Chapter 1: The Offer
Leo Vance walked down the wide stone hallway outside the main lecture hall.
His hands rested casually in his dark coat pockets. The morning sun poured through the tall arched windows, casting sharp golden beams across the polished gray floor.
Dozens of second-year cadets moved past him in small groups. Some argued loudly over the coming ranking brackets, while others practiced basic elemental sparks between their fingertips.
Leo kept his pace steady, heavy, and slow.
He was a transmigrator.
He knew this world down to its blood and bones. In the original novel, the original owner of this body had been a loud, brainless bully who rashly provoked the hero candidates and noble houses, triggering a horrific death ending where he was executed in chains.
Transmigrating into this body six months ago, Leo had zero intention of repeating that foolish death. He had stopped the reckless tantrums, dyed his hair back to neat black, and kept a low profile.
He was not weak, and he was not afraid. He simply had no desire to initiate mindless trouble that would bring premature doom before his foundation was ready.
Inside his chest, resting quietly behind his ribs, was the Black Sun Calamity Core.
It was silent for now. Mortal Elite Tier. Third Ascension Peak.
Leo knew its exact cultivation law from the novel’s hidden lore.
The Black Sun core did not grow through ordinary meditation or alchemy pills. It expanded by devouring raw Calamity mana and absorbing high-tier virgin maiden bloodlines through intimate dual cultivation.
With each maiden claimed, the core swallowed their bloodline shards, refining his pathways and shattering bottlenecks at ten times normal speed.
He had bided his time, waiting for the right catalyst to ignite the core without triggering noble retaliation.
And now, fate had walked right up to him.
"Leo Vance."
A clear, resonant voice called out from the center of the corridor. Leo stopped.
He turned slowly on his heel.
Caelum Voss stood five paces away. Caelum was the direct heir to the Ducal House of Voss.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, with neatly cropped dark hair and piercing gray eyes. His white-and-gold uniform looked like formal military armor, pressed without a single wrinkle. A heavy silver-hilted practice sword hung at his hip.
Everything about Caelum screamed perfection, nobility, and honorable authority.
Standing half a step behind Caelum was Elara Snowveil.
Leo’s dark eyes shifted toward her.
Elara was breathtaking. Long, pure-white hair fell like spun silk down past her shoulder blades to her waist. Her sharp golden eyes held a fierce, aristocratic pride.
Her academy uniform was tailored tightly to her slender frame, unable to conceal the full, soft curves of her chest and the graceful flare of her hips.
She was the undisputed Rank 1 prodigy of the second-year class. A daughter of the frozen northern mountains. The crown jewel of House Snowveil with the dormant [Absolute Glacial Soul] bloodline.
Right now, Elara’s face was rigid. Her pale cheeks were completely devoid of color.
Her small hands were clenched so tightly at her sides that her knuckles were white.
Caelum stepped forward, his posture upright and commanding.
"I need to speak with you in private, Leo," Caelum said.
Leo’s expression remained flat and unreadable.
"Speak," Leo said.
Caelum glanced around the busy corridor. He gestured toward a quiet stone alcove tucked behind the marble pillars of the east wing.
Leo followed him with unhurried steps.
Elara walked behind them, her head lowered, her leather boots making no sound against the stone floor. Inside the secluded alcove, the ambient noise of the hallway died down completely.
Caelum turned to face Leo.
His gray eyes were steady, but beneath the calm surface, a strange, feverish hunger flickered in his pupils.
"I will be direct," Caelum said in a low, controlled voice. "I have a private request for you."
Leo leaned back against the cold stone pillar, hands still in his pockets.
"Go on," Leo said.
Caelum drew a deep breath. He looked straight into Leo’s dark eyes.
"I want you to sleep with Elara."
The silence in the stone alcove grew heavy.
Elara flinched as if struck across the face by an invisible blade. Her golden eyes snapped toward the stone floor.
A deep, humiliating crimson burned at the tips of her ears.
Leo did not blink. He did not gasp.
He looked at Caelum with an unreadable, calculating gaze.
"Explain," Leo commanded.
Caelum swallowed hard, his throat moving visibly under his stiff collar.
"Elara and I have been betrothed since childhood," Caelum said quietly. "Everyone expects us to be the ideal noble pair. But my sword core has hit a severe bottleneck. I need pressure. I need to see her taken by another man."
He reached into his breast pocket.
He pulled out a high-grade blue memory recording crystal. The polished crystal hummed with faint, dormant arcane light between his fingers.
"Take her to your room tonight," Caelum whispered, his voice trembling with hidden excitement. "Take her first time. Record every second of it on this crystal. Bring it to me tomorrow morning."
Caelum held the crystal out between two fingers.
"In exchange, House Voss will supply you with mid-tier mana stones and guarantee your rank in the coming trials."
Leo looked down at the blue crystal.
Then he looked at Elara Snowveil.
The proudest girl in the entire academy stood before him like a sacrificial lamb. Her chest heaved beneath her tight uniform jacket. Her golden eyes glared at the stone floor with suppressed rage and bitter shame.
She hated this. She hated Caelum for asking.
And yet, bound by childhood devotion, noble contracts, and family duty, she had not walked away.
A cold, faint smirk touched the corner of Leo’s lips.
Caelum was handing over the academy’s greatest ice prodigy on a silver platter. Leo did not have to provoke anyone or trigger a single noble death flag. Caelum was doing all the work for him.
His internal pathways hungered for pure virgin bloodlines. The game had begun.
Leo reached out his right hand.
His calloused fingers closed around the blue recording crystal, taking it firmly from Caelum’s palm.
"Send her to my room at dusk," Leo said.
Caelum let out a long, shuddering breath of pure relief.
"She will be there," Caelum said.
Caelum turned and walked away briskly, his steps light, fast, and eager. Elara remained standing in the shadow of the marble pillar for five long seconds.
She slowly raised her head.
Her golden eyes met Leo’s dark, dominant gaze. Her lower lip trembled with silent fury.
"You are disgusting," Elara whispered in a choked voice.
Leo took a slow step closer to her. His tall frame towered over her delicate form, casting a long shadow across her pure-white hair.
"Be on time, Elara," Leo said.
Caelum grabbed Leo’s shoulder, his gray eyes burning with desperation. "Tonight, Vance. Eleventh bell. The heavy oak door of your dorm will not be locked."
Leo gave a single, slow nod, stepping into the sunlit corridor as the chapel bell struck the hour.