(A/N: Their relationship dynamic progresses and doesn't stay exactly like it is in the start)

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.

All the spectators around me stood up in sheer shock at what had happened in the field.


Something unprecedented, something unbelievable...


But to me? It was something so predictable that even with the novel's events changing, I still had a creeping suspicion it was going to happen.


It was Julius protecting Lillian from Evelina's final strike in the tournament, which originally happened after a hard-fought battle during the original timeline.


And even with all the changes, it still happened now.


Evelina felt the recoil of her shadowy tendrils being destroyed, taking a step back in shock at Julius' sudden entrance into the field via teleportation.


"Enough, Evelina, you have already won."


Julius stood between the two women, his eyes a piercing blue as he glared at Evelina with righteous fury.


Chapter 42 - Intervention...?