I Became the Academy's Worst Villain Chapter 43: Parasites

After Damian left, I focus more on the other paperwork that I have left. In as much as Adrian did not get physical, things are still far manageable.

Tomorrow evening was my eting with Professor Iris. Tomorrow

I’d learn more truth about the Council of Fates. Things I didn’t even get to read in the book.

But tonight, I allowed myself a mont of satisfaction. The faction was stronger than ever.

A knock at the door.

"Co in."

Seraphina entered. Again. Third ti in two days.

"Do you ever sleep?" I asked her wearily.

"Do you?" She sat without invitation this ti, as if she’s getting more comfortable. "I heard about the family threats. About your mbers choosing to stay despite them."

"News travels fast." I shrugged.

"I make it my business to know things. Especially things that matter." She studied . "You offered to support them financially. Even though it’ll cost your faction significant resources."

"They chose to stay. Least I can do is make that choice possible."

"Adrian would never do that."

"I’m not Adrian."

"No." She stood, moved to the door. "No, you’re really not."

"Seraphina? Why are you telling this? Why are you here?"

She paused. "Because I’m starting to understand the difference between soone who wants followers and soone who wants to protect people. Between soone who demands loyalty and soone who earns it."

"And that understanding...?"

"Makes question everything I thought I knew about heroes and villains." She looked back. "See you tomorrow, Hadeon Ravana. I’ll be watching."

I could only stare at the closed door with a shake of my head. In the book, although she wasn’t the tightest buddy with Adrian, she was clearly on his side and who knew what happened at the end?

I sighed and shook my head. "No matter, I will deal with all of that later. I should sleep early for tomorrow."

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The address Professor Iris had given led to the oldest part of the academy, in a section most students avoided. The buildings here predated the current structures by centuries, their stone walls covered in ivy and won away by ti.

Evening had fallen. The hallways were empty, lit only by dim magical lamps that cast long shadows. I found the door marked with a faded brass plate, Professor I. Shadowre - Private Study.

I knocked three tis.

"Enter, Hadeon Ravana."

The door swung open on silent hinges. Inside, the study was exactly what I’d expect from soone who’d lived for a professor, walls lined floor-to-ceiling with books, artifacts on shelves that humd with residual magic, and a sense of accumulated ti that pressed against my awareness.

Professor Iris sat behind a massive oak desk, looking simultaneously young and ancient. Silver hair despite an unlined face.

Her eyes that had seen too much.

"Punctual, I see. That’s good." She gestured to a chair. "Sit. We have much to discuss, and so of it will be... difficult to hear."

I sat, noting how she’d warded the room. Multiple layers of privacy enchantnts and sound dampening, even sothing that felt like it blocked divination magic.

"You’re worried about being overheard," I observed.

"I’m worried about them knowing we’re having this conversation." She stood, moved to a cabinet, pulled out a bottle of amber liquid. "Drink?"

"I’m seventeen."

"And I’m a hundred and thirty-seven. Age is relative." But she poured only one glass for herself. "Besides, you’ll want a clear head for this."

She settled back into her chair, took a long drink, then t my eyes with an intensity that made understand why students found her intimidating.

"How much do you know about the Council of Fates?"

The question hung in the air between us. This was the mont of truth, or at least, as much truth as I could safely share.

"I know they exist," I said carefully. "I know they manipulate... events. Heroes and villains. That they’ve done this for multiple cycles." I paused. "And I know I’m not supposed to know any of that."

"Yet you do." She studied intently. "Most people in your position are completely ignorant until it’s far too late. So tell , Hadeon Ravana, how did you learn about them? The last ti we talked, I only go about hinting at them."

I couldn’t tell her about transmigration. About reading a webnovel in my previous life. But I could give her partial truth.

"My family has so records. Going back generations. Patterns they noticed of heroes appearing every hundred years or so, villains rising to challenge them, everything following similar scripts." I pulled out docunts I’d prepared, a fabricated but convincing, based on Uncle Victor’s actual family records. "My grandfather discovered sothing was wrong. He died under... suspicious circumstances."

Her expression softened with genuine sympathy. "Your family has been fighting this for generations."

"And losing. My parents died two years ago. Another ’accident’ right after they started investigating more aggressively."

"I’m sorry." She set down her glass. "Truly. The Council is thorough about eliminating threats." She stood, moving to a covered object in the corner. "But the fact that you’re here, aware and fighting back, ans your family succeeded in one critical way, they passed on the knowledge. That alone is a victory."

"Professor, what exactly is the Council of Fates?"

She pulled the cloth away, revealing what looked like an orrery, but instead of planets, it showed multiple worlds circling a central point of darkness.

"The Council of Fates is... old. Older than human civilization. Older than this world, in so ways." She touched the orrery, and it began to move, worlds spinning slowly. "They exist outside normal reality. In a realm where stories have substance. Where narratives are tangible things with real power. Where words are power."

I leaned forward, fascinated despite knowing so of this already.

"This is our world." She pointed to one of the spinning spheres. "Aethermoor and the surrounding continents. But there are others. Dozens, perhaps hundreds. Each one a story world under Council control."

The orrery showed world after world, each moving in its own orbit around that central darkness.

"The Council discovered sothing fundantal about reality, stories generate power. Real, tangible power. When enough people believe in sothing, hero defeats villain, good triumphs over evil, destiny fulfilled, it creates energy." She turned to face . "Narrative energy. And the Council feeds on it."

"They’re parasites." I said with a chill in my voice.