Victor halted for a second when he saw a few familiar corpses on the ground. Miss Amanda, noticing his gaze, raised an eyebrow.
"Did you know them?" she asked calmly.
"Yes, they gave me directions to the information center a few hours ago," Victor replied, taking a deep breath. They were the noblewomen who had given him directions—and also tried to flirt with him. Even though he didn't feel responsible, a heavy feeling still settled in his heart.
[ Ding Dong ]
[ You have received a quest ]
< Quest: Kill 50 B-Rank monsters >
< Reward: Bloodline Awakening >
Victor glanced at the new lines of text and raised an eyebrow.
'Looks like I'll need to start training my swordsmanship at the very least before attempting this quest,' Victor thought. If he went at it in his current state, even a G-rank monster would be able to kill him, not to mention B- Rank which was a target unachievable at the moment.
---
About an hour later…
"Well, Victor, do you remember anything? This is the Light Academy, one of the top Bloodline Academies on the lowest floor," Amanda said as they stopped in front of the academy's gate.
"It seems a bit familiar," Victor replied with a calm expression, though inwardly he was dumbfounded.
'What in the hell… how is the Light Academy in this world so vastly different from the one in my old world?' Victor thought, his eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets. The massive building before him was at least ten times larger than the academy he remembered.
'Fuck… is that gate made of gold?' Victor nearly dropped his jaw to the ground but forced himself to maintain a normal expression. Still, his eyebrows twitched as he examined the entrance gate—pure gold, with runes inscribed all across its surface.
"You go inside. I'll go inform the headmistress in the meantime. And by the way, be careful—rumors have already started spreading that you survived and returned. There might be some students who hold grudges against you and try to challenge you after they learn you have lost your strength. Don't be impulsive enough to accept, unless you want to get beaten black and blue," Miss Amanda said with a smirk that made Victor's eyebrows twitch.
"I understand," Victor replied with a sigh, though he wasn't sure himself. He then walked toward the entrance and was met by a powerful ranker guarding the gate.
"Oh, Miss Amanda and—fuck, a ghost—" the guard in charge first looked at Amanda with shining eyes, but when his gaze landed on Victor, his expression changed and he fell onto his buttocks.
"Long time no see, Guard Liam," Victor said with a forced smile, his eyebrows twitching. The guard was the same as his previous world.
"How… aren't you supposed to be dead?" Liam asked, still staring at Victor suspiciously. He then turned toward Amanda for confirmation.
"Indeed, this is Victor. He didn't die," Amanda said, which calmed the guard's nerves. His eyes widened as he looked back at Victor.
'I thought it was just a rumor I heard yesterday…' the guard thought with a sigh, then quietly watched them enter the academy.
---
Victor walked along the corridor and saw many students chatting among themselves. Some were studying, others were sparring in the training field—which was larger than an NFL field—and he even saw a few couples making out openly, only to be dragged away by a teacher.
'Sigh, everything here is similar to my original world except for the uniform—and the place seems much larger and more spacious,' Victor thought with a sigh. In his original world, everyone wore the same uniform, but here he noticed two distinct colors: red and purple, symbolizing the inner and outer ring students.
Soon, Victor made his way through the crowd and headed toward the Knight section, where many students carried swords hanging from their hips. Suddenly, the entire place fell silent as they noticed Victor's presence. Some students even rubbed their eyes, thinking they were hallucinating. But once they confirmed he was real, their eyes widened in disbelief and their jaws practically hit the floor.
They stared at him as if he were some kind of exotic beast on display in a zoo—or a rare beauty they had never seen before.
"Damn, my eyes aren't playing tricks, right? That's the Sword Prodigy and Bane of Mages—Senior Victor!" one student exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah, that's him! This is really Victor," another student said in a daze.
"You know, when I heard yesterday that he was alive, I thought someone was pulling our leg. But now… it's true," a third student muttered in reverence.
'Holy shit… how am I this famous here? And what the heck is 'Bane of Mages'? Won't that title make every Mage Bloodline user target me?' Victor cried inwardly, feeling awkward under the looks of admiration. He was also terrified, wondering what the hell he had done to the mages in this world to earn such a title.
"Haha, Victor, color me surprised! I honestly thought it was just a rumor that you were alive."
Victor turned toward the source of the voice and saw a man dressed in knight armor walking toward him.
'Mr. Smith?!' Victor cried out inwardly when he saw the man. As Mr. Smith came closer, he patted Victor's shoulder in a joyful and affectionate manner.
'No way… why the hell is Mr. Smith being so friendly with me?' Victor's eyes nearly popped out when he saw the teacher smiling warmly. In his previous world, Mr. Smith—the academy's knight instructor—had hated Victor's commoner background from the very beginning. Before Victor had gained power, the bullying had been relentless. It only stopped once Victor became stronger than him.
"Hmm, who are you?" Victor asked in a confused tone, his acting so flawless that Mr. Smith's smile froze.
"Ah, right… I forgot you had amnesia. Let me introduce myself. I am Mr. Smith, one of the knight instructors of this academy," he said with a forced smile. The students who overheard this exchange stared at Victor in shock as the students did not know about his Amnesia.
"No problem, you'll remember everything gradually. Now that you're back, we can finally put those arrogant mages in their place. They've been harassing the students ever since you left," Mr. Smith said with a smile. The other students also looked excited.
"Uh… Mr. Smith, I also lost all my strength," Victor admitted.
"..."
The students and Mr. Smith froze. Then they all stiffly looked at him.
"So you're saying… you even forgot your swordsmanship?" Mr. Smith asked, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes. Victor nodded in confirmation. Before he could say anything else, he saw a fist flying toward his head. He raised his arms to block it, but the impact still sent him sprawling to the floor.
"What's the meaning of this, Mr. Smith?!" Victor asked through gritted teeth, glaring up at the knight instructor, who now looked down at him with a cold smile.