Deep into the night, the streets of the academy were still dimly lit by rows of street lamps. In the game, this was the hour when players wandered the grounds in search of nightly agendas, hidden encounters, and incidents that only appeared beneath the cover of darkness. Even venturing toward the gates leading to the upper-year districts through a hidden route was possible.
None of that interested Xian tonight.
After entrusting Miri to the care of a student stationed outside the girls' dormitory, he left with Carmillia. The young woman responsible for guarding the entrance looked thoroughly flustered and repeatedly reminded them that whatever they intended to do was against academy regulations. Her reddened cheeks suggested she had imagined something entirely different.
Xian ignored her. He knew exactly where he was going.
Guiding Carmillia through the quiet grounds, he led her toward a secluded garden enclosed by old stone walls. At its center stood a weathered fountain wrapped in tangled vines, hidden away from the eyes of curious students. It was the perfect place for privacy and a setting naturally suited to her magic. And if Carmillia decided to attack him here, there would be no one to stop her.
Xian thought about what had happened earlier. After preventing Carmillia's death, he now wondered where his regression point would be if she died. Less than a day had passed since his last regression in the examination grounds, and he had no desire to repeat those events. Deep within him, an instinctive aversion to such a situation stirred. Yet he couldn't figure out why.
For now, he had managed to salvage the situation. Once Carmillia had calmed down, her affection level had stabilized at [Black Heart: 2]. The follow-up quest remained silent and unchanged, meaning Carmillia could still change her mind at any moment and kill him or herself.
Upon their arrival, Carmillia briefly admired the area. Xian let her be and silently awaited her instructions. Seemingly satisfied with the place, she faintly smiled at him as if nothing had happened at all.
That smile was mesmerizing as usual, tinged with her distinct temptress expression, showing just how well she wielded her beauty. Xian fell for her once again.
The desire to possess her surged within him. However, in Carmillia's eyes, his empty stare and silence were proof that her beauty held no sway over him, and she believed him to be a man with exceptional control.
"You're really willing to accept my brand? No questions?" Carmillia asked, tilting her head, her faint smile daring him.
She leaned slightly forward, hands behind her back like a playful child, as if she hadn't just attempted suicide and blamed him.
"I am," Xian said evenly. "Though I would appreciate any warnings you may have kept from me, my lady."
"Hm. You can accuse me of hiding things now. Is it because Serika and Lucinelle aren't by my side? Such an arrogant butler." Instead of answering, Carmillia circled him with unhurried steps. Xian's eyes flicked to the ground beneath her, just in case, but Carmillia noticed and chuckled.
"Calm down. I won't kill you, nor myself." She retraced her steps and gazed at him. "I admit, the sudden absence of my trusted subordinates was rather unsettling. When they pledged their loyalty to me, I thought they would always be by my side, protecting my precious peace."
'Peace? Peacefully sowing discord in the protagonist's group until their bonds shattered?' Xian scoffed inwardly. There was no way she led a peaceful life in the academy. He knew from experience back when he had chosen to go along with Carmillia's wishes, desperate to find her route.
A sadistic villainess, evil for the sake of her role, manipulative for the sake of hindering the player. That was Carmillia. Thus, Xian didn't believe a word of what she said. Not one bit.
"If that is so, then please proceed with the branding. Tell me what I need to do, my lady." Xian didn't want to waste time. The sooner she placed the brand, the sooner he could see whether this decision affected the quest.
"You're quite eager. It's a shame you're not my type, or this might almost feel like a romantic situation." Carmillia teased. To her, it was a harmless jab, but Xian felt a sting inside.
"One where I'm marking something to be mine." That line reminded him that the Carmillia he once pursued in the game could be far more unpredictable now that she was real.
"But you know, I'm curious why you'd go that far for me." She stopped, her reflection rippling against the fountain's moonlit surface.
"My continued stay in this academy depends upon your continued safety, my lady. Thus, I cannot and will not allow any harm to come to you, like a true butler. At the same time, I have a goal that needs to be achieved in the academy."
"That goal… must be so important to you, to tie your life to mine. Involving the academy's higher-ups, perhaps? The students' parents? Or maybe… involving outsiders?" The villainess had recovered from her earlier distress and was now probing his intentions. Xian much preferred her shaken state.
At the mention of an 'outsider,' Xian's fists tightened. By that, she meant the other power trying to compete with the academy. The imperial faction.
It was a dangerous speculation, but he could only let her mind wander for now. After all, his goal was a ridiculous harem ending, something the game famously punished the player for.
"All that I can assure you, my lady, is that my goal will not undermine you." He lifted his gaze to meet hers.
Trying to hide information would raise suspicions, but it was not as though his goal was believable. Who would believe that he was only in the academy for such a selfish reason? He chose instead to 'leak' fabricated intentions.
"Is it really too much to know at this point? Aren't you pledging your life to me?"
"…" Xian only had silence as an answer.
"But it's curious how you're so fearless of the brand. Perhaps you have a countermeasure I don't know about?"
Xian frowned, his mind racing. Unlike in the game, where choices appeared on a screen, decisions here had to be made in real time.
"That's a good expression. Unpleasant as your face is, it finally betrays your thoughts." Carmillia had a slight smirk as her eyes lingered on Xian's furrowed brows.
'This girl…' Xian's frown eased, and his apprehension faded as annoyance bubbled inside him. He almost felt like trying to regress right this moment.
"Oh? Are you annoyed? Angry?" Carmillia chuckled softly, seemingly pleased. Her butler's stern mask didn't seem so unreadable now.
She enjoyed pushing buttons to draw out reactions. It was an act she excelled at, with most people loathing that attitude and some admiring her even more fanatically. For a while, neither of them spoke. Only the water of the fountain and the rustling leaves could be heard.
Finally, the villainess broke the silence with a sigh. "You can go now."
"Young Miss?"
"Making a third brand takes time and effort. A few weeks at least, since I'm in the academy and don't have my own materials to start with."
'For now, confirming that he remained willing was enough.'
There was a chance that Xian understood how forbidden Magic such as a brand worked, but Carmillia thought it unlikely. Even learning to perform her mage's brand reliably had required several years of research and study.
Xian stared with slight disbelief. Just moments ago, she had blamed him, nearly killed them both, and left Miri unconscious. Now the matter was simply postponed?
"Or what? Did you think I could conjure a brand at will?" Carmillia stared at him for a moment until the corner of her lips curled upward and she let out a sneer.
'That's how it worked in the game…' In Xian's case, he had only ever used the branding method that Gumin had learned. It had only taken a fourth of her Mana, which could easily be recovered with potions, and its only downsides were the minute-long procedure and its failure rate.
"Hmph. It's complicated Magic," Carmillia said, reading his expression. "If improperly scribed, it could explode and reduce us both to bits." She smiled faintly. "Though, I do have some ideas on how you can serve your purpose in the meantime."
'I still need to regain those lost affection points…' Xian thought grimly. The ninety-point loss had resulted from a situation he couldn't change. "By all means, please do tell."
"You'll find out first thing in the morning." Amusement glimmered in her eyes as she turned and left, leaving Xian nervous about the next day.
'Tomorrow is the start of classes and orientation.' He had plenty of time to organize his thoughts.
In just one day, far too much had happened.
First, they had encountered Castreyja, a dangerous heroine who had regressed, something he had never expected because of the unusual conditions surrounding her route. Then came the attempt on Carmillia's life. Castreyja's open hostility had led him to suspect her, and he had used his items to prevent Carmillia's death while considering the incident an opportunity to eliminate a troublesome heroine, only to discover that the actual attacker had merely been someone else's pawn.
But if he hadn't intercepted the culprit at the time, variables might have arisen, and the situation could have taken more than one regression. A sense of dread enveloped his mind at the thought of regressing over and over again.
He was never one to rely on instinct, but a creeping sensation refused to leave him these days. Regression was far too powerful to come without a catch.
It was his sixth regression since coming to this world.
If Carmillia died again, it would become his seventh.
'Is there a consequence after all?'
Something the entities had purposely neglected to mention?
'They did say I was going to be punished by doing what I loved again and again.' He recalled the entities who had brought him here, telling him to reach the 'proper end.' Perhaps regression as a power was the result of that condition.
In the novels he had read, regression stories usually ended with the protagonist finding happiness in life. But for Xian, happiness was making all the heroines his. A tried-and-tested route that led to a bad end in the game.
'Is this how they'll break me?'
For the first time, he glimpsed the madness that lay ahead. A life of endless loops and blurred pasts until he no longer knew what was what.
"Regressing doesn't seem so overpowered now." He sighed.
***
The next morning, Xian woke up particularly late, with just enough time to prepare and tend to himself. He didn't get to visit Carmillia early, a failure as a butler.
'But I only need to keep up the pretense. Attendants will be dispatched to her anyway, and Miri… Miri has no choice but to go.'
He wondered whether the maid had been properly healed and would be ready for work the day after. The potion should have been more than enough for an injury that minor. In the game, highly trained servants like Miri still belonged to the [Mortal] class, despite being conditioned to serve as meat shields against Mana and Aura users.
Xian then wondered how they classified ordinary people and those who could use Magic and Aura in this world. In the game, it was never questioned, and power seemed to exist as a means for significant characters. He had, however, seen cases where overuse led to consequences.
During Gumin and Fahna's runs, they both had moments where they overexerted themselves in a life-or-death situation. Gumin became a drooling idiot, and Fahna aged rapidly, becoming a wrinkled woman.
Xian stopped his thoughts, not wanting to remember those unpleasant failed runs. First, he had to check up on Carmillia to escort her. Servants who studied at the academy still acted as servants for as long as they were employed. Most could not afford the remainder of their stay without
employment, and remaining at the academy was their primary goal.
On the way to Carmillia's quarters, plenty of students were already on their way to the lecture halls. Most of them eyed Xian, who was dressed in the academy uniform. He tried his best to appear as presentable as possible, but anyone who met his gaze would flinch and turn away.
Most who did were probably new to the academy, just like him. As for some of the students, they stared with piercing gazes and hostile expressions. Probably those who had failed and had to repeat their classes.
Thugs and common bullies were usually drawn from such students in the game. They served as farmable EXP sources and appeared as random encounters during certain scenarios on the map, even when players ventured into higher-level grounds. In every fight, they could be defeated for
EXP, but during Xian's first experience of gaining EXP in this world, he had absorbed it directly from the fake coachman he killed.
It still served him well, propping him up to Level Fourteen, almost ten levels ahead of regular students and mobs.
'Do I need to kill them? Or is the act of defeating them enough?' Xian wanted to test the waters to see what else the game had changed in order to fit reality. Unfortunately, there weren't any thugs in sight right now, so it would have to wait for later.
Xian stood in front of Carmillia's quarters and knocked, but there wasn't any response.
"Young Miss, are you awake?"
Only then did he hear the door handle clacking.
"You're late." Carmillia appeared with a vexed expression, wearing the academy uniform. Just like in the game, nobles who attended had their uniforms tailored to their tastes, while commoners all wore similar ones. After all, wearing the same thing as the commoners would be looked down upon even if there was a rule against it.
Thus, Carmillia wore a white fitted uniform similar to her signature black dress. She was as beautiful as ever, even when she looked angry.
Xian ignored her words and held out his hand, then beckoned for Carmillia to go ahead. "Shall we go, my lady?"
"Hmph, I swear when Lucinelle or Serika comes back…" Carmillia spat in a whisper, but for now, she went along with the butler.
'It seems our villainess woke up on the wrong side of the bed.'
Xian followed suit. Along the way, Carmillia garnered attention, practically making people stop in their tracks. Many others at the academy were similarly good-looking, but like a natural force, Carmillia effortlessly stole even their gazes.
'And that's even when she's in a bad mood. Imagine if she smiled instead.' Xian mused internally while walking by her side, just half a step behind to maintain a polite distance.
Unfortunately, among those staring were her family's enemies. But Xian wasn't worried. There were only a handful of people who could contend with him right now, and even fewer who could contend with Carmillia if she made a move herself.
"Ah! P-please wait!" Just then, among the crowd, an innocent voice rose. Carmillia, not one to stop or bother, kept walking. So did Xian.
"L-lady Montagne!"
Then an infamous name echoed through the halls. Not everyone in the academy knew of Carmillia Montagne's appearance.
But her family name was different. Everyone knew what kinds of acts their faction had committed throughout the kingdom under the pretext of following the old king's orders.
"That Montagne?"
"She's that duke's daughter?"
"The one infamous for…"
"Shh! She might hear you!"
Murmurs began to spread through the crowd, and each of the onlookers' faces stiffened as realization set in. The girl they had just been admiring belonged to one of the most infamous noble lines. Sooner or later, they would have found out, but to Xian's annoyance, this was hardly the right time.
He turned toward the voice, his expression souring as that familiar tone tugged at his memory.
The person who emerged, slightly out of breath, was none other than Adrian Wylert.