I, The Villainess, Will Seduce All The Heroines Instead
Chapter 115: Butterfly Effect (1)

She had to sort through the mess those girls had caused and clear up the ridiculous misunderstanding.

"..." As usual, Sera remained silent, her expression unreadable.

They walked side by side down the hallway, but Verena wasn’t about to let Sera off the hook just yet. She wasn’t leaving until she got some acknowledgment from her.

But judging by the awkward silence...

Was Sera seriously upset that Verena had touched so many boobs?

Was she jealous? Jealous that Verena got to touch boobs while Sera... well, didn’t?

And then there was the little issue of Sera not having any boobs of her own...

Jesus... My brain is absolutely full of boobs now...

"Don’t move," Sera muttered.

"Why? Is this a trap? Are you finally setting me up for assassination because you’re talking to me now?"

"Shut up," Sera hissed. "She’s here."

And then, like clockwork, the hallway temperature dropped three degrees.

Click. Click. Click.

The sound of polished heels against marble echoed with the sharpness of judgment day.

Around the corner came a tall, dark-haired noblewoman dressed in an impeccable winter-blue uniform lined with silver threading.

Her House crest gleamed like a frostbite warning. Her gloves were white. Too white. The kind of white that said, "I will never do manual labor, but I could end your entire bloodline and not smudge a single finger."

Isolde Valeblanc had arrived.

She didn’t walk. She glided—each step a calculated performance of supremacy. Behind her trailed two silent attendants, a bunch of typical lackeys.

Her eyes, ice gray, clinical, scanned the hallway like she owned the very ground everyone walked on. Then those eyes settled directly on Verena.

"Lady Verena D’Auvergne," she said. Her voice was cool, deep, and completely unimpressed.

Verena immediately smiled. "Lady Isolde. Fancy seeing you outside your personal glacier."

Sera side-eyed her. "Verena, do you want to die?"

"Oh, please," Verena muttered. "What’s she going to do? Freeze my GPA?"

Isolde stopped in front of them. The hallway had gone eerily quiet. Students peered from around corners, sensing blood.

"I heard a rather curious rumor," Isolde said, brushing invisible dust from her sleeve with surgical precision. "Apparently, someone’s been disrupting the arcane currents around the East Wing. Wild fluctuations. Unapproved experiments. Hmm."

Verena tilted her head. "Wow. Sounds dangerous. Wonder who that could be."

"Indeed," Isolde said with a faint, cold smile. "One might think such recklessness would be beneath a Conduitor."

Sera stepped forward, her arms crossed. "If you’ve got a problem, say it directly."

Isolde’s eyes flicked to her. "And if I did, Lady Anverre, would you be the one to solve it? Or would you simply punch it until it went away?"

"I’ll punch you if that helps," Sera said flatly.

A slow, deliberate blink. "How charming. You’re still using your fists to solve philosophical problems."

Honestly, Verena really didn’t want to deal with Isolde right now. That girl’s true chaos didn’t even begin until the second volume. Right now, they were still in the thick of volume one, still nothing wrapped up until the Vanguard Trials were over.

"Out of my way, porcupine," Isolde said sweetly, attempting to push past Sera in the hallway.

"THIS BITCH!"

***

"Take a seat."

"What’s going on? Why are we suddenly being called to the Auditorium?"

"Beats me."

Once all the students had settled, the Headmaster entered, Helio Veydris. The man himself. Owner of the academy, one of the most formidable figures in the empire, and a political heavyweight in his own right. They said no living mortal understood Zodiac Weaving as deeply as he did.

"Is that really...?"

"Oh my stars, it’s the Grandmaster himself!"

Even Verena found herself tense. This wasn’t in the novel, at least, not yet. Helio wasn’t supposed to make an appearance for quite a while.

So why now?

Clarina, Beatrice, Evelyn, Sera, and Penelope sat with her on the far west side of the auditorium. The space was massive, an arched dome of carved starlight marble and enchanted glass, wide enough to hold the entire student body and then some.

Rows upon rows of cushioned seats curved around a central stage, with constellation runes softly glowing along the walls.

"GOODNESS GRACIOUS! IT’S HEADMASTER HELIO!!" Beatrice shouted, nearly jumping out of her seat. "The very man himself who discovered Lunar Threading Theory, reverse-catalyzed the Astral Rift Collapse, and wrote The 36 Immutable Laws of Zodiac Weaving! And! And!"

Nearly the entire auditorium turned to stare, and their friend group sank into collective secondhand embarrassment. This damn nerd was so autistic.

"Shut up!" Sera hissed, pulling a cracker from her bag and shoving it into Beatrice’s open mouth.

"MMPHH!!" Beatrice squeaked, startled, then slowly melted into her seat, humming at the flavor like it was fine dining.

"Finally..."

As the event finally began, the lights dimmed, casting a shadow over the stage.

Why did it suddenly feel like the opening of a horror play?

"I have come to announce a tragedy..." Headmaster Helio’s voice echoed with gravitas.

A tragedy?

"The death of one of our students. It was gruesome, cruel, and utterly heartless. We didn’t even discover his body—until it was delivered to the Emperor’s castle..." he paused, letting the weight settle. "Norvan Huliet... was murdered and decapitated."

Helio made the announcement not just out of respect, but as a warning.

There was danger in the air again, the kind they hadn’t felt since a catastrophe nearly shattered the world.

The Eclipse War.

A brutal conflict where rogue Weavers tried to unbind fate itself by severing planetary connections.

It nearly brought down the Academy, the Empire, and the very balance of the Zodiac Weave. That war gave birth to the Guardians, legendary figures whose souls are now eternally bound to the school as its protectors.

Except—it wasn’t supposed to be that deep!

WHAT IN THE ZODIAC-FORSAKEN HELL DID THESE TWO DO?!

Verena shot a look at Evelyn and Clarina.

Evelyn looked calm, like she’d just solved world peace with passive aggression.

Clarina, on the other hand, wore the face of someone who realized far too late of what she had done.

At least Verena wasn’t the one who’d get in trouble, right?

So then... why was she the one sitting in a stuffy meeting room, facing the Masters of the Academy?

"Speak, Verena," Headmaster Helios said sternly.