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Lockhwin University stood like a monument to power itself—its towers forged from reinforced alloy, its courtyards threaded with shimmering ley‐lines, its classrooms built to withstand the force of a small nuclear blast. For generations, it had been the single institution where the children of heroes and villains were molded, measured, and sorted. Not by morality—Lockhwin didn’t care about that—but by potential. By lineage. By the weight of one’s legacy.

The lower‐rank students trained in modest halls, learning basic combat and civic protocol. The elite, however, were thrown into the crucible: brutal coursework and public “social assignments,” designed to simulate real hero–villain conflict. It was a system that produced legends—and broke the rest.

Lachlan Sarmiento had never known a life outside that pressure. As the eldest son of the greatest hero in Lockhwin’s history, he was the university’s shining symbol. The Golden Boy on campus. Teachers adored him. Students admired him. Administrators paraded him like a trophy.

But Lachlan carried a secret that could shatter his perfect image: he was hopelessly, disastrously in love with the daughter of the greatest supervillain ever born. His destined rival. His future archnemesis. And today, for their midterm demonstration, they were being forced to spar.

Lockhwin University had a way of throwing them together at the worst times.

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