Chapter 88 - 22
The morning sun had barely crested the marble arcades of Aegis City when Arthur stepped out into the residential courtyard.
The narrow cobblestone thoroughfare was already choked with female students. A dense crowd of noble heiresses, upperclassmen swordswomen, and ambitious mages had set up an elaborate, unspoken stakeout along his path to the academy gates. The moment his brass door key turned in the lock, the quiet street exploded into a flurry of dramatic, highly calculated encounters.
"Oh! What an incredible coincidence, Arthur!" a high-born heiress chimed, casually stepping into his stride while fluttering an expensive lace fan. "I just happened to be taking my morning walk through this exact alleyway! Would you care to share my private land-drake carriage to the lecture hall?"
"Arthur! Try these fresh honey pastries!" a second-year alchemist called out, thrusting a velvet-ribboned basket toward his chest. "I baked them at dawn using rare, spirit-infused berries!"
Arthur navigated the sea of eager invitations with smooth, effortless grace. His face remained a mask of calm, polite indifference—the practiced posture of a seasoned corporate titan handling overzealous shareholders. He gave concise, polite rejections without slowing his pace, weaving through the crowded avenue with an agility that left the noblewomen blinking in breathless, flustered disappointment.
At the edge of the courtyard, Julian and his clique of spoiled aristocratic boys watched the spectacle with bloodshot, furious eyes.
"Look at him... acting like he’s too good for the daughters of high-tier dukes!" Julian spat, gripping the hilt of his decorative rapier until his knuckles turned white. "He thinks his little back-row stunt yesterday makes him special. Just wait until the practical combat assessment this afternoon. I’ve already bribed the arena proctors to match him against a wild mana-beast. We’ll see how calm his face stays when his commoner clothes are shredded to bloody rags!"
Arthur ignored the venomous glares burning into his back, turning down the quiet stone colonnade that led up to Lecture Hall 101.
When he pushed open the heavy oak doors, the noisy chatter inside the grand amphitheater died down slightly, though the lingering gazes of two hundred women tracked his every step. Arthur bypassed the empty front seats offered by hopeful heiresses and walked straight up the stone stairs to the very top row.
Katherine was already sitting in her corner desk.
She wore her threadbare, oversized cardigan pulled tight over her massive, exceptionally voluptuous bust, her head bowed low over her blank notebook. Her cheeks burned a bright, adorable crimson the moment she heard his firm, measured footsteps stop beside her chair.
"Good morning," Arthur said smoothly, pulling out his seat and placing his leather bag under the desk.
Katherine gasped softly, her deep violet eyes wide with trembling, sweet shock as she looked up at him. "G-Good morning, Arthur!" she stammered, her fingers clutching her quill so tightly her knuckles turned pale. "I... I made sure my inkwell was pushed into the very center of the desk today! So... so it won’t fall!"
A faint, genuinely amused smirk touched Arthur’s lips as he laid out his notebook. "A solid tactical adjustment."
Katherine’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird, a brilliant, helpless blush spreading all the way to her delicate ears. She couldn’t understand how a boy so strikingly handsome and remarkably capable could sit beside an outcast commoner like her with such total, natural ease, completely unbothered by the cruel whispers of the lower rows.
Before the classroom could settle, the front stage doors swung open with a sharp, echoing thud.
The substitute instructor who stepped out onto the marble stage was entirely unfamiliar. She wore a tailored white physician’s coat over a dark blue academy tunic, her silver-framed reading glasses resting low on the bridge of her nose. She carried a heavy leather-bound medical ledger under her arm, walking with a brisk, disciplined, and slightly exhausted stride that radiated absolute, no-nonsense authority.
"Quiet down," the woman commanded, her voice crisp, sharp, and laced with an unmistakable, bossy cadence that instantly cut through the room’s chatter. "Professor Vane is attending a regional council meeting today. I am Dr. Elena Vance—no relation to the local noble houses—head of the Clinical Medicine and Traumatology division. For the next two hours, you will not be learning theoretical mana matrices. You will be learning how to keep your squad members from bleeding to death in high-tier rift zones."
High up in the back row, Arthur froze.
His dark eyes, usually cold and unshakeable, widened in absolute, paralyzing shock.
The voice, the precise, bossy rhythm of her speech, the habit of resting her reading glasses low on her nose, the subtle posture of her shoulders, and even the tiny, annoyed twitch of her left brow as she surveyed the class—it was an exact, terrifying replica of his older sister from his previous life on Earth.
The woman who had scolded him for working late, forced him to eat warm meals, and fussed over his health while he built his corporate empire in a cold, concrete world was standing right there on the lecture stage of the Aegis Academy.
Impossible... Arthur’s mind raced, a rare, violent surge of adrenaline crashing through his calm thoughts. She died in a hospital shift three years before my own reincarnation... Is this a spatial anomaly? A reincarnated soul? Or an absolute genetic coincidence created by the realm’s broken demographic balance?!
Beside him, Katherine noticed his sudden, rigid posture. She blinked in deep concern, leaning slightly closer. "Arthur...? Is... is something wrong? You look so pale..."
Arthur didn’t answer. His eyes remained locked onto Dr. Elena as she turned to the chalkboard, snapping a piece of chalk in half with a practiced, sharp flick of her wrist before aggressively sketching a diagram of human arterial mana-lines. Every single gesture was an undeniable ghost from his past.
The two-hour lecture passed in a surreal blur. The moment the sharp chime echoed through the auditorium marking the end of the session, Dr. Elena packed her medical ledgers into her bag, gave the class a stern warning about reviewing emergency tourniquet applications, and marched briskly out the side stage doors.
Arthur stood up instantly.
He didn’t wait for Katherine to gather her papers, nor did he acknowledge the noble girls rising to approach his desk. Moving with a swift, silent speed that blurred his form across the stone stairs, Arthur bypassed the main crowds, exited the auditorium, and cut directly across the central administrative plaza.
He didn’t head to his next class. He headed straight for the grand spire of the Director’s Office.
Bursting through the heavy, enchanted mahogany doors of the top floor without knocking, Arthur caught Director Celeste completely off-guard.
Celeste was sitting at her ivory desk reviewing quarterly tuition ledgers, sipping a cup of herbal tea. Seeing Arthur suddenly stand before her—his usual calm, sovereign composure completely shattered by an intense, burning urgency—she nearly dropped her porcelain teacup in shock. Her face turned bright, flustered pink as she scrambled to her feet.
"A-Arthur?!" Celeste gasped, adjusting her spectacles with a trembling hand, her heart doing a frantic flip. "What happened?! Did someone at the academy offend you?! Did the noble boys—"
"Celeste," Arthur interrupted, his voice dropping into a low, commanding register that chilled the air in the room. He stepped up to her desk, his dark eyes flashing with absolute, razor-sharp focus. "Pull the complete, classified biographical file, origin records, and soul-signature audit for Dr. Elena Vance. Right now."