‘You’ve been having another duel, I see.’

I heard that in this damned military academy, fights were prohibited but duels were freely allowed.

As long as you followed the format of a duel, you could use any weapon, and if you didn’t like someone, you could challenge them to a duel and crush them.

‘In the process, injuries were not uncommon, and in unlucky cases, even lives were lost.’

And all of this was justified under the name of ‘honor’.

There was truly no crazier system.

Matian was the undisputed top student, but perhaps due to his characteristically gentle image, he tended to appear soft.

So many people challenged him without knowing their place, and each time Matian would claim a moderate victory.

To Rukna’s eyes, this seemed like a bad habit.

‘If he’d beat them to death, they wouldn’t even think of challenging him, but he deliberately wins ambiguously, giving his opponents unnecessary hope.’

Moreover, in the process, he always made sure to seriously damage one part, drawing blood.

And he deliberately didn’t take off his blood-stained gloves.

‘Like a devil enjoying blood while wearing the mask of an angel.’

Although his true intentions were unclear, it was a fact that this created a strangely twisted atmosphere.

‘Still, since he’s supposedly the descendant of a hero, Matian is likely to be the male protagonist. He looks like a walking sculpture, befitting a protagonist. His personality is a bit concerning though.’

She was already worried about what would happen if this guy gave trouble to Giselle, a candidate for the female lead and an innocent girl.

‘But then, what role am I supposed to play?’

Rukna hoped she would be a supporting character cheering for the female protagonist.

At that moment.

“You know what, Rukna?”

A handsome face suddenly came close. Matian had slightly bent his waist to meet her eye level.

A fresh smile hung at the corners of his mouth.

“Wh-what?”

Oh, how startling. Her heart pounded. He hadn’t read her earlier thoughts, had he?

“That your changed appearance looks even better. Like how you’re looking straight at me now.”

What did this mean?

Was he saying, ‘Don’t dare to meet my eyes, lower your gaze immediately’? Although she found it absurd inside, Rukna obediently lowered her gaze.

It was survival instinct.

Pfft, Matian let out a small laugh as he straightened up.

“I said it looks good, so why are you turning your eyes away? What a shame.”

Matian lowered his hand to where Rukna’s gaze had fallen and snapped his fingers.

Feeling disgusted by the gesture that seemed like training a pet, Rukna suddenly raised her head.

“Haha, quite a spirited expression. First time I’ve seen it.”

“……”

“It’s also the first time I’ve known you to be bold enough to break school rules.”

Matian took out a yellow notebook from his jacket pocket and scribbled something.

Then he tore out a page and stuck it on Rukna’s forehead with a smack.

Ugh! Rukna rubbed her stinging forehead with her hand.

He had applied so much force that the paper stuck like a post-it note.

“Violence on school grounds. 3 demerit points.”

For someone who had just stuck a demerit slip, his smile was far too gentle.

“Demerit points?”

Demerit points when she’d only been at the school for a few days! For Rukna, who had lived quite diligently following rules in her previous life, this was like a bolt from the blue.

Matian turned around and fairly stuck demerit slips on the fallen thugs as well.

Rukna glanced at his back, her lips twitching.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve been running into Matian a lot lately.’

Their paths crossed too often. So much that someone might think he was following her.

‘He must be suspecting me of being the holy sword thief.’

Of course, she did have the holy sword, but it felt unfair to be called a thief.

Rukna tried to take this opportunity to leave. Being suspected as the holy sword thief, being a ‘student of interest’, and causing trouble on top of that was not good.

“Rukna Golden.”

But that guy seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, holding Rukna back while recording in his demerit notebook.

“You must have undergone quite special training in your hometown.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“These guys can’t even get up, they’ve been beaten so thoroughly.”

Matian straightened up after sticking a demerit slip on the last thug’s forehead.

“I’m curious about the training method that made you so strong in such a short time. Do you have any special secret?”

His still-smiling face looked meaningful, as if he knew Rukna had borrowed the power of the holy sword.

“I, I just worked hard. Haha. My arms and legs are still shaking because I’m not used to it yet.”

Rukna awkwardly laughed while hiding her fists behind her back.

At that moment, Bolton, the student council secretary, approached with heavy footsteps.

With his giant-like tall stature and burly build, the black eye patch covering his left eye, and his weathered appearance, he looked more like a seasoned pirate than an 18-year-old student, and his personality was as simple as his appearance.

Although the student council was busier than other cadets and had fewer chances to run into them, he always called Rukna a blockhead and acted familiar whenever he saw her.

“What’s this, blockhead?”

Bolton peeled off the demerit slip stuck on Rukna’s forehead and chuckled.

“You’re the worst in grades, but you’ve never gotten demerit points before. You’ve really done it this time.”

Bolton grinned and poked Rukna’s cheek with his finger.

Then he thrust his pirate-like face forward, saying he thought she was just like a cat who could only throw kitty punches, but it turns out she had stone fists, and told her to hit him once.

“…Just give that back.”

Rukna snatched back the demerit slip Bolton had taken and quickly moved to the next lecture hall.

Ha ha ha, Bolton’s loud laughter echoed through the corridor.

“Let’s have a duel next time, blockhead!”

Bolton loudly proposed a duel, but Rukna walked on without answering, looking only ahead.

Unless she wanted her limbs torn apart, it was best to avoid duels, especially with the student council, which was said to gather only the most excellent students.

Bolton shook the shoulder of Vice President Chad, who was sprawled on the sofa in the student council room.

“Hey, Chad. Did you hear that the blockhead smashed Hans and his gang?”

“Hans? No way.”

Stop talking nonsense. Chad yawned and turned to the other side.

“It’s true. I heard she even got demerit points from Matian because of it. Right, Matian?”

“That’s right.”

Matian nodded while checking the pile of duel request forms stacked on the desk.

Chad, who had been trying to enjoy his nap time to the fullest, opened his eyes wide.

“Hans? That Hans from the Viscount Jansen family, the big shot in the black market?”

“Yes.”

“Come on, Ruka can’t be that strong.”

Chad shrugged his shoulders as he used Rukna’s nickname.

“She changed after visiting her hometown. Her strength increased, and her eyes…”

Matian recalled Rukna.

The person who usually couldn’t even make proper eye contact with him now faced him directly after returning from her hometown.

With raw fear fully contained in her green eyes.

Usually, people don’t fear him like that. They only show affection towards the kind and caring student council president.

“What about her eyes that you’re drawing it out like this?”

“Just that. It’s like she became a completely different person.”

“Aren’t you being too sensitive about the holy sword disappearing, Matian? Unless her soul has changed, how could Rukna have changed so much?”

Chad waved his hand dismissively while letting out a languid yawn.

Matian silently gazed out the window.

He could see Rukna walking on the brick path, moving towards the west annex classroom.

When some cadets deliberately bumped Rukna’s shoulder as they passed, instead of whimpering like before, Rukna caught up with them, bumped their shoulder back just as hard, and walked away confidently.

Matian flipped through the stack of exam papers on the desk.

The graded exam papers were entrusted to him by the magic professor to distribute to the students.

As he rustled through the papers, his hand stopped at the one with Rukna Golden’s name on it.

The score was perfect.

“You’re right. Unless the soul changes, it’s hard for a person to change in an instant.”

I’ll have to keep watching. Matian muttered while tapping Rukna’s neat handwriting on the exam paper.

‘At this rate, won’t I be the top student in this exam?’

Rukna tilted her head as she solved the magical formula test.

The factorization and quadratic function problems that any Korean student could solve were surprisingly simple.

If the world she had possessed had a title, she seriously considered it might be something like ‘The Hidden Powerful School Outcast Conquers the School’.

Sometimes unfamiliar content would suddenly come to mind while solving problems, probably knowledge that the original Rukna had possessed.

‘It seems there’s quite a lot of knowledge accumulated in this body.’

It was the same when opening textbooks for her major. Content that should have been unfamiliar felt very familiar.

Especially in basic medicine and sacred studies subjects, there was almost nothing she didn’t know.

‘But why was I always at the bottom of the class?’

After finishing the magical formula exam, Rukna returned to the dormitory, curious about her past.

She put down her bag containing her writing materials on the desk and flopped onto the bed, her eyelids immediately growing heavy.

‘Why am I so tired?’

There was no time to think about this body full of secrets.

Not only the exams, but following the physical classes of the military academy left her without even the strength to lift a spoon in the afternoon.

But what exhausted her most wasn’t the classes, but this damned holy sword.