Darkness churned, twirling as if they were alive. Their tentacles rose from the ground, envelloping the whole mansion into the world of illusion made by the Apostle, Jahreon.

The guards, the servants, they all lost consciousness.

Tizmilly watched as Theo threw himself toward her to shield her from Jahreon’s gaze. Unfortunately, he failed. She fell to the ground with Theo, but after she blinked, she was already standing in a grand hall. A grand, familiar hall.

When she looked down and saw that she was wearing dark-red dress, her fingers started trembling. Her face lost her color. Her breath became heavy and tight.

She the raised her face. And met those cold, judging gazes. She could never forget those disgusted, disdainful, and hostile eyes.

Then there was him. A man she once looked up to, thinking that she would someday become someone who stood beside him for her life.

"Countless young ladies had become prey of your arrogance actions. They’d watched your evil in person! Look at these testimonies I’ve gathered, Tizmilly Fallburn!" The Crown prince, Agraviel Fin Fazaar, yelled at her. In his hand was a polished crystal that was playing a record of various voices of people who claimed to be her victims.

"To think that I once admired her, making her my role model of what I have to become..." A female student muttered with disgusted face, looking at Tizmilly as if she was looking at a true criminal.

"One of your victim is my sister! She was a talented girl, but because of you, she didn’t even dare to leave her room anymore! This is karma! Served you right!" A male student cursed, his face a pure mirror of hatred and sorrow.

Not just those two. But a lot of them were cursing her. More than half of the students in the hall were expressing their hatred toward her. The Professors of the Academy tried to calm the students, but their attempt was in vain because Agraviel hadn’t stop talking. The moment Tizmilly’s parents showed up to announce the erasure of her name from the familiy, they were ectastic.

"No..." Tizmilly raised her voice, interrupting their speeches. "That’s not true at all! I had never done any of what you just listed, Lord Agraviel!"

The crowd’s shouts died down. They closed their mouth, waiting for her to continue, their eyes judging her every move.

Tizmilly had known what would happen in the end, but she still didn’t want to ignore it. Her heart couldn’t do that. Maybe inside her, deep inside her, she still hoped—that someone would believe her if she kept speaking, just the way Theo had believed her.

She took a deep breath, her eyes staring back at the crowd. She was afraid, but she endured it. "I’ll repeat—I had never done any of what you just listed, Lord Agraviel!"

"It was happening without my order! I don’t t know why my followers do those vile acts, but if you really are hurt by them, then I will offers my apologize, and even some compensation!" Tizmilly shouted, looking at the crowd, especially the faces of her followers.

Silence that followed felt like a boiling lava for Tizmilly. She had braved herself to say what she wanted to say but couldn’t back then. Surely, they would understand her words, right? They would believe, or at least would hear her, right?

The silence was broken when a soft sound of footstep echoed. It was one of her followers. She took a step back from Tizmilly. One step, then another, and another one.

"D-don’t listen to her words, everyone!" Suddenly, the girl shouted. "She forced us to do it! She told us that if we refuse, she would do something bad to our family! We didn’t have any choices at that time! Please, believe in us!"

In that instant, Tizmilly’s mind went blank.

"That’s right, it was her who forced us into this! We didn’t want to, but she threatened us!" Another follower followed. Slowly, they began backing off from Tizmilly.

They all left her side, their fingers all pointed at her, their faces looked like miserable people who had endured mental and physical torture for years.

"What, no, that is not true! I had never—" Tizmilly wanted to refute their aspersion, but then someone kicked her from behind. Tizmilly lost her balance and fell on four to the floor, her elbows became red as the result.

When Tizmilly looked up, she saw the one who had just kicked her. It was her older brother, Lideon Fallburn.

"I can’t bear to hear your filthy voice anymore!" He fumed, his fists clenched. If they weren’t inside the territory of the Academy, maybe he would do something worse than just mere a single kick.

However, the shame Tizmilly felt was still great. A noble lady, kicked by her own older brother to the ground and was forced to crawl like an animal. Tizmilly had never thought Lideon would do something so drastic to her. After all, whether she was no longer part of the family or not, she was still his younger sister. They had lived together for 16 years. He was already with her when she opened her eyes for the first time.

Laughter filled the hall. At first, the laugh was suppressed. But then, they couldn’t hold their laugh anymore, and the laughter bursted, attacking Tizmilly’s hearing sense like a bomb.

Agraviel approached Tizmilly. He held up a pack of documents, showing them to her and the crowd. "We had the evidences, Tizmilly. And you are no longer a noble lady after the Fallburn family abandoned you. You are alone now. No one except you have to face the consequence of what you have done! This is responsibility you have to shoulder. Of course, that is only the case, if you consider yourself a former noble child!"

After that, they would take everything from her. The trophies, the accessories, the dresses—everything, except the ones she was currently wearing. Tizmilly already knew what would happen after this.

She should have been ready for this.

So why, why did it still felt as hurt as before? She asked herself, her head lowered as lower as possible. Not only because she afraid of the crowd’s judging gazes, but also to hide her wet eyes.

In fact, it was worse.

As her mental strength became weaker, vague whispers began to enter her ears.

"Useless!"

"Leech!"

"You are nothing but a parasite!"

"Didn’t you feel ashamed to yourself, how could you enjoy yourself with him, with how many people you had hurted?"

"Do you think you can run from your sins just because you pretending to be a good girl with them?"

"They deserved better than a failure like you!"

"Truly... A Villainess."

Voices had begun to distort the world, filling it with nothing but noises. Her emotions became unstable as time passed. Tears flowing down her face.

"No." She muttered multiple times to silence the noises.

"I didn’t mean to leech them off." She yelled at the whispers.

All resulted to nothing but the coming of harsher words. And what made it more unbearable was that their words were all true. Deep inside, Tizmilly felt it.

To forget her past, she distracted herself with the warm smiles they offered toward her genuinely. She purposedly show her vulnerabelity to Theo to get his attention, so that he would comfort her, treating her gently.

She couldn’t even fully believe Theo’s words when he was talking about the end of the world, his reincarnation, and etc. Of course she accepted all of that into her mind. But if she was aksed whether she believed it or not, she would most likely answered with a no.

Tizmilly suddenly realized. How egoist and self-centered she had became. She wanted her words to be heard, but didn’t want to hear other’s.

A rude person.

Evil.

’... Maybe it will be better if I let everything swallowed me. With this, I wouldn’t bother Mr. Roost and others anymore.’

When she thought about that, something warm was transferred into her body from her left wrist. The smell of dirt and fungi attacked her nose.

Her eyelashes fluttered. But failed to open.

’No, I don’t want to... Become his burden any further.’

Then the smell intensified.

With it, it carried the memories of the last thirty more days. The days she spent with Theo, Calary, Carole, Sirry, Gerena, and others.

She recalled how rough was Theo’s palm when he held her hands and helped her slicing garlics. It was rough, yet comforting.

Then his smiles. He always showed that gentle, fresh smiles to her.

And he had also once showed her his vulnerable self. His self that was more coward, and weak. But cute.

Tizmilly immediately opened her eyes. She pushed her body up and faced her older brother, the crown prince, and the crowd.

She extended her palm toward them and activated her Magic.

"Shut up!"

​Her voice, once a trembling whisper, now thundered through the hall. Tizmilly didn’t just reject the lies; she reclaimed her reality. With a surge of mana, crimson ice rose vines erupted from the floor, their thorns tearing through the fabric of the illusion. The judging faces of the students, the cold sneer of the prince, and the towering figure of her brother—all were buried under a frost so cold it shattered the very world around her.

​The hall cracked like a broken mirror.

​Tizmilly blinked, the cold air of winter and rotting mana returning to her senses. She was back in the Layver garden. A heavy weight rested on her chest; she looked down to find Theo’s head resting there, his face pale and eyes closed, still trapped in his own nightmare.

​Her face flushed deep crimson, but the embarrassment was quickly overtaken by a cold, sharp dread.

​"Ho? What a surprise," Jahreon’s voice cut through the air. He was standing by the gazebo, adjusted his glasses as he watched her. "To think you could break through my illusion so quickly. You’ve grown quite the spine, Tizmilly Fallburn."

​He gestured toward the massive magic circle behind him, which was now pulsing with a terrifying, rhythmic heartbeat. "However... you are far too late."