Chapter 1: Parallel World
Chapter 1: Parallel World
<Host found>
<Establishing connection to host>
<Connection established>
<Installing system>
<System installed>
<Analyzing environment>
<Environment deemed to be unfit for growth>
<Searching for a suitable environment for the host>
<Environment found>
<Transferring host>
<Transfer completed>
…
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Di! Di! Di!
“Ugh…”
Di! Di! Di!
A young man with short black hair slowly opened his eyes to the sound of his alarm ringing, but he only managed to open his right eye, as his left eye was sealed shut from an injury that he’d received just yesterday and was still throbbing with pain.
“Damn it… That asshole really didn’t hold back this time…” Leo uttered in a spiteful voice as his vision cleared up.
“Seven… fifteen?” Leo stared at the clock with a dazed look on his face.
“Shit! I’m going to be late for class!”
Realizing that his perfect attendance was in jeopardy, Leo jumped out of the bed and rushed to wear his black and white school uniform before leaving his room in less than three minutes, not even bothering to do his morning routine.
The normally busy hallways were completely empty as Leo ran through it and fixed his appearance to the best of his ability at the same time.
Although he didn’t notice it since he was too focused on getting to class in time, there were people staring at him with shocked looks on their faces.
“H-Hey… Am I seeing things, or did that student just now look exactly like Leo?” One of these people asked his buddy while in disbelief.
“You saw him as well?”
“Huh? I thought he died three months ago!”
“Yeah, that can’t be Leo. No way. It must have been someone that looked like him.” His buddy agreed.
Pretty much everyone that saw Leo came to the same conclusion— that he was not ‘Leo’.
Once Leo reached the university’s main building, he immediately rushed up the long flight of stairs.
He glanced at his watch as he reached the top.
‘Three minutes… I can make it!’ A smile appeared on his face when he realized that not all hope was lost.
However, right as he reached the entrance, Leo stopped when someone suddenly grabbed his collar from behind, nearly choking him to death.
After coughing for a good moment, he turned around with an angry look on his face and exclaimed, “What was that for? Are you trying to kill me?!”
“Hm?”
When Leo saw the face of the person that just grabbed his collar, he immediately calmed down, but he was still puzzled as to why he was stopped in such a manner.
The person standing right behind him was a tall and beautiful woman with long, silky black hair and clear violet eyes, and her slender body was dressed like a nurse with a white medical lab coat.
“Miss Camille? Sorry, but I am going to be late for my exam. If you have something to tell me, I will meet you in the infirmary afterward.”
Leo ignored the look of disbelief on her face and turned around.
However, he was unable to go anywhere, as Miss Camille still had her grasp on the back of his collar despite Leo trying to break free.
“Why are you doing this to me, Miss Camille? Did I offend you somehow? I don’t remember doing so, but if I did, I apologize! I will even clean the infirmary for a week! Please, just let me go for now! I really cannot be late to this exam!” Leo begged her in a desperate voice.
After a moment of silence, Miss Camille finally spoke in a low voice, “You… Are you really Leo…?”
“Of course, I am Leo! Who else would I be? I know my eye is a little swollen right now, but I swear that I am Leo!” Leo shouted, and he began worrying if he had been beaten so badly that his face became disfigured and unrecognizable.
After another moment of silence, Miss Camille spoke in a grim voice, “Follow me!”
And without waiting for Leo’s response, Miss Camille began dragging him away.
“W-Wait! Where are you taking me?! This isn’t the way to my classroom! What about my exam?!” Leo continued to try to break free from Miss Camille, but her grasp remained on his collar, almost as though they were glued together.
“There is no exam today,” she responded.
“Huh? How is that possible? I would never make such a mistake. Don’t tell me that I actually slept through the exam and I had skipped a day?!”
However, Miss Camille did not respond to him, and she continued dragging him until they reached the infirmary.
After locking the door, she said, “Stand still.”
And without further explanation, she started stripping him.
“Miss Camille?!” Leo was baffled by the bizarre situation.
After stripping him to his underwear, Miss Camille would spend the next few minutes silently staring at his body, even circling around him.
It was incredibly awkward for Leo, but he trusted Miss Camille, so he patiently waited until she was finished.
“You have the same body structure as Leo, you look like Leo, and you even sound like Leo…” Miss Camille muttered to herself with a puzzled look on her face.
“Because I am Leo!” He said with a confused frown.
“No, you’re not Leo. You can’t be.” Miss Camille shook her head.
“What are you talking about?”
“You may have the same body structure as Leo, but your body is ‘ordinary’. The Leo I knew had a much more refined and robust figure. You may look like him, but you don’t give off the same feeling as him. You may sound like him, but you don’t speak like him at all.” Miss Camille said.
“Last but not least… Leo is dead. He died three months ago.”
Leo’s eyes widened with surprise after hearing Miss Camille’s last sentence, but after a moment of silence, he started laughing.
“Ah, I get it. This must be a prank. What a surprise, Miss Camille. I never thought you were the type to make jokes.”
However, Miss Camille’s face remained completely serious.
Seeing this, Leo stopped laughing and said, “Seriously, Miss Camille, what’s wrong with you today? Did you drink before coming to work?”
“Who are you? No, what are you? Why do you look and sound exactly like Leo?” Miss Camille narrowed her eyes at him, emitting a slightly dangerous aura.
Leo swallowed nervously, but he had no response, as he didn’t know what to say.
“Tell me about yourself.” Miss Camille suddenly said.
“Huh?”
“Tell. Me. About. Yourself. Speak to me as though this is our first meeting,” she clarified.
Leo sighed. He couldn’t understand why Miss Camille was acting like this, but he nodded his head regardless.
“My name is Leo, and I am currently 18 years old. I skipped a few grades cause I’m just that smart. My birthday is on the first day of the first month. My hobby is reading. I enjoy fiction and mystery the most. I like sweet and spicy food but dislike sour food. I was accepted into this university— Four Seasons University— after scoring a perfect score on the exam. I… I don’t have any friends in this university even after an entire year here, and I am often bullied because of that— and because I am from a common family.”
“There. What else do you want me to say that you don’t already know?”
“Do you remember our first encounter with each other?” Miss Camille suddenly asked.
“Of course. We met when I had to get treated for an injury from a fight with Adam and his group of dumb monkeys.”
“…”
Miss Camille would once again silently stare at him with a pondering look on her face.
A few moments later, she spoke, “First of all, this place is not the Four Seasons University. It’s called the Four Witches Academy. Second, you— Leo has plenty of friends in this place, and nobody would dare to bully him.”
“Uhh…” Leo held a dumbfounded face at this moment as he tried to comprehend the situation.
“This confirms that you’re not Leo… At least not the Leo I know. However, you are still Leo… probably. There’s only one reasonable explanation to this phenomenon… You, Leo from another world, had somehow traversed to this world— a world where ‘Leo’ no longer exists.”
Leo’s jaw dropped after hearing Miss Camille’s ‘reasonable’ explanation.
‘Miss Camille… She has turned crazy!’ Leo cried inwardly.
“I know you must think I am crazy, but allow me to show you the truth…”
Miss Camille suddenly lifted her arm and placed her palms directly in front of Leo’s face.
“Her hand… It’s glowing?” Leo mumbled in a dazed voice.
The next moment, Miss Camille spoke in a low voice, “Heal.”
Leo could immediately feel a warm sensation spreading throughout his face, and the pain in his left eye started to disappear.
A few moments later, Miss Camille lowered her hand and said to him, “Go take a look in the mirror.”
Leo didn’t ask any questions and went to stand in front of the mirror by the sink, and to his absolute surprise, his left eye that should’ve been swollen had, by some miracle, completely healed!
Leo caressed his face in disbelief.
“W-What just happened? How did you do that?” He turned to look at Miss Camille with a shocked face.
In a calm voice, Miss Camille responded, “Judging by your response, I can assume that ‘magic’ does not exist in your world, which makes things easier.”
“Magic?” Leo looked at her with wide eyes.
“Yes. Magic.” Miss Camille repeated, and she created a glowing orb of light that floated above her palm.
“C-Can I touch it?” Leo asked in a nervous yet excited voice.
“Sure.”
Leo began poking the orb of light at first, then he tried to grab it, but it would go through his hand like it was an illusion. However, he could feel a warm sensation coming from the light.
After taking a long moment to accept his situation, Leo asked, “How did I end up in this world? Can you send me back?”
“You’re quick to adapt, which is good.”
“Anyways, I don’t know how you came to this world, but since your world doesn’t have magic, it’s safe to assume that someone in this world had summoned you here for whatever reason. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to send you back to your own world.”
“Then do you know who can send me back?”
“I do not. Although there are people who are capable of using teleportation magic, I am not aware of anyone that is powerful enough to teleport through dimensions.”
Leo rubbed his eyes in a stressed manner, and he sighed, “What am I supposed to do now?”
“You can just live here until you figure a way back home,” she said in a nonchalant voice.
“But I am supposed to be dead in this world, right? Won’t that cause some sort of complications? I don’t know anything about magic, but I have seen enough movies to know what’s possible.”
Miss Camille pondered for a minute before speaking, “Leo’s corpse was never recovered, so we can say that you’d managed to survive. And this is not a movie. Leave everything to me. I’ll figure something out.”
Having no choice but to rely on her, Leo nodded, “Thank you, Miss Camille.”
“By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, how’s your relationship with the previous Leo? I was practically best friends with the Miss Camille of my world— though she probably wouldn’t admit it.”
She responded after a moment of silence, “The Leo I knew was a handful. He would take up most of my time because he is always injured from fighting, but because of the time we spent with each other, we became quite close. But we were not friends. I was more of a mentor to him than anything.”
“A mentor, huh? I guess you’re just like the Miss Camille I know, then. I’m really glad that’s the case.” Leo showed her a bright smile.
Miss Camille stared at his smile with a dazed face.
Sometime later, she said to him, “Anyways, if you want to survive this world, then you’ll need to learn about it first.”
Leo nodded with a serious look on his face, completely oblivious to the cruel world that he’d just arrived in.