Rumina stared at the wall for a second. Then, she let out a harsh, rasping laugh.

"Those sons of bitches."

She stood up, kicking the chair back.

"Those cowardly, festering little cockroaches," she spat, the vulgarity sounding jarring coming from royal lips. "They play at summoning gods, but they run like rats the moment the light turns on. I should have gutted them slowly."

She paced the room, her mana leaking out in agitated spikes that made the air heavy.

"Did you find anything of value? Or did I come all this way for a pile of headless corpses?"

"We found victims," Samantha said quietly. "In the basement of the Third District hideout. Thirty people. Malnourished, drained of mana. They were being prepped as sacrifices for a ritual."

"Sacrifices…" Rumina stopped pacing. Her expression didn't soften; it hardened into cold rage. "So they are serious about the summoning. Bastards."

She took a deep breath, pulling a silver cigarette case from her jacket. She didn't light one, just held it to calm her hands.

"Fine. The trail has gone cold for now. We'll have to wait for them to slip up again."

She turned her steel-grey eyes to Samantha.

Discussions continued for a while eventually shifting to the academy matters.

"How is my little sister doing?"

Samantha casually answered.

"Princess Celestia is doing well. She is a genius among geniuses. Her control over ice magic has surpassed the academy's curriculum. She is diligent, kind, and—"

"And she came in Third," Rumina cut her off, her voice icy.

Samantha paused. "...Yes. The competition this year is exceptionally fierce."

"Fierce?" Rumina scoffed. "She is a Royal. She has the best tutors, the best artifacts, and the blood of the Emperor. And she lost to a commoner and a disgraced noble."

Rumina walked over to the window, peering through the blinds at the students walking below.

"She is a shame to the Royal Family. Losing is one thing. Losing to a sword-swinging peasant in a public arena? It makes the House of Asteria look weak."

Samantha remained silent. She believed in equality; she knew Kael's strength was genuine and that rank didn't define talent. But she also knew that arguing with the Mad Princess was a good way to lose a tongue.

"I will have to have a… word with her later," Rumina muttered darkly.

Then, she turned back to the desk. She picked up another file. This one wasn't bloody. It was a student record.

[Name: Lucien Ashborne] [Rank: 1st (Academic) / 2nd (Practical)]

"And this one," Rumina said, tapping the photo of the black-haired boy. "Who is he?"

Samantha hesitated.

"That is Cadet Lucien Ashborne. The heir to the Ashborne Barony."

"The Ashborne Barony? That failing house in the boonies?" Rumina raised an eyebrow. "I heard rumors about him. Didn't he get suspended a few months ago for assaulting another student? They said he was incompetent. Trash."

"He was," Samantha admitted. "But… he changed."

"Changed?"

"He is the one who tipped us off about the CrystalVale attack," Samantha revealed. "And he is the one who pushed Celestia and Kael to their limits in the duel. He uses strange weapons. He aces exams he shouldn't know the answers to."

Rumina looked at the photo. She looked at the cold, bored eyes of the boy in the picture.

A slow, predatory smile spread across her face.

"A suspended failure who suddenly becomes a genius? A boy who knows things the Imperial Intelligence doesn't?"

She tapped her fingernail against Lucien's face.

"Interesting. Very interesting."

***

[The Cafeteria]

Shudder.

Lucien, who was just about to bite into a sandwich, froze.

A chill, colder and sharper than any ice magic, shot down his spine. It felt like a spider was crawling over his heart.

"Lucien?" Ariana asked, pausing with her fork. "What's wrong? Is the bread stale?"

Lucien slowly lowered the sandwich, his face pale.

"No," he whispered, looking toward the window, the hair on his arms standing up. "I just feel like… something terrible just noticed me."

I shook the feeling off. Whatever plot twist was coming, I couldn't stop it by trembling in a hallway. I needed to prepare.

****

That night, the house was silent.

I locked my door, double-checked the latch, and closed the heavy curtains.

I sat cross-legged on the bed, the moonlight filtering through the gap in the drapes illuminating the object in my hand.

It was the sheet of Vellum I had stolen from Section Z. The [Ancient Rune: Vitality].

The ink on the parchment seemed to writhe, shifting like living shadows trapped in paper.

"Okay," I muttered, turning it over in my hands. "I got it. But how do I actually equip it?"

In Asteria Online, this was the easy part. You opened your inventory, right-clicked the item, and selected 'Equip'. A little fanfare would play, your stats would go up, and you'd move on to killing goblins.

"This isn't a game where I can just click a button," I sighed. "There's no user interface for my body."

I pondered for a moment, racking my brain for the specific animation the game character performed during the cutscene.

'Right. The protagonist would hold the artifact against their heart. The mana core acts as the catalyst to absorb the external circuit.'

I took a deep breath.

"Here goes nothing."

I unbuttoned my shirt and tossed it aside. My chest was still slightly bruised from the duel with Kael, a colorful reminder of the silver slug's recoil and the impact of the ground.

I picked up the Vellum. It felt cold, unnaturally so.

I pressed it directly against the skin over my heart.

"Activate."

I closed my eyes and pushed a stream of mana from my core, guiding it through my chest and into the parchment.

Thump.

My heart skipped a beat.

Then, I felt it.

It started as a warmth, like holding a hot mug of tea against my chest. But within seconds, the warmth turned into a searing heat.

"Urgh…!"

I gritted my teeth. The parchment wasn't burning on me; it was dissolving into me.

I looked down. The Vellum was disintegrating into particles of blue light. The ink—the complex geometric symbol—detached itself from the paper and sank into my skin like liquid mercury.

It felt like a thousand tiny needles were stitching a new pattern into my flesh.

The heat spread from my heart, racing through my veins, rewriting the mana circuits in my blood. It was invasive. It was agonizing. It felt like my body was rejecting the foreign code, then forcibly accepting it.

"Haa… Haa…"

I gripped the bedsheets, my knuckles turning white. Sweat poured down my face, stinging my eyes.

Pulse. Pulse. Pulse.

The symbol glowed brightly on my chest for one final, blinding second—a spiraling helix of blue light—before fading away completely, leaving no mark on the skin.

The pain vanished instantly.

I slumped forward, gasping for air, my body slick with sweat.

"That… was intense."

I wiped my face and sat up. I felt different. Lighter. There was a low, constant hum in the back of my mind—a reserve of energy that hadn't been there before.

"System. Status."

The blue screen flickered to life.

*****

[Status Window]

Name: Lucien Ashborne

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Race: Human

Affiliation: Imperial Academy / House Ashborne / Kitchen 21

Stats

Strength: 28

Agility: 35 (+50*)

Endurance: 19

Intelligence: 26

Mana: 22

Charm: 65

Skills

Mana Control: Lv. 6 ↑

Horse Riding: Lv. 3

Basic Etiquette: Lv. 4

Intimidation: Lv. 7 ↑

Cooking: Lv. 8

Marksmanship: Lv. 8 ↑

Detection: Lv. 8 ↑

Movement Arts: Lv. 7 ↑

Adrenaline Surge: Lv. 1

Culinary Creator: (Passive)

Items / Artifacts

[Rune of Vitality] (Rank: Unique) - [BOUND]

Effect: Passive Regeneration. Converts Mana into biological repair cells upon injury.

System Points: 8,050

****

There was an extra section now. [Items / Artifacts]. And the terrifying tag: [BOUND].

"It worked."

I dismissed the window.

Now came the hard part.

"Trust, but verify."

I needed to know if this actually worked, or if I had just endured five minutes of torture for a shiny new tattoo.

I looked around the room. My eyes landed on a decorative short sword mounting on the wall—a gift from my father that I rarely used.

I walked over and unsheathed it. The steel was cold and sharp.

I hesitated for a second. Self-harm wasn't exactly my hobby.

"For science," I muttered.

I rolled up my sleeve.

I pressed the blade against my forearm and sliced.

Slash.

"Damn!"

I winced, dropping the sword.

A distinct line of red appeared on my arm. Blood welled up immediately, stinging sharply. It was a clean cut, deep enough to need stitches in a normal world.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch…"

I hissed through my teeth. But I didn't grab a bandage. I watched.

Fzzzt.

A faint, almost invisible blue vapor rose from the wound.

My mana bar dipped slightly.

Then, right before my naked eyes, the blood stopped flowing. The red line began to knit itself together. The skin stretched, sealed, and smoothed over.

In five seconds, the bleeding stopped. In ten seconds, the scab formed and fell off. In fifteen seconds, there was nothing left but faint pink skin.

"Jackpot."

I stared at my arm, grinning like a maniac.

"As long as I have mana, and as long as I have breath… I'm unkillable."

I rubbed the spot where the cut used to be. It was tender.

That was the catch.

The Rune of Vitality healed the body, but it didn't numb the nerves.

"It hurts like hell," I muttered, picking up the sword and sheathing it. "It heals the damage, but the pain remains."

I looked in the mirror. I was still sweating, chest heaving, with a phantom ache in my arm.

"I can be a tank," I whispered to my reflection. "But I'm going to feel every single hit."

I fell back onto the bed, exhausted but satisfied.

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