Chapter 3: The Recording
"He will thank me," Leo answered before the heavy door clicked shut.
Morning light broke through the tall windows of the dorm, casting long shadows across the floor as Leo sat at the edge of the bed.
Leo opened his eyes slowly. For a few seconds he just stared at the ceiling.
The events of yesterday afternoon felt like a strange dream.
But the mess on the sheets and the faint sweet smell in the air told him it was real. Elara Snowveil had been in this bed.
Leo had taken her first kiss, her virginity, and filled her while the recording crystal watched everything.
He sat up and rubbed his face with both hands.
The high-grade crystal still sat on the desk. The soft blue light was gone.
It had finished recording and was waiting.
He got up, cleaned himself, and put on a fresh uniform. His body felt a little different.
Not stronger in a big way.
Just... denser.
Like his mana was sitting a bit heavier inside him. The faint warmth from last night was still there if he paid attention.
Leo understood the process completely. The Black Sun Calamity Core was functioning exactly as the ancient novel lore described, devouring her pure Frost Bloodline shard to refine his 3rd Ascension pathways.
He picked up the crystal from the desk and slipped it into his inner pocket.
Time to finish what Caelum asked for.
The second-year training fields were already busy. Students practiced sword forms and basic elemental magic under the morning sun.
The sound of clashing wooden blades and small bursts of mana filled the air.
Leo walked along the edge of the field, looking for one person. He found him near the far side.
Caelum Voss stood with his practice sword lowered.
Sweat ran down the side of his face. His dark hair stuck to his forehead.
Even after hard training he still looked like the perfect ducal heir, tall, strong, and serious.
Caelum saw Leo coming and straightened up. His gray eyes locked on Leo’s.
There was something hungry and nervous in them at the same time.
Leo stopped a few steps away.
"You have it?" he asked in a low voice. Leo took the crystal out of his pocket and held it up between two fingers.
Caelum’s throat moved as he swallowed.
He looked around quickly to make sure no one was close enough to hear. Then he stepped closer.
"Did everything... happen?"
His voice was almost unsteady.
"Yes."
"All of it?"
"All of it."
First kiss.
Everything.
She was a complete virgin.
No one had ever touched her before.
Caelum closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, his pupils were wider than normal.
A faint red color rose on his neck.
"Give it to me," Caelum said.
Leo handed him the crystal. His fingers closed around it tightly, like he was afraid it would disappear.
"Did she... cry?" he asked quietly.
"A little."
At the start.
"Later she stopped fighting as much."
Caelum’s breathing grew a bit faster.
He looked down at the crystal in his hand as if it held something holy and filthy at the same time.
"I need to watch this," he said.
"Now."
"Here?"
"In the open?"
"No."
"Follow me."
He turned and walked toward the small equipment storage building near the edge of the training fields. It was usually empty in the morning.
Leo followed him without a word.
Inside, the air smelled of wood, oil, and old practice gear. Caelum closed the door and locked it.
He leaned against a wooden rack, held the crystal up, and activated it with a pulse of his mana.
A clear image appeared in the air above the crystal. It showed his dorm room from yesterday.
Elara standing naked in the middle of the floor, white hair, full breasts, face red with shame.
Then the bed.
The first clumsy kiss.
His mouth on her breasts. His head between her legs.
The moment Leo pushed inside her.
Her broken sounds.
The way her legs wrapped around him later. The two times she came.
The final moment when he filled her.
Caelum watched every second without blinking. His face changed as the recording played.
At first he looked tense.
Then his lips parted.
His breathing turned heavy.
By the time the recording showed Elara on top of him, moving her hips with her white hair falling around her face, Caelum’s hand was clenched so hard that his knuckles turned white. When the recording finally ended, the image faded.
Silence filled the small storage room.
Caelum stayed still for a long time. Sweat that had nothing to do with training ran down the side of his neck.
His gray eyes looked feverish.
"She... made those sounds for you," he whispered.
His voice was rough. "I never even kissed her properly. I always held back."
"I kept telling myself we should wait... while I thought about this exact thing." Leo said nothing.
He looked at him.
There was no anger in his eyes.
Only a dark, messy mix of shame, excitement, and need.
"How did it feel?" he asked.
"Being inside her."
"Tight."
Hot.
"She squeezed a lot when she came."
Caelum let out a shaky breath. He looked down at the crystal again.
"I want more," he said suddenly.
He frowned.
"What?"
"I want you to do it again."
Not just once.
"I need to see more."
"I need to know she is still doing it."
He stared at him.
"Caelum. She already hates me," Leo said.
"She told me this never happened and that I should stay away from her."
"She will agree again," he said.
His voice was low and sure. "I will talk to her. She loves me."
"She will do it if I ask hard enough."
He rubbed the back of his neck.
This was exactly how the original novel started. One time became two.
Two became more.
And in the end everyone got destroyed.
"I did what you asked," Leo said.
"One night."
"That was the deal."
Caelum stepped closer.
His eyes were still feverish. "Please."
"I am not asking as the Voss heir," Caelum said. "I am asking as a man who cannot stop thinking about his woman being taken. Just a few more times. I will make sure no one finds out."
"I will protect both of you if needed."
Leo looked at him for a long moment. That was the smart choice.
The safe choice.
But another part of him, the part that still felt the warmth of Elara’s body and the strange new density in his mana, stayed quiet. Finally he spoke.
"Talk to her first."
"If she truly agrees again... then we will see."
Caelum’s shoulders dropped in relief.
He nodded quickly.
"Thank you."
"I will speak with her today."
He put the crystal carefully into his own inner pocket, as if it was the most valuable thing he owned.
"One more thing," he said. "Do not tell her I watched it already."
"Let me handle how she finds out."
He shrugged.
"Your problem."
They left the storage building separately. He went back toward the main academic buildings.
Caelum returned to the training field as if nothing had happened.
Later that day, during the break between afternoon classes, Leo saw Elara. She was walking with two other noble girls near the fountain courtyard.
Her pure-white hair shone under the sun.
Her face looked calm and proud, the same Rank 1 student everyone knew. But when her golden eyes accidentally met his across the courtyard, something flickered there.
Shame.
Anger.
And a small, unwanted memory of yesterday.
She looked away first.
Leo did not approach her. He kept walking.
In his body the faint warmth of new mana was still present.
Quiet.
Steady.
Waiting.
Leo had told himself it was only one night. But Caelum already wanted more.
And somewhere inside, he already knew that Elara’s pride would not be enough to stop what was coming.
The first crack had already formed. Now it was only a matter of time before it grew wider.
That night Leo sat in his room again.
The bed sheets were clean now. The room smelled normal.
But every time Leo closed his eyes he still saw white hair spread on his pillow and golden eyes half-closed in calculating pleasure.
He lay down and stared at the ceiling. Tomorrow classes would continue.
Ranking Battle preparations would continue.
The academy would keep turning as if nothing had changed. But something had changed.
A proud duke’s daughter had given her first time and her first real kiss to the countryside baron’s son.
A perfect ducal heir had watched the recording with feverish eyes and already asked for more, while admitting he had never even kissed her properly himself.
Leo turned on his side and closed his eyes.
Sleep did not come easily. Outside the window, the lights of Azure Crest Academy glowed against the dark sky.
Somewhere in the female dormitory, Elara Snowveil was probably lying awake too, staring at her own ceiling, trying to pretend that yesterday had never happened.
But the recording existed.
Caelum had already watched it. And the next request was already on its way.
The first crack had already been driven through their perfect noble life, and Leo intended to widen it further.
Leo walked to the edge of the secondary training ground where Caelum stood waiting in the shadows.
Caelum reached out a trembling hand, his gray eyes wild with anticipation. "Give me the recording, Vance."