Via nearly jumped out of her skin because of that dead mouse.
This little yellow cat was just too evil—actually using it to scare her like this!
“Meow meow?”
The little yellow cat trotted over to the mouse corpse, picked it up in its mouth, and once again placed it in front of Via.
“You can’t seriously be…?”
Via suddenly guessed what the cat intended.
Maybe it wasn’t playing a prank.
Maybe it was sharing the prey it had caught with her.
So it was actually a good kitty?
“Meow meow!”
The little yellow cat nudged the mouse corpse toward her, inviting her to eat.
Its earnest eyes seemed to say, “It’s really delicious—don’t you want a bite?”
“No, no thank you. I don’t eat mice. Keep it for yourself.”
Via waved her hands, firmly declining.
“Meow!”
The little cat looked deeply regretful, picked the mouse back up, and left the room.
“Why on earth has this cat taken such a liking to me? It keeps clinging to me.”
Via was genuinely puzzled.
She was starting to admire the little yellow cat’s persistence.
Although she had no plans to contract a magical familiar right now… should she keep it in the dormitory and raise it anyway?
But the academy didn’t seem to allow random pets.
“Whatever. I’ll think about it the next time I see the little thing. I have far more important matters to deal with right now.”
…
Via stripped off her filthy clothes, tossed them into the laundry basket, and changed into a clean one-piece teddy-bear pajama set.
It looked extremely childish, but since she was alone in the dormitory, she didn’t care.
“There’s no mana or abyssal aura left inside the core.”
Via pinched the now-drained magic core between her fingers—the very same Silver-rank core she had obtained from the underground black market.
By the time she woke up, it had already turned into this withered husk.
The simple channeling circle had stopped working, yet there were no signs of mana leakage around the dormitory.
Otherwise the dormitory supervisor would have taken action long ago.
Which could only mean one thing.
“Both the mana and the abyssal aura… have been completely absorbed by me?”
Via lowered her head, staring at her hands, feeling the flow of mana inside her body.
“My strength has broken through!”
She was utterly shocked.
At the very beginning, she had been at the Black Iron rank.
After recovering her memories as the Demon King in the Evergreen Mountains and forcibly absorbing magic cores, she had risen to Bronze.
Last night’s ordeal had pushed her through yet another breakthrough.
She had reached the Silver rank.
“At last, I can throw away the title of ‘trash’.”
Via smiled.
Her emotions were complicated—both wistful and exhilarated.
In Avalon Academy, the vast majority of students were at the Bronze rank.
Only a tiny handful of geniuses born into powerful families with abundant resources could reach Silver.
For example, Owen, the young master of the Lester family whom people called “Young Lord Ou,” was Silver rank.
In this cradle of heroes overflowing with geniuses, the current Via could already be considered among the outstanding ones.
“My perception of ambient mana flow is also much clearer than before.”
Via stood up and spread her arms.
She released her own mana and discovered that her total mana capacity had increased by an enormous margin.
The degree of this increase was absurd—it was far beyond the normal leap from Bronze to Silver.
Previously, a few fireballs would have drained her.
Now she could fire dozens in a row.
“Something’s wrong with this mana increase…”
Via’s expression turned solemn.
She refused to let joy cloud her judgment.
She sat cross-legged on the floor and entered a meditative state.
With her mind highly focused, she finally discovered the anomaly hidden deep within her body.
It was abyssal aura.
The abyssal aura that should have been violently uncontrollable was actually lying there obediently, showing not the slightest sign of rebellion.
It was even positively amplifying the mana inside her body, massively expanding her mana pool.
This left Via stunned—and a chill ran down her spine.
“Impossible. This is absolutely impossible!!”
Via clutched her forehead, disbelief written all over her face.
Her pink eyes shook with turmoil.
Even in her previous life as the Demon King, the most she could do was suppress abyssal aura.
When she needed its power, she would release the shackles and unleash its violent strength.
Only demonkin, who possessed extremely high resistance to abyssal aura, could do even that much.
Having resistance did not mean one could completely ignore all negative effects.
There were plenty of demonkin who had their minds eroded by abyssal aura and fell into berserk depravity.
Yet why—in this human body—had she achieved perfect, precise control that even her previous demonkin self could not?
“…Flame.”
Via cast the most basic fire manipulation spell.
A small flame ignited at her fingertip.
Then she performed an action she had done countless times in her past life: she released a trace of abyssal aura, wrapped it around her finger, and let it climb onto the flame.
The abyssal aura instantly amplified the fire-element mana.
The tiny flame rapidly swelled into a massive fireball—and kept growing.
“Stop!!”
Via immediately cut off the spell.
The flame vanished.
The abyssal aura showed no signs of rampaging; instead, it calmly returned to her body and lay dormant once more, as though awaiting her next command.
Perfectly controlled—released and retracted at will.
Thump, thump, thump…
The pink-haired girl’s heart pounded faster.
She could not comprehend what had happened.
“Aren’t I supposed to be human right now? How can I do something that even demonkin cannot…?”
Via felt utterly bewildered.
Her mother had been the human saintess Sylvia—a holy cleric who possessed powerful faith and could purify corrupted aura, wielding power that was the complete opposite of the abyss.
They were like fire and water—natural enemies.
Via’s original plan had been to rely on her past-life experience to forcibly suppress a portion of abyssal aura inside her body as a trump card, allowing her to use some of her old Demon King spells.
But reality had far exceeded her expectations.
With the Shirleyford bloodline she inherited, there was no way she could possess the ability to dominate abyssal aura out of nowhere.
And for the abyssal aura to be this obedient…
Wait.
“If Mother’s bloodline cannot explain this…”
Via’s pupils shrank.
A chill crawled up her spine.
From the time she was little, she had never known who her father was.
Her mother had mentioned it only once: when Via and Sophie grew up, she would tell them herself.
But before the sisters reached adulthood, Sylvia had left this world.
To the outside world, the Holy Land claimed he had been an outstanding human of exceptional bloodline and character, recognized even by the gods—someone who died before the relationship was made public.
Yet in truth, all records about Sylvia’s partner were classified at the highest level within the Holy Land.
Not even the sisters themselves had the right to know.
The Pope himself had personally ordered that the matter was forbidden to be discussed.
All these suspicious points made Via’s heart grow cold.
Could it be… that her perfect mastery over abyssal aura came from the other blood flowing in her veins?
“Just who… is my father?”