The next day, before heading to the academy, I seriously thought about how many challenges would come my way.
“Maybe around ten?”
“Hmm… I’d say about fifty?”
As I was getting ready for school, Nia, who was sitting beside me watching, grinned and shared her own guess.
I tilted my head slightly, smiling faintly at her response.
“Isn’t that a bit too much?”
“Well, I don’t think it’s that many.”
At first, I thought Nia was just joking, but when I glanced at her expression, she looked completely serious.
“Do you have a reason for thinking that?”
When I asked her opinion, she rested a finger on her cheek, seeming to ponder for a moment, before flashing a mischievous smile and replying.
“I felt it yesterday.”
“…You felt it?”
“All the gazes directed at you yesterday—I could sense it from them.”
Every new student at the academy knew that a placement test would follow the entrance ceremony.
So, it was possible that some had already decided to challenge me after realizing I was the student with Ophelia’s recommendation.
I let out a small, bitter smile at Nia’s words and nodded, glancing at my reflection in the mirror.
“I see.”
No matter how much my contracts with spirits had heightened my sensitivity to others’ emotions, compared to a true spirit like Nia, my abilities were nothing more than child’s play.
So even if I hadn’t noticed it myself, if Nia had, then she was probably right.
Taking a long breath, I naturally brushed my bangs aside and gazed at my reflection with cool, steady eyes.
It wasn’t fear I felt—just a quiet acceptance of the situation.
“Even better.”
I had already braced myself for this.
And whether it was fifty or even a hundred, no matter how many people sent me duel requests, only a limited number would actually be able to face me.
At most, three per day.
There was nothing to fear.
And having many challengers didn’t bother me at all.
“Because I’m planning to defeat them all anyway.”
Whether it was the top student or the second.
Whether they used swords or magic.
It didn’t matter who came at me.
I was going to crush them all.
That was my decision from the very beginning.
And nothing would ever change that.
These three years were for that very purpose.
With that, I exhaled lightly and stepped forward into the academy.
Starting today, we were officially allowed to submit duel requests, but those who had already decided on their opponents had likely submitted them yesterday.
For example, that guy who spoke to me yesterday…
What was his name again?
‘The one with blue hair.’
I couldn’t quite remember his name, but his distinct pale blue hair had left an impression.
Anyway, that guy had probably already sent me a duel request.
But such trivial matters didn’t concern me.
After all, I was in the position of waiting.
I had no intention of sending out any duel requests myself—I was the one being challenged.
No.
‘As long as I’m at the academy, I’ll always be the one receiving challenges.’
If those who challenged me this time weren’t up to my standards, I had considered sending a duel request to the student who ranked first in the entrance exam.
But that was merely a last resort.
I was well aware that there would be no shortage of people sending me duel requests at the academy.
Step. Step.
As I walked through the academy with steady strides, I could feel the countless gazes fixated on me from all directions.
Brushing off the uncomfortable sensation, I lowered my eyes, letting them grow cold.
[This feels disgusting.]
‘…Just bear with it for a bit.’
Nia, who was quietly nestled in the form of a cat inside my jacket, muttered in a low voice.
I gave her a small, bitter smile to soothe her as I continued searching for Class 1-A.
[Humans, really…]
Nia didn’t like humans very much.
It was only natural—after all, it was humans who had cornered and oppressed the spirits.
[Of course, you’re an exception, Luen. You know that, right?]
‘I do.’
She hastily added that, as if afraid I might misunderstand.
Smiling faintly at her concern, I kept walking—only to come to a sudden halt when I saw someone standing in my way.
“L-Luen…!”
Clench.
I struggled to maintain my composure, but it was useless.
I found myself grinding my teeth as I instinctively took a step back, my gaze turning icy as I stared at her.
She looked up at me hesitantly, as if feeling guilty.
Her mere presence was so repulsive that I could hardly stand it.
“Lady Hocrux.”
Even just saying her family name—her name—was nauseating, but I maintained the utmost courtesy.
From the moment I entered the academy, I had anticipated that I would eventually run into Emil again.
That was why I had prepared myself for this moment.
Because now was not the time for revenge, I knew better than anyone that I had to keep my emotions in check.
Yet, the words that escaped my lips were colder than ice.
I exhaled slowly, maintaining an air of decorum, while she gazed at me with her large, pale blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
“Luen…”
“What brings you here?”
No matter how close we had once been—no matter that we had even been engaged—now that the engagement had been annulled, we were nothing to each other.
That meant we had to conduct ourselves with the appropriate formality.
I was mildly surprised that Emil had sought me out so soon, but I already had a good idea why she was here.
‘She wants to use Ophelia’s influence, doesn’t she?’
Having heard the rumors that I had received Ophelia’s recommendation, she must have come to me in hopes of gaining a connection to her.
At the same time, she must have assumed that I was unaware of the fact that the Hawkluk family had betrayed the Kalbrandt family.
I almost laughed at how transparent her intentions were.
Still, I schooled my expression into calm indifference.
Right now, I had to play the role of someone who was merely saddened to see a former fiancée—someone who was unaware of her betrayal, or of her family’s involvement.
I tightened my mental grip and looked down at Emil.
“It’s been a while…”
Her attempt at feigning sadness, despite feeling nothing, made my stomach churn, but I didn’t let it show.
So this is the kind of person she truly was.
For the first time in a long while, I was reminded just how two-faced she was.
I silently nodded, saying nothing more.
“Yeah. Three years, huh?”
Three years.
For some, it might have passed in the blink of an eye, but for me, it had been a long, grueling time.
In the eighteen years of my life, those three years were the longest.
I endured, honing my skills and sharpening my talent—all for the sake of revenge. For an even greater vengeance.
So enduring this level of disgust was nothing.
If I had only wanted simple revenge, I would have already wiped out her family, along with the other noble houses that betrayed Kalbrandt, and killed Calcento.
But Ophelia and I chose not to do that.
Ophelia seemed to be considering what would come after the revenge, but I wasn’t.
All I wanted was—
To strike them down from the highest place, at the very moment they believed they had everything they ever wanted.
To give them the deepest, most suffocating despair.
My revenge might take more than three years, but in exchange, their suffering had to be even deeper, darker, and more absolute.
“I heard about your mother and father… Back then, I… I—”
And so, I endure.
Even as I desperately suppress the urge to tear apart that wretched, disgusting mouth of hers, I cut her off.
“It’s okay. Really… it’s okay now.”
Of course, it wasn’t.
But hearing my mother and father’s names come from Emil’s lips—watching her pretend to be genuinely sorrowful—
That was what made it unbearable.
Firmly cutting her off, I forced a faint smile.
Emil looked at me with an expression of sadness, but I wouldn’t be deceived.
She wasn’t sad.
She couldn’t be.
She was part of the family that helped bring about my parents’ downfall.
That helped turn me into what I am now.
“I’m a bit busy right now, so I’ll be going ahead.”
“Ah… okay….”
With a light wave and a faint smile, I brushed past her, my expression twisting ever so slightly—just enough to go unnoticed.
Disgusting.
Her scent, her familiar voice, her face, which had become slightly more feminine than before—
Everything about her made me sick to my stomach.
But even that, I endured.
Spirits are deeply influenced by their summoner’s emotions.
That’s why emotional stability is considered the most important trait of a spirit wielder.
So I swallowed the nausea, suppressing every urge to retch, and kept walking.
For greater pain.
For greater despair.