Leomaris’s POV:

’It’s strange... why would an expert in disguises, and someone protected by such a powerful force, reveal their identity without any pressure? It makes sense she would consider the circumstances and the gap in strength, but why reveal her identity?’

The cadets’ time at Pandora Floating Island was over. By morning, they were heading back to Chatenham City, and Leomaris sat with his head resting against the glass, miles away.

Just over a week ago, Adelina had walked into his home dressed up as his butler, Hazel. He’d seen through it almost immediately, though not without some doubt. Her disguise was good enough in certain respects to make him second-guess himself, yet he’d chosen not to use his ability on her.

’I don’t know if Emerald truly had a twin sister or if that is also a disguise... I will have to ask Samael about that.’

Wary, his eyes cut across every corner of the room. The air felt thick and exposed, everything around him stripped bare as though eyes were on him from somewhere.

’I can’t say for sure if this is Adeline’s master’s doing... but it’s still there. Even after all this time, it won’t go away.’

The feeling had crept in the day after Adeline walked into his home. Being watched, that was the only way to put it. And strange as it was, it felt like whoever it was stood just behind him. Their presence was sinister enough to be proof of that.

His first thought had been Adeline. So instead of pulling the rug from under her straight away, he’d let her carry on, stringing her along in the hope she’d let something slip. She never did.

In the end, he’d stabbed Adeline and exposed her for what she was, and still, the feeling wouldn’t shift.

’Could it be... the full weight of the Goddess’s curse?’

He let out an exhausted sigh and shook his head.

’No, can’t. It’s not possible.’

After becoming a Sorcerer, Leomaris had put his newfound abilities to use, consuming the remaining three myths of the Firstlight Goddess. It hadn’t dented her strength or prowess in the slightest, and those three were hardly the worst of them. There were far more powerful myths still out there.

The Goddess, however, hadn’t been best pleased. He didn’t know exactly why she’d cursed him, whether they simply weren’t compatible, or whether it was his methods of consuming knowledge that had no business being in his hands to begin with. Either way, the curse was there.

He knew well enough that the curse would catch up with him eventually, but he was certain it wasn’t behind the bizarre sensation. That was something else entirely.

’If it were truly that, then I would have felt it immediately after I finished consuming them all. But it didn’t... not until the next day, and even then only in the afternoon. And what Mother said too...’

His mother, Rosemary, had told him as much, the Goddess had cursed others before him, but she never made them a proper target until they’d climbed to a certain level of power.

He didn’t know much about them, mind you. That was down to Rosemary and her little games. She’d deliberately left that bit out, tickled by the whole thing, no doubt.

’But since it is highly likely neither Adeline and her master nor the Goddess, it leaves me with a single culprit: Instructor Moon.’

A week and a bit ago, during their mid-semester examinations, Instructor Moon had gone and chosen a select few first-year cadets to train under him for the time being, and Leomaris was one of them.

If Moon’s glares were anything to go by, Leomaris had every reason to believe he was the real reason behind the whole trainee selection business to begin with.

Moon was a devoted follower of the Firstlight Goddess, and with Leomaris bearing her curse, their falling out was more or less inevitable. What’s more, his sister Rosalith had her suspicions that Instructor Moon was one of the people who’d been after her life. If she was right, that made Leomaris a target by extension.

Taking all of that into account, Leomaris was well convinced that Instructor Moon’s sudden interest in the first-year cadets was no coincidence.

Even so, rushing things wasn’t an option. Instructor Moon had a reputation, an unlikeable character with an obsession for strength that bordered on the excessive. He loved nothing more than pushing his third-year cadets to their limits, forcing challenges on them that had no business being within their reach.

For an instructor that keen on strength, taking an interest in cadets as promising as the first-years made perfect sense. But that didn’t rule anything out.

Two things could be true at the same time.

’Even if he didn’t have any ill intentions toward me, he could have started feeling that way after sensing my unholy presence and the curse. Hmph... I heard he is a Summoner as well. He could have sent his spirit or beast to watch me. It’s highly unlikely, since I felt this even in my own home. But I have no other conclusion now. He didn’t appear in the novel for some reason.’

In Arcane Mercenary, the characters had spent five years at the academy without once crossing paths with Instructor Moon or hearing his name. This was another shift in the plot, and it meant Leomaris had no choice but to face him blind.

He let out a deep sigh.

’I have no other choice... but to be extremely cautious.’

—

The train arrived at their station soon enough. Rosalith’s servants were out waiting, and Leomaris didn’t do much besides look for the carriage bearing his family’s emblem among the lot.

A sense of familiarity settled over him, and something like relief followed close behind, the kind that comes with knowing family has seen off one of your enemies. His smile grew the closer the carriage got to the mansion.

Soon enough, they arrived at Rosalith’s mansion. The building had the bones of old money: brick-built, solid, and unhurried about it.

The serenity came from the flowers, the greenery, the river that ran through the far end of the grounds, and altogether it gave Leomaris the kind of atmosphere that made a man breathe easier.

No sooner had he stepped out of the carriage than there she was, Hazel, by the entrance. Dark hair in a ponytail, butler uniform immaculate, her pose unhurried and elegant.

Her smile said everything, the quiet admiration she had for him. Something the imposter could never quite replicate.

With a respectful bow, she spoke:

"Welcome back, young master."