A Villain's Survival Guide

"You’ve gotten yourself in quite the predicament, Leo. I have seen Alicia’s ability before, and I assure you it cannot do this to your body."

Rosay said, eyes tracing the gibberish written across Leomaris’s back. The words had torn deep into his skin in ways that couldn’t be explained, arranged in a perfect square, and every wound they left behind healed over in a matter of seconds.

"I can assure you that none of Alicia’s allies could have done this either. Even if someone in her faction attacked you, they probably did so without her knowing."

Leomaris exhaled. The pain from moments ago had been unbearable enough to send them fleeing the gathering at an alarming pace, and yet it had stopped well before they made it home.

He couldn’t think of anyone capable of this. Alicia was his only suspect, and yet Rosay was vouching for her, and when he’d turned his ability on her to learn what she was truly after, he’d found nothing at all.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Are you sure you’ve never seen this language before?"

Rosay shrugged her shoulders.

"Even if it is a language, it is certainly not one of the five languages spoken in this kingdom."

Leomaris let out a pained sigh and a deserved one at that. He’d used his ability on the markings as well, hoping it might tell him something of their meaning, but nothing came of it.

That left only two possibilities: he was doing something wrong, or whoever was responsible was far stronger than he was.

"Rethink everything, Leo. You may have come into contact with someone besides Alicia."

Rosay said, getting to her feet and heading out of the living room without breaking stride.

"Who would protect me if you died? You’d better take care of this problem."

Her words unsettled something in Leomaris’s mind, but before he could think it through, Hazel appeared.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Your bath has been prepared, young master."

Almost as though his tail were on fire, Leomaris shot to his feet and made his way upstairs to his room, his mind wandering at that same uncontrollable pace.

To the best of his recollection, the only people he’d had any contact with at the gathering were Alicia, Charlotte and the maid who’d served him the dark chocolate. Charlotte and Alicia were both ruled out, it simply couldn’t be Charlotte.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’That leaves me with one person, the maid. I don’t know if her ability requires contact, but this feels like the previous attack. Could she be the one who marked me with hatred? Is this the work of Emerald’s allies?’

He rested in the bathtub, water spilling over the sides from his hands. His gaze was fixed on the white ceiling above, and even the soft scent of lavender and eucalyptus drifting up from the bath never quite reached his mind.

He could remember the maid clearly enough. Dark hair, a dark mole on her left cheek, slightly shorter than him, and if she were a student, lower-class cadets were known to take on work for extra money, which meant he could identify her without much trouble.

Even so, he was going to get to the bottom of how to use Learn properly. If this person was linked to Emerald, then, as a Magician, same as himself, they couldn’t be any stronger than he was. That meant somewhere along the way, he was using his ability wrong.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

With nearly anyone capable of coming after him, the loss of a few memories was the least of his worries. More pressing than anything else was understanding what those words on his back were truly going to do to him.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Puzzle... puzzle... puzzle... all my abilities are about treating everything like a puzzle. The description never mentioned it, but I doubt this will be any different."

A deep breath. Then he splashed some of the green water across his face.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"I just hope Raine can remove this... just like she did the last time."

—

The reddish sun rose from the east, and Chatenham came alive with it. The plants were up and running, soldiers marched toward the coast, and merchants began their rounds, and for the rich and aristocrats, it was the perfect time to draw their morning baths.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Yet there, before a mirror so pristine it looked as though the clearest water had been sealed within it, something unpleasant disturbed the surface of such fine craft.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ancient words, almost gibberish in their nature, were carved into a man’s skin with the kind of deliberate precision that spoke of months of work and the hands of the finest writer and craftsman.

This body was Leomaris’s, and he had spent the whole of the night in one position, throwing everything he had at the words on his skin, treating them like a puzzle he was determined to crack.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Being a Magician, the lowest rank, he could only work through his grimoire by way of his own understanding, using his ability on his own skills and comprehension to fill in the gaps.

There was no way around it but his own mind. He spent the entire night staring at the words until he found what he was looking for. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Through Learn, he could uncover the mysteries and secrets of those he deemed suspicious, which led him to believe their abilities were part of what it could extract. But before that, he needed to know who exactly he was dealing with.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

What made this person mysterious and secretive? The shadows. They had attacked through the shadows. That alone should have been sufficient, yet the ability seemed to require more, and so he dug deeper.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

By the rules of the universe, attacking through the shadows had to mean they were hiding something. And that was certain enough, anyone afraid of being caught had something to hide.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Would anyone who laid eyes on those words believe the one who put them there had something to hide? Without question. They were impossible to read, and the manner in which they had appeared was shrouded in mystery.

Would anyone faced with this predicament think the caster suspicious? Without a doubt. No sane person would see such an attack for anything other than what it was — a threat.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

After putting these questions to himself, he finally understood what his ability demanded of him. He was possessed by the Mystery Entity, and nothing was truly mysterious unless someone was there to wonder at it as such.

To uncover a person’s secrets and mysteries, he needed reasons and signs convincing enough that anyone but himself would see the act as mysterious.

Even where none could be found, the ability demanded he root some out before it would give him what he sought.

Then, suddenly, a chilling sensation coursed through his chest, and his heart skipped a beat.

"Learn."

The words didn’t seem to change at all, and yet their meaning floated into his mind like something he had always known.

It read:

—

Within this bound, let all malice find its mark upon thee, as though the world itself remembers thy name in shadow. And within this radius of silence, let healing lose its way, and every mercy arrive one step too late.

—

Leomaris gulped bile.

’Who the hell are these people?’