In a palace covered in mist, a large and luxurious throne stood between silver curtains.
On it, a young man with black hair and an attractive face was sitting, while a woman whose beauty looked more like a mistake in creation was sitting directly in front of him.
Although the distance between the two was not exactly like the usual distance between a teacher and her student.
To be more exact... the woman was sitting on top of him.
One of her hands was placed beside his shoulder, while the fingertips of her other hand, covered in a faint light, touched his forehead.
Her long black hair had fallen over her clothes, and there was a smile on her face that probably none of the academy students would believe if they saw it.
"Little student, you don’t need to be scared. You can call me Mommy if you want~~" the woman said in a sweet voice.
"..."
Leonis Habsburg was eighteen years old, which was old enough to realize that the situation was a little strange.
Apparently, it was not enough to stop it from becoming even stranger.
"Master, are you sure this is also part of the treatment?" He looked at the finger touching his forehead and slowly moving toward his lips, then asked.
"Do you doubt your master?" The woman smiled and shamelessly touched her student’s lips with her fingers.
Leonis looked at the faint light around her fingers for a moment.
"Of course not."
"You’re a smart boy."
He hoped that this compliment meant the end of the conversation.
Unfortunately, his understanding of his new master was still very incomplete.
And what happened after that was not something that could be described.
Three days and three nights later, Leonis was lying on a jade bed, looking at the ceiling with an expression that could be described as something between despair and polite hope.
In fact, it had really taken three days and three nights!
And his master confidently called it "very light."
Of course, for a woman who had probably been present when some of the world’s historical buildings were being built, the meaning of the word light could be a little different.
Leonis placed one hand on his painful waist and tried to sit up.
His muscles protested, and his kidney complained the most.
Very good.
He was still alive.
His body insisted on reminding him of this fact in the most unpleasant way possible.
"Master, don’t you really think three days is a little too long for the first session?" Leonis looked at the woman standing beside the window and asked.
"This wasn’t a session.
It was treatment." The woman answered without turning around.
"Then I should probably write my will before the real session starts."
This time, the woman’s shoulders shook slightly...
She had laughed.
Leonis remembered this reaction.
Apparently, directly complaining did not work; but making fun of the situation at least made his master happy.
Although it was still unclear whether making her happy would be good for him or the opposite.
Evangeline Evernight, one of the most powerful and oldest masters in Avalon Academy, finally moved away from the window.
Her face once again had the same cold calmness that he had seen in this body’s memories.
The same woman whom students unconsciously lowered their voices around whenever she walked through the halls.
The same woman whom some teachers preferred to think about the value of their lives one more time before disagreeing with her.
And the same woman who three days ago had suggested that her new student call her "Mommy."
Leonis had come to the conclusion that people’s reputations were really not something that could be trusted.
And even stranger than that, this woman was also experiencing this for the first time just like him.
He had not expected that it would be the first time for both of them.
And the fact that he knew his master had really done it for his treatment made things even stranger.
The cracks in his core had been completely healed.
The method of treatment was a little strange, and although it was really enjoyable, actually, it was the most enjoyable experience he had ever had, his master really cared about him and her goal had been to heal him.
To heal an injury that was said to have no cure, a broken core.
But this woman had gone as far as sacrificing her own purity to heal him...
But why?
Why would she do something like that?
"Does it hurt less now?" Evangeline stood beside the bed and asked.
"Thanks to your care, yes."
"Good." She sighed in relief and then reached out her hand.
Leonis, without needing any explanation, gave her his wrist.
A thin flow of mana entered his body; it was calm, precise, and so obedient that the wild energy inside his own core looked like an untrained animal compared to it.
After a few moments, the woman let go of his hand.
"The cracks have closed,For now, don’t force mana out of your body, and don’t argue with me when I tell you to rest either, You should know that even though your core has been healed, there may still be some side effects."
"I understand, Master, but when will our first training session start?" He nodded and asked with taunt
"Strange, it seems that after what happened to your core, you’ve become braver." Evangeline looked at his face and said with a teasing tone.
"I almost died, I should have gotten something in return, and you were kinder during treatment." Leonis’s smile did not change.
During that strange treatment process, he had been the one taking the lead the entire time.
At first, his master had been unhappy about it, but she had slowly become obedient.
His master at that time on the bed, had looked very different from the dignified master she was now.
The woman was silent for a moment, as if she did not know how to answer.
But from her red ears alone, it was obvious that she was barely stopping herself from letting her face turn red.
She was barely stopping herself from calling her student shameless and punishing him.
"I have to go!"
And she disappeared from her place, but before leaving, she threw a student badge at him.
Leonis held his new student badge between his fingers.
A silver dragon was lying on its dark surface, and his master’s name was engraved around the edge of the metal badge.
If someone outside this palace found out that he had spent three days in the private room of the academy’s most beautiful teacher, the number of his enemies would probably increase again.
Especially if he explained what had happened.
Everything still felt a little unreal.
He was not actually from this world, and he had only taken over this body three days ago.
The last memory of his previous life was not something grand or tragic.
He had gone outside to buy food.
He had heard a loud horn and then seen the lights of a truck that were far too close.
After that, nothing.
No conversation with a god, no choice between several legendary powers, and not even a chance to file a complaint.
When he opened his eyes again, he had found himself on this same bed.
In another body.
Beside a woman who was looking at him and talking, without him understanding even a single word she said.
At that moment, Leonis did not even know the name of this body.
He knew nothing about Avalon, Awakened people, or mana cores either.
But he did not need a translation to understand one thing.
The woman in front of him had power.
Not just because of her calm face or expensive clothes.
The air itself felt different in her presence, as if the entire room was waiting for her to decide what would happen.
So Leonis did what seemed logical when facing a powerful stranger.
He stayed silent.
After a few sentences, the woman realized there was a problem.
She raised her hand and brought a silver light to his forehead.
For a few seconds, thousands of voices and images mixed together inside Leonis’s mind.
Then the words that had been meaningless until that moment suddenly became understandable.
"Can you understand what I’m saying now?" the woman asked in a calm voice.
Leonis slowly nodded.
"Good, I’m Evangeline Evernight, do you remember me?"
He did not remember, but he decided not to explain this truth in full for now.
"Some things... are not clear."
"That’s normal, your core is broken, you were almost dead, and it’s strange that you’re still alive." The woman considered this answer normal because of his condition.
Then she asked a more important question.
"I should reconsider my decision, you confessed to the most beautiful student in the academy, and after she rejected you in front of everyone, her fiancé beat you half to death and broke your core, you can you do something so stupid?"
"Is confessing really a bad thing?"
"Of course not, but you should have at least done it in a way that didn’t give her fiancé an excuse to beat you up. Then I could go and beat that bastard who did this to my student half to death."
And then she said something very quietly, so quietly that it was almost like the buzzing of a mosquito, and even he did not notice it.
"And how can you look at other girls when you have such a beautiful master...?"
Then her tone became dignified and serious again.
"Your initial acceptance as my student has already been announced, but we haven’t registered the contract yet, after what happened, I want you to choose again yourself, do you still want to be my student?"
At that moment, Leonis did not have all of this body’s memories, he did not know exactly what position this woman held, and he did not even understand what had happened to him.
But the room, this woman’s presence, and her aura all said the same thing.
This woman was a backing that was not easy to find.
"What is the price?" he asked.
For the first time, Evangeline looked at him with more obvious interest.
"You have to train, you can’t be lazy, and you are no longer allowed to follow other girls around like an idiot."
Leonis thought about these conditions for a few moments.
For someone who had probably died under a truck only a few hours ago, it was not a bad deal.
"I accept."
At that time, he still did not know what accepting this woman’s discipleship would mean for the rest of the academy.
Of course, he learned on the very first day what it meant for him.
It meant having very limited freedom when it came to things like sleeping time and kidney pain.
His master really deserved to be called a master.
Both in teaching, and in finding new ways to make a young man who still had the energy of youth feel tired.