[Third Person POV]
The sun was warm that day.
It wasn't the harsh, glaring heat of mid-summer that burned the skin, but the gentle, forgiving warmth of early autumn. It was the kind of sun that made you want to lie in the thick grass, close your eyes, and pretend the rest of the world didn't exist.
Leo was only eight years old back then.
He lay on his back in the Celestial family gardens, the soft blades of grass tickling his neck and ears. He stared up at the sky through the shifting leaves of an old oak tree. The clouds moved slowly, drifting across the blue expanse like they had nowhere to be and all the time in the world to get there.
To his left, Arthur was sharpening a stick with a small, silver knife. His brow was furrowed in deep concentration. His black hair fell across his forehead, and his golden eyes were narrowed—not in anger, but in intense focus.
Arthur had been quiet all morning. Leo knew that look. Arthur only got that quiet when he was thinking about things that were too big for an eight-year-old's words.
To his right, Amelia was humming a soft, nameless tune.
She was weaving starflowers into a crown, her small fingers moving with a grace that Leo couldn't quite understand. Her hair—midnight blue, like the sky just before the stars come out—was loose today, spilling over her shoulders like a river of ink. She was beautiful, even then.
She caught him staring and offered a soft, knowing smile.
"You're staring again, Leo."
"I'm not," Leo shot back quickly.
"You are," Arthur added, not looking up from his stick. "You always stare when you're thinking about something."
"I'm not thinking," Leo said, and it was only half a lie.
He wasn't thinking about anything important. He was just… feeling. The warmth of the sun. The scratchy grass. The sound of Amelia's humming. The way Arthur's knife made a soft shhk-shhk sound against the wood. For a moment, everything felt peaceful. Everything felt right.
Then Arthur put his knife down and stood up, brushing the dirt and grass from his pants. He looked down at Leo with a challenge in his eyes.
"Let's race to the pond."
Leo groaned but pushed himself up anyway. His body already felt heavier than Arthur's, slower. He had grown taller faster than the others, but it didn't make him quicker—it just made him clumsier.
Amelia set her finished flower crown aside and stood up. "You guys should race, and I'll watch from here. The winner gets this crown."
Both boys nodded at her, their competitive spirits flaring. They lined up at the edge of the garden path. Arthur was already leaning forward. While, Leo just stood there for a second, feeling the sun on his back one last time.
Amelia raised her hand, giving them the signal. "Go!"
Both of them erupted into a sprint.
Arthur was a flash—smooth, effortless, like he was gliding over the grass rather than running on it. Leo pounded behind him, his boots hitting the ground with heavy thuds. His breath was already coming in hard, ragged bursts.
He didn't look at Arthur's back. He stared at the pond ahead, its surface sparkling like diamonds in the sunlight. He focused everything on that goal.
But then, his foot caught on a root—a thick, gnarled thing hidden under the overgrown grass.
He stumbled, his momentum carrying him forward into a dizzying fall. He hit the ground hard, the air knocked out of his lungs in a single Oof! Pain bloomed in his knee, sharp, hot, and stinging. For a second, he just lay there, blinking up at the sky, his vision blurred.
He pushed himself up and looked at his leg. His pants were torn, and blood—a lot of it—was beginning to seep out from a deep gash on his knee.
He didn't cry. He never cried in front of them. But his throat felt tight, and his eyes were stinging with tears he refused to let fall.
Arthur skidded to a stop at the pond's edge. He turned, saw Leo on the ground, and didn't hesitate. He didn't say a word; he just ran back as fast as he could. He knelt beside Leo and, without a second thought, tore a strip of cloth from the hem of his own expensive tunic.
Amelia was there a moment later, her flower crown forgotten in the grass. Her face was pale with worry.
"Are you okay, Leo?"
Leo nodded, but his voice wouldn't work. It felt stuck in his chest.
Arthur wrapped the cloth around Leo's knee, his movements quick and sure. His hands were steady. They were always steady.
"It's deep," Arthur said quietly, his voice serious. "You should get it cleaned properly."
"I'm fine," Leo muttered.
"You're not," Arthur countered, tightening the bandage just enough.
They sat there for a while, the three of them, sitting in the grass under the shadow of the old oak. Amelia picked up her flower crown and placed it gently on Leo's messy black hair. Arthur stayed close, his knee brushing against Leo's, silent but present.
Leo looked at the blood seeping through the white cloth, then at Arthur's focused face, then at Amelia's worried eyes. For a moment, he believed it—that he belonged here. That he was part of this. Most of all... he was happy.
He was happy just to exist in that moment with them.
___
[Leo POV]
The first thing I saw after waking up was the ceiling.
The same high, vaulted ceiling I'd woken up to before. Leo's room. The Celestial Estate. So, I'm back in reality, huh?
My face felt wet. My mouth tasted like bitter ash and copper. I reached up and touched my cheek—my fingers came away damp.
Tears? Was I actually crying?
Damn it. I felt a wave of humiliation wash over me. Because of that bastard System, I'd lost consciousness like some weakling. I mean, come on—the pain was so intense it felt like my soul was being put through a paper shredder.
I just… passed out.
"Haaa…"
A long sigh escaped my mouth. I stayed there for a minute, lying flat on my back, trying to collect my scattered thoughts.
The memories. The original Leo's memories.
He was so different from what I'd imagined when I was playing the game.
In the game, Leo was just a flat character. We didn't get much info on him. He was just the childhood friend of Arthur and Amelia. The "bad fiancé" who tried to hurt Amelia and got his ass kicked by the protagonist.
Later, he died during the Path Awakening trial. And when Amelia found out in the game story… she didn't even react. She didn't care.
And now here I am. In the same scum body that, just two days ago, tried to slap his own fiancée and bully his childhood friend, only to get beaten into the dirt.
"Great. The world is really trying to screw me over," I muttered to the empty room.
I sighed again. In the game, we never saw Leo's childhood. I never knew he had such a cliché, traumatic backstory. This version of Leo wasn't always a bastard. Okay, maybe he became one eventually—but he didn't start out that way.
He was a good kid once. Full of dreams. Full of hope. He was always smiling, the heart of their little group. They were actually real friends.
But everything started to rot during the First Awakening.
In the world of Aetheris, at age ten, everyone awakens their Origin Core. That core decides your potential. It's like a script written onto your soul by the world—and that's when you get your System screen.
Arthur—the protagonist—awakened an SSS-Rank core. Amelia awakened an SS-Rank core.
But Leo? He awakened a B-Rank core.
And that's when hell began. Everything fell apart. He started running from expectations, just like I did back on Earth. He was a coward... like me.
The Celestial family is one of the Four Great Houses of the Human Domain. People expect greatness from them. They expect the heir to be a god among men. But awakening a B-Rank core while being a Celestial? It was a death sentence for his reputation.
Noble gatherings became a nightmare. People stared. They whispered behind their hands. They talked about how the Great House had produced a "failure." They looked at him with pity, and those gazes crushed him more than any physical weight could.
He got tired. So, so tired of trying to be what they wanted.
He started surrounding himself with alcohol and drugs to escape the pain of reality. Soon, he began acting like a delinquent to hide his insecurity. He stopped playing with Amelia and Arthur. They tried to reach out to him at first, but he always pushed them away with an argument or a sneer.
Being from a Great House gave him money and status, even if he lacked talent. So what did he do? He bought "friends." Even though he knew they were only with him for his money, he didn't care.
He just didn't want to be… alone.
That was around the time he got that black katana tattoo while hanging out with the wrong crowd. And if you're wondering why? It's because he thought it looked cool. He wanted to look like a "badass" noble so people would stop looking at his weak core and start looking at his scary ink.
Yeah, I know. It was a dumb, "edgy" reason.
Soon, he lost his charm. He lost his path. His parents tried to stop him many times, telling him that a B-Rank core didn't cap his potential—that he still had a future.
And they were right. The core rank doesn't stop you from growing; it just makes it harder. It takes twice the effort, twice the pain, and twice the time to reach the same level as an S-Rank.
But Leo didn't want to work twice as hard. He was already broken.
His jealousy grew every day. It led him to challenge Arthur over and over, only to fail every single time. He tried to use his status to bully others and ended up ruining his relationship with Amelia. He hurt a lot of people. He broke every connection he had.
I stared at the ceiling and sighed again, my heart feeling heavy.
"Haaa… I really need to clean up his mess, don't I?"
Then I remembered. When I first woke up, Some blue panels were flashing in front of me.
"Hey, System… you there?"
The air wavered. A faint glow appeared, and then those two eyes were hovering in empty space.
[Yes, Leo. I am here to help you.]
Help me? Help me?!
This bastard system just made me feel like my soul was being torn in half and I passed out! And he called that helping?
[It was not my fault. I provided a warning. You chose to proceed.]
Huh!?
"Wait… did you just read my thoughts?"
[Yes. I can read your thoughts.]
"What the hell. You can read my thoughts? No actually—since when?"
[From the start. I am bound to your soul. I can read your thoughts… and your memories, as well.]
Memories? Even my past life memories? Those weren't exactly things I wanted a voice in my head to see.
My mood suddenly dropped.
[Do not worry. I have not accessed your past life memories yet. I do not have permission unless you grant it.}
I was about to ask something else—to demand some privacy—but the door to the room suddenly slammed open with a violent bang.
"Young Master!"