"Are you planning to do something to Mary?" I ask her.

As for stealing your future husband, I think, well, this isn't the otome game anymore, so you didn't even get engaged to him at this ball.

"You know how this goes," she answers me with a smile in the purest diabolical villainess style. All she's missing is the cackle and a fan to cover her lips to be pure cliché. "Not me directly, but I have volunteers. I know you care about her, and that's why, because of you, your little commoner friend is going to leave this ball completely broken. And not just mentally and emotionally."

Now she does let out the cackle and brings the red glove covering her hands to her mouth, painted the same color. Which, on top of that, is the prince's color and my dress's color.

Well, what can I say.

What can I answer.

I let her laugh, have her little moment of glory.

That way it'll hurt more when she falls.

The truth is, if Sol's trying to piss me off, she almost succeeds. I say almost because I'm already so fucking done with the assholes of this world, whether they're called Crown Prince Sigfrig or spoiled little Duchess Sol.

Anyway, I'd spent several days nurturing my anger, feeding it each time I hurt myself, seeing that hateful face in my mind—the same one that's right in front of me now.

And I didn't hurt myself out of masochism or because I don't feel anything (I have emotions, lots of them), but because healing a human helps level up the healing spell more than doing it on a poor injured bunny. Besides, I wasn't going to do that to a poor little animal.

I'd spent days planning this moment when Sol would fall. Days imagining the face she'd make when she realized I'd been smarter and beaten her. And then I went back to my life—to the dungeon, to meditation—like nothing had happened. Forgetting that rage because I knew the ball would come soon, and with it my chance to pay her back for everything, plus put a stop to her forever.

So no, villainess who wants to hurt my friends just because, you don't get me angrier because I'm already so furious I can barely hold back the urge to smash your face and erase your hateful smile of disdain and contempt.

But there's something, something that's almost funny and makes me laugh.

Does she really think she can hurt Mary and get away with it? If she touches a single hair on her blonde head, Ronan will go after her and I won't stop him.

No. Spoiled little duchess who got points by paying mercenaries to fight for her, no. You have no idea who you're messing with.

I may be light, water, fire, earth, and air; but right now I only feel fire like the most furious inferno, fanned by a hurricane wind, water like a tempest, and earth like pieces of rocks flying ready to crush whoever gets in my way.

Oh, Sol. Funny enough, that's you.

And light—light right now in me is like a void, a total and absolute absence.

Isn't light the opposite of darkness?

Well, I feel like I've completely flipped it around.

"If you've done anything to Mary, only you will suffer, idiot," I finally tell her, with such contempt in my words that for a moment she goes pale. "Spoiled brat, mage without magic, useless even as a villain, since your sister beats you by far at being a villainess," I start insulting her.

"I'm not falling for your trap," she tells me while clenching her fists in rage. "You're the idiot who's going to lose control. Look at yourself, you're at your limit. What do you need to punch me?"

"Me? To see your nose bleeding and your teeth on the floor? Honestly, nothing."

I answer with a voice so cold it makes my rival take a step back. Until she gets it, until she realizes I'm going to hit her—which is what she wants so I'll get expelled from the academy.

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As my fist flies toward her stomach, she smiles.

I wipe it off with my 9 strength points. She's lucky I don't have fist mastery or I could have really hurt her here.

One of the quirks of this world's system rules.

The impact of my knuckles against her stomach is delicious—feeling them sink into her flesh and seeing her expel all the air at once through her wide-open mouth, even more so.

She falls backward. I might not have done more than one point of damage to her, but I still have quite a bit of strength and she looks like she has low constitution.

When she recovers her speech, she gets up and tells me, trying to piss me off more:

"Not even in the face? I knew you were a coward, but not this much."

Of course, I ignore her. My light magic, which she doesn't know I have, will heal her wounds, close a cut if I make one, but it won't eliminate the blood and I didn't bring a handkerchief with water or soap in case I stained her dress.

With the crown prince thing, which unlike this wasn't planned, I already took enough risk, thanks.

So I repeat the stomach punch. More viciously. Three more times.

Because I figure she has at least 5 HP, right?

The first time, she starts insulting me furiously; the second and third leave her with no desire to add anything else. She's back on the floor, a place I think suits the despicability of her personality.

"You're finished," she tells me with a triumphant grimace. "You may not have made me bleed but you took HP from me and they'll be able to see the marks on my belly."

"You think so?" I smile at her and move closer.

She's hurt. She can't manage to move away the hand I place on her stomach.

"Heal," I whisper.

"Damn dirty bastard!" she screams, unhinged, eyes wide open, understanding it.

I imagine it must be hard for her to believe, despite having felt the healing on her own flesh. Because, somehow, I'm not who I say I am. I don't just have earth affinity.

In any case, Sol, don't scream so much or the guards will come too soon.

I spit, near her but without touching her, and take a step back without stopping staring at her and smiling.

"You can't accuse me of anything and I feel so satisfied... Now I'm going back to my fiancé. Whenever you want a rematch," I provoke her, winking.

She, already healed, gets up and launches what I hope is her strongest spell at me, furious.

I turn around, so it hits me in the back.

I don't channel, I don't do anything. I'm betting that this low-level Sol who touched the status slab when entering the academy a few months ago hasn't leveled up much, that this spell she's launching—driven by absolute rage, fury, and helplessness—won't kill me.

Honestly, I don't think it'll take even a tenth of my HP.

I feel pain in my back, three strong lashes that throw me to the ground. I try to grab onto a nearby statue, only managing to make it fall with me and shatter into a thousand pieces. I feel more pain. In my face—I think I did break something, possibly my nose. Also in my hand, where I must have gotten a statue fragment stuck.

This was wind magic. Probably wind blade leveled up to intermediate or higher.

She insults me without holding back and I start screaming in pain and begging her to stop.

The royal guard, the one watching over the academy, ends up arriving and the scene is one for the books: a noble is attacking another student, completely out of control. I must have my dress torn up in the back and bleeding wounds. When the guards lift me up, they see the blood on my face and realize, horrified, that I'm Vincent's fiancée, the new member of the royal family. They detain Sol and fall over themselves apologizing to me for not hearing us earlier.

Yes. Sol ends up calming down and I see the terror on her face as she realizes what she just did. Attack another student, and a future princess on top of that? Not even her father will be able to save her from the expulsion I was looking for. Now, with the aggravating factor that my engagement has already been announced, maybe not even from the death penalty.

And it feels so good.

As I let myself be led to the infirmary and prepare for the victim role, to explain that she attacked me saying I didn't deserve Vincent, that I'd stolen him from her, I have a hard time not smiling. What a relief to get rid of Sol, to have beaten her at her own game.

Then I see it.

The system notification.

And I realize nothing will ever be the same again.

Congratulations. Due to your emotions and your deliberate actions, you have just acquired low affinity for darkness.

Congratulations. You have learned a spell: Lesser Dark Orb.

Lesser Dark Orb. Creates a 5cm radius sphere where light cannot coexist. Negates any type of visibility of what's inside. The sphere remains stationary. Duration: 5 minutes. Cost: 1 mana point.

Affinity for darkness…

I don't even ask myself what I've done. Possibly, later I will. Right now, I don't want to know anything about possible consequences as a future demon queen.

Right now, I'm just a noblewoman who gave the academy bully what she deserves and with her own weapons. I defended myself. Nothing more.

(Then why am I starting to feel so bad and like I've failed myself?)

I feel my tears fall and they intensify the dull throb of pain in my nose. I think, after all, it's going to be really easy to play the victim role.

Except I don't feel exactly proud. The taste of victory and revenge transforms into bitter medicine.

As if it were some kind of ironic cosmic synchrony, another notification arrives:

Congratulations. The population of your settlement NO NAME has risen to a total of 68 goblins. 1 totem, 14 warriors, 9 females, 5 children, and 39 babies. Requirements for the town hall and control interface pedestal have been unlocked.

END OF ARC 1.

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