In the original story, Leon failed to discover Kevin's identity for a long time.
Honestly, that wasn't surprising.
The task itself bordered on impossible.
Imperial Academy alone housed thousands of students across multiple departments.
Combat Division. Alchemy Division. Rune Engineering. Political Studies. Support Classes.
And several others.
Just the first-year student population alone exceeded five thousand cadets.
Trying to locate one hidden royal heir among them without concrete evidence was like searching for a single grain of sand in the ocean.
Especially when Kevin deliberately kept a low profile during the early arcs.
Still—
Leon Ardor wasn't ordinary.
He approached the investigation methodically.
First, he eliminated the upperclassmen.
The timeline didn't fit.
Then he excluded most non-combat departments.
If the last surviving Astral prince truly intended revenge against the Solhaven Empire someday, then strength would be essential.
That narrowed the suspects considerably.
Eventually—
Leon found himself assigned to Class [1-A-1].
The academy's elite combat class.
The place where the empire gathered the most talented monsters of the current generation.
Even then, the number of suspects remained absurd.
Nearly a thousand students across roughly twenty elite combat classrooms.
Fifty students per class. Fifty potential enemies.
Fifty possible future threats to the empire.
And somewhere among them—A hidden prince.
At first, Leon treated it like any other mission.
Observe.
Evaluate.
Eliminate possibilities.
Repeat.
Then he met Kevin.
A commoner student with abnormal talent.
Abnormal enough to immediately attract Leon's attention.
At first, it was simple curiosity.
Then competition.
Because for the first time in years—Leon encountered someone his own age capable of matching him.
Kevin somehow kept pace with him despite lacking military training, battlefield experience, or imperial resources.
And that irritated Leon more than he wanted to admit.
The two of them began clashing repeatedly during academy exercises and ranking evaluations.
Every encounter ended the same way—
Equal results.
No clear victor.
At first, Leon enjoyed it.
Competition sharpened him.
But slowly—That feeling changed.
Because Kevin improved too quickly.
Far too quickly..
Still, he felt that at least he was ahead in experience but when Kevin started to catching up to him...he started to feel jealous.
Admiration twisted into frustration.
Frustration became inferiority.
Inferiority became obsession.
He had taken so many dengerous mission that nearly cost him his life and yet Kevin was catching up to him so fast.
That inferiority and jealousy complex burst out during the climax of the 4th volume.
In the 4th volume, Leon finally managed to discover the true identity of the Kevin.
He was the youngest prince of the Astral Empire that somehow escape during in royal bloodline massacre by Solhaven Empire.
He could have reported this to emperor but he didn't.
After all he was sent here to kill, not to report back.
Leon made up his mind, only after killing Kevin he would report back to emperor.
And as expected he was utterly defeated by Kevin.
Even after that he didn't report it back to emperor or anyone else.
Because deep down—
He couldn't accept it.
Couldn't accept that someone who lived comfortably as a "commoner student" had surpassed him despite all the suffering Leon endured to gain power.
That obsession consumed him completely.
And eventually—it led him straight toward disaster.
Because in his desperation for power—Leon came into contact with them.
The Demons.
More specifically—One of the Seven Demon Lords representing the Seven Deadly Sins.
At that point in the story, humanity real threat were the demons, that were trying to break the dimensions between their world.
...And how they were planned to do that? By the Dungeon Gates.
The Gates weren't natural disasters.
They were breaches.Tiny cracks slowly weakening the boundary between worlds.
And standing behind those cracks—
Was the Demon King himself.
An existence powerful enough to threaten humanity's survival entirely.
Beneath him served the Seven Demon Lords.
Embodiments of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Each one ruled portions of the Demon Realm like absolute calamities given human form.
And unfortunately for humanity—
Leon met one of them and then Leon made his come back in the middle of 5th Volume.
At the end of the 5th Volume he fights Kevin with everything on line.
Unfortunately yet again he couldn't killed him, it was as if he was protected by the world itself.
But he did come close to killing him. In that fight Kevin lost two finger and one ear.
Leon meanwhile was brink of death but was saved by the seven deadly Sins of Envy.
After that he switched the sides, Sins of Envy granted him greater power then before.
He killed thousends of innocent people, Kevin had enough of him and decided to put him down for forever.
...And that's how Leon met his end in the end of volume 6.
Now, that's who you called a real villain.
From now don't point your fingers at me, you understand?
Compared to Leon?
I was just a spoiled rich asshole with emotional issues.
There was a difference.
A very important difference.
Leon Ardor became a genuine monster.
Me?
I mostly just bullied people, wasted talent, and speedran family disappointment.
Tragic, yes.
Evil mastermind?
Debatable.
Though admittedly, that argument sounded weak considering Damian's original track record.
Still—
I wasn't planning on becoming the second coming of a disaster-class psychopath anytime soon.
Which was exactly why I intended to stay very, very far away from both Kevin and Leon moving forward.
One future emperor candidate.
One future demon-enhanced murder machine.
My [E-Rank Luck] stat was truly working overtime.
I turned my head slightly, looking at Leon from corner of my eyes.
'W-What the fuck?!'
He was also looking at me.
"What?"
"Nothing at all."
I said turned my head forward, keeping my voice steady enough to not let out slight trembling sound.
Leon stared at me for another quiet second.
Unblinking.
Expressionless.
The kind of gaze that felt less like someone looking at you and more like someone dissecting you mentally.
Then—
"Hm."
That was it.
Just one quiet sound.
But somehow it carried enough pressure to make my survival instincts start filing resignation papers.
Slowly, Leon turned his attention away from me and looked toward the front of the classroom instead.
Meanwhile—
I internally collapsed.
'Jesus Christ.'
My heartbeat was still slightly unstable.
Honestly, sitting beside Leon Ardor felt like accidentally sharing a table with a sleeping tiger while pretending everything was normal.
One wrong movement and suddenly your obituary gets published early.
The safest thing possible right now was becoming forgettable background scenery.
Unfortunately—
That plan failed almost immediately.
"Hey."
My soul nearly left my body.
Slowly, painfully slowly, I turned my head slightly toward Leon again.
"...Yes?"
His dark eyes met mine calmly.
"You've been staring at me for the last three minutes."
...
Damn it.
So much for subtle observation.
My brain instantly began sprinting through emergency responses.
Lie?
Deflect?
Fake amnesia?
Feign death?
Eventually, I settled on the safest option.
"You stand out," I answered honestly.
Which wasn't technically a lie.
Leon studied me quietly again.
Then—
"So do you."
"...What?"
Now it was my turn to be confused.
Leon leaned back slightly in his chair.
"Most people avoid eye contact with me," he said flatly. "You looked at me directly several times."
Ah.
Right.
That made sense.
Most students in the room were unconsciously terrified of him already.
Meanwhile I was sitting here mentally narrating his future villain arc like a documentary.
Honestly, maybe I had gotten too comfortable.
"I was curious," I admitted carefully.
"Dangerous habit."
"...Probably."
Silence settled briefly between us again.
Meanwhile, Leon suddenly spoke again.
"You changed."
My spine stiffened slightly.
Danger.
Extreme danger.
I kept my expression calm somehow.
"...Excuse me?"
"You used to look at people differently, like they're beanth you. It's good thing that you didn't looked at me like that"
Was that threat I heard right now?!
His voice remained casual emotionless.
Which honestly made it worse somehow.
"You were more hostile," he continued quietly. "Louder. Easier to predict. But since I entered the class you are quite. Nothing like your old self."
Ah.
Right.
Because unlike normal cadet's—
Leon actually paid attention to human behavior constantly.
Of course he noticed differences.
This guy literally worked as an imperial hunting dog specialized in identifying threats.
Meanwhile I was over here trying to pretend transmigration wasn't affecting my personality.
I forced out a small scoff.
"Getting publicly humiliated tends to change people."
That at least sounded believable.
And thankfully—
Leon nodded once.
"True."
...Oh.
That worked easier than expected.
Still, his eyes lingered on me a second longer than comfortable before finally shifting away.
Crisis temporarily avoided.
I exhaled internally.
Barely.
Then—
The classroom door opened again.