Chapter 3: Sword Emperors Return
Chapter 3: Sword Emperors Return
“Leo?! What?! How?!” The teacher was at a loss for words after seeing Leo, who used to be her favorite student until he died.
“I’ll explain in a bit. Let’s go, Leo.” Miss Camille said as she entered the classroom with Leo following behind her.
When the students in the classroom saw Leo and recognized him, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped.
Miss Camille stopped in the center of the classroom and faced the dazed students.
“I’m sure you already know him, but this is Leo. He was thought to be dead for the past three months, but he’d actually survived. However, he’s suffering from amnesia, so he doesn’t remember many things.”
The entire classroom was dead silent.
‘Wow… As expected of a parallel world. Everyone from my world is also in the same class here.’ Leo thought to himself as he glanced at their familiar faces.
However, despite recognizing all of their faces, unlike Miss Camille who looked and felt the exact same one from his world, these students felt different, almost like this was his first time meeting them.
“Seriously…? Leo is still alive?” The students eventually returned to reality and started mumbling to each other.
A lot of them expressed relief after seeing Leo’s face, but some appeared worried for various reasons.
“You know where to go after you’re done with all of your classes, right?” Miss Camille asked Leo, who quickly nodded his head.
“Good. I will see you then.”
And without saying another word, Miss Camille walked out of the classroom.
“…”
The classroom remained dead silent even many moments after she left.
“Excuse me, but where is my seat?” Leo turned to ask the teacher.
She snapped out of her daze and pointed at a certain seat.
“Thank you.” Leo said before walking to his seat.
‘This is also where I sat in my world…’
“L-Let’s see… Even though we’re already behind schedule, I am not really in the right mindset to teach a class, so I might as well get it out of the way… Leo… What do you remember?”
Leo pondered for a moment before speaking in a calm voice, “I remember my name, that I am a student of this academy, and some of the things that I’d learned in this academy. However, that is the extent of my memories.”
The teacher rubbed her eyes and sighed.
“I see… Well, I am your homeroom teacher, Professor Jasmine, but I also teach Math and English. You can just call me Jasmine though. I don’t like formalities.”
“I understand. Nice to meet you, Jasmine.” Leo smiled.
“…”
The classroom turned silent again.
“W-Well… If you have any problems or questions, you can always come to me. Also, I don’t expect you to understand the contents of our class because of your amnesia, so you don’t have to worry about not being able to follow along. Just listen and do your best.” Jasmine spoke to Leo as though he was an inexperienced child, which was reasonable, considering his situation.
Jasmine started their first class for the day shortly after, and it was Math class.
However, none of the students really paid attention to the class, as they were too focused on Leo, who was supposed to be dead and has been dead for the past 3 months. It felt like they were sharing their classroom with a zombie, which is understandable.
Actually, there was one person in the class that was paying attention to Jasmine’s class.
‘Hmm… I don’t know what I expected, but I already know this stuff. It’s literally what I was learning in my old world before being tossed here.’
Leo was relieved that he would be able to follow the class. Even if he doesn’t belong in this world and will leave as soon as he can, he will still put all of his effort into studying since it’s the only thing he’s good at.
Halfway into the class, Jasmine suddenly asked, “Leo, do you think you can solve this question?”
Everybody in the class immediately turned to look at Leo.
“Yes.” Leo calmly responded.
“Eh? Really?” Jasmine and the rest of the class appeared to be very surprised by his response for some reason.
“Then can you come up here and solve it?”
Leo nodded.
He stood up, calmly walked up to the board, and wrote on the board in a graceful manner, almost as though he’s done this a million times before.
“There you go.” Leo placed the chalk down and casually walked back to his seat without even asking if his answer was correct.
‘I-It’s correct…’ Jasmine’s mouth dropped slightly.
She turned to look at Leo, who was already back in his seat, with a look of disbelief in her gaze.
‘I was just teasing him a little, but he actually did it… Did he suddenly become smart after losing his memories?’ She wondered to himself.
Despite being an excellent fighter and respected by many for his strength, there was one thing the ‘Leo’ of this world lacked— academic skills.
This was something everybody in the academy knew, hence why Jasmine and the rest of the class were shocked that Leo, who has supposedly lost his memories, could answer such a difficult question.
“It’s correct.” Jasmine said after snapping out of her daze, and she continued to teach the class, feeling a little more motivated than usual for some reason.
The class lasted for exactly forty-five minutes.
At the end of the class, everyone is given a fifteen minute break while they wait for their teacher for the next period.
Professor Jasmine left the classroom and made her way straight to the teacher’s lounge, and she exclaimed the moment she entered the room, “Everyone! I have big news! Leo is alive!”
“Huh?”
All of the teachers currently in the room turned to look at her with raised eyebrows.
“Jasmine, by ‘Leo’, are you talking about Sword Emperor Leo? The one that died a couple of months ago?” One of the teachers asked for clarification.
“Yes! That Leo! He’s back!”
After a moment of silence, the room suddenly erupted with chaos when everyone there realized the meaning behind such words.
“I’ll be damned! I knew that bastard wouldn’t die so easily!”
“Hahaha! This is great news! I can’t wait until the other academies find out about this!”
However, Jasmine interrupted their celebration with the following bad news, “I’m sorry to rain on your parade, but even though Leo is alive, he’s suffering from amnesia, so he doesn’t remember anything.”
“What? Amnesia? Who cares! As long as he remembers how to fight, we’re in the clear!” One of the teachers laughed.
“Right? That’s the most important thing!”
“Unfortunately, he has lost his strength as well.”
The room fell silent again.
Meanwhile, inside his classroom, Leo pretended to not notice the obvious stares from his classmates by focusing on his notebook.
Eventually, the other students began approaching Leo to ask him questions.
“So what have you been doing for the past 3 months?” One of them asked him.
“Everything is still fuzzy, but I remember wandering aimlessly until I arrived at this academy. I knew something was special about this place when I laid my eyes on it, too.” Leo responded in a clear voice.
“So you really don’t remember anything about your ‘death’? We were all shocked when the school suddenly announced your death!”
“Right?”
Leo narrowed his eyes.
‘Now that I think about it, how did the school know that I was dead without finding my corpse?’
Now that he had the time to ponder, Leo began having some questions.
Thus, he decided to find out by asking his fellow students.
“Why was I announced dead? I was told that they were unable to find my corpse.”
“Your Life Tablet broke, that’s how the school knew.” One of the students there said.
“Life Tablet? What’s that?”
“It’s an artifact that keeps track of your life. If you die, your Life Tablet will lose function. All students are required to have one, and they are all managed by the school.”
“I see…”
“Even if you’ve lost your memories, it’s great to have you back, Leo!”
“Right?! You were our— knights— only hope!”
Leo raised an eyebrow and asked, “Sorry, but what’s a knight?”
“Knights are students who cannot use magic in this academy. Instead, we wield weapons and artifacts.”
“Because of our inability to use magic, we’re always being mocked and bullied by the magic students. Fortunately, we have you, the pride of all knights.”
“You’re the reason the knights in this academy can walk around without staring at the floor. After you were announced dead, the magic students started bullying us again. It was horrible for the past three months…”
The students explained the situation to Leo.
“I-I see…” Leo swallowed nervously.
He didn’t expect for the ‘Leo’ of this world to be such a bigshot! In his previous world, he was just a commoner who had top grades.
‘Is this what it feels like to have people rely on you? What a wonderful feeling…’ Leo sighed inwardly.
‘Unfortunately, these feelings are not for me, but for the other Leo, who was an inspiration to these students.’
When their next class started, everyone returned to their seats.
‘Holy shit, he’s actually alive!’ The teacher for their next class cried inwardly after seeing Leo’s face.
The teacher briefly introduced himself to Leo before starting class.
‘Good, I know these materials as well.’ Leo smiled inwardly after seeing the lecture.
Meanwhile, news of Leo’s revival began spreading throughout the academy like wildfire.
“Hey! Have you heard?!”
“Yeah! Sword Emperor Leo is alive!”
“I thought his Life Tablet broke. What happened?”
“Who knows.”
“I heard he’s also suffering from amnesia. Do you think he’s still as strong?”
“We’ll find out soon enough. I’m sure there are plenty of magic students with their eyes on him. This might be their chance to finally defeat him, after all.”
Indeed, there were plenty of students that wanted to fight with Leo now that he’s back.
“What?! Leo is alive?! Hahaha! This is great! I can fight him again!”
“I heard that he’s suffering from amnesia, though, so he might not even remember how to fight.”
News of Leo’s return eventually reached the ears of the elite classes in the academy, where its most talented students can be found.
“Hey, Valery, did you hear? The Sword Emperor has returned!”
“W-What?” A beautiful young lady with short black hair and a pair of emerald eyes mumbled in a shocked voice.
“Sword Emperor Leo! Don’t tell me that you’ve already forgotten about your boyfriend? It’s only been three months!”
“H-Hey! Haven’t you heard? Valery is going out with John right now!” Another student there said.
“Eh? Since when? This is my first time hearing about it.”
“Well, I’m not surprised, since they started going out with each other last week.”
“Is that so? What are you going to do now that your old boyfriend is back, Valery? Are you going to dump John and get back with Leo? John is going to be pissed if you do, though. He just might kill Leo for this!”
“Leo…” Valery sat there with a dazed look on her face as countless emotions flooded her heart.
“Apparently, Leo has amnesia. Depending on the severity, he might not even remember you, so you can just act as though you don’t even know him.” Another student entered the conversation.
“What do you think, John? Are you okay with Valery going back with Leo?” Someone there suddenly asked him, who was also in the room.
However, John remained silent as he stared at Valery with a perplexed expression on his face.
‘Leo… Why did you have to come back now?’ He sighed inwardly.