Maybe I really am a Villian

Chapter 141: Unusual

The more Solarius thought about third-party involvement, the more it made sense. But there was still something missing — something that didn’t add up.

What was in the middle of the forest that made them fight? Who was the third party involved in the incident, and how did they even lure the Voltaris family there, into the middle of the forest?

Another question nagged at him: since there were two Grandmaster-rank cultivators present — one from the Voltaris family and one from the Vermont family — there was no way mere Master-rank cultivators could have escaped alive after a fight like that.

So a Grandmaster from the third party must have been present. They fought, the Grandmasters from the Voltaris and Vermont families died, and then the third party erased all traces of their magic from the site and destroyed it with a light bomb by the time they arrived.

If that was true, then who was this third party — strong enough to kill two Grandmasters? They couldn’t be some rogue Grandmaster cultivator. There simply weren’t many rogues to begin with, and the few that existed weren’t strong enough to pull this off — that was precisely why they remained rogue in the first place; no faction wanted them.

Solarius fell silent for a moment, then muttered, "Is it the Astreans?"

But he immediately shook his head. "No — that man has no reason to start a fight now. He’d gain nothing from turning us against each other, and there’s no way he’d do it so soon after requesting light bombs just a few days ago. He’s not a fool, and there are plenty of other ways to acquire those bombs in the first place. So the fact that he took some doesn’t necessarily mean anything."

Then another possibility surfaced in his mind, and as soon as it did, his expression turned grave. "Have the demons started acting again?" he muttered in disbelief.

But then he shook his head. "No — if it had been them, the Voltaris would have informed everyone instead of attacking alone. Those creatures aren’t smart enough to think this far ahead in the first place, and they wouldn’t strike again so soon. After all, it’s only been ten years since their last defeat — they wouldn’t have recovered enough to start another war this quickly."

Solarius could think of only one remaining possibility: some lesser nobles trying to sow discord and provoke a conflict for their own benefit.

In the end, Solarius simply sighed. "No matter how much I think about it, there are still too many possibilities and no evidence to confirm any of them. But I’m certain a third party was involved, and they had some kind of leverage to lure those Voltaris bastards to the edge of the continent."

He fell silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Now I can only hope those Voltaris bastards aren’t foolish enough to think it was us. That would make things difficult, since we have no way to prove we weren’t involved."

Then Solarius clenched his fists and muttered in a slightly enraged tone, "If I find out who caused this mess, I’ll make sure they never make the mistake of targeting us again."

Meanwhile, at the Aetherium Academy, in the S classroom —

The class proceeded normally. Professor Elisa taught as she did every day, but she kept glancing at Asher, who — for once — wasn’t asleep.

Her expression remained as stern as ever, but internally she was confused and tense.

The reason was simple: Asher was behaving normally in class today. It should have been a welcome change, him finally paying attention and staying out of trouble, but Elisa couldn’t shake the worry that he was building up to cause some kind of disturbance before the day was over.

Her worries proved unfounded. The entire class passed without incident, and Asher caused no trouble throughout the session.

After class ended, as Professor Elisa prepared to leave, she glanced at Asher one last time — but said nothing, and simply left the room.

Once she was gone, the other students filed out to attend their next classes.

Asher and his teammates left the classroom as well. None of them asked much about his behavior that day, assuming it was probably just some strange reason of his own.

His teammates assumed Asher would probably head back to his room now, just like he usually did, skipping the rest of his classes for the day. It was normal for him after all, and none of them expected anything different today.

But to everyone’s surprise, Asher did not skip a single class that day.

He attended every single class, one after another, without missing even one, and this caused confusion among everyone around him. His teammates kept glancing at him throughout the day, silently wondering what had gotten into him, but none of them dared to ask directly, still thinking it was probably just some strange mood of his that would pass soon enough.

Even the professors teaching the other classes were equally confused by his behavior. They had grown used to seeing an empty seat where Asher was supposed to sit, or seeing him sleeping through the entire lecture without a care in the world, so seeing him sitting upright, actually paying attention, and following along with the lessons felt strange to them. Some of the professors even paused for a brief moment when they noticed him sitting there attentively, as if trying to confirm whether they were seeing things correctly or not. But none of them said anything about it, choosing instead to simply continue teaching like they always did, not wanting to make a big deal out of it in front of the rest of the class.

Class after class went by, and Asher remained there throughout, attending each and every one of them without a single complaint or attempt to leave early like he usually would. Whatever reason he had for this sudden change in behavior remained unknown to everyone else, but he continued sitting through his lessons all the way until the lunch break finally arrived, marking the first time in a long while that he had made it that far into the day without skipping out on his classes.