The Villain Rising: Ascension of Arcane Trickster.

A woman sat buried beneath mountains of paperwork, her violet eyes scanning over each document with inhuman precision.

Page after page.

Stack after stack.

Morvana finally exhaled, allowing herself a moment of rest as she sensed a familiar presence entering her office building.

"What does that boy want now?"

It had only been a few weeks since she had met him for the first time… and every single time he appeared, he brought a new storm with him and she had no doubt this time would be no different.

After the Demon King formally engaged him to Arza, the boy had shown up in her office a few times.

He always had the same excuse, that he simply wanted to "see her" and then he would proceed to ramble about whatever ridiculous thing he had done that day, telling stories with no structure, no point and absolutely no awareness of how absurd he sounded.

And yet… Somehow, he had begun slipping into her daily routine slowly and steadily like a habit forming without permission.

What surprised her most was that she didn't mind it.

Right on cue, the boy pushed open her door after a single knock without even waiting for permission.

"Mom, I'm coming in."

Morvana's lips twitched.

"I told you not to call me that, didn't I?" She replied coldly, slipping into her usual Morvana persona without effort.

But Rael, of course, walked in with the same bright confidence as if she had welcomed him with open arms.

"And I told you that, I can't help it because of my habits." He made himself comfortable, sitting on the couch.

She gave him a quick assessing glance. He was still in his academy uniform which meant he had come here straight after classes.

Morvana returned her attention to the stack of papers, flipping through them with effortless precision.

"So," she said calmly, "why are you here today?"

Rael answered without missing a beat.

"I'm just here to see you. What else?"

'Same answer again, huh?'

She wasn't surprised but she did find it quite amusing.

For someone boldly claiming to be her future son-in-law, the boy was awfully clingy with her.

'What kind of son-in-law visits his mother-in-law this frequently?'

That alone told her enough.

If he really was from the future… then their relationship must have been far closer than she expected and every time she considered that possibility, a strange thought appeared in her mind… something she couldn't quite ignore.

If she ever grew close to a man… close enough for something meaningful to form…

… Then shouldn't her flaw have activated?

Before she could drift too far into her thoughts, the boy simply began talking, launching straight into a detailed narration of his entire day without her asking a single question.

He rambled about how some nutcase woman showed up at his villa that morning, how she somehow ended up taking his familiar as her disciple and how the rest of his day spiraled into one eventful disaster after another.

Morvana kept her eyes on her paperwork, her expression calm, distant and focused and yet not a single detail escaped her ears.

She heard everything.

Only after half an hour of nonstop talking did he finally pause for breath.

"So, how was your day?" He asked brightly as if he hadn't just dumped the entire plot of his day in her office.

"It was okay," Morvana replied, just a few measured words in contrast to his thirty-minute talk but Rael didn't seem bothered at all.

He simply gave her a bright smile as if her minimal response was the most encouraging thing in the world.

—

Rael looked at the cold woman, who offered him barely a handful of words after his half-hour of nonstop bullshitting.

…Most of which was actually true.

After making his initial impression on The Serafim, he didn't need Morvana's surveillance on him anymore.

It restricted too many things he wanted to do.

So naturally, in all his chaotic mind, he came up with a plan.

A stupid or maybe a brilliant plan.

He would visit Morvana every single day… and bore her half to death by narrating every useless detail of his life.

What he did, what he ate, who annoyed him, what new existential crisis he adopted… Even the trivial stuff.

His logic was simple.

'If she wants to keep tabs on everything I do…

then I'll just hand her the information myself.'

'That way, I can control what she hears…

and what she doesn't.'

'And maybe knowing that I am sharing all details readily, she might call off the surveillance for good.'

The small daily chats served another purpose too.

They gave him precious and uninterrupted moments alone with Morvana, the time he used to quietly study what existed behind her calm mask and maybe, eventually… discover the answer to the question that had been wandering in his mind for a long time now.

Who the hell was Veluna?

He had tried digging through Morvana's family history hoping to find the name somewhere but every book that might have held even a hint was buried under heavy restrictions.

And he wasn't reckless enough to simply ask anyone about her. Not when he didn't know who in this academy reported to Morvana and one wrong question could expose his intentions instantly.

But for now, none of that mattered.

He wasn't here for any of that currently, he was here for one simple thing:

To ask her to kill Azriel.

Every bit of small talk he had thrown at her earlier had only been a setup to create a natural flow and a comfortable atmosphere.

And now that the stage was set, Rael began preparing for the real conversation.

"Umm… Mom." Rael let his voice lower, frowning deliberately as a hint of hesitation appeared on his face.

Morvana's pen stopped mid-stroke as she immediately looked up from her paperwork.

"Yes?" She asked, her tone calm but her eyes sharp.

Rael took a deep breath.

"Today… I unlocked a small piece of my future memory." He said with a nervous expression.

Morvana's eyes narrowed almost immediately.

"It was just a small glimpse." He continued quietly, "… of an event that will happen in the near future."

The moment those words left his mouth, a wave of mana exploded from Morvana.

The floor trembled and the papers fluttered as she sealed the entire room inside a mana dome.

Her violet eyes narrowed.

"What was the memory?" She asked, her voice calm.

Rael immediately lifted his hands. "The memory was about a small incident Azriel will cause in the future."

'The real game starts now.'

If he said Azriel caused a "small incident," or even a "big incident," Morvana wouldn't kill him.

Instead she would investigate Azriel, find nothing and eventually start suspecting Rael instead and that would be a disaster.

So the incident needed to be something she couldn't ignore… something she had to respond to with immediate lethal force.

And Rael knew the exact subject she desperately wanted to hide from the world.

Veluna.

Her true identity.

If Rael wanted her to kill Azriel, he needed to make the future "memory" threaten that.

Naturally, this was a trick he could only use once or maybe twice if he pushed his luck, before it started looking suspicious.

So he had been saving it for something big but Azriel acting like a love-struck lunatic… and the possibility that he might be forming an alliance with Varek of all people…

Yeah, Rael just couldn't ignore that anymore.

'That bastard brought this on himself.'

With those thoughts, Rael finally began.

"I saw a glimpse of a memory where Azriel was screaming like a lunatic." He said, keeping his expression natural. "He kept shouting, 'She is not who everyone thinks she is.'"

"He kept accusing you." Rael continued. "Before he tried taking a few students hostage… and then he died in the fight."

Morvana's posture shifted instantly.

"Did he say anything else?" She asked, her voice cold.

Rael met her gaze without hesitation.

"No." He said. "He didn't get to say anything else and I was too far to hear anything from him."

Morvana leaned back in her chair.

"Hmm. When did this event take place exactly?" She asked.

Rael lowered his gaze as if trying to dig through fragmented memories.

"I don't remember the exact date." He said slowly, "But Arza was still in her first year back then. I came to this academy as an exchange student from the Human Academy for a short period."

"That was also the first time I met Arza in that timeline."

Morvana nodded once.

"So it would happen in five to six months." Her eyes sharpened again.

She was already in the zone he needed her to be in but just to seal the deal, he decided to toss another stone into the water…

Because when you paint a big enough picture, even a pebble can create massive waves and push paranoia exactly where it needs to go.

"Have you felt anything suspicious from Azriel when he's with you?"