[Gluttony +1]
"Just one point. It just went down by one!"
Dark reached for another syrup pancake.
[Gluttony +1]
"It's fine. There's still plenty of room on the Gluttony meter!"
"I'll cut back starting tomorrow. I'm sure I can bring it down again."
[Gluttony +1]
Dark ate another piece of strawberry pie, then finally stopped.
He took a damp towel from the side and carefully wiped the syrup from the corners of his mouth.
"Dark, do you like sweets too?"
"Diana loves sweets!"
You like everything except beans, don't you?
Ignoring the girl's whispered voice beside him, Dark shifted his posture slightly and glanced toward the long table of the Knight Academy.
Victor Gaude already had a new student beside him, and they seemed to be getting along splendidly. If Dark's guess was right, that was the protagonist's best friend, the one who played Ron Weasley's role.
Poor best friend. He'd spent his whole life doing all the dirty work in Harry Potter, only to finally land Hermione Granger and enjoy a life of luxury as her kept man.
But in the galgame Duel! Saint Marian Academy, he was guaranteed not to land anyone!
A lonely life might well be his ultimate fate.
Dark couldn't help feeling sorry for him. At least he had a fiancée to look forward to, who'd be enrolling the following school year.
So where was the heroine who played Hermione Granger's role?
Dark glanced around a few times but didn't spot any girl who seemed especially close to the protagonist, Victor, so he looked away.
However, even after Dark had looked away, Victor's keen senses had already picked up on his gaze.
Perhaps it was because Dark stood out so much among his peers that he was hard to ignore.
"Who's that guy with eyes on his forehead?" Victor asked quietly.
Robert Broheim, his Ron counterpart, looked puzzled. "Aren't eyes on everyone's forehead?"
"Uh, I mean on his head." Victor pointed at his own forehead.
Robert shrugged. "If you mean the blond guy, that's Dark Dimon, son of Alvitr Saint Dimon, the kingdom's only duchess!"
Victor murmured, "Alvitr Dimon—the Valkyrie who's known as one of the Kingdom's Twin Swords alongside my father? Then her son should be as virtuous and righteous as a Valkyrie, and hate evil as much as she does. Maybe we could become friends?"
Robert snorted with laughter. "Victor, not everyone inherited their parents' fine qualities like you did."
"Really? But I don't even know what my parents look like..."
Afterword
"Once you're back, don't forget to use your Sorting Card to check the school rules. And finally, I hope all our new students will find their own worth here at Saint Marian Academy over the next six years!"
The opening feast ended amid the students' cheers.
Principal Arte didn't drop any plot-advancing hints like Principal Dumbledore had in Harry Potter.
That left Dark a little unsure of what to make of things.
But on second thought, even if something bad really happened, the protagonist would deal with it. What did any of it have to do with him, the villain?
He'd better just take care of himself!
Saint Marian Academy was a closed-campus school. Students weren't allowed to leave except during the holidays.
Once the gates closed, money, power, and connections were all shut out.
Knowledge, ability, and academic credits were what mattered most.
Even a duke's son would be scorned if he ended up at the bottom of the class.
Besides, everyone who got into Saint Marian Academy was a future Magister. They weren't afraid of noble authority.
Dark knew he had a bad reputation outside the school, and only students of the Noble House, who were pure-blood nobles like him, would feel any kinship with him and approach him.
That suited him just fine. Less socializing, more self-cultivation. While keeping to a carefree life, he'd study hard and find a way to remove the Demon God Bloodline before it fully awakened!
Saint Marian Academy had the deepest foundations and the largest collection of books in the kingdom, second only to the Holy Rite Academy. If he couldn't find a way to remove the Demon God Bloodline here, then he could more or less give up.
Following the older students out of the hall, they climbed the Marble Staircase, crossed a winding corridor lined with portraits, then passed over a high bridge. At last, the Noble House freshmen arrived at a tower in the academy's southwest corner—the Noble House dormitory!
Saint Marian Academy had four such towers, each with nine floors above ground.
The first floor was a shared common room.
From the second floor up, the dormitories belonged to first- through sixth-year students, one year per floor.
The eighth floor was the Duel Practice Room, and the ninth was the Observatory!
The Noble House was guarded by a magical construct shaped like a legendary creature known as the Feathered Serpent!
The Feathered Serpent had colorful wings. It was profound and wise, gentle and graceful.
It could not lie, and could see through falsehood to glimpse the truth. It was known as the "Truth Teller"!
The Noble House dormitory was the only tower among the four houses that could be entered without a token, password, or any other "key."
That was all thanks to the Feathered Serpent Golem.
Just walk past it, and it would know whether you were a Noble House student.
Dark watched Diana dash into the tower, then followed her inside.
As he passed the Feathered Serpent, the golem coiled by the door suddenly opened its eyes. Its pupils narrowed to slits, bright and alert, nothing like those of a lifeless construct!
Dark held his breath.
But the white light shining from the Feathered Serpent's eyes swept over him just once before fading.
Then the Feathered Serpent closed its eyes again, and fell silent.
Dark hurried into the tower and only then let out a long breath.
"I almost thought it had discovered the Demon God Bloodline!"
When Dark first saw that the Demon God Bloodline's awakening had a progress bar, he'd assumed he had some leeway.
But now he saw that even if it had awakened by only one percent, there was no fooling the Feathered Serpent's Eye of Truth!
"Is this what they mean by Hell difficulty?"
"Dark, what's your room number?"
Diana ran over again, Sorting Card in hand.
Still rattled, Dark glanced back at the entrance and channeled his magic into his Sorting Card as well.
The crown on the front of the card faded, revealing the information he wanted.
"Room 201."
"Huh? Diana's in 233. That's so far away!"
"We're still in the same building, aren't we?"
Dark gave her a few perfunctory replies, then quickly went up to the second floor and found the room at the far end of the corridor.
Only after entering and locking the door did he finally relax. He couldn't help but smile wryly.
"I've never felt this much pressure in either of my lives."
The dormitory was a single room with a soft bed and a private bathroom.
There was a fresh set of toiletries on the bed, along with all the textbooks for first year.
Dark finally finished making the bed, then his brain shut down from sheer exhaustion.
"I'll think about it tomorrow!"
At dawn.
Dark opened his tired eyes. A brass clock hung on the wall opposite the head of his bed, its hand pointing to six o'clock.
"Six? I think class starts at eight... I'll sleep a little longer."
[Sloth +1]
A cruel system prompt suddenly drifted across his vision.
Dark jolted upright, instantly wide awake!
"Damn... some kind of plant."
The Wrath meter didn't go up, and Dark wiped the sweat from his brow.
The least forgiving meters were Pride and Wrath. Envy and Gluttony were a little more lenient.
A quarter of an hour later.
Dark arrived in the common room on the first floor, already wearing his uniform.
The Noble House uniform was black with gold trim and a little crown on the chest. The academy had also given him a matching card case that could hold twenty-one Magitech Cards.
The common room was quiet. The Magitech Lamps on the walls lit up automatically whenever someone entered.
Having lost the pleasure of going back to sleep, Dark sat down with a dejected look and took his textbooks out of his shoulder bag one by one.
To remove the Demon God Bloodline, he needed not only to find the right method, but also to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.
Imagine finding a Magitech Book that contained the right method, only to be completely unable to understand it. How despairing would that be?
"The opposite of Sloth is diligence."
Dark picked out the textbook he'd need for his first class that day: Beginner's Guide to Summoning!
The Summoning Technique was used to awaken Magitech Cards, and was a basic spell every Magister had to master!
Summoning Class was scheduled for first period on Monday to teach new students how to summon the Familiars from their Sorting Cards!
Under the slightly yellow light, Dark Dimon opened his textbook and began studying in the otherwise empty common room.
A few minutes later, Dark settled into his studies.
In his previous life, he'd at least graduated from college and had more than enough reading comprehension.
Among the young Magisters his age, his command of the written word was probably unmatched.
"Maybe becoming a top student wouldn't be so bad?"
[Pride +1]
Dark suddenly realized he'd made progress: he'd managed not to say that plant.
When you got into the flow of studying, it actually felt pretty good.
You could feel yourself improving with every passing moment.
The desire for knowledge was innate to humanity. By constantly acquiring knowledge, exploring the unknown, and solving mysteries, people could usher in one great age after another.
After an hour of focused study.
[Greed +1]
"Damn!"
[Wrath +1]
Before you continue