After who knows how long of useless explanations to Viola, assuring her I wasn't scammed, tricked or bewitched, she finally calmed down.

And honestly… Instead of feeling offended, I felt grateful.

With that kind of trust and protectiveness, she would probably be the first one in line to take a bullet for me.

Not that I would ever let her do something that stupid… I mean, come on, who uses a whole bunker to shield themselves from a mere stone.

Jokes aside…

Damn, did I get more handsome or is it just the cloak's disguise feature making me look extra glorious today?

Personally, I am leaning toward the first one… but honestly, who cares.

I look amazing either way.

I thought that while staring at my reflection in the full body mirror in front of me.

I was wearing a pristine white uniform — a tailored, double-breasted jacket paired with matching trousers and gloves.

And of course… my trusty cloak.

I had changed it to white as well, just so it matched the whole outfit perfectly because if I was going to walk into orientation, I might as well blind everyone with sheer style.

Before I could continue blessing the mirror with my presence, a voice snapped me out of my wandering thoughts before I could drift too far into my own little wonderland.

"Rael, you bastard, get out already!"

I wanted to complain a little but honestly… poking a beehive while standing naked was not exactly the smartest idea.

I mean, Viola was already mad enough after the grand revelation I had dropped on her and on top of that… It was getting late for the orientation ceremony.

So I just sighed, adjusted my cloak and decided to get out.

This was her villa after all.

I exited out of one of the rooms on the first floor.

"Took your damn time, huh?" Viola muttered with a deep frown.

Yeah, the leftover anger was definitely still there.

"Let's just go, shall we?" I said, choosing not to poke the volcano any further.

Viola was the type who only got more pissed the more you tried to argue.

"Tsk." She clicked her tongue and stormed out.

I followed right after.

She was my free ticket, after all.

I mean, I could focus and sense the mana-threads to locate the orientation hall… but why go through all that effort when I had a perfectly functional guide stomping ahead of me?

"Take care of the house, Bearlo. And make sure it doesn't explode like our previous one."

I muttered toward the crimson bear who was, of all things, washing dishes in the kitchen while wearing a frilly, flower-patterned apron.

He had made breakfast for us earlier and now the poor guy was doing the dishes too.

Honestly, despite the absolutely cursed image of a Crimson Bear carefully scrubbing delicate plates… he was ridiculously diligent.

"Absolutely, my liege." Bearlo nodded, completely serious as if I had just ordered him to wipe out a city.

…This bear was going to make me cry one day.

"We will be back in a while. See you later."

With that, I stepped out of Viola's villa and closed the door behind me.

As soon as I exited the Villa, I heard Viola's voice talking to someone.

She was speaking to a beautiful girl with platinum blonde hair and golden eyes.

Seraphina.

She wore a similar kind of uniform as me except she wore a skirt instead of trousers.

And honestly, she looked like some saintess candidate straight out of a cliche fantasy novel, especially with that delicate, innocent expression on her face.

Damn… who would ever imagine this was the same woman who was smiling like a lunatic while trying to crush my head yesterday?

Well, looks can be deceiving.

"Hey, Seraphina." I waved casually. "Good morning."

Seraphina offered a small, awkward smile. "H-Hi… Rael."

Thankfully, she didn't call me 'my liege' like that dumb bastard Bearlo.

I nodded and joined them and the three of us started walking toward the orientation hall where the real chaos of my day was about to begin.

On the way, Viola barely spoke to me at all.

She just kept chatting with Seraphina, which honestly… was a blessing.

I enjoy walking in peace, letting my mind drift off into random nonsense without someone nagging in my ear.

Still, I did try to slide into their conversation here and there.

You know… just so they would remember I existed.

But honestly, my mind was far away from their little conversation.

I had a much bigger problem to think about.

The two arrows I had loosed a while ago…

…and whether they had hit their mark.

I was thinking about Rio.

I was sure that by now, he had run into Varek and probably gotten beaten half to death. I mean, that's just the natural progression of events.

With the amount of manipulation—ahem, facts—I fed him, he probably tried something stupid and got thrashed even harder by Varek.

Which honestly works perfectly in my favor.

The more Varek beats him, the more Rio will hate him… and the more he hates Varek, the more his hatred for demons will grow.

A beautifully self-feeding cycle.

Just the way I like it.

And there was that other arrow.

The Serafim.

That was honestly a complete gamble on my part so, I didn't even know if it worked.

Honestly, I wasn't stupid enough to go around talking about "demon betrayal" or calling demons filthy in the middle of the academy.

Especially when I knew Morvana had probably placed eyes on me already.

And yet… I still did it.

Because I wanted the stalker to hear.

In the novel, one of HuSu's leaders was a woman named Lia, who also happened to be Morvana's personal shadow.

So I knew there was a very high chance she had been assigned to keep an eye on me.

And even if it wasn't her, even if it was some random demon spy, the worst that could happen was them reporting it to Morvana and her calling me over.

And in that case, I would just cook up some bullshit about it being a tactic to lure out mysterious enemies from my future vision and kill them all at once.

It was totally believable.

I still wasn't sure if it was Serafim or someone else watching me… but I would know by the end of the day.

If Morvana didn't call me in, that meant Serafim had taken the bait.

Still, I had zero intention of acting alone.

I mean, what kind of idiot joins a cult openly?

That is why I had planted all that hate in Rio, to shape him into a loyal little pawn who will join that cult.

And the whole Serafim act was purely to catch her interest.

After all… that woman was far more entertaining than the entire HuSu cult combined.

A wide grin curled across my face at the thought of how perfectly everything was lining up.

"Why are you grinning like an idiot?"

Naturally, a voice snapped me right out of my imaginary world.

I turned to see Viola staring at me like she was two seconds away from committing a felony.

Even Seraphina looked a little startled.

"Do you think I look fat, you bastard?" Viola muttered, eyes narrowing like she was ready to throw hands.

"Hey, wait a minute, I wasn't laughing at you," I tried to explain, but alas… the damage had already been done.

It seemed I had taken a stray arrow while wandering around inside my own thoughts.

"Then what the hell are you grinning about?" Viola narrowed her eyes.

A slow smile curled up on my lips as I looked at her dead serious and even she froze for a second.

"You see, Viola… I never meant to imply you look fat," I said gently. "I mean, you are fat. Hahahaha."

Yeah.

The damage was long done… but maybe this way she would forget the previous grudge.

And honestly, clearing the anger from calling her fat was way easier than clearing the anger from getting engaged to a demon princess without telling her.

…Or so I thought.

Because the next moment, she calmly pulled out a steel baseball bat from her storage ring and rested it on her shoulder like some mafia enforcer.

A small, terrifying smile spread across her face as mine promptly died.

"I was just joking, Viola," I said quickly but as always, she had absolutely zero intention of listening.

Seraphina immediately took a careful step back, hands raised slightly as if to silently say "I am NOT part of this."

And honestly, I wasn't any different.

Because the moment I saw that bat… and that smile… my instincts and the traumatic childhood memories etched deep into my bones made me step back too.

"I guess you really do have a death wish, Rael," she muttered calmly as if she wasn't holding a steel bat that had seen more bloodshed than half the academy's combat dummies.

Even in this situation, I felt amused about how strong emotions and instincts are.

I am not scared of Gods, Demons and even beings far stronger than me…

…and yet the sight of my sister holding a bat is making me take a step back.

Sisters are scary creatures, I guess.

—

And what happened afterward was something sung in the legends of Rael.

Rael smiled because…

…even if he had lost the battle, he had won the war.

After their little special extra talk session — which definitely did not include threats, warnings, emotional damage or near-death experiences — Viola finally smiled brightly, forgetting everything else.

Thankfully, the legendary baseball bat wasn't used.

Because, well… Viola didn't want her brother to walk into his first day covered in bruises.

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