Levi and Eliza didn't look once at each other, but Levi knew she hated him—not just an act but from the depth of her soul. She loathed his face, his voice, his presence. Everything about him was like a centipede crawling down her ear.
Eliza closed her eyes, remembering the first time she ever met Levi.
"Did you forget the first day we bumped into each other in the corridor to the professor's office?"
The current Levi didn't remember a thing, but Eliza wouldn't understand his circumstances, so he lied.
"Yes, I wonder whose fault it was."
Levi was sarcastically trying to extract every detail of the event, and it was working. Eliza didn't like how Levi was trying to make her reminisce about something she wouldn't want to hear again. Her hate increased even more.
"I will admit it was my own fault for running down the hall, but hey, at least you could have dodged it, considering how adept you are at dodging my attacks."
Levi didn't answer, and Eliza started explaining the whole event in detail.
That day, Eliza ran down the corridor because she was late as Fiona's teaching assistant, and being late on the first day wasn't good for Eliza's hardworking reputation. She ran down the entire hall and, during a sharp turn, her head bumped into Levi's chest.
'Shit.'
Eliza touched her head and shook it to see a boy right across the wall, feeling his head that hit the wall. Immediately she stood up, lending out her hand for help.
"I am so sorry...I am really sorry....I am really really sorry"
She kept apologizing waiting for Levi to say something or at take her hand.
With a shy and flustered expression, Levi took her hand. Before he took it, he stopped momentarily to look at her face. Eliza could feel the change in his aura immediately.
Behind those eyes hidden by his long hair, she could tell his look wasn't as shy as it seemed. Hate, absolute hate—she didn't know why he looked at her like that.
'Did he hit his head too hard? Don't tell me—did he get some concussion?'
Which was partially true, as she could see blood trickling down his forehead, then the sculpted nose, then on the floor. With panic, Eliza took out a weird handkerchief with some flower designs woven into it. The handkerchief wasn't well made; it wasn't proportionate on all sides, and the flower design wasn't the best. It made no sense why the silver-spoon Lieza would carry such a handkerchief.
"That handkerchief meant a lot to me."
Eliza finally looked at Levi, asking him back for it. Levi remembered seeing such a handkerchief in his room but not in the drawer—in the dustbin in his toilet beneath all the used tissue papers. Levi, at first, didn't want to touch the handkerchief but still picked it out, washed it, and just kept it in his closet.
'I didn't know that handkerchief had such a history.'
Eliza started explaining what had happened that day, eventually looking at Levi and judging him. She remembered not hesitating even a second, taking out her precious cloth and immediately wiping the blood off Levi. There was a small cut right on the scar.
"I am soooo sorry. I shouldn't have run in the hallway. Come on, let's go to the—"
Before she finished talking, Levi snatched her cloth and pressed it on his wound.
"Are your eyes for decoration?"
Eliza was a bit taken aback by his rude answer, but she didn't mind it much.
'It's my fault.'
"It was truly a mistake, and you can even complain to the administration, but at first, let's go to the infirmary."
Eliza truly apologized from the depths of her heart, but Levi just laughed it off.
"Complain to the administration?"
Levi laughed, both hands on his forehead and now smeared in blood.
"If I complain, do you think they will punish you? You are the fu*king heir of the Lionheart family. Forget about punishing you—they will cut my tongue, roast it, and feed it to your hounds."
Levi's unexpected rage sent a shudder through Eliza. Yes, she was at fault, but cursing at her in this manner did offend her.
'He's not thinking right… just don't argue with him.'
Eliza took a breath and calmed herself, again reaching her hand out.
"Curse me as much as you want, but you need treatment immediately."
She was trying her best to persuade Levi, but none of her words were getting through to him; he didn't even acknowledge that she was worried for him.
"The administration wouldn't punish you for running in the hall. They would have punished me for not moving for the fu*king heir of a Duke."
Now, Eliza couldn't control her anger. She snapped back at him.
"What's your problem? I already apologized and will even admit my mistakes to the professors, but I don't think I deserve to get cursed at even when I am trying to help you."
Eliza had every right to be angry. She caused a mess and wanted to make up for it, but how could she when Levi just wouldn't stop barking at her.
"Trying to help me after adding more to my scar. You nobles are the same hypocrites through and through, all of you, especially your dead mother."
Eliza's blood boiled; her whole body was now surrounded by embers of Lion's flame. Her hand went straight for Levi's neck and choked him.
"Take that back."
"NO."
"I said… TAKE THAT BACK."
She shouted, her voice reverberating throughout the hallway, but nobody came out to check what was happening. Seeing Levi so nonchalant, her grip tightened. Levi started punching her hands and scratching them, but she didn't even budge.
"Why do you have to bring my mother into this? What did she ever do to you?"
Levi stopped punching and laughed out loud. It was a laugh filled with the utmost joy Eliza had ever seen a human experience.
"Your… she deserved it. Getting trapped in the dungeon as her life withers away and suffering there fills me with joy."
Eliza, seeing the madness in Levi, let go of him. Just touching him made her hand jolt back, and her body shook in disgust.
"You… why do you even say those things when you know it is going to hurt someone ? Do you not feel even a bit of sympathy or guilt for what you said?"
Eliza didn't want to resort to violence. She did try to choke him, because she couldn't control herself.
'Maybe the blood loss is getting to him.'
She tried to reason with herself for Levi's atrocious words.
Levi, on the other hand, just stood there, still laughing, now his clothes and hair covered in blood. He pulled his hair back and pressed the cloth against his wound.
Eliza couldn't help but gulp seeing those red eyes, filled with joy and madness. His body kept jolting in happiness like a child. His smile spread wide across his face, and blood slowly painted his teeth crimson.
Levi now looked like a monster.
"Feeling pity for you?… I would rather die… whatever is happening to your mother in the dungeon, I hope it gets even worse, and I hope you keep suffering every day knowing that your mother is fighting those monsters, without a chance to leave."
"Sympathy for you, don't make me laugh. That is your own karma."
The string holding onto Eliza's rationality snapped.
'I will kill you.'
Eliza was about to summon the Lion's flame and burn Levi alive but before she could a door in the hall opened and a female professor, holding stack of papers walked out.
The professor looked on her side, to her horror, to see a student already injured on the first day and the famous ELiza next to him. Worried they had gotten into a fight, she quickly approached them dropping her papers and asked how they managed to get into this.
Levi's shy demeanor returned to him as he shook his head, splattering blood everywhere.
"We didn't fight, professor. We bumped into each other, and I hit my head. I just need to head to the infirmary."
The professor breathed a sigh of relief. She breathed a sigh of relief and accompanied Levi for treatment. She couldn't help but give a small bow to Eliza, who was in a higher social ranking than her.
Eliza, shocked, confused, and angry, kept looking at Levi. Her hands clenched, and her inner self barely stopped her from attacking. Levi turned back and gave her a smirk and went his way.
Eliza would never forget the smile, even if she wanted to. It was now in her long-term memory. Her first day was ruined.
After that, she couldn't do anything properly. Levi's narcissistic smile and those vile words rang in her ears every time. The ear worm just wouldn't get out, and the worst part, he was in her class. The more he came into her vision, the more she hoped she was blind. She hated him truly, and soon her hate grew so much she didn't want him in the academy nor anywhere near her ever again.
Eliza thought about hiring assassins to kill him, but the 0.1% pity left for Levi didn't let her. Instead, she approached Jack, whose father worked under her family.
"My lady, it is an honor to be of use to you. What should I do—"
"Get him out of my sight. Spread rumors calling him a 'freak.' Make his school life miserable so that he won't be able to ever step foot in the class or the academy itself. Do whatever you can; if you need money, come to me. But, that freak should have left the academy in a month."
Her hate reached such heights that she didn't even care if he was bullied. She didn't think right, but she didn't regret what she said to Jack.
'Why would I need to feel pity for someone who never felt it for me? It's your own karma.'
She wanted Levi's words to bite him back.
Eliza finished telling why she loathed Levi. She looked at him to see if he felt at least something, but right now, his expression pissed her off even more when he smiled at her in the corridor.
"I still hate you and will never forgive you, no matter what you say or what you do."
She stood up and walked away without saying anything to Fiona, straight to the dorm, frustrated and resolved to be even stronger.
Levi, on the other hand, needed time to process what he had just heard.
'Why are human emotions so complicated?'
The psycho found it hard to comprehend what he had never felt.