That afternoon, I was in the underground headquarters reviewing more contracts when Damian announced another visitor.

"Seraphina Valorheart. Again."

"She's becoming a regular." I set aside the paperwork. "Send her in."

Seraphina entered, this time she's in casual training clothes rather than armor. She seems more relaxed. And it must have been a eliberate effort on her part since she wanted this to be a conversation, not a confrontation.

"Hadeon Ravana. I hope I'm not interrupting."

"Just paperwork and I'm always happy to be interrupted from paperwork." I gestured to a chair. "What brings you back so soon?"

"Questions." She sat, her posture still warrior-straight despite casual clothing. "I've been thinking about our duel. About you. About... things."

"That's refreshingly direct."

"I don't believe in games when seeking truth." She met my eyes. "I want to understand something. Adrian says you're manipulative, power-hungry, dangerous. But your actions don't match his description."

"And that bothers you?"

"It confuses me." She leaned forward slightly. "You saved Adrian's life and did some things. These aren't villain behaviors."

"What are they, then?"

"That's what I'm trying to understand." She tilted her head. "Are you actually a villain? Or just someone labeled one?"

"Want my honest answer?"

"That's why I'm here."

"I'm manipulative. I scheme. I use people's weaknesses to achieve my goals." I held her gaze. "By traditional definitions, I'm absolutely a villain."

She frowned. "But...."

"But," I continued, "I'm also honest about it. I treat people fairly. I keep my word." I paused. "So maybe the question isn't whether I'm a villain. Maybe it's whether villains have to be evil."

"Labels," she said slowly. "You said something similar before. That everything is just a lebel and only the actions can be used to judge."

"Exactly. Adrian is called a hero because... why? Because he's strong? So are you. Because he fights evil? Define evil. Because he's chosen by fate?" I shook my head. "Those are just stories people tell."

"You're saying heroism is subjective."

I simply shrugged without answering her. Why should I? All of them are only performing roles that's given to them. What's right and what's wrong has already been predestined.....but then....but then, I shouldn't be here and the host character should be dead.

Seraphina was quiet for a long moment, processing. "Adrian saved my life two years ago. I swore to follow him because of that debt."

"Debt of honor, I respect that." I smiled.

"But debt doesn't mean I stop thinking." She looked at her hands. "Lately, I've noticed things. The way he treats his followers, like chess pieces instead of people. The way he reacted when you saved his life, he's more angry than grateful. The way he tries to control everyone around him."

"And it bothers you?" I asked again. Isn't it ironic that she seems more of an hero than the protagonist?

"It confuses me. Heroes shouldn't need to control people. They should inspire people to follow willingly." She looked up and hesitated. "Like you do."

"I'm not trying to be a hero, Seraphina." I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I would do things that would ensure my survival, what labels they fall into are nothing but tools I'll further use.

"I know. That's what makes it interesting." She stood. "I came here for answers. You gave me more questions instead."

"Sorry?"

"Don't be. Questions mean I'm thinking." She moved toward the door, paused. "One more thing. I heard about your registration this morning. Using commercial law to bypass Board oversight. That was clever."

"You approve?"

"I approve of intelligence. Of working within systems rather than breaking them." She looked back. "Adrian would have tried to circumvent the rules entirely. You used the rules as a weapon. There's a difference."

"Is this your way of saying I earned more respect?"

"This is my way of saying I'm watching both of you. Making my own judgments." She opened the door. "And so far? Your actions speak louder than his words."

After she left, I sat back, processing the conversation.

```

[SERAPHINA VALORHEART: SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

RELATIONSHIP UPDATE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Interest: 30% → 45%

Trust: Building

Loyalty to Adrian: 55% → 48%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Actively questioning long-held beliefs

Comparing Adrian's words to actions

Evaluating MC's consistency

Open to alternative perspectives

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

RECRUITMENT PATH

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Current: Observation and evaluation phase

Next: She'll test both MC and Adrian further

Timeline: 8-12 chapters to full recruitment

Method: Let her reach conclusions naturally

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CRITICAL INSIGHT

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

She values actions over words.

MC's consistent behavior is winning her over.

Adrian's controlling nature is driving her away.

Don't push. Let her observe and decide.

```

"She's really questioning him," I said to the empty room.

Damian appeared from a side door, had he been listening? Probably. It matters little though.

"The holy knight is losing faith in her hero. That's significant."

"It's also dangerous. If Adrian realizes she's wavering, he might do something desperate."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. That's what worries me."

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

We didn't have to wait long to find out.

That evening, notices appeared throughout the academy. Official-looking, stamped with noble seals.

PUBLIC NOTICE

—Be advised: The student known as Hadeon Ravana operates an organization engaged in questionable activities. While technically registered through commercial loopholes, this entity represents a potential danger to student welfare.

Students are advised to exercise extreme caution when interacting with Ravana or his associates. Families of students involved with this organization may face social and professional consequences.

This notice is issued by concerned nobility in the interest of academy safety—

Lucille brought me one of the notices, her expression dark. "They posted these everywhere. Dorms, cafeterias, classroom buildings."

I read it carefully. "Clever, see he doesn't make specific accusations...just vague warnings and implied threats."

"The last paragraph is the real message. 'Families may face consequences.' They're threatening parents."

"Trying to scare our members into leaving." I crumpled the notice. "How are people reacting?"

"Mixed. Some parents have already sent concerned letters."

"Damn." I stood.

"Young Master, if members start leaving..."

"They won't. Trust me."

I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt.

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