Celia had her circle of friends to fall back on, but Luxer walked alone through the bustling city. It wasn't surprising—he had grown up in a quiet rural village, far from the kingdom's great cities, and had only ever lived with his mother after moving here.
She worked in one of the city's libraries, a place of silence and dust, while her son became something of a ghost among the living.
The old Luxer—the one before reincarnation—had been nothing but a training fanatic, exhausting himself with drills and exercises until his body ached.
The new Luxer, however, was a different creature altogether: a book addict. Shelves of parchment and tomes became his battlefield; knowledge, his weapon. While other boys roamed the streets chasing excitement, he immersed himself in words.
He never made friends his age. The city teemed with life, with adventurers, merchants, and knights passing through daily, but he remained apart.
The only company he kept was with seasoned adventurers who occasionally wandered into the tavern or library.
Unlike his peers, they carried stories soaked with blood and lessons etched in scars. Luxer was frank with them, easygoing even, and he lingered in their presence whenever possible.
The scraps of wisdom they dropped—half-forgotten war stories, tavern boasts, whispered rumors—were treasures to him. Sometimes he even worked in a tavern just for the chance to listen.
But his mother had worried endlessly. She fretted over her son, who seemed so unwilling to connect with children his own age and who hid himself away among dusty tomes or the company of grizzled strangers.
She saw only isolation.
Yet when she realized how deeply Luxer absorbed knowledge, how his mind bloomed like a forge shaping steel, she relented. If he was not ordinary, then so be it.
It wasn't long before the city branded him with a name: the Dweller. Always buried in books, rarely seen in play, more scholar than boy. Luxer didn't mind. He even liked it. Titles meant nothing compared to the knowledge he hoarded.
The Academy loomed before him now, vast and imposing. Its grounds stretched like a city within a city, with sprawling mansions and palaces of stone and marble, towers climbing skyward as if competing for dominance. It was no simple school—it was an empire of knowledge and power, wrapped in walls that exuded authority.
Stepping through the first gate, Luxer followed the crowd until he reached the grand hall assigned to him. The air inside hummed with anticipation; rows of students shuffled nervously as their talents were tested.
At the far end, a teacher sat with the poise of someone who had done this task countless times.
Luxer watched carefully.
The teacher needed only a glance at each student before handing them a small, glowing card. The process was swift and mechanical.
Too swift to be mere intuition.
Luxer's sharp eyes narrowed.
'An identification spell,' he realized.
His pulse quickened. If that spell probed too deeply, what would it uncover? His Codex? His Incubus soul? The bizarre simulations hidden within him? These were things far beyond the knowledge of this world. If exposed here, in front of all…
His palms grew damp.
When his turn came, Luxer stepped forward, schooling his expression. The teacher's gaze lifted to him—and froze. Just for an instant. Long enough for Luxer's heart to lurch. A bead of cold sweat slid down his temple.
The teacher's eyes flickered with something unreadable, then smoothed over into calm indifference. He handed Luxer a card. On it shone his cultivation realm—accurate, but nothing more. No secrets laid bare.
Luxer accepted it quietly, though his mind churned.
'Why pause?' he wondered. 'Did the spell glimpse something it couldn't comprehend? Or did it stop at the surface, unable to pierce deeper?'
If the Codex was truly beyond this world's comprehension, then perhaps it couldn't be read at all—not without his permission. That, at least, offered him some reassurance. Yet the teacher's brief hesitation lingered in his thoughts, gnawing at him.
'Should I ask?' The idea sparked, bold and reckless. To approach the teacher later, to probe directly. Even if his abilities were exposed, what true harm could it bring? No one else possessed a Codex.
No one else had even heard of such a thing—he was sure of it. The great library where his mother worked contained countless records, histories, and grimoires.
Nowhere had he ever once read the word Codex.
That in itself was telling.
Luxer's fingers tightened around the card. His instincts whispered that his so-called cheat was not something so easily understood, not something that any spell could measure. It was his and his alone—an anomaly even among anomalies.
Luxer glanced down at the thin, glowing card in his hand. His name was etched across it along with the class designation he had been assigned. With a faint shrug, he pushed open the heavy classroom doors and stepped inside.
The room was already filled with murmurs of excitement and nervous laughter. Groups of students clustered together, voices rising in speculation. Luxer simply walked to an empty seat near the middle rows and sat down without fuss. Seating was temporary, after all. Soon, the teacher would arrive and announce the real arrangement: who would share a dormitory, who would form a team, and who would stand together for the year ahead.
Five students per dorm. Five partners bound by both duty and fate.
It was no wonder the air hummed with tension. Some whispered that the academy's assignments shaped more than just training—friendships, rivalries, and even romances. Rumors persisted that more than a few couples who survived the Shadow Gates together had later ended up as husband and wife.
The idea was laughable to some, but for many young students it was a dream to cling to: be assigned with a beauty, face death together, emerge alive… and bond for life.
Luxer leaned back, lips curving faintly. Not the worst dream, he mused. 'A little reckless… but still romantic in its own way.'
His idle thoughts were broken when the classroom door opened again. The atmosphere shifted instantly, voices dying into a hush.
A girl stepped inside, her presence like a ripple across still water.
Her hair shone silver, brushed to a perfect sheen, cascading down with the elegance of moonlight. Every motion carried a silent grace, as though she belonged in a world above the mundane bustle of the classroom.
Students straightened unconsciously, and several noble-born males practically tripped over themselves to make space, their gazes reverent.
Luxer sighed quietly the moment he recognized her. He didn't need to hear her name whispered by the others.
Emilia Astral Wellbeing.
Daughter of the Duke of Astral Wellbeing—the younger brother of the king himself. The jewel of the kingdom.
Her reputation preceded her: a prodigy with an affinity for five natural magi elements, a martial soul cloaked in mystery but undoubtedly formidable, and a work ethic that left even her rivals grudgingly impressed. To many here, she was not just admired but worshipped—a goddess of talent and nobility wrapped into one.
Luxer knew her type well enough. Not her personality, perhaps, but her untouchable place in the world. She was the kind of flower rooted on a cliff's edge: beautiful to behold, impossible to reach.
He wasn't the type to waste time on fantasies. Unless fate played some cosmic joke—placing them in the same dorm, the same team—he had no intention of pursuing impossible dreams. He preferred the ground, steady and real, not castles in the sky.
Still…
Luxer became aware of something strange. As Emilia passed by, her sharp, noble poise never wavering, other girls in the classroom began to turn their heads. Not toward her—but toward him.
A dozen curious gazes, fleeting yet unmistakable. Eyes lingered longer than casual, with some whispering behind hands.
Luxer blinked once. He wasn't so dense as to miss it.
Since when…?
Before, he had never been the type to draw such attention. He was bookish, withdrawn, "the Dweller." Not invisible, but hardly magnetic. Yet now, after his breakthrough cultivation—after last night with Celia—something had shifted. His aura, his presence, something intangible was pulling their eyes to him.
He exhaled slowly, a half-smile tugging at his lips.
'An Incubus constitution…'
The realization had been simmering in the back of his mind all morning, but now it struck with full clarity. His path was no longer merely human. His very being radiated a subtle charm, one that women unconsciously responded to.
If he wanted, he could ride that charm. Find a noble lady, play the fool, and live off her wealth—a life of "soft rice," as the old adventurers would joke. A carefree existence, unburdened by ambition.
But Luxer knew himself too well.
The thought was amusing, even tempting in a twisted way. Yet the fire in his chest, the hunger for magic, for martial mastery, for adventure—those burned far hotter than any comfort.
No, he would not let this gift tie him down.
Incubus or not, charm or not, he would carve his own path.
And perhaps, just perhaps, fate would throw him together with someone like Emilia… or Celia.
But if not?
Luxer smiled faintly, eyes narrowing with determination.
He would make his own destiny.