The Return Of The Exiled Villain

It took Gray exactly eighteen hours to fully heal his body with the resources granted by the academy.

And once he was fully healed, he headed over to the administration and resolved his admission issues.

After checking everything... he had now become an official student of the Demon Academy.

Now he was walking across the campus, since classes only began tomorrow and today was basically a free day.

’...The academy is surprisingly... quiet.’

Not quiet in the sense that there were no people.

There were students everywhere, scattered across the wide stone paths, gathered around fountains, sitting beneath old black trees, moving between buildings, or simply wandering around with lazy expressions.

Step... step...

Gray walked slowly through one of the central paths, his hands inside the pockets of his dark coat.

After going through the many things he needed to do, he had also received his student identification badge, a thin black piece of metal engraved with the symbol of the academy.

Gray turned it over between his fingers.

’...Just this badge is an emperor-grade artifact, huh?’

Looking down at it, his own weapon felt really weak compared to anything else.

That aside, he was now a student of the Demon Academy.

And, more importantly, he now had legal access to a place filled with people, resources, information, and treasures that would have been almost impossible to approach from outside.

The Undying Snake’s Orb was somewhere within the academy’s restricted collections.

The fragment of the dying star was still uncertain, but now Gray had an entire institution’s records to investigate.

He also needed to find out more about the academy’s internal structure.

Of course... there was also the choice of using Jasmine’s power, but he really didn’t want to show anything about her, especially since he was in the Underworld.

Gods... are LOATHED here.

’But I guess the first thing I should do now... is to go to the library.’

Remembering the school’s plant he had seen earlier, he turned to the right in time, just to see a short figure with violet hair come around the corner of the records hall at a jog.

As soon as she saw him, she changed direction so fast she nearly hit a pillar.

”Gray!”

Vessa stopped in front of him, out of breath, a student token crooked at her collar and a paper in her hand that looked like it had been folded too many times.

”H-haugh... Y-you are alive. Good! I left buns. They said you did not eat them. Rude!” she spoke while panting heavily.

”Aha... gimme just a minute... phew...”

She paused to take a few breaths.

”Also, they put me in the lower dorms with three girls who keep asking if I know you, and I said yes, and now they will not shut up, so if anyone from my hall tries to give you food, do not take it; it’s definitely a trap!”

”Noted.”

”And the princess?” Vessa tilted her head.

”The rumours said that she carried you out... unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to see it because of that sudden big sword... I almost got knocked out by it, but I survived!” She puffed her chest proudly.

”Anyways...! Is it true that you are living in her house?!” she asked excitedly.

Gray looked down at her, raising an eyebrow.

”Who did you hear that from?”

”Rumours! Everyone knows that you guys are living together! They just don’t know if it’s true or not...”

At those words, Gray shook his head.

”It’s not true.”

”Mhmmmm!!! Really?!” she pressed on, just to see Gray nod again.

”Tsk... anyways, I need to go! I’m really interested in the person who conjured that big sword! He might be one of those protagonists from the mortal realm’s novels! Where... uh... they like to play a ’pig to eat the tiger’! So, yeah, byeee!!!”

She jogged out of his view before Gray could even reply.

[Gray. Vessa is the Vessel of a Demon God.]

Jasmine suddenly spoke in a disinterested tone.

’I know that,’ Gray said, nodding.

After all, Vessa was what people would call a Minor Villainess.

She was one of the villains of the novel, not having the same amount of presence as Gray, obviously, but she had almost killed Lyra and Maelis, two of the main heroines.

Gray knew this from the first time he saw her; after all, Vessa had been granted an illustration by the author.

As for an identity... she was merely a Lesser Demon who was lucky enough to get the attention of a Demon God.

In other words, there was nothing for Gray to worry about at the moment. If there was a problem for him at the moment... it was definitely the headmistress.

One of the Major Villains of the novel itself.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he then turned toward the records hall she had come from and kept going past it.

The library was deeper in, taking the shape of a low black building with no banners and a door that did not bother to look impressive.

He opened the door and walked inside, not bothering to take a look to appreciate the beauty of the library.

Even the clerk didn’t bother to look at him.

Gray walked the stacks until the titles stopped being useful and started being strange. Until suddenly... he found a strange book.

He somehow spotted it quite quickly.

The book was on a lower shelf, shoved between two genealogies as if someone had wanted it lost without throwing it away.

The hide cover was cracked, and the letters had been burned in rather than stamped.

The Prophesied Demon.

Curious, he took it to the side table and opened it.

The first pages were almost like a fairy tale.

It spoke of a demon who would not be born of any throne.

No house would claim him.

No bloodline would match the records.

He would come out of a ruined place, or a closed one, and the gates of the Demon Realm would let him through because they would not know what they were letting through.

The telling was careful about the year. It only said in the years to come, which was how prophecies avoided being embarrassed.

Gray turned the page.

The description sat in the middle of the sheet, describing the so-called demon.

Short, black hair.

Horns that curved back, not like the proud forward arcs of the court lines. A mid-length yet thin tail that curved slighly.

A face that was too beautiful for a demon... and more especially... eyes that would look empty when he killed and ordinary when he did not.

Gray’s hand stayed on the page before he read the next lines, until the name of the so-called prophesied demon.

Emryn.

Those words caused Gray’s eyes to narrow softly.

That was the name he had been going to use in the Demon Realm, before he thought twice and decided to use his own

Instead of acting surprised or shocked... Gray’s lips curled up slighly.

”A prophecy, huh?”

He looked at the author of the book... whose name was actually crossed. He couldn’t read the name even if he wanted to.

[Why are you so interested in that book? It’s just a fairy tale of the demons, no?]

Jasmine suddenly asked.

She was quite curious to see why this book interested Gray so much.

Gray closed the book before putting it right back where it was. He looked through the sections and went in search of another one.

’...Jasmine. How powerful does one need to be to fully prophesy the life of someone else? To the point of even blocking the power of fate shrouding that person?’

[That...? Only the true Goddess of Fate could ever do that... so, basically... a Creator. After all... the prophet must wield or be an avatar of the absolute laws of the universe. If you do not control the mechanics of fate itself, the universe will forcefully rebound upon you, often resulting in severe backlash, blindness, or soul dissipation, for trying to alter or fully read a shrouded life.]

[Even so, they also must be capable of severing the target’s threads from the collective web of destiny. By ”blocking” the shroud, they are essentially isolating that person’s soul from the global equation of the universe to examine it under a vacuum.]

’Mhm... if someone had the Goddess of Fate as their Patron, could they also do that?’

[Yes... but they would die instantly upon using it. No one, even us gods, can hold the power of fate. That is a power solely made for that single... Goddess.]

’I see...’

Gray nodded thoughtfully.

It seems that someone must have really sacrificed their life in this case. After all... that was Gray’s path in the novel.

When he went to the underworld, he had used the name Emryn and had also taken the form of a succubus.

Not to mention... that he later on became a Demon God and was worshipped by all in the Underworld.

The problem was... that prophecy could now be wrong, and Gray didn’t know what kind of risks came with it.