Path of the Demonic Villain

One of the large double doors to the lecture hall was open, and after walking down the corridor for a bit with a book in his hand, Dante stepped through the doorway.

As expected, a wave of eyes immediately shifted toward him. A few students looked puzzled, likely wondering who he was as they had not seen him in class before. Others who recognized him murmured among themselves, wondering where the boy had been all this time, and why he was showing up now, while a handful barely spared him a second glance before turning back to their own business.

Dante, on the other hand, swept his gaze around the class. The hall was grand with desks cascading upwards and even though this was a class on magic, there were a handful of warriors and rogues. Of course, the majority of the students here were mages with a handful that were high priests.

There were certain lectures that could be taken by students of all job classes, and this was one of them, so this was not surprising.

After a moment of searching, Dante’s purple eyes settled on a girl seated near the back. She was a mage with pale skin and silver hair cut into a neat, chin-length bob.

Upon spotting the girl, who practically radiated a gloomy, nerdy, and deeply gothic vibe, Dante involuntarily smiled and immediately made a beeline toward her. The closer he got, the better he could see her features. Thick black-framed glasses sat on her nose, framing striking blue eyes, though her face looked perpetually exhausted with heavy, dark circles carved underneath.

She was beautiful, but she would probably look even better if she managed to sleep more than three hours every two days. Right now, she gave off the distinct aura of an overworked raccoon powered entirely by caffeine and spite.

There were two open books spread out on the desk in front of her, and she was currently scribbling away on a notepad. When she felt Dante approach, she glanced up briefly before immediately looking away, acting as if she had no idea who he was.

A moment later, Dante dropped into the seat beside her. He leaned over to see what was keeping her so preoccupied. Filled across the pages were dense diagrams of multi-layered magic circles, runes that overlapped in chaotic geometric patterns, and lines of complex arithmetic.

It was the exact kind of headache-inducing theoretical nonsense you would expect from a dedicated mage.

Barely a few seconds into scanning the pages, Dante’s head began to throb just from staring at the symbols, so he quickly shifted his gaze back to her face. When a few long seconds passed without a single word, he frowned. "Are you still upset with me, sister?"

Only then did her hand freeze, though she still didn’t turn to look at him. She dropped her pen, exhaled a heavy, long-suffering sigh, and muttered, "You fool, you moron, you ingrate... Goddess, I’m so upset I just want to bite you."

She suddenly lunged to bite his arm, but Dante reacted, planting his palm against her forehead to keep her at bay and completely smudging her glasses in the process.

"I don’t even know what to say to you," she huffed, fruitlessly swatting at his arm. "I’m so pissed I want to strangle you, but I simply don’t have the physical energy required to pull it off right now."

"...?"

Dante arched a brow, keeping his hand fixed on her head.

Francesca finally stopped squirming, though her glare through her smudged lenses remained. "What were you even thinking going to that Labyrinth? You suddenly pack up, leave school, leave the capital and the next thing I hear, you’ve been robbed in a Labyrinth! It doesn’t make any sense, and thinking about it makes me even more pissed. What if something had actually happened to you, huh?" She motioned angrily toward the books spread across the desk. "Here I am, busting my ass off trying to find a way to build something that could help make up for your condition! It would have all been for naught if you had gone and died!"

She huffed, crossing her arms defensively. "I can’t believe Father would even let you go there. Someone like you isn’t supposed to step foot in a place like that..."

Dante frowned and interjected, "Someone like me? Are you pulling my leg?"

Francesca flinched, realizing how that sounded, and quickly tried to backpedal. "I’m sorry if that came out wrong... but you going to a Labyrinth is practically suicide! You are a normie, for goodness’ sake! Tsk. Father seriously needs some parenting lessons, because — mmph!"

She was still ranting when Dante reached over and grabbed her lips to shut them.

"Okay, enough. I’ve heard enough. My head is aching. Anymore and I might really die here," he grunted, holding her mouth closed as she glared daggers at him. "I’m sorry, okay? Let’s just end it there, jeez."

For a brief moment, it was finally quiet... thank Goddess!

Slowly, Dante let go of her mouth and leaned back a bit.

Francesca kept staring for a few seconds more before reaching out to flick his forehead with her finger, hard.

"Don’t you dare do something like that again, you dumbass. Tsk."

As she spoke, she subconsciously massaged the spot with her palm the moment she noticed him wince.

Just then, a giggling voice coming from the row directly in front of them sounded.

"If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you two were a couple."

That caused both Dante and Francesca to turn their heads toward the olive-skinned, brown-eyed girl sitting ahead of them.

This girl right here, who looked like someone who had never experienced a single stressful thought in her entire life and spoke with a dreamy, lilting cadence, was their friend, Claudia.

For a few seconds, the twins stared at her with identical deadpan expressions. Then Dante spoke up. "You know that thing you were doing with your mouth just now?"

"What?" Claudia arched a brow. "Do you mean... voicing my opinion?"

"Yes," Dante replied flatly. "Please don’t do that again."

The girl chuckled. "By the way, you human narcoleptic, where on Mother’s Earth did you run off to this past several weeks?"

Dante sighed and muttered tiredly, "I just felt like being a prodigal."

She arched a brow. "Huh?"

Just then, the professor walked into the lecture hall dressed in a long, dark academic coat. However, there was something jarring about his appearance, which was that a massive portion of his body had been replaced with clockwork prosthetics. From his jawline down to his throat, his skin gave way to polished bronze steel, and his hands, which could be seen were also metallic.

For someone like Dante, who hailed from Earth, seeing a man built like a steampunk cyborg ought to have been a shock, but since this was a common sight in this world, he was entirely desensitized to the sight by now.

He barely spared the professor a second glance before his eyes shifted to the young lady accompanying him, who was struggling to carry a heavy box in her arms.

She had a timid, mousy vibe about her, with messy red hair, wide ruby eyes, and a scatter of freckles dotting the bridge of her nose. There was also a tiny mole tucked against her right cheek, hidden from Dante’s angle at the moment, though he knew it was there.

’Teaching assistant Miss Vi...’ he thought as he suddenly felt a wave of complicated emotions.

From what he could recall from the game, this lady had played a hand in the downfall of the Fioravanti family. In her obsessive quest for revenge against a group, she had stumbled upon something she was never meant to discover, which was one of the secrets of the Fioravantis.

Once she uncovered that secret crime against the Holy Empire, it triggered a messy chain of events that ultimately led to the family being stripped of their noble title.

So part of why Dante returned to the capital was to stop that from happening.

"Quiet down, everyone," the professor’s voice echoed across the hall, drawing Dante’s attention back to him.

Contrary to what one might expect from someone who had metal for a mouth, his voice was surprisingly human, smooth, and entirely unbothered by the grinding gears beneath his skin.

"We’ll quickly get started."

He didn’t bother taking attendance. It was not because he didn’t care, but rather because every student here possessed free will, which meant everyone was fully responsible for their own actions as well as the consequences.

After Miss Vi set the box on the podium and retreated to take a seat near the back of the class, the man dipped his metallic hand into the container and pulled out a translucent blue crystal.

Dante recognized it immediately. Mana-gems like that were harvested from blighted creatures deep inside Labyrinths. The color of a mana-gem depended on the grade of the beast slain, and they served as the fundamental catalyst whenever someone wanted to cast a spell.

"Mana-gems," the professor said, holding the stone high enough for the upper rows to catch its glint.

"You all already know what this is, as most of you have been relying on them long before you ever set foot in this academy. Many of you have likely been taught how to channel energy through them as well. So I won’t waste our time repeating basic mechanics. I am here to explain why this simple stone remains the absolute fundamental pillar of our modern magic system."