A Villain's Survival Guide

Upon being summoned to his mother’s quarters, he found out it was time for his grimoire. Happiness and uneasiness hit him all at once. The timing didn’t feel like a coincidence, he’d been deep in thought about the grimoire when he was called.

The room Rosemary led him into was open and white. Sparse save for eight massive canvas portraits on the walls, two to each side. Leomaris’s eyes moved across them. There wasn’t much to look at, and yet they felt dreamy, almost like a fever dream. Same patterns throughout, rendered in different colours.

His eyes still on the portraits, Leomaris watched as Rosemary reached for the red canvas opposite and pulled it gently aside. A safe sat behind it, and within, a glass container, its interface shrouded entirely in darkness.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Within this container lies an ancient grimoire. Whether it is a divine entity or a dark one cannot be determined by scholars. No one has ever wielded it, and probably no one ever will."

He was certain he was listening. Devouring each of his mother’s words. But for some reason, whatever she said began bleeding into background noise. His eyes refused to leave the container, and it seemed to be drawing his entire essence into it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

He felt it deep within, this was the thing that had been looming over him all along. He couldn’t place his head around it, but everything in that moment felt as though he’d finally found someone he’d long since lost.

The bizarreness didn’t get the chance to continue, Rosemary’s voice snapped him out of his daze.

"It’s calling to you, isn’t it? I never intended to give you this grimoire... but I believe it has found its match after so many years."

Leomaris gulped bile. Each grimoire held something within it: a spirit, a beast, or an entity. Humans formed contracts with these creatures, and the contracts came in three forms.

Grimoires were expensive enough on their own, and contract prices could border on insane, but one of the most critical factors was whether whatever was sealed inside was compatible with the contractor.

Leomaris’s situation wasn’t unheard of, but this, he hadn’t expected. His soul was barely new to this world. So how could Rosemary already have a grimoire compatible with him?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Uh... are you saying I should take it?"

A soft smile played on Rosemary’s lips, she walked toward Leomaris and placed the container gently in his hands.

"I promised you a grimoire, didn’t I? You’ve done more than enough to deserve this," she said, locking eyes with Leomaris as she smiled, sending chills down his spine.

"With this, you’ll be able to carry on the Runerth family legacy at the academy, just like your sister did. Make me proud, Leo."

Leomaris gulped bile as Rosemary walked out of the room.

’She smiled... smiled?!’

His panic was apparent enough to be noticed by the blind. He’d assumed that when she promised him the grimoire, she’d take him to the Blue Tower to find one that connected with him. But not only did she already have one, but she smiled while handing it over.

In all of his memories, Leomaris couldn’t place a single instance in the past decade where he’d seen his mother smile.

He kept his eyes on the container. The uneasiness from the grimoire was hard to ignore, but throwing it away wasn’t an option. It was a gift, and rejecting it risked being disowned. No academy if that happened. And throwing it away meant losing his only real shot at becoming strong enough to survive.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

There was also the matter of compatibility, once matched with a grimoire, the chances of being compatible with another were very slim.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Even if they weren’t... Fifty thousand crownsmark. Roughly £50 million. That was what the main character had spent six years as a mercenary to earn, just for admission to the Helios Imperial Academy. Without a grimoire, no less. And even that had required an insane amount of luck and plot armour.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

’There’s no way I can make £50 million... I’ll be killed before I even make it past a year.’

He drew a deep breath and settled. Rosemary had always carried a soft spot for the original Leomaris. She’d given him countless trials to prove his worth, pulled his business from bankruptcy twice, and handpicked his butlers herself. She meant well.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’She also said I need to follow Rosay’s footsteps at the academy and continue the family legacy, which means I must become a better villain. She will be watching, obviously.’

He bottled his anxiety and released it all at once. Samael had never attended the academy and had no intention of doing so. The only one who had was Rosay, and the path he had to follow belonged to a lady almost as mysterious as Rosemary herself.

Even so, he embraced his situation with open arms. There was no way around it. No chance he’d be lucky enough to scrape together 50,000 in six years, and by that time, Lucius would have already tracked him down and killed him.

What truly mattered was that Rosemary didn’t want him dead. That was what he’d been trying to prevent all along. And for now, he was going to stay beneath the same protection he’d sought.

’This grimoire brings another challenge. I need to protect it until we reach the academy and I can finalise my contract.’

The fact that Rosemary would personally oversee their journey to the academy left him less anxious than he cared to be. If neither the Duke nor an unkillable villain had ever dared defy the Duchess, he had every reason to feel safe under her protection.