it again.

The common space was already occupied when he came out of his room, which was the first unusual thing.

The second unusual thing was the smell, something warm and cooked drifting from the small preparation area adjacent to the common space, which had contained nothing of culinary interest the previous night.

Elaríen stood at the preparation table with her back to him, her long dark hair tied back, moving through the motions of plating food.

She had apparently found clothes from the faculty stores. Simple, well-fitted, considerably better maintained than what she had been wearing when he found her.

The wound on her ear had been properly cleaned and dressed.

She heard him come out and glanced back over her shoulder.

”You’re awake. Sit down.”

Gray looked at the table, which had been set.

He sat.

She brought the food over, set his portion in front of him, and sat across from him with her own.

Gray looked at the food before merely glancing at her.

She was already eating in an elegant demeanour, fitted for an ex-princess like her, and seeing that, he also started eating.

The food was good.

Better than good, actually, which was surprising given the limited resources of a faculty residential block’s preparation area.

He didn’t comment on it.

She refilled his cup when it was half empty without being asked, the motion seamless, already looking back at her own plate before he had registered that she’d done it.

After breakfast, she cleared the table without asking for his help or saying anything more. He watched her do it and said nothing because there didn’t seem to be anything to say.

Then she came back to the common space and looked at him.

”The bath is ready for us,” she stated.

At those words, Gray instantly frowned, as he realized that he had only met this girl yesterday, and yet, now she was acting like they had been living together for quite a while.

”I prepared it before you woke up,” she continued calmly, as she pointed out to the bathroom.

”The temperature should still be right.”

”...For both of us?” he asked, as if he was imagining that she had said both of us.

”Yes.”

He was quiet for a moment.

She looked back at him with the same calm, direct expression she wore, as if this was something completely normal to her.

Gray looked at her.

”...Why are you acting like this?” he asked.

Elaríen tilted her head slightly.

”Like what?”

”...Why are you acting like my wife would?”

She looked at him for a moment.

”You saved me,” she said simply.

”That doesn’t require all of this.”

”In elven custom, it does. I told you yesterday.”

”I didn’t accept that offer.”

”You accepted the room,” she stated. ”Which under elven law constitutes provisional acceptance of the arrangement pending formal confirmation.” She paused.

”I’m not asking you to formally confirm anything. I’m simply fulfilling my side of what the law considers an existing agreement.”

Gray looked at her.

...She was completely calm, and yet showed a very serious expression. It seemed that she had thought about this and still completely agreed with her decision.

”Elin...”

”Mm.”

”I pulled you out of a cell. That’s all.”

”I know what you think it was, and I know what it was.”

”You don’t have to call it anything. I’m not asking you to,” she paused lightly, looking into his deep black pools.

”But I was in that cell for half a century, Gray. And the first thing you did when you opened the door was crouch down to my level and tell me I didn’t have to come if I didn’t want to.”

He said nothing.

”Nobody has spoken to me like that in a very long time,” she uttered without any drama on her voice, as if simply stating a fact.

”So yes. I’m making breakfast and preparing the bath, and I’ll keep doing it for as long as I’m here, because it’s what I want to do and because the law I was raised under says it’s appropriate and because...” She stopped briefly.

”...Because it’s the only way I currently know how to say thank you.”

The space turned quiet at her words.

Gray looked at her for a long moment before turning to the corridor leading to the bathroom and letting out a sigh.

”Separate.”

She blinked.

”I’ll go first. You go after.”

Something moved through her expression that she didn’t quite suppress before it arrived.

”...Of course.”

He stood up and walked toward the corridor.

Behind him, Elaríen looked at the table she had cleared and the cup she had refilled and the morning she had built out of the only materials available to her, and said nothing.

But the warmth that had been present the night before, when he had touched her ear without noticing he’d done it, hadn’t gone anywhere.

If anything, it had gotten slightly less manageable.

She picked up his cup and brought it to the preparation area, but strangely her eyes... couldn’t help but land on that faint wet part of the cup.

The edge where Gray’s lip imprints were...

She didn’t want to admit herself... but she wanted him to touch her again. She wanted him to touch her ears once again.

Flutter~

Suddenly, the sound of a bird flapping its wings reached her ears. She turned and saw the little bird land exactly on the window.

She slowly walked towards the window and opened it before taking the rolled-up paper from the bird’s feet.

”Good boy.”

Elaríen patted the bird’s head, causing the bird to chirp happily and then fly away, as if it had never appeared there.

After rolling the paper, she started reading its contents.

”Gray... Vireux. The exiled son of the D’Aurélion Family...” she started, mumbling in a small tone.

Those were the only words that she uttered before reading the rest without uttering a single word.

”...So, he has a girlfriend. No wonder...”

Sizzle...!

The paper was suddenly burned into ashes as she turned away and returned to the preparation area, where she would continue doing her duties.

After a while, Gray left the bathroom with his hair still slightly damp, the faint ache in his shoulder dulled by the heat of the water.

The air in the corridor felt cooler against his skin, grounding.

He didn’t linger.

Elaríen stood where he had left her, near the preparation area.

Her posture was composed, hands resting lightly against the edge of the counter as if she had not moved at all during his absence.

Their eyes met for a brief moment.

”I’m heading to class,” Gray said.

She gave a small nod.

He paused for half a second, then exhaled through his nose.

”Right.”

There was nothing else to add, so he turned and stepped out.

”...This is a little weird,” he sighed.

Getting out of the residential area, Gray started walking through the campus, passing through the main garden, before finally arriving at the classes’ building.

But he still made a detour, as he realized that most students would take the same route as he did, so he went to a narrow side passage branched off between two support arches, easy to miss unless one already knew it existed.

Gray turned into it without hesitation.

This way, no one would bother him... after all, he gets quite a handful of duel requests per day, and today, he wasn’t in the mood to accept any of them.

The passage dipped slightly, the ceiling lowering just enough to make the space feel enclosed without being suffocating.

And after walking for a while, a set of shallow stairs appeared at the end of the passage. He took them two at a time and then noticed a door at the top.

He pushed it open and stepped out onto an upper corridor that overlooked part of the central training grounds.

Gray didn’t look down and continued straight forward.

Students were present here, though fewer. A couple glanced at him as he passed, their gazes lingering for a moment longer than necessary.

Recognition, perhaps.

Or curiosity.

He gave them nothing in return.

And finally, at the far end of the corridor, stood a set of double doors, darker than the surrounding stone, reinforced along the edges.

[Phoenix Class]

He reached out, placed his hand against the door, and pushed. The door made a faint creaking sound as he entered, and he was instantly met by his classmates.

As usual, there were only girls, and their gazes seemed to have gotten even more active than before.

He walked to his spot that was right next to Cassandra, just to find that she was actually missing...

’Is she skipping or simply late?’ he pondered.

He looked at the clock, and after noticing that there were still a couple of minutes before the class started, he decided to sleep a little.

At least until the clock rang.