Along a dark corridor, a one-sided fight was going on.

  “Aren’t you good at squeaking? Why don’t you continue squeaking then?”


  A black-haired young man stood beneath the light as he smashed his sword into the ‘metal can’ hiding in the shadows. A few strikes later, the black-armored soldier was knocked down to its knees.

  He proceeded on to pull the black-armored soldier into the light, but surprisingly, the latter didn’t display any particular reaction to the light. It only fidgeted around out of distress.

  It would appear that the light in the watchman office was harmless to them; it was just that they didn’t want to approach it.

  Roel sighed softly as his hopes of dominating this dream world with a single lamp shattered into bits. He raised his sword and beheaded the enemy right away.

  Knowing that these monsters hated the light, Roel dragged the carcass under the hanging light and began his second autopsy. It turned out that there wasn’t much difference between the monsters, just that this one had one less heart and one more kidney.

  “Organ traffickers would sure want to know the secret behind them,” murmured Roel as he returned the bloodied kidney he extracted back to its owner.

  He proceeded on to examine its physique, and it turned out that this one didn’t have any abnormally large right arm.

  “There’s a significant difference in their physical constitution. This will make things rather troublesome,” remarked Roel with a grim look.

  The physical differences between the monsters likely meant that they had different strengths and weaknesses too. He would have to take note of this and proceed carefully.

  On top of that, even though their fighting prowess wasn’t as powerful as he thought it out to be, their deep murmurs that held the power to disorientate one’s mind were quite a hassle to deal with. This would greatly increase his exertion since he would have to keep his Origin Attribute constantly active during battle.

  Once the autopsy was done, Roel proceeded on to head to another building to slay another black-armored soldier, and once again, he verified that there were significant differences in their physiques.

  Though what was more interesting was the changes he noticed with the Blackrose Ring.

  “Is it just my imagination or does the Blackrose Ring look brighter than usual?”


  Perhaps it was the lighting, but somehow the ring seemed to gleam with a greater luster after he slayed three black-armored soldiers. Before he could take a closer examination at it, the sound of an alarm clock suddenly echoed in his ears.

  “Diriring, diriring, diriring……”


  There was a slight jolt as Roel opened his eyes to his warm bed, bidding farewell to the world of darkness……

  It was yet another glorious morning, and Roel was having breakfast with Paul who stayed for the night.

  All expenses incurred by the Azure Manor would be reimbursed by the Saint Freya Academy as long as it didn’t exceed a certain amount, so Roel could live like a king if he wanted to. Even if he did really exceed the budget, he did have the ability to pay for himself now that the Ascart Fiefdom was starting to prosper. It was also for this reason that he popped the thirty-year-old wine yesterday without any hesitation.

  Ahh, somehow food just tastes better when someone else is paying for it!

  While enjoying his breakfast, Roel couldn’t help but notice the sparkling eyes Paul had been directing toward him for some time now, and it made him feel rather uncomfortable. This left him thinking about the divergences between the game’s plotline and the current turn of events.

  After careful consideration, he felt that there was a need to preserve Paul’s Request Club from the game.

  At this point, Roel was already confident that he had removed all of the death flags he had with the four female capture targets, but the only problem he had really resolved was the internal strife.

  In Eyes of the Chronicler, Paul became a potential love interest for the four female capture targets not just through his smooth words but by the shared experiences they had as well.

  Thinking about what Paul had to go through in the game, Roel couldn’t help but be amazed by the sheer number of trials that stood in his way, though he was ironically unable to see that it had been the same for him too.

  Roel did change many things over the years, such that the accumulation of his deeds ended up altering the power dynamics in the Saint Freya Academy. But while he had managed to win over the protagonists, that didn’t mean that the antagonists would simply raise a white flag and surrender.

  One good example were the two lackeys who challenged Paul during the entrance ceremony. This minor detail didn’t change at all, and in fact, the aggression shown by the two lackeys even exacerbated.

  And they were just the most insignificant pawns around.

  There were still many trials that Paul had to overcome along the way, and Roel’s absence in the list of antagonists only reduced what he had to deal with by a small part.

  These trials weren’t just obstacles in Paul’s way, for their outcomes would stir ripples throughout the entire academy, affecting Nora, Charlotte, and even Alicia. If things went awry, the beautiful future that Roel had already drawn out for himself could possibly be devastated.

  There were simply too many things at stake that Roel wouldn’t be able to rest easy until he removed all of the underlying threats hidden in the shadows.

  In order to clear away all of those scums, Roel wanted to make use of the advantage he had from his knowledge of the Eyes of the Chronicler’s plotline. That would require Paul to re-enact some of the scenes, which necessitated the existence of the Request Club as it served as the triggering flag for many events.

  It was just that the miscellaneous and factionless Request Club in the game would now be associated with the Bluerose Faction, with Paul serving as the leader and Roel as its backing.

  It was a tradition for the factions in the Saint Freya Academy to either construct or take over a key department in the academy.

  In the game, Charlotte’s Redrose Faction took charge of the Finance Department, and all sorts of major events would require her approval in order for the budget to go through. Nora’s Goldenrose Faction led the Events Department, taking on the responsibility of planning and managing key academy events.

  Roel was still unsure of what key function of the academy the Bluerose Faction should take on when Paul suddenly came over to seek refuge with him. Since that was the case, he decided to go with the flow.

  To be honest, Roel was a little worried about the current Paul since he didn’t have the backing of the female capture targets now. He was afraid that Paul wouldn’t have sufficient strength to overcome the trials that were lined up before him. If any mishap were to happen to him, he might really just end up buried under his guilt.

  Paul’s death would indubitably have huge implications in the worldview, and these implications were likely to be negative.

  Thinking about it, Paul’s request to join the Bluerose Faction really resolved many impending problems. With the backing of the entire faction, the chances of any mishaps befalling Paul would be greatly reduced. On top of that, he would be able to secure both Paul and the Request Club, a perfect example of downing two birds with a stone!

  Was there anything better than this?

  As expected of me!

  Roel clenched his fists tightly as he felt deeply moved by his own wisdom. He finally snapped out of his thoughts and raised his head to look at Paul with gleaming eyes.

  “Make sure you hand in your application by today!”
……

  The first class that Roel had for the day was still ‘Chris’ Classroom’. As soon as he pushed the door to Building 1’s Classroom 14 open, he was swarmed by his female classmates.

  “Good morning, Roel.”


  “How was the classes yesterday? Were you still able to keep up?”


  “Feel free to ask us if there’s anything you don’t get!”


  The Second Grade students had held themselves back for an entire day to determine Lilian’s attitude toward Roel, and they realized that she bore no hostility toward him despite her cold attitude. Due to that, they were much more enthusiastic than yesterday.

  The Third Grade students sitting around Lilian were still keeping an eye out for her reaction while feeling tempted to make a move themselves whereas the Fourth Grade students simply chuckled softly at the commotion.

  “What a bustle early in the morning.”


  “Haha, our First Grade and Second Grade juniors sure are spirited.”


  “Ayy, looks like we’re getting old.”


  The students made use of the free time they had before Chris’ arrival to chat with one another. The female students from the Second Grade tried to test Roel on some of the harder concepts they had gone through yesterday in hopes of using this excuse to get close to him, but to their surprise, he was able to answer their questions easily.

  “Oh? He actually managed to get it.”


  “That’s quite amazing. Is this the talent of the record holder for ‘Night of the Demons’?”


  “Ah? Well, hahaha.”


  Roel felt a little awkward by the compliments they were showering upon him, such that he couldn’t help but direct a glance toward Lilian. Of course, the latter remained completely unfazed, as if she couldn’t see or hear what was going on over at his side.

  She really is treating me like I’m invisible, Roel thought with a helpless smile.

  But at the same time, he felt thankful toward her. Her tutoring at least spared him from the embarrassment of being stumped here.

  “Oh? What a crowd we have gathered in front. Alright, time to return to your seats now. I’ll be starting the class.”


  Chris entered the classroom and greeted the students with a smile. She was overjoyed to see how quickly Roel was assimilating with the class, such that she started to think about how she should pen it down in her next letter. It had been far too many years since she last met Carter that it was hard for her to find any common topic between them.

  She figured that the way to woo a single dad was to woo his kid first. As long as she could win over his child, she would already be halfway to success.

  The content that Chris went through today was as complicated as usual. The two hours class was more than enough to floor Roel, but he knew that it wasn’t over yet. The battle was only half fought, and it would resume later at night.

  There was completely no interaction between Roel and Lilian during the class, and it was only when they were leaving the classroom that Roel politely bade farewell to her.

  “See you, Senior Lilian.”


  “.……”


  Lilian paused for a brief moment and looked at him with a bizarre look in her eyes, seemingly surprised by his farewell. On the other hand, Roel was already used to her lack of response, so he didn’t pay it any heed and walked off to his next class.

  But he soon realized that Lilian was following him.

  “Senior, you are……?”


  “.…… What’s your next class?”


  “My next class? It’s creation…… Ah.”


  Roel widened his eyes as it dawned upon him that they had this common class too. Seeing that he had finally gotten it, Lilian didn’t bother to ask on. She silently overtook him and quickly walked off so as to create some distance between them.

  It looks like we really do have quite some commonalities between us, Roel was amazed by the coincidence.

  Meanwhile, Lilian felt her mind plunging into turmoil.

  The fact that they were both Chris’ students and creation transcendents meant that interaction with Roel was inevitable. The realization that he had an identical mana channeling method as the past her left her with an itching feeling inside, as if a cat was scratching her heart.

  She couldn’t tell whether she was just overthinking it, but for some reason, she felt a growing sense of inexplicable intimacy toward Roel the more she interacted with him, and it caused her to unwittingly lower her guard.

  Her sudden whim yesterday to increase their classes together was one such example.

  Now that she thought about it, the knowledge she was intending to impart to him was already beyond the scope of her responsibilities, but the helpless look on his face somehow compelled her to show him a way out.

  Her incomprehensible feelings left her feeling deeply fearful. She thought about how infatuated Charlotte and Nora were with Roel, and it made her wonder if the Ascart House had some kind of incubus bloodline.

  No matter what, I need to tread even more carefully.

  Lilian shot a backward glance at Roel before walking off with many doubts in her head.