In Saint Freya Academy’s academic hub, Roel sat in a conference room spacious enough to accommodate thirty people. He took a sip of tea as he shot a cursory gaze around the room. All around, he could see professors who had risen to their feet in a state of agitation to argue with one another.

  Tark Stronghold Search and Rescue Seminar.

  That was the name of the seminar Roel was currently attending.

  It was hosted by the most prestigious academy of the Sia Continent, and the topic of discussion concerned the fate of over a hundred thousand transcendents. The sheer importance of this seminar was implicitly understood, but Roel couldn’t have imagined that the discussion would go off-track right from the start.

  He had considered various possibilities about what could happen during the seminar. Perhaps the scholars from the Austine Empire might get emotional and refuse to cooperate, or maybe there could be a divergence in the stances amongst different countries.

  But when he finally attended the seminar, he swiftly realized that the situation was worse than he had expected. In the first place, he wasn’t called here as a scholar but as an eye-witness.

  “Roel Ascart, can you confirm whether you have personally witnessed the disappearance of Tark Stronghold or not?”


  “I didn’t witness it in person. It was gone when I arrived at the stronghold the following day.”


  “How can you determine that the fog is the cause of Tark Stronghold’s disappearance then?”


  “… I can sense it in my bloodline. Many of the soldiers present have witnessed the unusual nature of the fog too.”


  “Fine. Even if your bloodline has the ability to sense that, how can you be certain that it’s the monster from the legends? If I’m not mistaken, you have never encountered any of the ‘Six Calamities’ monsters before.”


  “… It’s a memory from my bloodline.”


  …


  Roel’s face slowly darkened under the scholars’ questions.

  He couldn’t believe that he had been summoned to the seminar just to verify whether what had happened at Tark Stronghold was true or not. Months had already passed since the incident, but the scholars were still busy disputing the cause of the incident and the culprit.

  As someone who had encountered four of the Six Calamities thus far and possessed the Crown’s Stones, Roel saw the existence of Shrouding Fog as an indisputable fact. The problem was that he couldn’t relay it convincingly to the scholars.

  If he had told the scholars that he had encountered them while traveling back in time via the Witness State, even absorbing two of them in the process, the chances were that the scholars would just simply shrug him off as a lunatic. For that reason, he could only claim that they were memories from his bloodline.

  Ultimately, the problem was that he wasn’t influential enough to inspire unconditional trust.

  “I don’t think that the fog has anything to do with the disappearance of Tark Stronghold. Those soldiers might have just seen wrongly due to the unusual weather. Otherwise, they could have fallen prey to some sort of illusion spell too.”


  Even listening to the empty analyses of the scholars was enough to make Roel’s heart pound in anxiety, but he had no good solution to this issue. The scholars in the room were hardcore academics who only recognized academic accomplishments, which Roel had none of.

  For two whole hours, the scholars asked him the same question from numerous angles, but Roel insisted that it was the doing of the Six Calamities to the very end. Unfortunately, there weren’t many people who supported Roel’s stance. Most of them still held onto the view that it was a man-made incident.

  Their ignorance was extremely frustrating to Roel, though he could see where they were coming from. These obstinate old fools who had never come into contact with the Six Calamities must have found it ridiculous how a monster would suddenly emerge from the legends and devour a hundred thousand people.

  It was a notion that challenged the boundaries of their common sense. It was not hard to see why they thought that it would be more reasonable for it to be a man-made incident.

  But just because a deduction was more reasonable didn’t mean that it was correct. The scholars were only going to be led down the wrong path at this rate.

  In the first place, it was already a mistake for them to attempt to rationalize this incident. Make no mistake, what had happened to Tark Stronghold was utterly irrational. How could a person make sense out of something that was inherently senseless?

  The seminar lasted for the whole afternoon, but there was no progress whatsoever. Roel had come in hopes of receiving clues, but he left feeling like he had just watched a circus act. He could only lament how cruel reality was that nothing seemed to be going well.

  The only silver lining was that some of the academic historians had thrown their support with Roel during the seminar. They assured him that they would gather evidence to convince the others so as to pull the investigation back onto the right track.

  That was also what Roel had in mind.

  To Roel, investigating Shrouding Fog and the disappearance of Tark Stronghold wasn’t just a mission from the academy. It also concerned the promise he had made to Nora. Whether Prince Kane was alive or not, he had to provide Nora with closure.

  “It’s time for you to make a grand appearance, Artificial Spirit Miss Margaret

  【Understood. Searching the archives. Estimated time: 13 minutes. Please hold on for a moment.】


  A calm feminine voice answered from a crystal ball hanging on the ceiling. Roel nodded with a smile, contented with the answer he had received. Meanwhile, Kurt, who was sitting opposite Roel, stared at the crystal ball above with a baffled look.

  “How are you able to order the academy’s artificial spirit? Isn’t that an authority reserved only for the principal?”


  “Well… It’s a long story.”


  【Lord Roel Ascart has inherited Lord Astrid’s first-tier access, which grants him the authority to access all files in the academy’s archive, modify the access rights of other users…】


  Roel wasn’t intending to answer Kurt’s question, but Margaret began answering on her own accord before he could say anything. He did consider stopping her from divulging any further, but he eventually decided against it. He figured that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to familiarize the two of them with each other so as to boost their productivity.

  If Roel wanted to bring the ‘Tark Stronghold Search and Rescue Seminar’ back on track, he would have to produce a lot of historical records to prove the existence of the Six Calamities beyond a reasonable doubt. That was no easy task given how elusive records on the Six Calamities were, but fortunately, Saint Freya Academy happened to be home to one of the Three Great Libraries, the National Athenaeum of Wisdom.

  Browsing through historical records was a slow and laborious job. It would take an army of well-educated and talented individuals to go through all of the books in the National Athenaeum of Wisdom, but the sheer cost of that would have been beyond the means of most nobles.

  Phew! Thank Sia I have trusty assistant Margaret here to help me!

  That being said, Margaret’s search algorithm was elementary compared to the powerful search engines in Roel’s previous life. She could sieve out relevant historical records, but Roel would still need to manually browse through them in order to gather useful information.

  Fortunately, well-educated manpower wasn’t an issue here in Saint Freya Academy with most students being enslaved to Academic Credits. That was also why Roel had dragged Kurt to the library with him.

  Kurt was the perfect example of the idiom: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Anyone who thought that this inheritor of the Giant Bloodline was all brawn and no brain couldn’t be more mistaken. In fact, Kurt and his family members were actually one of the rare non-muscleheads in Knight Kingdom Pendor, being history buffs with their Renascence Origin Attribute.

  Roel was initially planning to rope Alicia into this too, but she had gotten busy after becoming the Whiterose Ringbearer. In fact, the Scholar Guilds had invited her on a tour around their research labs today. Figuring that he didn’t want to get in the way of her vibrant academy life, he decided not to bother her with these historical records.

  Besides, he knew from the many times they had spent reading together that these historical records had a hypnotic effect on her, never failing to lull her to sleep.

  In the huge meeting room Roel had booked for this occasion, he and Kurt began organizing the records Margaret had sieved out. In the midst of doing so, Kurt suddenly spoke up.

  “I did some investigation over the break. I wasn’t able to find much about Lord Grandar, but there was some progress.”


  “Oh? It sounds like you have really worked hard on that. What did you find?”


  “Lord Grandar should be the final autarch of the giants, and his death seems to be related to the Savior. I’m still in the midst of gathering more information on that, but I’m glad to inform you that my clan no longer holds onto the belief that Lord Grandar is an evil god.”


  “That’s good to hear.”


  Roel’s complexion brightened up upon hearing Kurt’s words.

  Considering how long ago the era of the giants was, the amount of information that Kurt was able to gather was impressive. More importantly, he was able to cleanse Grandar’s name. That was a weight off Roel’s chest.

  But if Grandar was the final autarch of the giants and his death was related to the Savior, could this mean that the Savior was involved in the extinction of the giants?

  Roel spent a moment thinking about it, but he was unable to figure out an answer. He could have asked Grandar about it, but he decided not to. It might have just been history to Roel, but it could be a traumatic memory to Grandar.

  Considering that, it might be a good thing that Grandar had forgotten about his past.

  With such thoughts in mind, Roel exhaled deeply before turning his attention back to the mountains of historical records piled up in front of him.