Inside a white room, a handsome young man who appeared to be around eighteen years old, with medium-length silver hair, slowly opened his eyes.
"Where am I?" The young man's blue eyes scanned his surroundings, and a frown appeared on his handsome face as he looked around the unfamiliar room.
He slowly sat up on the bed he had been lying on, growing more confused when he noticed he was wearing a hospital gown.
"How did I end up in a hospital?" he muttered. He tried to recall what had happened, but his memory seemed to be shrouded in haze. The last thing he remembered was completing a difficult mission assigned by the Akashic Records and eating the mysterious fruit he had received as a reward.
Just as his memories were beginning to clear, he heard two feminine voices from outside the room.
"When will he wake up? It's already been a day," said one in a cold tone.
"We're trying. You see, his core has been damaged, and there's no guarantee when he'll wake up. Honestly, we were surprised that someone we presumed dead for months was even alive. If not for the Rankers who found him, he would have died," the other voice replied hesitantly.
"Are they talking about me?" the young man wondered. For some reason, one of the voices sounded very familiar.
His thoughts were interrupted when the door slid open.
The first person was an average-looking, middle-aged woman wearing a nurse's uniform. For some reason, she was gawking at him.
The second woman was absolutely breathtaking, with long red hair. She wore a black pencil skirt and a white blouse that highlighted her curves. Her expression was cold as she looked at the young man.
"Victor, are you okay?" the beautiful woman asked, a frown forming on her face.
'Oh... right... my name is Victor, he thought,' as his memories slowly began to return.
"H-How come you're healed? You had injuries that should've taken at least months to recover from!" the nurse exclaimed, her eyes wide as she looked at Victor.
"Injuries?" Victor echoed, glancing down at his bandaged body. But he felt no discomfort, no pain—nothing at all that suggested he'd been injured.
"Yes! You had life-threatening wounds! How are they suddenly gone?" the nurse shouted.
Victor simply shrugged.
Then, his eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at the beautiful woman. She didn't resemble the person he remembered from his recovering memories.
"Forget about me—Miss Amanda, how on Earth did you become so weak? And where the hell is your sword? Why do you have long hair?" Victor asked in a dumbfounded voice.
According to his memories, the last time he had seen her, she was overwhelmingly stronger than him—one of the strongest and most talented Rankers. Back in their academy days, she had been his teacher, six years older than him, and the object of every male student's fantasies. The last time he saw her, she had short hair, which she had cut herself.
What shocked him even more now was that she wasn't carrying her sword. That was unthinkable. She was always with her sword and never let anyone touch it. He vividly remembered the one time he accidentally touched it—and got beaten to a pulp for it.
"Ugh—!" Victor's eyes widened as he suddenly choked. Miss Amanda had grabbed him by the neck and lifted him effortlessly into the air. She used some kind of skill to scan him, her eyes narrowing into a frown. Then, without warning, she tossed him back onto the bed like he was trash.
"You're real. Not a fake," Amanda said, her brow still furrowed.
"Cough, cough—of course I'm real! Why would you even doubt that?" Victor said, catching his breath.
'Fuck, ruthless woman,' he cursed inwardly. But then something struck him, and his eyes widened.
"Wait a second, Miss Amanda—since when can you use magic? What the hell is going on?" Victor asked, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"…" Amanda said nothing. She simply stared at him with a thoughtful, measuring gaze.
"Tell me how we met for the first time—and about yourself," Amanda ordered.
Victor looked indignant at first, but when he saw the cold look in her eyes, he swallowed nervously and sighed.
"I was an orphan. When you visited the orphanage, you saved me from a group of bullies who were beating me because I refused to do their chores. I was on the verge of death, but even though I was bruised and broken, I didn't give in. You were impressed by my willpower and refusal to submit, and you recommended me to the academy. That changed my fate... even though I've always been unpopular and have almost no friends or acquaintances," Victor said, casting a grateful look at her.
"..." Amanda remained silent, but her eyebrows furrowed when she heard the last part.
"I see," she finally said, nodding slowly as if she had figured something out. After a few moments, she muttered under her breath.
"It's what I think it is, isn't it? It's due to his bloodline core being damaged, isn't it?" Amanda asked, glancing at the nurse.
"Yes," the nurse nodded. "It's rare, but it happens in people who've sustained damage to their bloodline core."
She looked at Victor with a hint of pity in her eyes, which only made him more panicked.
"Wait—did you say my bloodline core is damaged?" Victor asked, gulping nervously. He quickly checked his core and saw it had several cracks… but it was healing at an alarming rate.
"Yes, it's completely cracked. It would take at least a year to heal," the nurse said, as Victor looked at her oddly.
"I think you should check my core again," Victor said. Both Amanda and the nurse examined his core—and their eyes widened comically.
'What the hell? How is his core healing so fast?' Amanda cried inwardly, though she kept her face composed.
"N-No way... Impossible!" the nurse stammered, almost falling backward in shock. Even though she had never seen a damaged core in person, she knew that this rate of healing was beyond abnormal.
"Miss Amanda, can you please tell me what happened to me?" Victor asked, ignoring the stunned nurse.
"I think you've lost a chunk of your memories based on what you just told me," Amanda said, dropping the bombshell.
"No way…" Victor's jaw practically hit the floor.
"Yes. You disappeared four months ago while on an outing with everyone. When we couldn't find you, we assumed you were dead. Then today, a Ranker found you in the forest—bloodied and unconscious. Since I'm listed as your guardian, they contacted me first," Amanda said in a cold, matter-of-fact tone.
'Fuck... I was presumed dead? What the hell?' Victor cried out inwardly.
Victor's jaw dropped in disbelief.
'What the hell? How is my everyone is so different and weird from what I remember?' Victor cried out inwardly, he did not have a single friend so he was was shocked that he ven went on an outing, and morever Miss Amanda is also different from what he remembers. The Amanda in his memoires was a knight and could not use magic but was still a top tier ranker, and also she had shorter hair.
'Maybe... I've regressed into an alternate world's version of myself,' Victor thought with a frown. He had read about such things in a ancient scroll once, but no one really knew if that was even possible but judging by everything he was experiencing it was true.
"Judging by your appearance, it seems you have grown weak. It will take time for you to regain your swordsmanship, atleast you are almost healed" Amanda casually said.
Victor raised an eyebrow, then simply shrugged.
"Wait, Miss Amanda—did you just say swordsmanship? What about magic?" Victor asked, suddenly alarmed.
"You never had a mage bloodline—you have a knight bloodline and were a powerful swordsman. You even beat up mages using only swordsmanship, which is why the entire class hates you," Amanda said, noticing the bewildered look on Victor's face.
'Another difference...' Victor sighed. He was now certain this was a parallel world version of his original life.
"Also, judging by your expression, it seems you've forgotten how to use a sword. I suggest you start training immediately. You've offended a lot of students, and once they find out your core is damaged and you've become weak, they'll pounce on you," Miss Amanda said with a cold smile.
'Shit,' Victor cursed inwardly, gulping down a mouthful of saliva at the sight of her smile.
"Alright, leave us alone," Amanda said to the nurse in a cold tone. The nurse nodded and quickly left the room.
Then Amanda pulled out a white orb.
"Fuck…" Victor cursed when he saw her draw a dagger and slice his palm all of a sudden, letting blood drip onto the orb and watched as it absorbed the blood.
"Impossible..." Amanda's eyes widened in disbelief as the orb suddenly glowed golden.