Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

Cathleen looked at the girl in front of her.

"You haven't heard from him yet?"

"…No. He said he would contact me when he got to the city.”

Her ivory hair and sky-blue eyes were rare, even in the Academy which overflowed with those of different races and backgrounds.

"Shall we head to the exam room?"

Their beauty was especially noticeable in the cafe, scarce of other individuals. Though she was confident in her appearance, Cathleen didn’t feel as though she were more confident than Rachael.

Rachael had earned her attractiveness through months of effort.

"Sure…”

"He didn’t seem all that excited about it when we were talking to him. Don't you think so?"

"No, that's a little…”

"There's no way that he forgot, right?”

"No, Allen wouldn't…”

What was she supposed to do? Cathleen's eyes trembled. She was grateful to Allen. He’d given her new opportunities and aspirations. The same went for Rachael. Cathleen was always grateful to her for helping her adjust to life at the Academy. 

But even so…

"Cathleen, are you sure Allen hasn't arrived yet? Or maybe something came up and he just wasn’t able to get in contact with us?”

"No. That’s not really all that likely.”

"Don't tell me! He got tired of me after I sent so many letters!”

"Please…"

It was so awkward being stuck between the two of them like this.

‘Some people just can’t make it work.’

Cathleen glanced at her, then sighed at the way she saw Rachael’s eyes alight in panic.

And what for? All over Allen.

It’s Allen. He can take care of himself.

Cathleen tried to reach out her hand to Rachael again, just as she always did. "Okay, try to calm down a little. Let’s think through this again…”

As she tried to stop Rachael like that, she heard the voices of other students.

“What can you even do, really?”

"Hey, did you see that new freshman this year? Isn’t he crazy?"

"Yeah, his magic? And his combat?”

Normally, she wouldn't even care, but she could see Rachael’s anxiety now taking root in that direction.

“He’s fantastic with both. I’m sure he’d win even if he was fighting a second year.”

“You think he’s really that strong? What’s his name?”

"Hold on. I don't remember, but maybe…”

Cathleen had an ominous feeling.

‘Please, please, please, it can’t be.’

She closed her eyes tightly as her thoughts raced.

"‘Al’- something? Oh, no. It was ‘Heisel’. Yeah, I think it was ‘Heisel’.”

She breathed a quick sigh of relief.

"Phew. Come on, now…”

"He’s in first place right now, and then next is the grandkid or something of the First Warrior or whoever… and the next one is ‘Albert’? ‘Allen’? Hmm… yeah. ‘Allen’, I think.”

Crash!

A flash of yellow light appeared.

“What did you say just now?”

"Y-yes, ma’am. I…”

The boys chattering away tensed up at Rachael’s sudden appearance.

"Allen."

"What?"

“The freshman you were talking about a moment ago. Allen. Allen Reinhart, correct?”

“I-I…”

She asked again with a cold expression, “A boy with blue hair and an expressionless face and sharp eyes, correct?”

Reaching into his memory, the boy nodded. "Yes, I-I think so?"

"Thank you."

As soon as Rachael heard his response, she beelined for the testing site. 

"Ah! Rachael, where are you going?"

"Sorry! I’ll catch you later!"

"Rachael, ah, hey…”

Then who's going to clean up this mess…?

Left in the aftermath of Rachael's teleportation, Cathleen sighed, frowning as she looked at the mess of fallen desks and chairs.

‘Ok, let’s calm down. Time to calm down. Can’t be getting stress lines so young in life.’

She still remembered the last thing Allen said to her on the day she met him alone in his room.

—Cathleen, I need you to do something for me.

“C-Cathleen, are you okay? We…”

“I’m just fine.”

The reason why she worked so hard, developing the talent she didn’t naturally have and improving her skills.

—Be more beautiful than anyone else.

“You look like you’re having a hard time. Can we help you?”

"Right, we'll do all the hard work."

Cathleen thanked them with the pure smile that she practiced in the mirror every day. 

—To the point where anyone would find you attractive. Not only on the outside, but on the inside, too.

"Oh, thank you so much."

"It’s nothing."

"We're half to blame, so it’s okay."

Her praise turned the boys' faces red as they quickly began to clean up the interior of the cafe.

—And…

"Thanks to you both, it looks like everything was cleaned up nicely."

"By the way, do you…”

“Oh! It's already time for me to go. But, I’m sorry, what were you saying…?”

"Oh, nothing! Goodbye!"

She turned around with a smile.

—Insert yourself into his life.

"Yes! You, too."

She left.

If Allen had come, she was sure that ‘he’ had, too. 

—Become one of his women.

* * *

Natasha squinted, looking at the 7th testing site.

The exam there was meant to test their mental strength. An exam that would assess their natural mental fortitude via hallucinations and, at the same time, appraise how developed they were.

Someone she knew was sitting in said examination hall.

"Number 928, Julius Reinhart. Compared to him, is that really all you can do? Are you even from the same family?"

"I'll do my best!"

He was different than she’d expected.

Julius replied to the examiner's cry in a confident voice.

However, considering the confidence with which he shouted, he did not put on much of a show.

He broke into a cold sweat. He could barely defend himself from the attack testing his mind, and didn’t even try to deal with the physical attacks. 

Julius appeared so different from her memory—so much so that she doubted whether he was the one she knew.

She could only detect magic on the scale of a pea from him. The magical momentum he had used to take down the dark sorcerers was nowhere to be found.

‘This… this is weird.’

If he’d only show them the lightning that purified the god’s corrupted body, he’d be able to decimate the entire testing center. 

It was as if Julius was deliberately hiding his skills.

‘But why?’

She had no idea.

Sir Allen, who was already in a similar testing site, managed to finish the task in second place all on his own.

Considering what she knew of his personality, it wouldn’t have been strange for Julius to try to mess with him somehow.

'…But why is he acting like that here?'

Did he have any reason to hide his skills?

She also found Allen suspicious.

If he was the ‘ideal brother’ she knew him to be, wouldn’t he be running to support Julius as he was sluggishly falling behind?

But he seemed too busy concentrating on his own test, totally ignoring Julius’s situation.

'Maybe he’s after something…’

His present appearance did not carry with it his normally relaxed expression.

The pieces of the puzzle began to come together. Julius had a reason to hide his power. And that was something that Allen knew and was choosing not to interfere with.

'…But what is the point of doing all this?’

What was making him act so weak, despite his abundance of power? 

Although she’d formed the foundation of a theory to crack the mystery, there remained gaps in her knowledge.

But Natasha was convinced that there was something driving their actions.

The problem was, though, that she wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"Hmm, he’s changed a good deal since we last saw him, no?”

Helena, the third princess of the Kingdom of Liberé and who had met Julius previously, stared at him, eyes filled with suspicion.

"What do you think?"

"I agree with you, princess."

In response to her question, Irene watched Julius intently.

"You let him call you just Helena? You're too lenient with him.”

"…I'm sorry."

"His brother also doesn't quite fit what I’d been told of him.”

She decided to monitor the family using a private investigator once she heard that Julius was heading to the Academy, and then she had come here.

"Anyway, something seems to have happened to him… I'll have to go help."

Helena did not avoid the eyes of the elf looking at her.

"I think there are already some strong competitors, so the sooner the better."

She smiled and whispered to Irene, "Of course you'll go, too, right?”

"Yes, absolutely."

"Then let's go. He must have passed the test, too,” Helena responded with a satisfied smile.

Thus, three women began to approach him.

* * *

* * * 

He managed to secure the second spot in the entrance examination, despite events proceeding so beyond his expectations. 

It was because the competition was much fiercer than he’d expected. He was going up against strong opponents, from the descendant of the First Warrior to the applicant from the Draghias family.

He was not in a situation where he could hide his strength haphazardly.

As a result, he had no choice but to disclose more than he’d originally planned.

‘I want to keep the dragon's core a secret, at the very least.’

Unlike his bodily strength, which would inevitably be revealed over the course of a fight, he’d refuse to use any power from his dragon’s core for the time being. 

His reserves of internal mana and byproduct of using it—the sensitivity of his sensory power—were nearly infinite. But theoretically, how advantageous would it be to be able to use both mana generated within the body as well as mana from one’s surroundings?

Although he couldn't use it for long because his mind and body couldn't withstand the overload, he guessed that the momentary output would put him around the highest caliber—that of a 6th tier wizard. 

Though, considering his relative lack of experience with it in battle, he wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if he were to dip his toe into such activities. 

'…It doesn’t seem like anybody has found out about the dragon's core yet.’

Though, someone may have noticed that the structure of his core was different from the ring typical of the circle system users.

He turned his head toward the gaze he felt piercing through him.

There, a young man with a dark, gloomy air about him was staring at Allen.

Elnix Draghias.

The youngest member of the Draghias family and one of the competitors who competed with him for the second seat. However, he had been relegated to fourth place, after the descendant of the First Warrior.

His eyes were fixed on Allen.

Allen could guess at his reason.

⟬It smells like dirty lizard around here.⟭

‘The Dragon's Bloodline.’

⟬He has the blood of a hybrid.⟭

When he concentrated, Allen felt faintly drawn toward the young Draghias.

Maybe he was staring at Allen because he felt the same sensation. 

Elnix Draghias, or, no— Not only him, but everyone in the Draghias family must’ve inherited the blood of dragons in their bodies, being the successors of dragons.

He ignored the gaze and turned his head to the side to see snow-white hair and an expressionless face.

It was one of the main characters occasionally mentioned in the Black Book, someone who claimed to be a descendant of the First Warrior.

"Maria Caritas."

She bit the corner of her lips, as if displeased with her results.

Allen wanted to become friends with her to prepare for the future, just in case there was something she had to offer.

'But not now.'

The situation was hardly conducive to starting a conversation.

Allen turned to the man in front of her before she could notice his gaze.

He was the ‘main character’ of Julius's ‘’, the reincarnation of the first Demon King who fought against the First Warrior, and a man who would one day possess the power to single-handedly destroy the country.

He finally laid eyes on him.

‘​​Heisel Kailus.’

The one who he suspected to be the cause of Julius's unruly actions, and the owner of Allen's last, hidden book.

With raven black hair and dark black eyes, he appeared to be annoyed, not at all amused by the situation at hand. The clean cut of his clothes stood out among the crowd.

‘Is there anything that makes him look like he’s related to the Demon King?’

His face had some distinct features, but they weren’t particularly attractive relative to other nobles.

Just because he had black hair and black eyes didn't mean that was any proof…

‘Was there ever an influential ‘Kailus’ family?’

He thought he’d heard of such a thing somewhere before. However, a detailed investigation now seemed necessary.

Not even a breath after Allen first observed him…

"…Hmm?"

Heisel turned his head, looking directly into Allen's eyes.

However, Allen showed no hint of embarrassment.

‘I even made an effort to hide my gaze…’

For Heisel to have caught his single glance, Allen realized that he might not have been able to take the top spot from him, even if he’d put his all into it. 

But Heisel grinned, as if he had noticed exactly what Allen was thinking.

"I'm a little sensitive to the eyes of other people.”

"…I apologize if it was unpleasant."

"No, rather than being unpleasant… It's a little… fascinating."

The successful applicants for the entrance examination flocked to the central square one after another. Those in charge of the exam lined them up, and now, all that was left before entering the Academy was the last rite of passage.

"I wonder how he's doing."

"What do you mean…?”

"Oh, him, too. He fits into the puppet role well, doesn't he?”

Allen was forced to show his bewilderment for a moment.

At his reaction, Heisel spoke, voice filled with doubt. "You don't know what’s going on? Perhaps… Have they changed their ways? I wouldn’t have thought, though…"

"‘They’? What does that mean… Wait!"

As soon as Allen began to hurriedly speak, the man in charge of the entrance exam called out Heisel's name.

"Number 1102, Heisel Kailus! As required by Academy tradition and the rite of passage, you shall gauge your affinity with and potential to possess the Holy Sword. Step forward and touch the handle of the Holy Sword!"

"Well, it's none of my business now."

Heisel slowly strode over the red-carpeted square.

"If you're really curious, come find me later… or not. It doesn't matter," he said with a slight wave of his hand that appeared frivolous at first glance. But Allen was not in the right state of mind to pay attention to it.

‘Am I… a puppet?’

For whom?

Or rather… whose puppet?

Was this just a trap to try to shake him up?

‘But why would he do that?’

Or what did that word really mean?

Having thought he’d secured a good position for himself just a few moments prior, Allen felt his train of thought derailing.

"Wow!"

"Insane, did you see the Holy Sword? How many years has it been? Wow…"

"Isn’t it the first time in 17 years? This freshman is really…”

But there was no time to think.

"Number 572, Allen Reinhart! Now it's your turn! We're running out of time, so we'll try to move as quickly as we can!"

Allen looked upon the Holy Sword, the foundation and pillar of the city, embedded into the rugged rock in the center of the red square.

‘I may never have a chance to see another of the Five Wonders like this again…’

But Allen was no longer able to concentrate on the entrance examination.

In the corner of his vision, he saw Heisel disappearing through the gates of the Academy, drawing attention from all.

'…There's no time for this.’

There may not be another opportunity to approach the Holy Sword, but at that moment, it was more important to grasp the meaning of what he’d said.

When Allen quickly rushed to grab the handle of the sword, the blade shone with light.

"Oh my god, him, too?"

"Another freshman is doing it? Their cores must be insane.” 

“Won’t the First Warrior’s descendant make it react, too? So it’ll be three times, then?”

In his coat, the beads, one of the Five Wonders he possessed, trembled slightly.

He exited the square.

He turned in the direction that Heisel had disappeared, ignoring the cheers, the reaction of one of the Five Great Wonders, and all those eyes.

"Ah."

At that moment, a yellow light flashed, and a pair of sky-blue eyes blocked his path.

"Allen, what are you doing here?"

The light scent of Maybells intertwined with that of the spring breeze.

“When were you going to tell me you were here? What are you doing here?”

And through the breeze came that nostalgic voice.

"…Rachael."