The marble hallways of St. Arthemis Academy weren't built for footsteps like Kaito Zenin's. They were built for the soft, pampered glide of heiresses, yet Kaito marched through them with the predatory grace of a king walking through a conquered province.
He was a ghost in the machine—the only male in a sanctuary of ultimate wealth. He wore a scholarship student's blazer that was frayed at the cuffs, yet he wore it like ceremonial armor. He was penniless, surviving on convenience store scraps and tap water, but his pride was a towering, jagged mountain that no amount of money could buy.
"Move, trash," a voice rang out.
It was Catherine, the daughter of a shipping tycoon, flanked by her entourage. She blocked his path, her eyes dripping with a mix of disgust and unwanted lust. "You're blocking the path of someone whose family actually pays for the floor you're standing on."
Kaito didn't move. He didn't even look at her. He looked through her, as if she were a pane of glass.
"The floor doesn't care who paid for it," Kaito said, his voice a cold, rhythmic bass that made the girls' skin prickle. "And I don't care about your family's bloodline. To me, you're just a loud noise in a quiet hallway."
The girls gasped. In this school, words were weapons, and Kaito's tongue was a guillotine. He was handsome—dangerously so—with features so sharp they looked like they had been honed for war. But it was his arrogance that truly enraged them. He treated their millions like garbage and their beauty like a distraction. He walked among the most powerful teenagers on the planet and acted like he was the only one who truly existed.
"You're a beggar, Kaito!" Isabella, the Student Council President, stepped forward, her heels clicking like a death knell. "You should be on your knees thanking us for the air you breathe in this building. One phone call from my father, and you'll be sleeping in the dirt where you belong."
Kaito finally shifted his gaze to her. It was a suffocating stare, heavy with a pride that bordered on the divine.
"Your father owns companies, Isabella. He doesn't own me," Kaito stepped into her personal space, forcing the most powerful girl in school to instinctively retreat. "You hide behind your bank accounts because you are hollow. I have nothing, and yet, I am still better than all of you combined. That is why you hate me. Because you know that if the world stripped away your gold, you would be nothing. But I? I would still be a God."
Before she could scream a retort, the sky fractured.
A violent, screeching tear opened in the atmosphere. The gravity of the room inverted, sending the girls screaming into the air. The golden chandeliers shattered, and a blinding, eldritch light swallowed the school whole.
When the light faded, the academy was gone.
They were standing on a plateau of jagged obsidian, surrounded by a forest of trees that bled black ichor. The air wasn't air anymore—it was raw, pressurized mana.
The girls collapsed instantly. Their lungs, accustomed to the filtered air of luxury, couldn't handle the crushing weight of the new world. They lay in the dirt, gasping, their designer dresses stained with ash.
But Kaito Zenin stood tall.
For the first time in his life, the pressure inside him—the pride that had always felt too big for his body—matched the world outside. He felt a savage power ignite in his veins. He wasn't just surviving; he was ascending.
From the dark woods, a pack of Grave-Stalkers—beasts of shadow and bone—leaped toward the helpless girls. Isabella shrieked, her voice a pathetic tremor.
"Kaito! Save me! I'll give you anything—I'll give you my soul!"
Kaito watched the monsters approach, his eyes now glowing with a lethal, violet radiance. He didn't move to help. He waited until the beasts were inches from her throat before he spoke.
"SOVEREIGN'S DOMAIN: ACTIVATE."
A monstrous shockwave of pure force erupted from Kaito's feet. The ground for five hundred meters groaned and collapsed. The monsters didn't just die—they were pulverized into red mist by the sheer weight of his will.
Kaito turned his head, looking down at the broken, shivering girls who had mocked him only minutes ago. His expression wasn't one of mercy. It was one of absolute, terrifying ownership.
"The world you knew is dead," Kaito declared, his voice booming like thunder across the wasteland. "Your money is ash. Your names are forgotten. I am the only power in this world. From this day forward, I am your King, your God, and your only hope. Now... get on your knees and show me you're worth the effort of keeping alive."
The "Goddesses" of St. Arthemis didn't argue. Driven by a primal fear they had never known, they crawled toward him, desperate to touch the hem of his ragged, penniless blazer.