The Return Of The Exiled Villain

Less than ten minutes later, Gray stood high in the branches of a tall tree, completely concealed by both the dense foliage and a thin layer of mana that rendered him nearly invisible to normal senses.

Below him, roughly eighty meters away, a large mixed group of students from Gloria Academy and Dragon Slaying Academy had set up a temporary camp near the ruins of an old stone watchtower by a shallow river.

At the center of the group stood a tall, broad-shouldered young man with short black hair and a pair of heavy dual blades strapped across his back.

His presence alone was heavier than most of the 4th-years Gray had faced earlier.

’This must be Darius...? Still weak, the only rare thing about him is that he actually formed a hint of killing intent; though, he probably doesn’t know how to use it.’

And he was currently in the middle of a furious tirade.

”What the hell is wrong with all of you?!” Darius’s voice cracked like a whip across the place.

”I told you to maintain a rotating perimeter every five minutes! Five! Minutes! And what do I find? Two of you sitting on your asses counting tokens like a pair of greedy merchants!”

One of the Gloria students, a nervous-looking boy with a staff, tried to speak.

”C-Captain Darius, we were just...”

”Shut your mouth!” Darius snapped, spinning around to glare at him.

”I don’t care about your excuses. We’re currently holding the second-highest token count on this entire island. That means every single academy left is going to come after us the moment they think we’re weak. And what do you idiots do? You relax the moment you think Gray is still stuck at the main stronghold!”

He pointed a finger at another student who had been leaning against a tree.

”You. What did I say about mana sensing? Constant. Low-level. Wide-range. Not the half-assed scan you just did. If Gray or anyone else from Clementine decides to move, I want to know the second they step within two kilometers of us. Do you understand me?!”

”Y-yes, Captain!”

Darius’s face twisted with irritation as he continued pacing in front of his subordinates.

”And you Dragon Slaying idiots aren’t any better. I agreed to this temporary alliance because your academy still has usable fighters, not because I wanted to babysit a bunch of overconfident brats. Lyria’s group already fell silent. That means either they ran into something they couldn’t handle, or they got themselves eliminated like the trash they are. Either way, we don’t have room for more failures.”

One of the Dragon Slaying students frowned and muttered under his breath,

”We don’t take orders from Gloria...”

Darius’s head snapped toward him so fast the air almost cracked.

”What was that?”

The student immediately looked down.

”...Nothing.”

”That’s what I thought.” Darius’s voice dropped into a cold, dangerous tone.

”Listen carefully, all of you. In less than three hours, this trial ends. We are going to finish in the top two. That means no mistakes. No laziness. No personal grudges. If I see anyone prioritizing their own academy over this alliance before the timer runs out, I will personally eliminate them myself and take their tokens. Is that clear?”

A chorus of reluctant ”Yes” and ”Understood” rose from the group.

Darius exhaled sharply through his nose and ran a hand through his short hair.

”Good. Now reform the perimeter. I want fresh sensors out. And someone check the riverside again... those trees give too much cover.”

From his position in the tree, Gray watched the entire scene, raising an eyebrow.

Darius was exactly as the earlier description had suggested: strong, commanding, and ruthlessly pragmatic.

He treated his temporary allies like tools rather than comrades, and he maintained discipline through fear and constant pressure.

In a normal tournament setting, that kind of leadership would have been effective.

But this was no longer a normal situation.

Gray’s gaze drifted across the group, quickly assessing numbers, relative strength, and token distribution.

Darius himself clearly held the largest share.

Several spatial pouches on his belt glowed faintly with the concentrated light of tournament tokens. The rest of the group carried smaller amounts, but the total was still significant.

’Second place... and he’s arrogant enough to probably think that my performance at the main stronghold was purely because of the buffs.’

Gray’s lips curled into a faint, almost pitying smile.

He had already decided.

There was no need for complicated strategies or drawn-out battles. Darius was the core of this group’s strength and organization.

Remove him, and the rest would collapse.

Gray released the concealment around his body and stepped off the branch.

He did not use any movement technique.

He simply allowed himself to fall, landing lightly on the forest floor without a sound.

Then he began walking toward the clearing at a slow, unhurried pace, making no effort to hide his presence.

That Darius guy could be arrogant... but Gray was definitely many times more.

The first student to notice him was one of the perimeter sensors, a thin Dragon Slaying girl with enhanced hearing.

Her head snapped toward the trees.

”Someone’s coming!”

Clink...!

Weapons were drawn instantly.

Darius spun around, both dual blades already in his hands as his sharp eyes locked onto the black-haired figure emerging from the treeline.

For a moment, the entire group froze.

Then recognition hit.

”Gray Vireux...!” someone whispered.

Darius’s expression twisted into a wide, arrogant grin.

”So the main character finally decided to leave his little fortress.” He rested one heavy blade on his shoulder as he looked Gray up and down with open disdain.

”I have to admit, that performance at the main stronghold was impressive. Surviving a combined assault, carrying that silver-haired girl around like a princess... you put on quite the show.”

He took a step forward, his dual blades gleaming under the artificial sunlight.

”But let’s be honest. Everyone knows why you were that strong. You were sitting on the main stronghold with every secondary stronghold buff stacked on top of you. That black crown of yours was just the cherry on top. Now that Clementine has lost almost everything else...” Darius’s grin widened.

”...you’re just another 2nd-year who got lucky.”

Several of the surrounding students chuckled nervously, clearly trying to borrow confidence from their commander’s arrogance.

Darius pointed one of his heavy blades at Gray.

”I’ll give you one chance. Hand over every token you’re carrying, turn around, and walk away. Do that, and I’ll even let you keep your dignity. Refuse...” His eyes sharpened.

”...and I’ll take everything from you myself. Including the fame of being the one who finally brought down the so-called genius of Clementine.”

Gray stopped a short distance away from the group. His black eyes remained calm as he looked at Darius.

He did not respond immediately.

Shing...

Instead, he slowly drew his rapier, the soft metallic ring of the blade leaving its sheath sounding unusually clear in the tense silence.

He cracked his head slighly, and finally spoke:

”You’re unusually loud for someone who’s only second place.”

Darius’s eyebrow twitched.

Gray continued without giving him a chance to interrupt.

”You bark orders at people stronger than the ones you actually beat. You hide behind an alliance you barely control. And now you stand here acting like the buffs were the only reason I was strong.” He tilted his head slightly, his eyes full of cold disdain.

”Pathetic. Even the 4th-years I already threw into walls had more spine than you.”

The clearing went dead silent.

Darius’s face flushed a deep red.

The veins on his neck stood out as his grip on the dual heavy blades tightened hard enough to make the leather wrap creak.

”You little...!”

Exactly as Gray had expected.

People like Darius, arrogant, status-obsessed, and addicted to control, could not tolerate public disrespect.

Especially not in front of the subordinates they ruled through fear.

”Everyone stay back!” Darius roared, pointing one heavy blade at his own allies.

”This one is mine! I’ll crush him myself and take every last token off his corpse!”

The surrounding students hesitated, then reluctantly stepped back, forming a loose circle. None of them dared to interfere once their commander had claimed the fight.

Darius kicked off the ground with explosive force, both heavy blades swinging in a cross-shaped arc meant to overwhelm with pure power and weight.

”Dual Blade Art: Crushing Guillotine!”

Gray didn’t even take a full step.

He tilted his body slightly to the left.

The first heavy blade screamed past his shoulder close enough to cut a few strands of black hair.

The second blade came down vertically.

Gray raised his rapier and met it with a short, precise parry at the exact point where the force was weakest.

CLANG!

The impact should have driven Gray backward. Instead, Darius’s arms shook violently from the rebound.

Before the 4th-year could recover, Gray stepped in, closed the distance, and drove the pommel of his rapier straight into Darius’s solar plexus.

THUD!

The air left Darius’s lungs in a choked gasp. His eyes bulged.

Gray followed immediately with a clean upward slash that struck the inside of Darius’s right wrist.

SHING!

One heavy blade flew from nerveless fingers and embedded itself in the ground several meters away.

Darius tried to swing the remaining blade in a desperate horizontal cut. Gray ducked under it, rose, and slammed the flat of his rapier against the side of Darius’s knee.

CRACK!

A sickening sound of stressed cartilage echoed across the clearing. Darius’s leg buckled, and he directly dropped to one knee, still trying to raise his last weapon.

Gray’s free hand shot forward and grabbed Darius by the throat.

He lifted the larger 4th-year slightly off the ground, then slammed him face-first into the dirt with brutal efficiency.

BOOM!

The ground cracked under the impact. Darius’s remaining blade slipped from his hand. He lay there, dazed and coughing, blood dripping from his split lip.

The entire fight had lasted less than ten seconds.

Gray straightened, completely unharmed, and looked at the surrounding students with the same cold indifference.

”Tokens. All of them. Now.”

No one spoke.

No one moved to help Darius.

One by one, the remaining students reached into their spatial storage and began tossing their tokens onto the ground in front of Gray.

The pile grew rapidly, far larger than the one he had taken from Lyria’s group.

Darius tried to push himself up, still gasping.

”Y-you... bastard...!”

Gray glanced down at him once.

”Stay down.”