The Villainous Noble Regressed With The Villain System
Chapter 44: Class Division Exam [36]

Chapter 44: Class Division Exam [36]

ACT 11 : THE RETURNED LAMB AND A QUEST

As I was starting to leave, I heard Monica muttering something inaudible.

"....."

"What? Did you say something?", I asked in confusion.

"...Can you stay here a bit longer?"

***

The dungeon no longer whispered.

Silence had settled like dust - thick, reluctant to move, and not entirely gone.

Cracked stones lay in jagged heaps, the mist had faded into the walls, and the oppressive madness that once ruled this place now felt scared.

I sat near a half collapsed column, arms draped over my knees, still bleeding slightly from the cut on my cheek.

Across from me, Monica sat with her back against the wall.

Her beast form had faded entirely, leaving only the body of the girl behind - the girl who once looked like a lioness made of fire.

Now she just looked cold, and tired.

I decided to stay for a while, not because of her request, but because of the throbbing pain all over my body.

It would be right to call it a miracle that I didn’t die from closing my chakra.

Mana flow, when obstructed due to the closure of a chakra, it starts accumulating, and causes severe damage to internal organs, which when suddenly done, can lead to death.

I survived, thankfully, but the pain still remained.

So, I just decided to take a bit of rest.

Then, I would have to flee this dungeon too.

If they find me here, new allegations would be thrown upon me, relating to this incident.

"You’re still here," she said softly, without looking at me.

"You asked me to stay, didn’t you?" I replied.

She gave a small, humorless smile.

"People usually forget what I say after the heat of battle. Or pretend they never heard it."

"Well, let’s say that I am just different from most people.", I said with confidence.

She looked at me then - really looked.

"Yeah, you are at least different from what I imagined."

Then something in her gaze cracked, as if trying to deny the very reality in front of her, she asked me again.

"Do you really not remember what happened before you regressed?"

I sideglanced her, and waved my head, denying the fact.

What is she trying to do here?

Anyway, it’s not like denying would put me in any danger, so I firmly said, that I don’t remember.

"Ah...Then, all this time....everything I did...everything I tried to do, was just a self made delusion, I guess."

She, then, closed her eyes, and continued.

"....I have killed you multiple times in the past. My memories are a bit hazy, so I can’t exactly say how many times. Purely out of revenge and hatred. For a Dorian Valen I knew, who existed to solely destroy my life. He conspired with our enemies, to bring my mother, the Duchess down, he put the blame on my brother, and executed him, all in front of my eyes. My family was over, before the branch families started fighting over the control and destroyed themselves."

The original Dorian Valen.

Whatever she is saying is entirely true.

He did all this to get back at Monica for choosing Aster over him.

"When I found out that you are the trigger for all these regressions, something inside me broke. I was able to see my family, yet I had to live in the same world, as someone like Dorian Valen, who destroyed me. I had mixed feelings, but this time around, I decided to stay still, away from you, and strike you down, if you raised even a finger at my family."

She is probably talking about the time, when she almost killed me, at the outskirts of the Capital.

"But then you said that you don’t really remember. What was the point then? Why have I been frantically trying to kill you? I thought to myself. Was it really you, who caused the downfall of my family, I wonder now."

Monica then opened her eyes to look directly at my eyes.

"Then, I witnessed your trial at the Academy. I know that you were falsely accused. I even knew, who was the real culprit, and why did they do it. But I didn’t move, to testify. I thought, I would be relieved after seeing you in pain, but that was not the case."

She moved a bit closer to me.

"Do you know what I felt?...Guilt. An insane amount of guilt. "

Her voice didn’t waver, but I could feel the weight in it—like every word was peeled off her chest after being stuck there for years.

I didn’t say anything.

Not because I didn’t want to.

But because I didn’t know what to say to someone who just admitted they’ve killed me multiple times.

Instead, I watched as she lowered her gaze to her own hands. Her palms were open, bare—shaking slightly.

"These hands," she whispered, "have torn you apart in timelines where you deserved it. But they’ve also hesitated in this one. And I can’t figure out if that means I’m losing my edge... or if I’m just tired of hating you."

The irony was not lost on me. The infamous Monica Croft—the solar lioness of House Croft—confessing guilt, sitting inches away from someone she once vowed to kill.

I sighed and leaned back against the wall.

"The way I see it, it’s not guilt, but fear.", I said.

"Feat?", she tilted her head in doubt.

"You just fear that I, with no memories of my past maybe am totally different from my past self. Maybe even a bit better. That’s what you are scared of...."

It was the truth.

And maybe Monica realised it too, looking down with withered eyes, trying to not lock with mine.

"But rest assured...", I said, "I am just as a scum as I used to be. Although, now that I have been stripped off my family name, there is no way, I can destroy your family. Hell I can’t even harm a street dog."

Monica stared at me.

And then... laughed.

Not mockingly. Not bitterly. Just... softly.

The kind of laugh that sounded like it hadn’t been used in years.

"You really are different," she said. "The old Dorian would’ve been offended I even breathed near him, let alone confessed to murder."

"Well, the new Dorian just wants a sandwich and a bed that doesn’t reek of monster blood."

"Hmm. Simple dreams."

"Don’t mock me. It’s all I’ve got left."

Her gaze softened again, and she leaned her head back against the wall with a sigh.

"I didn’t expect to survive this," she whispered. "Let alone sit next to you like this. Talking. Breathing. It almost feels... unfair."

"To who?"

"To the version of me that hated you for so long. I think she’d be really pissed off at me right now."

I chuckled, my hand brushing over the cut on my cheek again.

"You think she’s pissed? Imagine how confused the version of me would be—the one who probably deserved to be hated."

There was a moment of stillness between us, then.

Not the heavy, blood-soaked kind we’d sat in earlier.

But a different stillness.

The kind that feels like something has shifted. Quietly. Permanently.

Monica spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Dorian..."

Her voice was blocked off by a monstrous groan that rolled through the stone like a death rattle awakening from centuries of slumber.

The walls around us shivered. Not shook—shivered.

A sound like bones grinding echoed from beneath the floor. Then another groan—closer. Deeper. Like a yawning abyss had just exhaled.

"...What was that?" Monica stood up in a flash, her hands clenching instinctively.

A soft blue glow poured into the room, revealing the outline of something massive—armored, inlaid with ancient engravings, and powered by aetheric cores pulsing along its limbs like slow-beating hearts.

Monica’s eyes narrowed.

"...That’s not a monster," she said.

"No," I said quietly. "It’s regulation."

The construct stepped forward with an echoing thud.

Tall, broad-shouldered, faceless. Its body was reinforced with mana-reactive alloys, probably blessed by five departments and cursed by six. A magitech-grade golem, likely only half-sentient, and entirely indifferent to human concerns.

The final boss.

Of the Class Division Exam.

***

"Hm.....hm.hm..hmmmmm.... I can’t really recall the lyrics of that song."

Cedric Rowan walked out of the dungeon into the Southern Forest of Grisha.

Deeper and deeper, where magical beasts are believed to reside.

Without a care in the world, he walked like it was a garden.

"Ahh, you are a first year student, aren’t you? Do you know the lyrics to it?", he asked the cave he was holding.

Becausez trapped inside it were not only the vampire progenitor, Varkhazel, but also the Radiata One, his first thrall, who had fled that scene.

She couldn’t escape Cedric ’s eyes though, as he caught her with ease.

And, now both of them are being taken towards an unknown territory.

"What should I make out of you, I wonder~..."

The birds flew away, sensing his arrival, as he walked away humming a famous song of his childhood days.

************************

Author’s Note :

Comment your thoughts below.

Next - ACT 12 : THE FINAL FIGHT

***********************