(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.

A surge of dark water swallowed me whole, crashing over me like a tsunami.


I thrashed underwater, forcing myself to swim upward for air—but I couldn't. Above me was nothing but endless, suffocating water. Every time I thought I was close to the surface, it slipped farther and farther out of reach.


I was suddenly spat out of the water, my back slamming into a field of soft flowers as I slowly opened my eyes.


There was no time to waste. I couldn't trust Julius to hold that thing back for long, and I wasn't even sure if this place I'd ended up in was outside of time.


I wasn't even sure if I was still alive.


I tried to speak, but no sound came out.


I looked around and saw nothing but endless purple flowers carpeting the ground like a serene field. Above me, countless stars hung in a void as dark as nothingness.


Chapter 218 - Nyx's Introduction...?