As I approached the threshold, a familiar, meek woman walked directly into view.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl dragged a large, worn luggage trunk behind her. After receiving her dormitory key from the guard, she kept her head down and scurried toward what I assumed was the female dorm.
“Well, look what we have here, girls,” a pompous noblewoman said, stepping out with her group to block the path. “If it isn’t the infamous scholarship student. I bet you think you're something special just because they allowed you into the Noble Class.”
“No… no, ma’am…” Olivia replied, trembling as she backed away. ‘Keep it together, Olivia. Just keep your head down, and you won’t get into trouble.’
Annoyed by her submissive stance, the leading noblewoman lunged forward and grabbed Olivia by the hair, forcing the poor girl's head back with a great deal of force to meet her gaze.
“Please stop… you’re hurting me…” Olivia whimpered, fighting back tears of pain. “Whatever I did to upset you, please forgive—”
In broad daylight, the noblewoman punched Olivia squarely in the stomach. Taken completely by surprise, Olivia collapsed to the ground, clutching her abdomen in agony.
“Your mere presence in this Academy upsets me, commoner. Someone like you shouldn’t have the right to rub shoulders with people like us,” the noblewoman said, casually placing her leather shoe onto Olivia’s head, pinning her to the stone pavement.
Olivia looked frantically toward the Academy guards for help, but they coldly turned their backs on her, adjusting their armor as if nothing was happening. No one in the surrounding crowd paid her any mind—except for one person.
“Leave her alone, or we are going to have a serious problem,” I said, approaching them as Solaris and I interjected ourselves. “If you take issue with her being here, take it up with the Headmaster. He is the one who handles student placement.”
“Stay out of this,” the noblewoman snapped, gesturing to her beastman servant who smugly stepped forward, baring his fangs to intimidate me. “Or I’ll have George here make you—”
Without warning, I forcibly smashed through the beastman's mental barriers and exerted my raw will upon his mind. George collapsed instantly, hitting the stone pavement and writhing in silent, agonizing pain as I systematically tore apart his mind.
“Anyone else like to try their hand?” I asked coldly, my gaze drifting over to her cohorts' remaining servants. “If you know what’s good for you, escort your ladies away right now. My patience is wearing thin, and you really don’t want to see what comes afterward.”
“George!” the noblewoman shrieked, completely forgetting about Olivia as she turned to her convulsing servant. “Release him this instant! I am the second daughter of Margrave—”
“Begone!” I said, exerting a wave of heavy psychic pressure on the entire group. “If you are still here in five seconds, I will personally ensure you spend the next month recovering in the infirmary.”
The noblewomen and their servants scattered like cockroaches. I released my hold on the beastman’s mind and gestured to Solaris, who physically hoisted the dazed servant and threw him to the side of the path. Afterward, I walked over and offered Olivia a hand.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
As she reached out to take my hand, Olivia looked up and froze. Her gloomy, tear-filled eyes suddenly began to sparkle with wonder as she gazed at my face. Unsure of what was happening—as no woman in either of my lives had ever looked at me like that—I genuinely wondered if the noblewomen had given her a severe concussion.
“Ahem… are you alright?” I asked again, waving my free hand slightly.
“I am more than alright, Prince Damme…” Olivia said in a dreamy, far-off tone.
“Forgive my ignorance, but I am entirely unfamiliar with a Prince Damme,” I replied, giving her a deeply worried look. “My name is Baron Leon Fou Aremus, though you can just call me Leon. Let’s get you to the infirmary so the nurse can look at your head.”
Olivia abruptly snapped out of her daze, her face flushing bright red. She quickly accepted my hand and scrambled to her feet, completely unable to meet my gaze again.
“Forget what I just said! I… I don’t know what came over me,” Olivia stammered, dusting off her skirt.
“Who exactly is Prince Damme?” I asked, my curiosity genuinely piqued now.
Realizing she couldn't hide it, Olivia sheepishly retrieved a thick, heavily worn book from her luggage trunk. On the cover was an illustration of a man who looked strikingly similar to me, though his eyes were a piercing, pale blue.
“Prince Damme is a character in a book series I love reading. You looked so much like the illustration that I… well, I thought you were him for a split second,” Olivia admitted, hiding her face behind the cover.
“Interesting. No one has ever compared me to a book character before. Is it a niche series?” I asked, wanting to know more.
“It is one of the kingdom’s best-selling novel series! There are twelve books already, with a thirteenth currently in the works,” Olivia said, trying her absolute utmost not to stare at my face anymore.
I found her quite endearing, much like Roxanne and Yunyun. Since I had already interjected myself into her life, I embraced my good fortune with open arms.
“If you don’t mind, may I accompany you to your dorm room?” I asked gently. “I want to make sure those women know to keep their distance and leave you be from now on.”
Olivia quickly accepted the offer, eager to avoid further conflict with her peers. I picked up her worn luggage trunk and gestured for her to lead the way. With a beaming smile, Olivia walked closely beside me as we began trading stories about ourselves.
---3rd Person POV---
Angelica and her father stood near the edge of the courtyard, silently watching Leon and Olivia walk away. They had witnessed the entire exchange and were thoroughly impressed by Leon's decisive actions. On the Academy grounds, high-born women held immense social power because they knew their male peers were desperate to secure marriage partners. Few men would ever dare raise a hand against a Margrave’s daughter, yet Leon had done so without a shred of hesitation simply to protect someone in need.
“Do you understand now why the Headmaster was so insistent that no one challenge him?” Vince said, his voice heavy with disappointment as he looked toward the path where the arrogant noblewomen had fled. ‘Our citizens are the true lifeblood of this kingdom. If we mistreat them, they will abandon us and leave our homeland destitute.’
“Yes, I do,” Angelica replied softly, resolving right then and there never to cross him. “I cannot believe those women were bold enough to act that way in broad daylight. In any other setting, they would have been severely berated for behaving so aggressively.”
“It appears the Academy’s moral compass has diminished since my time here,” Gilbert noted, walking over with his eyes narrowed as he glared at the Academy guards who had so callously ignored Olivia’s plight. “With your permission, Father, I would like to have a firm word with the Headmaster. Such behavior cannot be tolerated in a noble establishment.”
Vince nodded, permitting his son to speak with the administration on his behalf. As Gilbert walked away toward the main building, Vince turned his attention back to Angelica, recalling the topic they had discussed over dinner the previous night.
“My subordinates are keeping a close eye on the Lafan girl. She attempted to intercept the Royal carriage this morning, but my people successfully thwarted her,” Angelica said, a deep scowl forming on her face. “But I feel like there is more to this story than we are seeing. Father, should we look into House Lafan’s finances?”
“Hmm… Do you truly think that is necessary?” Vince asked, wanting to understand his daughter’s line of thought.
“To start, she somehow knew the royal carriage's exact route before they departed this morning. That is no mere coincidence. Someone leaked that information to her,” Angelica replied, her voice tightening. “Last night, she knew precisely how and when to approach the Prince and his friends. I have spent my entire life learning all I can about Prince Julius, yet I never knew he had a weakness for klutzy maidens. She seems to know more about his private preferences than I do, and it has me thoroughly rattled.”
Vince had initially put little thought into the matter, but Angelica's analysis was undeniable. Marie knew the Prince’s specific tastes better than Angelica—a woman who had been meticulously raised from childhood to meet his exact requirements.
“You may very well be onto something, dear. I will have my people look into House Lafan’s finances immediately and see what they dig up. For the sake of the nation, I sincerely hope you are mistaken. If an enemy force has already worked its way into the Palace corridors, we are in deep trouble,” Vince said, wrapping his arms around his daughter for one last hug before heading back to his vehicle. “By the way, I pulled a few strings last night to ensure Miss Lafan quickly learns she is entirely unwelcome here.”
“What exactly does that mean?” Angelica asked, suddenly uncertain if she truly wanted to know the details.
Not wanting to burden his daughter with the cold realities of political maneuvering just as her school year began, Vince simply told her to focus on enjoying her first semester at the Academy. With a final wave, he boarded the carriage, and the driver set off toward his first meeting of the day.
While Angelica joined her supporters, Leon and Olivia entered the women’s dormitory. After the public humiliation Leon had dealt the Marquis’s daughter, the surrounding students wisely scrambled out of his way. As they stepped off the magic lift onto the second floor, an all too familiar face and her feline beastman servant were already waiting for them.
With her arms tightly crossed, Leon’s older sister, Jenna Fou Bartfort, glowered at him. “Just what in the hell were you thinking, little brother? You humiliated a Marquis’s daughter and her entourage in broad daylight! Go apologize to them immediately before I get caught up in the disaster you just created.”
“As always, it’s an absolute pleasure to see you, older sister,” Leon said, his voice dripping with heavy sarcasm. “Now, if you and your sex toy would be so kind as to move out of my way, I would appreciate it.”
Enraged, Jenna stormed toward Leon to berate him further. Before she could even get within arm's reach, Solaris stepped squarely between them, radiating a palpable, mechanical fury.
<Rawr!! >
Jenna took the hint, instantly freezing and taking several hasty steps back.
“You’ve changed since the last time we saw each other,” Jenna said, her eyes narrowing as she reassessed the situation. “What happened to you?”
“Until now, I kept things civil under our parents' roof to avoid causing them additional stress. We are no longer living together, so I can finally drop the act and be exactly who I’ve always been,” Leon replied, his gaze locking onto hers with flat indifference. “Though we may no longer share the same last name, we are still family. If you experience any actual fallout because of my actions, just let me know and I will handle it.”
In that brief, silent second, Leon shifted his eyes to her feline servant. Miauler met his gaze, and an immediate, freezing shiver ran violently down the beastman's spine.
“If you ever consider harming my family, they will never find your body,” Leon’s voice echoed directly inside Miauler’s mind, cold and absolute. “I know your true loyalty isn't to Jenna; it’s to the faction you’re secretly working for. Send Marquis Frampton my regards.”
Miauler’s face contorted in sheer terror. No one in the capital was supposed to know he was a sleeper agent for the Frampton faction. The original Leon never would have discovered this treachery until it was entirely too late, but this Leon already held the future in the palm of his hand.
“Be seeing you,” Leon said aloud, giving a curt nod to Jenna before stepping past them.
As they walked further down the hallway, Jenna looked up at her feline servant with mild concern. She naturally assumed his pale, trembling expression was just worry over Leon knowing what the two of them did in their private hours.
“Leon is a massive pain, but he isn’t a snitch. You don’t have to worry about him running to Father,” Jenna said, grabbing his hand and pulling him back toward the lift. “Come on, we’ve still got a few hours to kill before classes officially start.”
“...Right…” Miauler replied, his voice hollow as he followed her lead. ‘I have to warn my allies and handlers immediately. Our intelligence network has been exposed.’
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