Never Die Villain

"...."

Ilya couldn’t think of anything to say.

Angela, of all people, dropping out of the Magic Department was difficult to imagine. She had never been an exceptional student, and from what Ilya remembered, her grades were fairly average, but she had always known enough to keep up with the curriculum without much trouble.

More importantly, she had been the first person to seriously help him when he’d decided to transfer Departments.

Back when Ilya was still struggling through the fundamentals, Angela had offered him her notes without being asked, explained whatever concepts she could, and even volunteered to tutor him on the basics whenever their schedules allowed it.

"Why?" Ilya finally asked. "Angela was doing fine here. She wasn’t failing anything, was she?"

"It wasn’t because of her grades."

"Then what happened?"

"Same shit, different people. You know we weren’t exactly the most popular bunch in either Department."

"...."

Angela had always been part of their group despite belonging to the Magic Department, just like Gustav.

"From what I heard, some noble kids here started fucking with her. You know how it is. Angela has a title attached to her name, but her family isn’t important enough for anyone to actually care."

"...."

Angela was a noble, but only barely as far as the academy’s social hierarchy was concerned.

Her family held neither enough land nor influence to stand against the larger Houses, which often left people like her in an awkward position where they were expected to participate in noble society without having any of the power that made others respect them.

"Apparently, they started threatening her family," Gustav continued. "Not anything they could openly get punished for. Just shit like reminding her that their parents knew people in her territory, that her father’s business could suddenly have problems, or that certain contracts didn’t have to be renewed. That kind of thing."

"Over what?"

"Who fucking knows? Maybe she pissed off the wrong girl. Maybe they just thought she was easy to push around."

Gustav flicked some ash from his cigarette.

"Whatever happened, Angela stopped coming to class after a few days. Then I found out she’d withdrawn from the academy."

"And she never told any of us?"

"Would you have known even if she tried?"

"...."

That one landed harder than Ilya wanted it to.

Charles was dead. Angela had dropped out. Adrian was already gone, and Ilya had been so consumed by his own problems that he hadn’t even noticed their little group was falling apart around him.

"...And the others—"

"We’re not doing this, Ilya." Gustav cut him off before he could finish. "We’re not gonna stand here all day while I catch you up on every single thing that happened while you were gone. The point is, just... let’s stop, okay?"

Ilya frowned. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"This. All of us hanging around like we’re still some happy little group."

Gustav threw what remained of his cigarette onto the ground and crushed it beneath his shoe.

"Let’s just leave each other alone. The others don’t want to blame you..."

"...."

"...But fuck it, I do. I never liked you to begin with, Ilya."

"...."

For the first time since they had started talking, Gustav looked directly at him.

"I hung around you because everyone else did. The others liked you, so whatever, I went along with it."

He shoved both hands into his pockets.

"But you always had this way of acting like none of this shit mattered to you. People talked shit about us, you didn’t care. People treated us like trash, you didn’t care. And I used to think that was because you were just that fucking calm."

Gustav let out a humorless laugh.

"Turns out you could afford not to care."

"...."

"You were a Belozersky. Nobody was ever going to do to you what they did to Charles, and apparently, just standing next to you was enough to keep them from doing it to us either. Then the moment you found somewhere else you wanted to be, you disappeared, and the rest of us finally found out just how much of that protection had been coming from you."

"...I didn’t know."

"I know you didn’t!" Gustav snapped. "That’s what pisses me off!"

His voice echoed through the area, and for several seconds afterward, neither of them spoke.

Gustav eventually rubbed a hand across his face, and whatever anger had pushed the words out of him seemed to lose some of its force.

"And maybe that isn’t fair to you. Maybe you really do have a good reason for disappearing, and if you told me everything, maybe I’d even understand."

He shook his head.

"But I don’t want to understand right now, Ilya! Charles just fucking killed himself!"

"...."

"I’m angry, and right now, I blame you. Maybe I’ll feel differently later, but right now, every time I look at you, that’s all I’m going to think about."

Gustav stepped away from the wall and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets.

"So just leave it alone."

Gustav stepped away from the wall.

"Go back to the Magic Department and hang around with all those girls you’ve been spending your time with lately. Seems like you’re doing pretty fucking well for yourself over there anyway."

Gustav had already started walking away when Ilya reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder.

The moment Gustav turned around, Ilya’s fist slammed straight into his face, knocking his head to the side and sending him stumbling several steps back.

"Hey." Ilya grabbed him by the collar. "You can say whatever the fuck you want about me. Blame me for Charles, call me an asshole, I don’t care. But don’t start painting some fucking picture in your head like I abandoned everyone because I was off having the time of my life somewhere else."

Gustav slowly turned his face back toward him.

Blood had begun running from the corner of his mouth, but rather than getting angry, he just stared at Ilya for a few seconds before his lips gradually curled into a smile.

Then he laughed.

"Hah... Hahaha..."

Ilya’s grip tightened. "What the fuck is so funny?"

"No, nothing." Gustav wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "I was just wondering what I’m supposed to do now. Hit you back?"

"Go ahead."

"Oh, sure." Gustav laughed again. "Then tomorrow your scary fucking father hears somebody punched his precious son, and suddenly I’ve got the Grand Duke of the North knocking on my door. Hell, why stop with me? Maybe he’ll have my father dragged out too. My mother, my brothers, everyone. Might as well wipe out the whole family while he’s at it."

"...."

Ilya’s expression immediately soured.

"There it is again."

"What?"

"That." Ilya shoved him back before releasing his collar. "You don’t know a fucking thing about my family."

"And you don’t know a fucking thing about mine."

The two stood there in silence, and for a moment, neither seemed willing to move. Gustav still had that bitter smile on his face, while Ilya could feel whatever anger had driven him to throw the punch quickly turning into frustration.

"Tsk."

Ilya clicked his tongue and turned away.

"Whatever."

He shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking, no longer interested in explaining himself to someone who had already decided what kind of life he lived.

Gustav didn’t call after him, and Ilya didn’t bother looking back.

This time, they really did go their separate ways.

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