Chapter 124: The Start of the Semester

Chapter 124: Chapter 124: The Start of the Semester

Jeremy knew that Raphael suddenly dropping that sentence was absolutely not him speaking on a whim.

He pressed for the reason, but the other party only replied: "Unusual origins, hard to probe. Keeping a distance might be better. Naturally, the choice rests in your hands. Weigh it yourself."

Leaving behind exactly those few words, Raphael left, not exchanging another sentence.

Clearly not wanting to dig deep into that topic.

Jeremy watched the retreating back, falling into deep thought.

It was too clear. Raphael had gone and flipped through the family backgrounds of Leon’s group.

Even he couldn’t dig up their roots... It seemed none of his teammates were ordinary goods.

But Jeremy had no intention of changing teams.

Changing teams wasn’t something you could just do because you wanted to. Even if, for health reasons, he could be considered a freshman who hadn’t officially enrolled yet, if he wanted to switch, he would have to wait until the freshman enrollment period in the latter half of next year. And he didn’t have the free time to lie around waiting for another half year.

Ultimately, after graduation, there wouldn’t be much interaction left anyway. Whatever status they held, it was all the same.

Beside him, the maid’s voice rang out: "Young Master, Miss Lomita has arrived."

Jeremy retracted his gaze, gave a "yeah," then turned and stepped outside.

Since the banquet ended, Lomita had planned a whole schedule of fun. Aside from a small portion dedicated to strolling the streets, attending auctions, and some folk festivals, more than half of the schedule was combat sparring — exactly his taste.

For the majority of the vacation, Jeremy stayed with Lomita.

Knowing he was looking for a way to restore souls, every day she hauled over a stack of lost ancient tomes and ruined books from her home.

He still hadn’t figured out a method. But in exchange, he accidentally picked up quite a few out-of-print magic spells and potion formulas, plus a bunch of secrets related to various races and territorial secret realms. In short, he didn’t come up entirely empty-handed either.

Unfortunately, every vacation felt short. Before he could find a way to bend the rules to patch a soul, a month had already slipped cleanly by.

Due to his identity issue, right on the first day of the semester, Jeremy went to the academy’s records department to correct all his documents.

Incidentally, he clearly explained that for the first half of the semester, he took Sylas’s place to complete the curriculum. Coupled with the authorization letter from the Valmont family, the identity update procedure went unexpectedly smoothly.

After the correction, the Magic Spirit card successfully reconnected once again.

Jeremy tapped open the screen to check the time.

January twenty-fifth, nine-twenty in the morning.

The second semester didn’t have many grand opening ceremonies. Aside from exams, all the remaining time was entirely at the guiding instructor’s discretion.

Half an hour ago, the message Griffin tossed into the group was exactly four words short: [Gather in the classroom.]

The locations of the other four already showed them in the classroom. Now only he was missing.

Jeremy turned off the screen, striding toward the Anima department.

The classroom door was not closed. Just as Jeremy approached, he felt a few gazes shooting out.

Griffin hadn’t arrived yet. There were only four people in the room.

The look Leon gave him carried a trace of coldness.

Evelyn and Phoenix still sat in the back row, maintaining their silence, but their vision paused on him. Not exactly cold, but with a distinct distance.

As for Lucius, he sat by the window, propping his cheek on one hand, his eyes glued to the jade-green butterfly fluttering outside the glass pane, acting as if he didn’t even notice someone entering.

Jeremy could roughly guess the reason.

During the royal banquet, he didn’t see their figures, and the guest list didn’t have any related names either. This meant they truly weren’t people of the empire, so it was understandable they didn’t grasp the fact that he had swapped identities.

Furthermore, the fact that he possessed Sylas’s physical body for the first half of the semester hadn’t been publicized widely yet. Currently, only the academy and a small faction grasped it.

He wasn’t intentionally hiding it, but for it to spread throughout the academy still required time.

Judging by their reactions right now, they probably didn’t know that the eldest young master who had just returned to the mansion was the exact person who had dragged himself through the past half-semester of hell with them.

In the eyes of those four right now, he likely resembled a stranger abruptly parachuting in to occupy their old teammate’s spot.

Ultimately, even though their facial features were similar, some characteristics still deviated. Aside from the heterochromic eyes and the dragon mark, his complexion along with the length and hue of his hair were also slightly different. Distinguishing them wasn’t hard at all.

Jeremy was slightly curious about their next reaction. He immediately shelved the intention to greet them, walking straight to his seat.

The desks and chairs in the room were divided into three rows.

Evelyn and Phoenix always occupied the back row, one leaning against the left window, one leaning against the right window, with an entire century separating them in the middle (not really).

Leon sat in the middle of the second row, monopolizing the entire row.

Jeremy, as always, still sat in the front row. But his familiar spot had been taken by someone else, so he chose the seat right by the right window.

Looking at the overall layout, this was also the spot furthest from everyone. Even Lucius, sitting in the same row, was nearly ten meters away from him.

Having just sat down for less than half a minute, a shadow suddenly fell across the tabletop.

The light spilling in from the other side was also blocked.

Jeremy tilted his head to look over, only to see Lucius lower his eyelashes, quietly sitting down right next to him.

"Why sit so far away from me?" He slightly furrowed his brows, his tone clearly displeased.

"?"

Jeremy fell silent.

So this guy had figured it out.

He glanced over at the remaining three.

Their expressions had just shifted up another level of astonishment.

Even Phoenix, the laziest one to open his mouth, proactively spoke up to probe: "Captain?"

Seeing that the whole group had reacted, Jeremy also retracted his intention to joke around.

He tilted his head, smiling at Phoenix: "Yeah. It’s me."

"Long time no see." He added the sentence he hadn’t managed to say earlier.

Phoenix and Evelyn nodded silently, serving as a response.

The voice was entirely different, but the demeanor and intonation made Leon absolutely certain of who the person in front of him was.

The repulsion and coldness on his face vanished in the blink of an eye: "What happened to your face?"

Jeremy briefly summarized what had occurred over the past few days.

Five minutes later, he spread his arms: "That’s basically it."

The corner of Leon’s mouth twitched: "So the captain intentionally didn’t say anything earlier, just to watch our reactions?"

Jeremy replied with a smile, serving as a tacit admission.

"...So boring." Leon was speechless.

The corner of Jeremy’s eye swept over Lucius, who was leaning close beside him.

He rested his hand on the desk, burying his face in his arm, looking sleepy. The dark circles under his eyes were significantly darker than before.

Pondering for a moment, Jeremy asked: "How did you recognize me? Did you hear some rumors lately?"

Lucius didn’t have any major reaction. His eyes remained half-closed, his voice pleasant to the ear but flat: "No matter what you’re like, I’d recognize you."

Jeremy didn’t reply.

Catching that doubt, Lucius slightly tilted his head, looking up at him: "Don’t believe me?"

Jeremy offered no opinion. Neither believing nor denying, just treating it as the other party blurting out nonsense.

But looking at that reaction, it was probably the scent that guy had mentioned before that still lingered. Otherwise, with his personality, there was no way he would proactively snuggle up close like this.

The leisurely conversation ended when Griffin pushed the door and walked in.

And upon seeing that on the usually blank stack of lesson plans a few more lines of text had exceptionally appeared, Jeremy had a very bad premonition...