The memories of the previous owner of this body had gradually returned.
His name was Leonis Habsburg.
He was eighteen years old.
A human.
An Awakened with an F-rank talent.
And the last survivor of one of the Seven Hero Families.
At first glance, this last part should have been good news.
It wasn’t.
The Habsburg Family had been almost completely destroyed years ago while fighting one of the Ancient Fallens.
What remained for Leonis were some childhood memories, strict training, and a family name that mattered much more to other people than it did to him.
Humans liked the heir of heroes to be a hero. If he wasn’t, they apparently took it as some kind of personal insult.
When he awakened, he had not received the glorious result everyone had expected.
Not an S-rank talent, not even an A-rank talent, not even a normal and respectable talent.
He had obtained an F-rank talent....
[Talent Awakened: Minor Reinforcement]
[Rank: F]
Limited reinforcement of one part of the body by using mana.
It was not a useless ability, nor was it a power that could be used to save cities.
The problem was that when your name was Habsburg, people became a little disappointed with anything less than saving cities.
When it came to skills, Leonis was better.
His childhood training had been real.
Swordsmanship, understanding the flow of mana, basic combat, analyzing enemy movements, and things that many students only learned after entering the academy.
But knowing how to dodge an attack and having a body that could actually move in time were two different things.
That difference was enough to make several years of his life unpleasant.
After his family was destroyed, the Valkrest Family had taken him in, a family that could be considered a friend and ally of his family.
He had a home, he did not go hungry, and nobody had thrown him out onto the streets.
This part of his life was not bad.
The problem started when he walked out of that house.
Rhea Valkrest, his childhood friend, was one of the most popular and talented girls in the academy.
She was cold and impatient with most people, but she would sit beside Leonis, spend time with him, and whenever necessary, defend him with her usual sharp tone.
Apparently, that was enough for some people to decide that Leonis had personally ruined their romantic future.
He was not popular.
His name was known, but being known was different from being admired.
Most people remembered him in one of two ways: the disappointing last Habsburg, or the weak boy that Rhea paid too much attention to.
Then Evangeline had decided to accept him as her student, the only master in the academy who had offered him such an opportunity.
If Leonis’s life had not been difficult enough before, this decision had made things even worse.
An F-rank talent, being next to one of the most popular girls in the academy, and now becoming the private student of the academy’s most beautiful master.
For some people, this combination was even harder to accept than the fall of a country.
And if all of that was not enough, it should be known that the previous owner of this body was somewhat of a simp.
Not the annoying kind, but it had still cost him dearly.
The most beautiful female student in the academy was considered his former fiancée.
That girl was from one of the Seven Hero Families, just like him, and their engagement had been decided when they were children.
But when his family was destroyed, that girl’s family ended the engagement on their own and found another fiancé for their daughter.
And the problem was that the previous owner of this body still loved his former fiancée.
He had confessed his love to that girl on the first day of the academy.
And the result?
That girl’s current fiancé had beaten him half to death in an official duel, broken his core, and left him between life and death.
And of course, under all those beatings, the original owner of this body had actually died, and now he had taken over this body.
And not to mention that, as far as he knew, his behavior had also caused his childhood friend Rhea to become cold toward him.
It seemed that his behavior had disappointed that girl.
"You really are an idiot, boy.
Rhea clearly had feelings for you, and you went after a girl who doesn’t even consider you worth as much as trash?"
Leonis snorted.
He hated this kind of stupid behavior.
Even if he liked his former fiancée, there were much better ways to get her.
But the previous owner of this body had chosen the stupidest way and caused his core to break, an injury that had no known cure.
"But my master healed this body’s injury by sacrificing her purity.
But why?
Why would she do something like that for this body?"
It seemed strange.
His fingers remained on the student badge.
Whatever the reason was, he was not going to forget that event, especially if it caused trouble for him in the future.
The short sound of a phone broke the silence of the room.
Leonis looked at the device on the table.
Its frame was cracked, but the screen still worked.
For a moment, seeing something this familiar in that strange room was almost comforting.
He had three new messages from Rhea.
"Are you awake?"
"Your master said you’re feeling better."
"Reply when you wake up...."
Leonis looked at the screen for a while.
In this body’s memories, Rhea almost always spoke like this.
She showed her concern as if the other person had committed a disciplinary violation by getting sick.
And more interestingly, because of the previous owner’s behavior, this girl had been very disappointed in him.
Even so, she still cared about him.
"I’m alive."
The reply came almost immediately.
"I know."
A few seconds later, another message appeared.
"Did you eat anything?"
"Three different kinds of medicine, and each one was worse than the last."
This time, the reply came later.
"I left some food for you.
I’ll have someone bring it.
Don’t lose the container."
She had not asked what food he wanted, and she had not felt the need to explain why she had prepared food for him.
This girl already knew the answer to the first question, and she would probably get angry about the second one.
"Thanks, Rhea."
This time, it took almost half a minute for the next message to arrive.
"Just eat it and don’t do anything stupid again....please."
Leonis looked at the last word and smiled.
From the tall window of the palace, part of Avalon could be seen.
Training buildings, stone-paved paths, training towers, and fields where the light from skills sometimes appeared above them.
Behind them, the modern city stretched out with its streets, cars, and advertising screens.
Unlike his master’s palace, this world did not live in the past.
It had simply learned to use technology together with things that, in Leonis’s previous world, should have been impossible.
In this world, there were monsters called Fallens.
Monsters that had very terrifying powers, and apparently, humans were their favorite food.
When the Fallens first attacked their world, humans were completely defenseless.
No weapon could affect those monsters.
At least, that was the case until the Father System appeared and gave humans something called Awakening and the Exorcist profession.
Humans who awakened could gather mana in a core inside their bodies and use power beyond that of normal humans.
In this world, becoming stronger was not simply about killing a few monsters and increasing a number.
Level showed a person’s growth.
But the core had to absorb, refine, and stabilize energy.
The body also had to become strong enough to handle it.
Otherwise, having more energy was nothing more than an expensive way to hurt yourself.
Leonis was personally using the latest medical treatment because of this very fact.
Talent was a person’s special power, something they obtained when they awakened.
Class, unlike what he remembered from the games in his previous life, was not given to a person from the beginning.
At Level 20, the system suggested specializations based on the person’s fighting style and path of growth.
Those specializations helped with the way they fought.
He took a slow breath and circulated his mana through the path he now remembered.
A thin stream of energy left his core and moved toward his hand.
After one complete cycle, he stopped it.
There was no new pain and no unusual pressure.
Evangeline’s treatment had worked.
Of course, the healed core was still the core of a weak Awakened.
His talent was still F-rank as well.
His master had saved his life, not rewritten the laws of the world just to please him.
That made the old question appear in his mind again.
Why had she chosen him?
Out of all those talented students, why did the only master willing to accept him have to be someone like Evangeline?
Was it related to his family?
Leonis saw the reflection of his face in the dark glass beside the bed.
Well, at least there was nothing wrong with this body’s appearance.
But it was unlikely that a master who had lived for several hundred years would decide to take responsibility for the last survivor of a troublesome family just because he had a handsome face.
Unlikely.
After remembering the "Mommy" suggestion, Leonis decided not to completely remove that possibility for now.
Maybe his master had some strange interests...?
He wanted to lie down and rest for a while.
Three days and three nights of activity was not a small amount.
He was still surprised that he had managed to endure it.
But suddenly, a voice echoed inside his mind.
[Soul Synchronization Complete.]
[Foreign Soul Stabilized.]
[Activation Conditions Fulfilled.]
His eyes opened wide.
Then the next message appeared.
[10,000-Fold Destiny Copy System Activated.]
[Connection Successful.]