The girl called me a hero.
She said it with trembling awe—like the word could lift me higher.
But all I could do… was laugh.
Not loudly. Not maniacally.
Just a soft, broken chuckle that tasted like rust.
Because when that monster screamed…
When it melted beneath my hands…
When that blue fire coiled around my veins like a serpent given freedom—
I didn't feel righteous.
I didn't feel relieved.
I felt…
alive.
The kingdom was talking now.
Whispers behind silk drapes and armored doors.
"Who is he?"
"Not Kael?"
"A new mage?"
"Was that even holy magic?"
Kael had returned by then. He walked into the council chamber, blade gleaming, smile painted on like always.
And for the first time…
he looked at me like I was something more than scenery.
"You acted recklessly," he said, voice honeyed but hard.
"You should've waited."
I tilted my head.
Smiled like a coin just flipped.
"You're right," I said. "I should've let her die."
Gasps.
Eyes wide.
Even the princess bit her tongue.
But I didn't stop there.
"But I didn't. And you weren't there. So I saved her. With power none of you can explain."
Then I leaned forward, close enough to smell the pride souring in his breath.
"Maybe the story doesn't need you anymore."
They didn't imprison me.
They didn't exile me.
No. They did something worse.
They watched.
Every step. Every blink. Every muttered word.
Because they didn't fear the monster I killed…
They feared me.
And gods, how I adored it.
At night, the fire calls to me.
It whispers names.
Not of villains.
Not of demons.
But nobles.
Knights.
Kael.
Their secrets curl inside me like smoke, unraveling their glory thread by thread.
And I write it all down.
Not in ink.
In fire.
The kingdom birthed a savior in gold.
But from its shadows, it forged something else.
A boy no one chose.
A name no one cheered.
A side character who stopped waiting for the pen.
"Let them tremble," I whisper now.
"I'm not the villain in their story…
I'm the author of their end."