(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 head snapped toward the nearest unit—the one with the broken gun—and lunged, jaws wide, like it wanted to swallow it whole. I still had no idea how something like that would even work, but…


The Hydra's head slammed into the ground.


To my utter shock, the unit was actually fighting back. And it wasn't some pointless, suicidal charge either. No, it had the Hydra completely pinned, locking it down so hard it couldn't even move.


It was hammering away at the Hydra's ugly head, fist after fist, blow after blow.


The Hydra screeched inside my skull, then suddenly stopped dodging and just tanked one of the unit's punches head-on. Its grin stretched even wider the moment it realized the hit didn't do a thing.


Chapter 233 - Unleashing the G-32