This World Can't Handle A Cultivating Bad-boy.

Quinn Orvin.

The fated to be villainess.

One of the narrative fault lines of the entire novel. Quinn had lost both her mother and father at a young age.

At least that's what she thought.

Was raised by their murderer's ex-girlfriend and was enrolled in an awakened academy with his son.

What could go wrong?

Then again she'd asked Alice for it, keep in mind there were five others, sure they weren't held in the same high regard as Atherion, but they were nothing short of prestigious.

Heading into the academy, she had one, and only one, purpose. To make sure that Micheal Anderson was nothing like his father.

And if he was?

She wouldn't be afraid to end him.

And yet, even after preparing her mind for what she assumed would be the most difficult thing she'd ever have to do, it was someone else who'd caught her attention.

Someone who, for some infuriating reason, was somehow always in her face.

For orientation, to the dorms, to the cafeteria, to realising who Nightwalker truly was, and now, he was in her class.

An Aether Studies' awakened with the Aether Control of Pathetically Poor, had Surreptitiously crawled up to Number 5.

Not only that, he'd also gotten a double affinity and a God trait.

A feat no one had ever accomplished in their Adept Trial. Well... Except for her at least.

See, while most affinities could be checked and confirmed—God Traits and Domains were something of a stretch.

Someone could only know your God Trait or Domain if you either them about it, or they experienced it firsthand.

And Quinn, she'd had the God Trait, Predict, ever since her Novus Trial, but kept it to herself.

The trait gave her the ability to confirm someone's 'value', a hypothetical number that hovers above people's heads and tells how important, or how dangerous, they are.

She'd tried it on everyone she'd regularly encountered. The numbers and figures were as she'd expected.

15.

18.

10.

20.

These were amongst the Adept awakened, while the Ascendant awakened students ranged between the twenties and thirties.

The highest she'd seen so far, to no one's surprise was Micheal, at a staggering 95 mark. Followed closely behind by his father, Nightwalker, at 90.

Then, there was Aegon. Whose value just hovered ???

'What did that even mean?' She thought consistently.

What he completely irrelevant or so relevant the trait didn't know what to classify him as.

After a while, she'd learnt how to control said ability, the numbers changed based on decisions, influence and circumstances.

It was how she realised something was terribly wrong.

Micheal's value had, lately, been steadily receding—as if the golden boy himself was losing importance, or worse, relevance.

And in contrast to that, some awakened in the school had been rising more steadily than others.

Ren Yamamoto. 46. Higher than some Ascendant teachers.

Zara Torres. 34.

And most shocking, Elijah Payes. 51. Just last night. It wasn't like he grew significantly more powerful or more influential, which only left one other option.

He was more relevant.

It was, indeed, a worry. Every single person she was currently living with, was hiding something.

Yet, she barely had time to process it. She had classes, and her Trait made her an hypersomniac.

She was always sleepy, always exhausted, tired and drained. Sometimes getting out of bed required more willpower than it should've.

Then again, God Traits always came at a price.

But even with all her tiredness she was never oblivious. It's kinda hard to not notice two-thirds of your roommate sneak out each night and come back with higher values.

At least for Zara, Aegon was still an enigma. Or when Eli would come back from 'class' with higher figures.

Something was going on and she felt like it was all going to implode during the gala.

But before that she had to have a conversation with the one person she hated.

Cara Collins. 28. Not surprising, she's Number 6, and she's one of the few people connected to Aegon.

The close clatter of metal utensils and chairs scratching rang out as Quinn pulled out the seat opposite Cara in the cafeteria.

It wasn't hidden that there was little to no love lost between these two, but Quinn needed some kind of explanation and she was the only one she could go to.

Cara had a spoon full of food hovering inches away from her mouth but froze at the sight of Quinn.

"..."

She held the food a moment longer, suspended in the air while exchanging glances between the food and Quinn.

"...What do you want, princess?" Cara said finally, dropping the spoon and dusting her hands.

Arms folded, Quinn hesitated a bit before leaning in, "You been noticing anything weird lately?"

Cara gives an exasperated sigh. "You mean like you in my chair, talking to me like we're friends."

"Grow up."

"Just following your lead."

Silence stretched. The tension palpable, the two just glared at each other.

Cara sighed again. "What exactly are you saying?"

"Aegon, Ren, Micheal, Eli, Zara." She listed out. "They're acting strange."

"Probably cause Aegon, Ren and Zara are sneaking out at night..." Cara replied. "And Eli's making hidden phonecalls... But I have no idea about Micheal, other than, his dad is crazy."

"..."

Quinn froze her a second. A strand of her blond hair swaying in front her eye yet she didn't blow it away. "... You stalker. You're stalk—"

"No. No. No." Cara shook her head rapidly. "I'm not stalking anyone, I just pay a keen amount of attention to certain people."

"Aegon, and his group of friends." Quinn remarked without missing a beat.

"Look," Cara's cheeks tingled red with embarrassment so she quickly changed the topic. "I don't know what they're doing but I do know this... Aegon's getting significantly colder, and more detached."

"How so?" Quinn raised a brow.

"Where's he right now?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"... Principal's office. Which is where he's always been for every single lunch ever since they brought in the new principal."

"You think there's something going on?"

"I know there is," Cara leaned in. "My dad's still good with the secretary, and she says that Aegon barges into his office without any repercussions."

Quinn had no reply, so she continued.

"There's a new golden boy in the academy and he's a lot more complex than you'd think."