Paul could clearly sense Lilian’s gaze turning sharp the moment he made his decision known. The sudden pressure in the atmosphere made him lower his head as he awaited the reprimand from his older half-sister. To his surprise, Lilian didn’t speak a word.

  She looked at him quietly, though her heart was hardly as peaceful as how she appeared on the surface.

  Born into the Ackermann Imperial Family, Lilian didn’t have much experience with kinship or getting along with younger siblings. This was the first time she was coming into contact with the existence known as ‘younger brother’. She felt obliged to take care of him as the elder sibling here, but she didn’t expect that she would be turned down at the very first step.

  Paul’s refusal to join the Purplerose Faction wasn’t a big issue to her; if anything, she thought that it was a wise decision. While it disallowed her from using the influence of her faction to protect Paul, she was still able to offer him help from time to time. She did have the means to do that.

  However, it would be a whole new story if Paul were to join another faction. It was equivalent to Paul choosing an outsider over Lilian, and such a decision obviously had major consequences.

  No matter how much Austine’s nobles shunned Paul, he was still a bearer of the Ackermann family name. It was unacceptable for a prince of the great imperial family to lower his head to an outsider, not to mention that Roel was from the Theocracy.

  That man couldn’t have overlooked the implications, so why did he still choose to take in Paul?

  “Is this your decision?”


  “A-ah?”


  “I’m asking if you’re the one who requested for this on your own accord.”


  “Y-yes, it is. I looked for big brother Roel yesterday and asked him for this request. I haven’t met him since the entrance ceremony, so I didn’t think that he would really accept me.”


  “.……”


  The smile of gratitude on Paul’s lips brought a rare frown onto Lilian’s face.

  She was finding it hard to comprehend Roel’s actions, but she decided to hold her tongue and not say anything. She could tell that Paul had already made up his mind, and it was unlikely that she could sway his decision.

  “If you have truly made up your mind, I’d presume that you’re prepared for the consequences too? Your act of joining another person’s faction means that my Enforcement Division won’t be able to offer you any help.

  “If this is a trap, you’ll be fighting all on your own. On top of that, your action will be strongly condemned by our people, and it might even turn our father against you. You might be placed in a worse position than before.”


  Lilian calmly voiced out the difficulties that Paul could potentially face along the way, and it made the latter’s face stiffen. He thought about the words Roel had spoken on his Bluerose Ring yesterday, and he eventually nodded after a moment of silence.

  “I trust big brother Roel. Rather than winning the approval of those hypocritical nobles, what I truly want is a friend who will treat me earnestly. His Majesty may despise me because of this, but in the first place, I’m no more than an illegitimate son with no rights to succession. I have no interest in the crown.

  “What I want is an enjoyable academy life. I want a place where I can be myself and work hard to become the person I aspire to be.”


  Roel’s silhouette surfaced in Paul’s mind, and his eyes hardened with determination. Seeing this, Lilian’s pupils widened a little.

  “.…… I see.”


  She let out an inconspicuous sigh. Looking at the young man sitting opposite her, she suddenly found her mind filling up with many thoughts. It affirmed her view that Paul was indeed an odd one out amongst the cold-blooded Ackermanns.

  Different from her older brothers who were passionate about pursuing greater power and standing, Paul was an earnest man with his feet planted firmly on the ground. Youthful and positive, he chased after what was real and tangible to him. There was no stench of schemes or conspiracies on him; he was as pure as he appeared to be.

  She envied him.

  It was a pity that Paul didn’t choose her, or else the two of them might have gotten close to one another.

  “Since you have already chosen your path, I won’t bother trying to retain you. That being said, we’re still kin with resonating Origin Attributes. If you ever find yourself cornered and in a desperate situation, as a final resort, you may look for me.”


  “Ah? Resonating Origin Attributes? Er…… I-I understand. I’m grateful for your kind offer.”


  Paul was confused by the term ‘resonating Origin Attributes’, but he was still able to understand what Lilian was trying to convey here, so he quickly thanked her. On the other hand, Lilian wasn’t too surprised to see that Paul was unaware of what the term meant. After all, it hadn’t been long since he reached Origin Level 5 and obtained his Origin Attribute.

  Having resolved the problems weighing on his mind, Paul looked much more relaxed than before. He finished up the dessert before taking his leave. As he walked out of the elegant Nymph Palace, he found himself thinking back on the conversation.

  Imperial sister Lilian might be a quiet person who hardly shows any expression at all, but she seems to be a nice person on the whole. It would be great if she could get along with big brother Roel.

  Paul lamented at the deep hostility that the Austine Empire and the Theocracy bore toward one another. At the same time, he also wondered about the foreign term he had heard earlier on.

  What does resonating Origin Attributes mean? If my Origin Attribute has resonated with something, I should have at least felt a tingle or something, right? But I haven’t felt anything peculiar ever since entering the academy.

  Paul frowned in incomprehension. This matter was clearly beyond his knowledge, so he could only toss it to the back of his head for the time being.

  “I guess I’ll ask big brother Roel later on,” he murmured as he left the Purplerose Faction’s base……

  Roel had many goals in the Saint Freya Academy. On the surface, he wanted to expand his scope of knowledge, socialize and make new friends, and obtain official qualifications. Beneath the surface, he hoped to find clues regarding ‘Academic’, lure out the enemies he knew of through game via Paul, and maybeaccomplish the impossible mission entrusted to him by Ro.

  All of this was centered around a prerequisite, and that was strength.

  A year had passed since Roel reached Origin Level 4, but he hadn’t reached the pinnacle of it yet. It couldn’t be helped since it wasn’t as easy to advance through Origin Level 4 compared to the previous levels, and he had his hands full with all sorts of things over the past year.

  From migrating Ancient Treant Kayde to the Ascart Fiefdom to meeting Nora at the Holy Capital, there was little time Roel could spare to browse through historical records. Naturally, his rate of growth slowed.

  Things were going to be different now. With his enrollment into the Saint Freya Academy, his priority was now shifted toward learning. Learning might just be about gathering new information and becoming wiser for others, but to Roel, it was the road to growing stronger too.

  Saint Freya Academy had splendid resources and facilities to create a conducive environment for learning, but of it all, what truly made Roel’s eyes glow was its massive library.

  The National Athenaeum of Wisdom.

  This was a library that was renowned not just in Leinster but the entire Brolne. It was their national pride.

  Brolne’s National Athenaeum of Wisdom, the Saint Mesit Theocracy’s Holy Capital’s Royal Library, and the Austine Empire’s Millennia Glory Repository—these were the three most famous libraries on the Sia Continent. All in all, they contained over 60% of the historical records preserved by humankind, making them the very core of humankind civilization.

  Of those three, the National Athenaeum of Wisdom boasted the longest history, though it used to be no more than a normal facility in the Saint Freya Academy.

  Back in the academy’s earlier years, when it was still taking in a small number of students each semester, the academy’s management team would often find themselves placed in a dilemma whenever they received a huge donation—Where should I dump the money on?

  It was such a first-world academy problem, but there was no denying that it had stumped several generations of principals. The main issue lay in the fact that these donations had to be used on tangible facilities in the academy, and they couldn’t be funneled toward the Scholar Guilds or student organizations

  To put it simply, the donors wanted to see land and buildings.

  For some reason, wealthy people really loved big things, and it would be even better if they could get it named after them too. However, such donations were only useful up to a certain point, or else there would be too many buildings and not enough people to use them, resulting in the creation of ‘ghost towns’.

  Anyway, as the money snowballed over the generations, the principals found themselves greatly distressed. They couldn’t just reject the money since the donations had political implications, and snubbing the goodwill of powerhouses would be a bad idea. But at the same time, it would be wrong to accept the money and not spend it.

  Stress balding was a prevalent condition for the principals for many years, till someone suddenly proposed an ingenious idea.

  Hey, why don’t we use the money to fill up our library instead?

  By that point, their library had already been expanded several times such that there weren’t enough books to fill up the empty bookshelves.

  For the next hundred years, the Saint Freya Academy devoted most of their funds to acquiring all sorts of exclusive and rare historical books. They would put the donor’s name on the book cover, such as the one Roel was holding at the moment.

  Generosity of the Austine Empire’s Count Hauter, December of Year 717.

  Interestingly enough, there was also an additional option for the donor to pen down his signature on the cover too, but of course, special services required special fees.

  It turned out that the nobles thought that having tomes to knowledge credited to them was much more classier than having their names inscribed on buildings, and it ended up stirring a book donation frenzy. Under the overwhelming support of the donors, the library grew larger and larger until it finally became independent three hundred years ago and was renamed the National Athenaeum of Wisdom.

  The library was still located in the Saint Freya Academy, but outsiders could apply for a permit to enter the library. This was a move to promote greater literacy amongst the general populace, but things probably weren’t exactly going as how they expected.

  Roel noticed that the female students from other academies were constantly directing glances in his direction before whispering amongst themselves, and their actions made him feel uncomfortable. In the end, his discomfort outweighed his laziness.

  So, he rose to his feet and headed over to the private reading rooms which required payment. He wanted a quiet environment to get his reading done.

  Little did he know that his actions were being spied on by a spherical object located on the ceiling.