The Royal Knight Academy stood on the western side of Imperial Capital Sacrifice. Unlike the Magic Academy, with its elegance and mystery, this place was steeped in masculinity, iron discipline, and order. Its towering gray stone walls, vast training grounds, shouts of drills rising and falling, and the mingled scents of sweat, leather, and steel set the tone.
Leon had just finished a day—or rather, another near-death extra training session under Captain Hans's "special attention." He felt as though every bone in his body was about to come apart and every muscle was screaming. Sweat soaked through his coarse training clothes, clinging to him, sticky and cold. Dragging his leaden legs, he shuffled along with a crowd of equally exhausted students toward the academy gates, head bowed and spirits low. All he wanted was to get back to Count Strauss's Mansion, take a hot bath, and collapse into bed.
But fate seemed to enjoy springing "surprises" on him when he was at his most wretched.
As he trudged along with his head down, wondering whether to keep poring over Fundamentals of Magical Mechanics that night or simply pass out, a familiar female voice, sharp and haughty, cracked across his ears like a whip:
"Raymond! Over here! What took you so long? I've been waiting forever!"
Leon instinctively looked up. In an instant, his blood seemed to freeze.
At the academy's imposing gates, amid the bustling crowd, stood a figure as dazzling as a flame, hands on her hips and impatience written all over her face. Her curly red hair looked like a burning sunset, her eyes as green as cat's-eye gems, and her delicate features carried an air of spoiled arrogance. Even at the Knight Academy gates, she made no effort to hide the finery of her scarlet mage's robe or its magical aura. Who else could it be but Eleanor Soros?
She had clearly come to meet someone. Beside her stood a tall boy in a knight cadet uniform, his face bearing a five- or six-point resemblance to Eleanor's. He scratched his head and gave her an awkward smile, his eyes and brows marked by a young man's defiance. It was her younger brother, Raymond Soros—the hanger-on who was "in the same tier" as Leon, meaning they were both Intermediate Knights, even though Leon was two years older.
Leon's heart clenched. Almost by reflex, he tried to lower his head and disappear into the crowd. Good heavens, why had he run into her here?! And looking like this—filthy, disheveled, and reeking of sweat...
But it was too late.
Eleanor had been looking at her brother, Raymond. The moment Leon looked up, though, her sharp gaze snapped toward him as if drawn by a magnet. Their eyes met!
Time seemed to stop.
Leon's brain went buzz, then blank. A moment later, an utterly uncontrollable torrent of memories surged up from the deepest part of this body—memories belonging to its original owner, Leon von Hohenzollern, laced with intense desire, shame, embarrassment, and a sick kind of excitement. They crashed through the walls of his reason like a dam bursting!
A summer afternoon... the women's section outside the mist-shrouded royal baths... a vine-covered window ledge... a fleeting glimpse through a crack of snow-white skin... fiery red curls clinging wetly to a smooth back... droplets tracing the hollow of a delicate waist... and, when he was caught, that face flushed with fury, all the more striking for it, followed by a scream that nearly split his eardrums and a furious chase...
The images were terrifyingly vivid, carrying the original Leon's thrill at getting away with spying and the shuddering guilt of being caught. Like the fiercest aphrodisiac, they mingled with Eleanor's scorching gaze, filled with disdain, fury, and condescending scrutiny, and surged against the nerves of Leon—his new soul—with irresistible force!
"Pfft—!"
Two warm, metallic-tasting streams burst uncontrollably from Leon's nostrils!
He could even feel the heat tickling the ridge beneath his nose, then the salty taste as drops landed on his dry lips.
The whole world seemed to fall silent. The students' chatter and footsteps around him faded into the distance. Leon stood frozen, head still raised, his gaze vacant as bright-red nosebleed dripped from his chin onto the front of his grimy training clothes, quickly spreading into two glaring dark-red stains.
He was completely dazed. It was as if his soul had left his body, floating above and looking down at the shell named "Leon," standing there like an idiot with blood pouring from his nose.
Eleanor Soros had clearly seen it, too. She froze for a moment, then her emerald eyes flared with fury and utter disgust! She knew exactly why that bastard was bleeding from the nose! That damn peeping incident years ago was one of the greatest humiliations of her life! That lecherous, shameless, filthy good-for-nothing! He had actually... actually started bleeding the instant he saw her, just from remembering that sordid business?!
"Leon! Hohenzollern!" Eleanor practically forced his name through clenched teeth. Her voice trembled with rage as she tightened her grip on her staff. The ruby at its tip began to flicker with an unstable, dangerous light, and the air around them suddenly grew hotter. "You... you damned pervert! How dare you... how dare you even think about it?!"
Raymond Soros finally caught on, too. The sixteen-year-old knight cadet might have been Leon's equal in strength, but he was impulsive and fiercely devoted to defending his sister. Seeing Leon in that state and hearing Eleanor's furious scolding sent his blood surging. He stepped forward, placed himself in front of her, and pointed at Leon's nose as he cursed:
"Hohenzollern! You've got a death wish! You're still lusting after my sister with those filthy eyes?! Believe me, I'll break your dog legs right here!"
The students around them noticed the confrontation and stopped to stare, curiosity, surprise, and schadenfreude on their faces. The Hohenzollern family's good-for-nothing facing off against the fiery Soros siblings—now that was a rare bit of entertainment! Several people began whispering:
"Look! It's that good-for-nothing Leon!"
"What happened to him? Is his nose bleeding?"
"Why else? He must've seen Miss Eleanor and remembered the nasty things he did before, right?"
"Honestly, some people never change..."
"Is Raymond going to hit him? This should be good!"
Their stares and gossip pricked at Leon like needles. At last, he came back to himself a little, and a crushing wave of shame doused him in ice water, snapping him fully awake! He frantically wiped at his nose with the back of his hand, only to smear the blood all over his face and make himself look even more wretched.
"N-no! Miss Eleanor... you've got it wrong!" Leon tried to explain. Panic and blood running down his throat gave him a thick, nasal voice that sounded ridiculous. "I... I trained too hard. I'm overheated!"
Faced with the damning scene right in front of her, his feeble excuse sounded utterly unconvincing.
"Overheated?" Eleanor shook with rage, fury practically blazing from her emerald eyes. "You're overheated because of me?! Leon Hohenzollern, I'm warning you! Stay away from me! Look at me again, and I'll use Scorching Ray to burn those disgusting eyes out of your head!"
The red light of her staff flared, and the fire element in the air stirred violently. If not for the fact that they were at the Knight Academy gates, where instructors and rules kept people in check, she might really have lost control and attacked him.
Raymond had already rolled up his sleeves. A faint red aura began to shimmer around him as he glared at Leon. "You good-for-nothing! You've got the nerve to do it but not own up to it? If you're a man, step up and face me in the dueling arena! I'll beat the shit out of you!"
A duel? In Leon's current state, he'd be walking straight into a beating! The little bit of unstable battle aura inside him barely got him through regular training, let alone a fight with Raymond, who was both his equal in strength and at the peak of his fury.
Fear, shame, and a trace of anger at the original Leon's misdeeds tangled together until Leon wanted the ground to swallow him whole. He backed away, waving his hands incoherently. "It's a misunderstanding! Really! I'm leaving! I'm going!"
He no longer cared about his pride or wiping the blood from his face. He turned and stumbled through the crowd like a startled rabbit, fleeing in the direction of Count Strauss's Mansion. Behind him, he heard Eleanor's furious scoff, Raymond's contemptuous snort, and the students' undisguised laughter.
This was definitely the most humiliating, most mortifying, most blow-up-on-the-spot moment Leon had experienced since arriving in this world!
He ran until he rounded a street corner and could no longer see the Knight Academy gates or hear those piercing voices. Only then did he lean against the cold wall, panting heavily. His face was a mess of sweat, tears from shame and anger, and drying blood.
"Damn it... damn the original owner!" Leon punched the wall. Pain shot through his knuckles, but it was nothing compared to the humiliation and anger in his heart. The body's leftover reflexes were a complete disaster! He'd made a total fool of himself and thoroughly enraged Eleanor Soros, a woman who never forgot a grudge!
He slumped to the ground, feeling the exhaustion in his body and the wounds to his spirit, and was overcome by a profound sense of helplessness about the future. Surviving in this world meant not only facing open and hidden threats but also being on guard against the "surprises" brought on by this body's treacherous instincts!
Unnoticed on his left wrist, the dull-gray bracelet had given an almost imperceptible flash at the moment his emotions had surged and his blood had boiled—when his nose began to bleed. It seemed to have been stirred by some powerful emotional upheaval, but a moment later, it had fallen silent again.
Today's encounter had drenched him in cold water and jolted him awake. In this world, he had to get stronger, but he also had to learn to take complete control of this body and... clean up the mess the original owner had left behind! Otherwise, he'd keep finding himself in humiliating situations like this. Elisa's Coming-of-Age Ceremony hadn't even arrived, and a new problem had already come knocking.
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