After entering his bedroom, Roel put his staff by the side before settling down in his chair to gaze at the night scenery outside. A long moment later, he sighed softly.

  He had grandly accepted Paul’s request at the dining table earlier, but as soon as he thought about Lilian, who would be tutoring him for quite some time in the future, he couldn’t help but feel a little guilt-ridden.

  “Aren’t I cornering myself by daring to steal the younger brother of a bro-con? How should I compensate her for this?”


  Roel scratched his head helplessly.

  He headed to the bathroom to rinse his body before soaking himself in a warm bathtub. He fondled the Bluerose Ring sitting on his finger as his thoughts wandered around the place.

  The words he had spoken to Paul on the dining table were his earnest thoughts. He had no intention of enjoying the privileges of a Ringbearer while shirking off the responsibilities that came with it. At the very least, he didn’t want to turn his back on someone who needed his help and was asking for it.

  His sense of responsibility strengthened his determination.

  He rose from the bathtub and wiped his body dry before proceeding to wrap the towel around his waist. Then, he headed to his bed and took off the Bluerose Ring. He took out the Blackrose Ring and quietly put it on before lying down onto his bed……

  By the time he opened his eyes once again, he was already shrouded in darkness. He channeled his mana into his eyes, but to his surprise, what he saw wasn’t the gloomy night sky he saw yesterday but a foreign-looking ceiling.

  He quickly rose up to scan his surroundings.

  Soft red carpeting, tables and chairs made out of warmwood, a podium, a censer that had no incense in it, and hanging lights that weren’t lit—these were all he could see in the vicinity.

  He was in a classroom.

  The lack of enemies nearby made Roel heave a sigh of relief. He glanced at the ring on his finger, confirming that this dream was a phenomenon brought about by the Blackrose Ring. In order to eliminate all other possibilities, he made sure to get into bed with nothing but the Blackrose Ring on him.

  It would have been awkward if he had to stroll around this dream without any clothes, but fortunately, he found himself dressed in his usual attire in the dream. It would have been weird to be streaking on campus grounds even if there was no one around to see it.

  Roel rose up and cast ‘Light Footsteps’ on himself. He took a moment to adjust his breathing before heading toward the classroom doors.

  The doors of the Saint Freya Academy’s classrooms were on the heavier side, but they were made with excellent craftsmanship that they hardly made any sound when opened or closed.

  Roel spent a while listening intently for any activities along the corridor before finally pushing it open lightly. He first checked both sides of the dark corridor before verifying his location through the label boards above the classroom.

  Building 2, second floor.

  He contemplated whether he should just leap out of the windows so as to avoid having to explore the eerie interiors of the building, but he suppressed his fear and decided against it.

  So, he carefully made his way down to the first floor, only to freeze at the stairway upon noticing the opened main entrance of the building. The howling night wind rushed into the building and shook the elegant hanging lights on the ceiling, causing them to tinkle a little.

  Roel turned his gaze toward the watchman office by the side, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

  Someone’s here!

  It was at a shadowy corner where the light didn’t reach so it was blurry, but Roel was certain that he saw something moving amidst the darkness.

  It was a black-armored soldier similar to the ones he saw last night.

  Roel quickly backed away a bit to hide behind the stairway, trying to control his breathing. His mind began to churn into action as he tried to process his current circumstances.

  He was able to freeze one of the black-robed figures with Glacier yesterday, and the black-armored soldiers appeared to be their subordinates. This would mean that the black-armored soldiers should be easier to deal with.

  Having cleared up his thoughts, Roel was able to alleviate his worries. He counted down from three under his breath before rushing out of the stairway. Without any hesitation, he raised his hand and sent a burst of frost air toward the shadowy corner.

  “Glacier!”


  Roel’s movements were swift and smooth, leaving no time for his enemy to react. The black-armored soldier was already frozen up before he could even draw his sword. This outcome set Roel’s mind at ease as he swiftly made his way toward the frozen enemy.

  He snatched the black-armored soldier’s sword before creating a small crack in the frost aura to allow him to stab the sword into the latter’s body. Unsure whether this physical attack would suffice, he made sure to channel his frost aura through the sword into the enemy’s body too. After the deed was done, he double confirmed that the enemy was truly dead before dragging the body toward a nearby classroom.

  Roel had been uncertain about the identity of these monsters after seeing the appearance of a black-robed figure the previous day. So, he decided to carefully inspect the black-armored soldier’s body first so that he could at least figure out the identity of his enemies.

  “This fellow has two hearts? No, that’s not right! This is……”


  Underneath the black armor was a humanoid being with cyan skin. Roel had sliced its rib cage open, revealing two connected lumps dyed in black blood. It looked so gruesome that he felt like retching.

  It was indeed a wise decision for him to be more careful around a foreign enemy. He had spent more than an hour on the autopsy for now, and it had allowed him to make several significant discoveries.

  One of it was the fact that the humanoid being had two hearts, one big and one small.

  Had he not known about this, he could have let down his guard after stabbing the enemy’s heart, creating a window of opportunity for the enemy to retaliate. That could have been dangerous.

  It’s lucky that I found out about it in advance. I knew that you weren’t human right from the start!

  “Hm? Something looks weird here? This smaller heart seems to have grown out afterward?”


  Under the moonlight, Roel examined the two hearts with narrowed eyes, and he couldn’t help noticing that the smaller one seemed to be a portion sliced out from the larger one before growing out on its own.

  This seems to be suggesting that they have a strong regenerative ability?

  Roel pondered for a moment before putting down the two connected hearts with a grim look on his face.

  Without the absolute destructive prowess from Grandar and Peytra, the only reliable means he had to deal with such strong regenerative ability was Glacier. Under such circumstances, it would be really bad if he were to get tied down by the enemies.

  He moved on to examine the carcass’ other vital organs, and he realized that their constitution was very different from that of a human. He held his disgust back until he finally reached his limit and rushed to the corner of the wall. He grabbed a random white paper lying around to wipe off the bloodstains on his hands while retching.

  “Uweh……”


  Thanks to his thorough freezing, the smell wasn’t as choking as he thought. Nevertheless, dissecting a carcass was still a challenge to a person who had no such prior experience, especially when the things inside were different from what one expected to see.

  Just thinking about the heart-shaped kidneys was enough to send another wave of disgust up his throat. He had to take several long deep breaths before he could finally return to his feet and head back to the carcass.

  This time, he averted his eyes away from the bloodied mess, focusing on the soldier’s overall physical constitution. His attention soon fell upon the soldier’s arms.

  His right arm is thicker than his left arm? Yeap, perfectly normal for a man.

  “No, that’s not right. This is way too big!”


  Roel’s eyelids shot up. He lifted the carcass’ bulging right arm a little and found that there was some kind of tumor growing inside it, resulting in it being two times larger than its left arm.

  Even if a swordsman who had devoted his life to a single sword wouldn’t have such a huge difference in his arm sizes. Roel couldn’t figure out a reason behind this anomaly, so he could only leave it aside for the time being.

  “It’s hard to come to a conclusion with just one sample,” murmured Roel as he put down the carcass’ right arm.

  Moving on, he picked up the soldier’s black sword and inspected it. It was clear from its subpar craftsmanship that it was standard army equipment. There was nothing about its design that particularly stood out, so there was nothing to be deduced from it.

  With this, Roel had pretty much fully inspected all of the plausible clues he could obtain from the black-armored soldier, but it only increased the doubts he had in mind. Thankfully, he already had a clear idea what he needed to do next.

  I need to kill more of these black-armored soldiers to gather more samples so that I can discern what’s common and different about them.

  It was worth noting that this building was guarded even though Roel didn’t stumble upon anyone while wandering freely in the dream yesterday. Most likely, the enemies had chosen to plant sentries around after discovering his existence, which meant that the entrances of the other buildings were likely guarded too.

  With this, his next destination was also made clear.

  Knowing that it would be foolish to walk out openly through the main entrance, he picked up the black-armored soldier’s sword and leapt out through the window, landing quietly into the bushes. Then, he began sneaking his way to the adjacent building.

  It was the same watchman office, the same hanging light, and the same black-armored soldier hiding silently in the shadowy corner. This odd feeling of déjà vu made Roel narrow his eyes as he shot a glance at the hanging light.

  Does this mean that the enemies fear light? No, that’s not right. The two black-robed figures I saw yesterday were holding onto a staff with a lamp hanging on the end, and none of the black-armored soldiers seemed averse to it.

  Are they just hiding in the shadows so that they could ambush any intruders?

  While pondering on the two possibilities, Roel dashed toward the enemy with his sword. He was more confident this time around since he knew that his enemy had no resistance against Glacier, so he wanted to test out their strength.

  “＆*＃!”


  The black-armored soldier released an incomprehensible screech as it charged forward to fend against the intruder. After a quick exchange of blows, Roel was able to come to a rough conclusion.

  Its strength was equivalent to that of an Origin Level 5 transcendent, but its body was visibly lacking in speed and coordination. It didn’t seem to be too intelligent either, and it was incapable of casting spells. Overall, it was slightly weaker than a Origin Level 5 human transcendent.

  That being said, they were still pretty strong for common soldiers.

  After having made an assessment, Roel wanted to end things there and get rid of the black-armored soldier. To his horror, the black-armored soldier suddenly uttered the same whispers that the black-robed figure did last night, assaulting his mind with a splitting pain.

  Making use of this opportunity, the black-armored soldier leaped forward without any hesitation.

  Roel was alarmed by the twist in the situation, but he didn’t release Glacier right away. Instead, an idea sparked in his mind, and he quickly backed off toward the hanging light while eyeing the black-armored soldier intently.

  The charging enemy stopped right before the intersection of light and shadow.