Heir of the Darkgod in the Holy Academy

Chapter 4: The Deadweight Mask

"Look, that trash still has the nerve to show up here!"

Snide whispers greeted Leon the moment he stepped through the grand gates of the Holy Magic Academy. Dozens of students clad in gold-trimmed white uniforms glared at him with utter disgust and contempt.

Leon limped slightly, hiding his face behind messy brown bangs. The shoulders of his academy shirt were deliberately disheveled, arranged just right to look like the aftermath of last night's brutal beating.

Anyone looking at him would think he had barely escaped death. Yet beneath those tattered clothes, Leon was in peak condition.

The burn marks on his back had vanished without a trace thanks to last night's Void Restoration. The dark core in his left chest spun smoothly, subtly absorbing residual mana from the morning air without drawing a single soul's notice.

"I heard Lord Valen beat him half to death in some orphanage alley yesterday," a red-haired student sneered, bursting into a mocking laugh.

"A useless 1st-Circle mage like him needs to be put in his place regularly so he remembers where he belongs," his companion chimed in.

Leon kept walking straight ahead, feigning ignorance to the ridicule flying around him. His slow pace faltered as a luxurious carriage emblazoned with the Crest family coat of arms pulled up right in front of the main hall's grand steps.

The teak door swung open. Students immediately crowded around, eager to flatter the tyrannical elite noble.

"Lord Valen's definitely gonna thrash him again today!" several students cheered excitedly.

But the figure stepping out of the carriage looked nothing like the arrogant Valen they knew. Valen stepped down, his face as pale as a corpse.

Heavy dark circles framed his sunken, wild eyes, as if he hadn't slept a wink all night. His right arm was wrapped in a thick cast, pinned tightly beneath his academy cloak.

His steps were trembling and hesitant, suppressing the excruciating agony of a shattered kneecap. His two personal guards lagged behind with heads hung low, visibly thoroughly traumatized.

"Lord Valen!" one of his lackeys called out, stepping forward eagerly. "Look, that trash Leon is over there! Should we drag him over to you right now?"

Valen froze instantly. The young noble slowly turned his head toward Leon.

Leon slowly raised his head, locking eyes with Valen's trembling gaze. Deep within Leon's brown eyes, a faint, razor-thin flash of deep purple flickered—a glimpse meant for Valen's eyes alone.

Horrific memories of the skull-masked entity from last night violently crashed into Valen's mind. A soul-chilling dread choked his throat once more.

The young noble choked on his own breath, his body violently shuddering as his legs threatened to give out under sheer, unadulterated horror.

"N-No..." Valen whispered in a barely audible rasp.

"Lord Valen?" the lackey asked, bewildered.

Valen instantly slapped the lackey's hand away with his trembling left hand.

"Keep walking! Walk faster!" Valen shrieked, terrified out of his wits.

Valen kept his head buried low, hurrying past Leon without daring to glance at his face again. He even shoved past other students just to put as much distance between himself and Leon as possible.

The crowd in the hallway fell into stunned silence. Everyone gaped at Valen's retreating back as he hurried away like a man possessed.

"What's wrong with Lord Valen?"

"Why does he look like he just saw a demon?"

"Why didn't he even lay a finger on Leon?"

High up on the second-floor balcony overlooking the main hall, a young woman stood with her chin resting on her hand against the carved marble balustrade.

Elena von Roseburg—a duke's daughter and the number one light magic prodigy in the academy—observed the bizarre spectacle from above. Her silver hair gleamed brilliantly under the morning sun, accentuating her icy, untouchable beauty.

Her sharp blue eyes narrowed in bewilderment at Valen before shifting scrutinizingly toward Leon. Elena knew Valen's character well—he was arrogant and intensely vindictive.

Yet this morning, the aura radiating from Valen was pure, overwhelming terror—the kind born from an oppressively terrifying magical pressure. Elena swept down the spiral staircase, her gold-trimmed white academy cloak brushing elegantly against the marble floor.

The students immediately parted to make way. Elena stopped directly in front of Leon, who was still feigning weakness with slumped shoulders.

"Leon Vance," Elena called out, her voice clear as a silver bell.

Leon looked up, putting on a confused and awkward expression typical of a low-tier student suddenly approached by high nobility.

"I-Is something wrong, Lady Elena?" Leon stammered nervously, deliberately lowering his voice to sound meek and insecure.

Elena tilted her head slightly, staring straight into Leon's eyes at close range.

"What happened to Valen yesterday?" Elena asked, cutting straight to the point.

"Lord Valen?" Leon blinked innocently, brushing a smudge of dirt off his shirt. "I don't know, my Lady. Yesterday he just scolded me briefly and left."

Elena narrowed her eyes. The light mana within her rippled softly as she attempted to sense any magical energy fluctuating around Leon.

Yet all that emanated from Leon was the pathetic, barely discernible residue of 1st-Circle light magic—a trickle of power completely incapable of harming an elite mage like Valen.

Elena second-guessed her evaluation. Still, her sharp combat instincts whispered that something was off about the calm buried beneath this young man's dull eyes.

"I see..." Elena murmured, turning her back on him. "My advice? Stay away from Valen. There is a lingering residue of a deeply dangerous, dark magical aura attached to him today."

"Thank you for the warning, Lady Elena," Leon replied, bowing his head in feigned reverence.

Beneath his lowered head, a subtle smirk curled across Leon's lips, completely hidden from sight.

Elena truly was sharp. The genius girl had managed to pick up on the faint thread of void magic Leon had planted on Valen last night.

The academy bell chimed loudly three times, signaling the start of the main lecture. Students poured into the grand lecture hall lined with magic stones.

Leon took a seat in the very back corner by the window—his favorite spot to observe the entire room without drawing attention. In the front row, Valen sat rigid as a statue, not daring to look back even once.

Every time a desk creaked or a chair scraped against the floor, Valen flinched violently, consumed by trauma.

The heavy classroom doors swung open with a bang. A middle-aged man with a grizzled gray beard and high-ranking archmage robes strode inside.

Professor Rowan—the head magic instructor notorious for his ruthlessness and unrelenting discipline—stood firmly behind the podium. Rowan placed a black wooden box carved with intricate runes onto the main desk. A dead silence fell over the classroom.

"Quiet, everyone," Rowan commanded, his deep, authoritative voice echoing through every corner of the room. "I have an important announcement regarding this week's academic schedule." He continued, flipping open the lid of the wooden box.

Inside lay a fist-sized magic crystal glowing with a deep, radiant navy blue hue. A Mana Evaluation Crystal—a high-grade artifact capable of forcibly drawing out and measuring the absolute limits of an individual's mana capacity.

Whispers of panic rippled through the students as the sudden gravity of the situation sank in. Leon stared at the magic crystal at the front of the class with cold intrigue.

A standard mana crystal could be tricked by suppressing one's magic flow, but an advanced artifact like this would forcibly yank mana from both cores inside his chest. If the dark core on the left side of his chest was detected, his cover would be blown wide open right before the entire academy and the Holy Church.

Professor Rowan raised his finger, pointing directly at the students with an unyielding gaze.

"A high-stakes Mana Evaluation Exam will be held tomorrow morning. Anyone below the standard threshold will be expelled on the spot!"