Editor : Amethyst00



The flames of Leo’s aura blazed furiously, and the Seiren student hurriedly retreated in alarm.

“Hm.”

Leo glanced down at his own hand and smirked.

“You were acting all solemn, so I had some expectations. But you’re more disappointing than I thought.”

“Don’t make me laugh! I’m from Seiren’s Advanced Class 1!”

“So what about it?”

“Eek!”

In elven society, being in Seiren’s Advanced Class 1 meant being treated as a true elite.

A status admired and respected by all.

But he’d picked the wrong opponent—wildly so.

Another student might have known about Seiren’s system and been duly impressed.

But to Leo, it meant nothing.

Even among Lumene’s first-year knight students, there were at least three others—besides Leo himself—who were stronger than this boy.

‘Well, those three are exceptional cases, but still. For someone strutting around bragging about being a Seiren student, this level is underwhelming.’

The disappointment only deepened when he recalled the subtle look of contempt the boy had given toward Lumene a moment ago.

At that moment, the Seiren student began chanting in runic tongue.

‘Star sorcery? He’s a magic knight?’

Leo’s eyes gleamed with interest.

If he was a magic knight, that changed things.

And in this age, Leo had never actually seen an elf use star sorcery before. So, there was a flicker of curiosity.

‘Mirage, huh.’

Leo could have easily disrupted the runes. But instead, he let the spell complete, wanting to observe it for himself.

When the boy completed four illusions, he declared,

“Now it begins for real.”

“……”

A trace of disappointment crossed Leo’s face.

‘This is star sorcery in this era?’

The Mirage was once among the finest illusion spells—realistic enough that it was almost impossible to discern what was real.

Luna herself had loved to use it.

But what Leo saw now was different from what he remembered.

‘It’s certainly more realistic than ordinary illusion spells… but it’s crude. They rewrote the formula just to make it easier to use.’

He had thought magic would have advanced over the centuries.

But from his perspective, Luna’s magic had actually regressed.

‘If she saw this, she’d have been crushed with disappointment. And then cursed them out until their ears bled.’

Leo shook his head, recalling Luna’s notoriously sharp tongue.

“For a human like you, this must be magic you’ve never even seen before.”

The Seiren student mistook Leo’s thoughtful pause for stunned silence and spoke with smug superiority.

“I know how to use illusion magic too, you know?”

“Hah. Human magic may be crude compared to elven star sorcery… but sure, let’s see what you can do.”

At that, Leo smirked faintly and chanted a runic spell.

The Seiren student scowled.

“Are you mocking me?! A human using star sorcery is impossible—”

But his words froze.

Leo completed the spell.

The very same Mirage.

But instead of four illusions, eight Leos appeared, and the boy’s eyes went wide in shock.

“Well, this is about my level.”

“Th-that’s impossible!”

“There are plenty of humans who can use star sorcery, you know. Maybe you should start by fixing that narrow mindset of yours.”

Leo’s tone was almost bored.

["Hahaha! Look at his dumb face! He looks like such an idiot!"]

From Leo’s shoulder, Kiran clapped and laughed uproariously.

‘This brat is nothing like his father.’

Sylord had never been the type to take joy in another’s humiliation.

“Th-that’s just a fake, something you made to look like star sorcery!”

The Seiren boy shouted as he charged.

‘This guy doesn’t know how to acknowledge anything.’

Leo shook his head and steadied his blade.

Suddenly, sword-aura erupted from the boy’s blade.

Leo’s eyes twitched.

‘All four are real?’

It was a high-level technique, blending Mirage with swordsmanship.

‘How strange. His basics are terrible, yet he’s freely using such a powerful upper-tier spell.’

Leo clenched his fist.

Even he couldn’t replicate that combination right now.

Strictly speaking, what the boy used was indeed star sorcery—but it was different from the star sorcery Leo had known.

‘Luna was a pure mage, after all.’

To merge sword and magic like this—

That was not Luna’s way.

In Leo’s eyes, it wasn’t simply star sorcery, but something new the later generations of elves had developed after endlessly pursuing Luna’s legacy.

‘I need to revise my judgment. It hasn’t regressed—it’s evolved.’

Some mages hated to see their spells altered, regarding them as works of art.

But Luna was not like that.

‘She was the truest mage of all.’

A mage who took joy in exploring new possibilities, experimenting, and making them real. That was who Luna had been.

‘If she saw this, she’d have been thrilled.’

Even if it was far removed from the star sorcery she had once wielded, she would have smiled, calling it progress.

Whoosh!

Brilliant arcs of sword aura filled the air from the four blades.

Leo’s illusions scattered and vanished.

Mirage was, at its core, an illusion spell. No matter how convincing, they were still not real.

‘What he’s made… the bodies are illusions, but the sword-aura is real.’

Leo studied the structure of the spell intently.

“Haha! How about it? This is the power of true star sorcery, not the fake you just threw out!”

‘Fake? My spell is literally the original—Luna’s creation itself.’

Star sorcery’s very starting point. The origin itself.

To hear a distant descendant call it “fake” made Leo almost laugh aloud.

“What’s so funny?! Are you mocking me?!”

The Seiren boy’s fury deepened, his illusions closing in from all directions, slashing like four mirrors reflecting the same strike.

Of course, the sword-aura was real.

Fwoosh—!

Flame aura flared around Leo’s fist.

‘That’s all it is.’

His crimson eyes glinted dangerously.

Boom!

He slammed his fist into the ground.

Explosive flames surged outward, sweeping everything around him.

“Gah!”

The illusions vanished instantly, revealing the real body.

Leo’s voice was cold.

“A technique without enough power is just a cheap trick.”

“Shut up!”

The Seiren boy flared up again, conjuring illusions.

This time, eight.

Eight sword-auras manifested at once.

‘He’s poured everything into this—his mana and aura both.’

Leo smirked faintly.

‘Wiping that out would be easy enough… but maybe I’ll try this.’

His crimson eyes darted rapidly.

‘Let’s see if I can use that technique.’

Buzz—

Leo unleashed his mana, swiftly constructing a magical formula.

The eight illusions surrounded him, moving in perfect unison, pressing in.

Then—

Whoosh—!

Leo cast Mirage.

This time, only two.

“Hah! Do you think illusions can help when you’re already surrounded?”

The boy sneered.

But Leo’s doppelgänger raised a fist.

Flame aura bloomed.

The Seiren boy’s face went rigid.

‘No way…!’

Leo’s illusions, too, wielded real aura.

‘No, wait—he only has two illusions. That doesn’t change anything…’

But then Leo and his clone moved differently.

Not mirrored reflections—two separate fighters.

The boy’s eyes widened in horror.

‘Impossible! To control aura illusions like that… that takes at least an Advanced 2nd-year!’

In an instant, Leo wiped out seven illusions.

Raising his fist, he muttered,

“This technique not bad at all.”

As the two Leos charged, the boy went pale.

“W-wait…!”

Crash!

Twin flames struck, and his eyes rolled back.

“Wh-where… where did you learn the spell formulas Seiren teaches…?”

Mumbling in disbelief, he collapsed.

“Just now,” Leo replied coolly.

He had analyzed the structure, modified it for himself, and even expanded on it.

A complicated process, but nothing difficult for him.

Though the technique consumed a lot of mana and aura, making it unsustainable for long, Leo found it excellent.

He chuckled faintly, turning his gaze toward the bushes.

A moment later, someone stepped out.

A red-haired girl in Seiren’s female uniform.

“And you are?”

“My name is Lunia El Lunda. First year of Seiren.”

“You planning to pick a fight too?”

At Leo’s question, Lunia glanced between her collapsed classmate and the foreign student standing tall. She let out a deep sigh.

“We came here for a field assignment, but when an anomaly occurred in the Sanctuary, it seems he… misunderstood. Not that it excuses his rude behavior. I had just heard the teacher’s instructions and was on my way to pass them along to my classmates, when…”

She trailed off, piecing things together.

Then she bowed her head.

“I’ll apologize on his behalf.”

“Well, an apology’s enough.”

Leo gave a light chuckle.

Lunia smiled faintly, a bit ruefully.

“Please don’t think all Seiren students are like him.”

“I don’t. Anyway, since the misunderstanding’s cleared up, I’ll be on my way. I’ve got to report back to my professor.”

“Yes.”

Lunia smiled brightly.

“See you again sometime.”

“Sure.”

As Leo disappeared into the woods, Lunia turned and kicked the unconscious boy in the ribs.

“Oi, get up, you bastard! How long are you planning to stay passed out?!”

“Gah!”

“You’re the lowest ranked in Advanced Class 1, so what the hell were you acting all high-and-mighty for?! You absolute moron! Ugh, so embarrassing!”

Gone was the gentle façade from before—Lunia was now snarling.

Seiren’s rules required students to present themselves as proper and dignified hero candidates in front of outsiders. So she’d had to fake it.

Especially Lunia, the top-ranked student in the entire school, essentially its public face—she had to care about appearances all the more.

‘But wow, he accepted the apology so smoothly.’

She thought back to Leo.

‘Could it be… he’s interested in me? Well, it wouldn’t be surprising—I *am beautiful.’*

Her expression grew smug as she grinned.

‘And he’s exactly my type—cute looks. On top of that, strong enough to knock this fool flat. I forgot to ask his name, but we’ll meet again in Velkia.’

Humming to herself, a faintly combative spark flickered in her eyes.

‘And I’ll be able to ask him about that Leo Plov too.’

bl

“Lunia El Lunda? That name sounds familiar…”

As he left the forest, Leo tilted his head.

“Ah.”

Something clicked, and he let out a short exclamation.

“The successor of House Lunda. Fiora’s original contractor.”