Chapter2

"Sign it."

I slapped the parchment onto the table.

Cedric glanced down, his face flushing a furious purple. "A low-tier servant contract?"

He snapped his head up. "Alice, you pulled the wrong one. I'm a special commoner-admit endorsed by the Duke. I'm supposed to sign a Knight-Squire contract."

In this world, once a commoner mage signed a squire's contract, they could enjoy the academy's resources on equal footing with the nobility. But a low-tier servant? They weren't even worthy of stepping foot onto the combat grounds.

I leaned back in my chair, tapping my finger rhythmically against the wood. "I didn't make a mistake. You eat my family's food and spend my family's coin. Since you constantly flaunt yourself as a prodigy with a backbone, you can start from the absolute bottom."

"You are insulting the dignity of a mage."

"I am." I met his eyes dead-on. "Don't want to sign? The door is right behind you. Take your dignity and crawl back to the dirt."

People were constantly moving through the grand hall, and a few had already stopped to point and whisper. Cedric glared at me, his gaze venomous. In my past life, he had climbed to power on my back, eventually sending my father to the grave with a cup of poisoned wine. All his ambitions were tethered to this academy—he could never walk away.

Ten seconds later, he snatched the quill, slashed his signature across the page, and slammed the pen down. He turned on his heel and stormed off.

"Sister..."

Liliana finally crept up, her eyes rimmed with red. "Brother Cedric is only looking out for you. You can't even cast half a fireball properly. Without him protecting you, you'll get hurt in combat class..."

I slid another piece of parchment toward her.

"That's why you are different from him, Lily." I softened my voice, curling my lips into a gentle smile. "You are the daughter of the man who saved my father's life. How could I ever bear to make you sign something so degrading? This is a Blood-Bound Kinship Pact. Sign it, and the academy will treat you as the second lady of House Oberland."

Her eyes lit up instantly. Without even glancing at the intricate runic clauses, she bit down on her thumb and pressed her bloody print heavily onto the bottom of the parchment.

She truly thought she had just vaulted across her social class.

She didn't know that hidden within the parchment's layers was a 'Backlash Death-Lock' specifically tailored against dark magic. The moment she dared to use that forbidden skin-flaying, blood-stealing art like she did in my past life, this contract would detonate her mana circuits—burning every bone in her body to ash.

"Thank you, Sister!" She smiled, her sweetness thick enough to choke on.

I rolled up the parchment. "You're welcome."

Four in the morning. The forbidden forest behind the academy.

I stood in knee-deep mud, my eyes closed as I forcefully channeled the mana through my body's circuits.

It was far too sluggish. In my previous life, I had chased after Cedric every day, leaving my meditation far behind. Now, even with the purest Silver Flame bloodline in the North, I could only feel the magic writhing painfully through my clogged meridians.

"Break!"

My eyes snapped open, and a violent burst of silver flame erupted in my palm.

But before the fireball could even leave my hand—Bang!

The congested circuits couldn't handle the compression. The flames backfired, exploding directly in my palm. Blood welled up between my fingers as I dropped to my knees in the muck.

It wasn't enough. Compared to the agony of a knife carving my face off inch by inch in my past life, this pain was absolutely nothing.

I took a deep breath, preparing to raise my mangled right hand once more.

A hand reached out from the side and locked onto my wrist.

My entire body went rigid. I looked up.

Kane was standing beside me, though I hadn't heard him approach. His gaze fell on my bleeding hand. "Your circuits have been blocked for three years. If you force it again, you will cripple this arm."

I gasped for air. "Let go."

He didn't. He dropped to one knee in the mud. With his scar-riddled hands, he supported my palm and wrapped it in bandages with extreme restraint, tying it off tight enough to stop the bleeding.

"What do you know?" I stared at his lowered eyes. "In three weeks, it's the group deathmatches. I can't even throw a stable fireball. It won't just be me—they will crush your bones out there, too."

His bandage-wrapping hand suddenly stopped. Those dark eyes finally looked up. "Whether my bones break or not, I couldn't care less."

"I know what you are rushing for." He stared intensely into my eyes. "But those desperate to prove themselves die in the very first round. Magic isn't mastered by blindly breaking your own body."

I grabbed his wrist in return. "Then teach me!"

I stared fiercely at the face that had been hacked to pieces for me in my past life. "There are so many magic-awakened prisoners in the deathmatch arenas. Tell me, how does a mortal with absolutely no magic kill a high-tier mage? I need to know how to drag someone to hell with me when the pain becomes unbearable."

Kane looked at my mud- and blood-smeared face.

"Do you truly want to know?"

"Speak."

He slowly pulled his hand away and closed the distance. A heavy, suffocating aura of oppression washed over me.

"Mages possess absolute shields and lethal range." His voice dropped to a low gravel. "If a mortal wants to kill a mage, there is no room for retreat."

He extended a fingertip, hovering it just over the center of my chest, right above my heart.

"The only way—is to use your flesh and blood to take their most lethal strike."

My pupils contracted sharply.

"You let the fire scorch through your armor. You let the lightning shatter your ribs. You cannot dodge. You cannot retreat." His eyes were as ruthless as a true beast's. "You use the agony of your burning flesh to stay awake. And then, bracing against the magical bombardment, you walk forward—three steps."

His finger slid across my throat, mimicking the motion of a blade.

"You walk right up to them. And with one knife, you slit their throat."

A freezing wind swept past, and my entire body shuddered. This was the exact path he had taken in my previous life when he tried to avenge me.

Kane quietly watched my shocked face, his demeanor shifting back to the dead, cold stillness of a shadow guard.

"You are the eldest daughter of House Oberland. You were born to be protected behind a shield." He stood up. "This is a dead man's method. You cannot learn it. Nor is it fit for you to try."

He turned around, intending to retreat back into the shadows.

"Kane."

He stopped and turned back.

"Then you'd better keep your eyes wide open." I enunciated every single word. "Watch how, in three weeks, this born-noble lady takes a lethal strike and walks those three steps."

He stood rooted to the spot, his gaze firmly nailed to me.

In that split second, buried deep within the shadow guard's eyes, I saw a fiercely suppressed, dark fire.

"Alright," he answered softly.