A week later, in the extravagantly large study of the Ascarts’ manor, Roel took a glance at the clock hanging on the wall as he did a swift mental calculation of the time.

  It was currently early in the morning, and the maids were still busy dealing with household chores. The chefs had also headed out to purchase some groceries, and they would be preparing breakfast very soon.

  Roel was currently sitting on a tall chair with a huge stack of books before him. He couldn’t help but be reminded of the grueling period in his previous life when he had to study for hours every day for his university examinations. All he did was tackle exam questions one after another till he reached a point where he could solve a problem just by looking at the key phrases.

  That was how he spent his youth in his previous life, and he felt like he had just returned back to that time.

  Many things happened over the past week.

  First and foremost was the damned capitalist Charlotte’s underhanded method to acquire a monopolization of Roel.

  Charlotte had offered 100,000 gold coins to have Alicia leave for a month, but Roel rejected the offer. Quoting his exact words, “This is Alicia’s home, and it’s up to her to decide whether she wants to stay here or not.”


  Ever since Alicia witnessed the ‘love play’ between Roel and Charlotte, she had been out of sorts. The news that Charlotte had tossed three coins of fate to affirm their feelings for one another only further worsened her anxiety.

  And that wasn’t the end of it yet.

  When she learned that the envelope she found had triggered a bloodline resonance between Roel and Charlotte, creating a great pulsation of mana that shook the whole manor, she deeply regretted her itchy hand back then. She felt so indignant that she hugged her pillow and cried the night away.

  In the three years they had known each other, this was the first time that Alicia found herself missing her rival, Nora.

  Charlotte currently had the bond forged by the engagement, the three coins of fate, and the bloodline resonance between Roel and her, putting her in a greatly advantageous position. Things weren’t looking good for Alicia at all, and she felt that she wouldn’t be able to hold the fort all alone.

  It was incredibly unfortunate that Nora was still stuck at the eastern border, making it hard to establish communications with her. There was no way to seek help from her at all. Not to mention, even if Alicia somehow managed to deliver the word to her, it was unlikely that she would have been able to do anything at all. The only thing she could do was rely on Roel’s doting to stick as close to him as possible.

  Needless to say, Charlotte was displeased about it. In the end, Roel had to find an opportunity to talk to Alicia and inform her of the truth.

  “Lord Brother, you aren’t going to marry that woman? Are you certain? You aren’t lying to me, are you?”


  “I’m not lying to you, Alicia. We’re currently looking for clues about the Golden Fleet. Our current relationship is nothing more than an appearance.”


  Roel began to explain to Alicia about the current circumstances surrounding the Sorofyas, and that they would get stronger if they could find their missing heritage and awakening methods. If they attempted to investigate this matter openly, there was a good chance that the Austine Empire would interfere every step of the way, so the two of them had to make use of their engagement as a cover.

  Of course, considering Roel and Charlotte’s lack of expertise in comparison to the old scholars of Brolne, the Austine Empire might just shrug it off as a futile attempt, even if they were to announce it to the world. Nevertheless, as the saying went, ‘better safe than sorry’.

  Roel’s explanation convinced Alicia how important the matter was. After receiving his guarantee that nothing would happen between him and Charlotte, she suddenly expressed her desire to head to the Holy Capital.

  One of the reasons for her decision was the enticing 100,000 gold coins offer Charlotte had made to Roel, and the other was that she realized Charlotte would only get excessively touchy-feely with Roel in her presence. It was only when she was not around that the two of them would behave more normally.

  Without a doubt, this was Charlotte’s way of exacting vengeance on Alicia for deceiving her. Alicia was incredibly frustrated by this, but in her current capacity as Roel’s adopted sister, she had no grounds to stop what Charlotte was doing. Left with no choice, she could only back down for now and hopefully get in contact with Nora in the Holy Capital to discuss this matter.

  “Lord Brother, you must make sure to protect yourself well. You must never fall for her, alright? Wait for me to return.”


  Recalling the almost desperate words uttered by a tearful Alicia before her departure, Roel felt a little amused by how exaggerated she was being. He was only making a trade with Charlotte over here—the truth was that they viewed each other as an eyesore! How could he possibly ever have feelings for her?

  Ey, children nowadays sure think too much about love. How impractical that is! How much better it would be if they had devoted their time to earning money instead?

  Roel shook his head disapprovingly.

  Just thinking about the thousands of gold coins he was easily raking in every day made him feel deeply fulfilled. Of course, it was not as if he was taking Charlotte’s money for free. He was working as hard as possible to ensure that his client got her money’s worth in return.

  The following day after Alicia left, Roel and Charlotte began a life that was reminiscent of a summer camp military training. Roel would wake up at five in the morning every day to start browsing through the books in the study, whereas Charlotte would wake up slightly later at around six.

  A week of working closely with one another toward a common goal had built up some rapport between the two of them, giving rise to an atmosphere that was somewhat reminiscent of office colleagues.

  Roel took another look at the clock before entering the tea room to scoop three teaspoons of superior imported royal red tea into a tea strainer. He boiled a kettle of water and allowed it to rest for three minutes before pouring it into the cup with the tea strainer. Once that was done, he whipped out his secret formula.

  【Anti-Hypnosis Spell Serum Type 3

  This is a serum developed by the Country of Slumber, Casi, to deal with nightmares. One drop is all it takes to reinvigorate and dispel all drowsiness, allowing one to curb those damned monsters. However, if you still treasure your life, it’s advisable not to drink too much at once.

  Price: 300 Gold Coins】


  This was the good stuff! Roel had found it while browsing through the System’s Gold Coin Shop every single day. 300 gold coins was still affordable given his current financial circumstances. A bottle was roughly the size of a small test tube, though it lasted a surprisingly long time thanks to the tiny doses he consumed each time.

  Its color was a shade of brown similar to red tea, and its taste was extremely mild, nearly indiscernible.

  The first thought that came to Roel’s mind upon seeing this object was Red Bull.

  True to its description, just a single drop was enough for one to work efficiently for an entire day. The cost, however, was that he wouldn’t be able to have any dreams, not as if that really affected him much anyway.

  It was one thing to read as a hobby, but it was another thing to have to scan through an almost endless heap of books and swiftly browse through their contents. Having to repeat the process again and again was hard to bear, even for Roel. Being a human Google was really no easy feat at all.

  Roel carefully added a droplet of the serum to his tea, and voila! It was complete.

  He quickly moved on to prepare another cup of tea, but this time around, it was one of the flower teas indigenous to the Ascart Fiefdom. Naturally, this second cup of tea was for Charlotte.

  The so-called royal red tea was imported from Rosa, and as a local, Charlotte had already drunk so much of it that she was sick and tired of it by now. Instead, she found the locally produced flower tea of the Ascart Fiefdom she had been trying over the last few days novel.

  “Are rose petals added to this cup of tea?”


  “Yes, but it’s a mixture. There are other flower petals in there too.”


  “I see……”


  It was obvious that Charlotte was attracted to the aesthetics of the flower tea. The myriad of colors in the flower tea was reminiscent of an artwork, making it highly appealing to girls. So, Roel wasn’t too surprised by her reaction.

  Using slang from his previous life, it was of ‘instagrammable’ quality, though looks weren’t a guarantee of taste. Many of the viral restaurants he had been to in his previous life focused only on the appearance of their dishes—all it took was one bite to dispel the magic.

  Just recalling all of the disappointments he had been through made him heave a deep sigh. In comparison to those viral restaurants, the local flower teas of their Ascart Fiefdom were much better. At the very least, its quality was definitely up to standard.

  It was actually a product from one of the smaller villages, but Roel’s ‘Supporting the Poor’ policy had helped it to expand the scale of its business operations and establish distribution in other municipalities.

  In just three days’ time, Charlotte had already become a loyal fan of the mixed flower tea, and she had begun experimenting by adding different kinds of flavor enhancers. So far, it had mainly been limited to sugar cubes, but she was intending to test out honey soon too. Roel had also somewhat grasped her taste—just make it sweet.

  So, he added a sugar cube into the teacup before bringing the two cups of tea over to the study. It was also then that a girl with auburn hair pushed the study’s door open and walked in. Roel shot a glance at the clock—it was exactly 6 o’clock.

  If preferring sweet food was one of Charlotte’s unique traits, another one would be her devout observance to punctuality. She was always on time, never early or late. According to her, this was a trait that was shared by the other members of the Sorofyas too.

  One should know that nobles had a tendency for lateness. It was almost as if they were afraid that they wouldn’t appear noble enough had they been on time. In smaller countries, even for large-scale events such as a princess’ birthday banquet, it was common for guests to be rolling in after the stipulated timing on the invitation.

  “Here’s your tea. I’ve added a cube of sugar to it.”


  “Thanks, but I’d prefer it if you could add another one in the future.”


  “That would be too sweet. I really do wonder where you got your sweet tooth from.”


  “Mister Roel, I’d send those words back to you. You seem to be oddly fond of bitter drinks. I find it hard to imagine anyone having such distasteful preferences.”


  As soon as they met one another, Roel and Charlotte began quibbling with one another, as usual. However, over the last few days, the initial fiery atmosphere from their squabbles had cooled down significantly, making it seem more like friendly banter.

  Charlotte took a sip of tea before she nodded with an approving curl of the lip.

  “You got the temperature on point. 80 points.”


  “I’m flattered. That would be 50 gold coins.”


  The smile immediately froze on the young girl’s face. She placed her teacup down and glared sharply at her black-haired companion.

  “Wasn’t it still 40 gold coins yesterday?”


  “I did add a sugar cube today.”


  “.…… You’re probably the only one in the whole of Sia who would charge me for a cup of tea.”


  “Thanks for your compliment, but there aren’t many in Sia who are so honored as to have me brew a cup of tea for them.”


  “But, you’re my fiancé.”


  “.……”


  Charlotte threw out her trump card, which halted Roel’s play in its tracks. Most men would probably be more than willing to pick up cooking if they could have such a beautiful and noble beauty as their fiancée.

  At least in the eyes of Charlotte’s many suitors, Roel was a fool who didn’t know how to appreciate his own fortune. To actually charge her for a cup of tea, his EQ was really worth questioning!

  “Alright. To protect the honor of my fiancée in-name, this cup of tea will be on the house.”


  “Hah. I should really thank you for your generosity then.”


  “Yes, you should. You’re welcome.”


  A slight argument in the morning was good for jumpstarting one’s brain. The duo reined in their enmity and settled down side-by-side before a table positively flooded with stacks upon stacks of books.

  “It doesn’t feel like this sea of books is growing smaller at all.”


  “Of course not. These were just brought over from the archive earlier. I took a look there earlier on, and we haven’t even browsed through half of the records yet.”


  The overwhelming workload left Charlotte with a deep sigh. Due to the need to maintain secrecy, she couldn’t hire professionals and had to do the work herself. It was just that she hadn’t expected the Ascarts’ manor to have so many books.

  Isn’t this already on the level of a library?

  Charlotte grumbled in her mind as she stretched her right hand to the side. At the same time, Roel also stretched out his left hand, and the two hands interlocked with one another. Just like that, they began to flip through the pile of books before them.

  Indeed, this was the sure-kill technique that Roel and Charlotte had come up with after days of research—Hand-in-hand Book Reading Technique.