Lucia finished her meal and returned directly to her room.
Roland took his time enjoying the food. A middle-aged man waited quietly beside him, his expression impassive, occasionally shifting untouched dishes closer to him at just the right moments. He was a meticulous man who held nearly harsh standards for refinement, whether for himself or for the other servants.
“Young Master, this is the admission notice from the St. Romanvia Imperial Academy.”
Roland took the envelope, which was delicately adorned with stamped gold foil.
“Uncle Scott, I've changed my mind.” Roland looked up, meeting the middle-aged man's gaze with a smile. “I intend to visit Romanvia and see what it's like. Perhaps I really can learn a thing or two there... and make quite a few friends, I imagine.”
“Very well, Young Master. I will handle the arrangements for you.”
The Lucifiel family possessed two recommendation slots every year.
However, most of them were given to talented descendants of affiliated knights, or to children in nearby towns who possessed talent for magic. The Lucifiel family would generously bestow these slots for a price, turning the recipients into vassals of the family once their studies were complete, which in turn elevated their social status.
His own admission notice, however, was somewhat more special.
By exercising a small measure of privilege, he was granted admission without an entrance exam; otherwise, it would have been an assessment notice rather than an admission notice.
Even recommended students typically required an entrance assessment, albeit with higher priority than commoners. If they failed to meet the standards, they would still be sent back, forfeiting their qualification for admission, while that year's recommendation slot would still count as spent.
This was to prevent the academy's intake from consisting entirely of noble scions, as it still required a bit of raw, fresh blood.
Compared to other noble schools, this was already considered quite fair.
Roland did not open the envelope to check its contents right away, because regardless of what it said, his decision would not be altered by a few words. He simply handed it back to Scott Grier and said politely, “Then I'll leave it in your hands, Uncle Scott. You may arrange things as you see fit when the time comes.”
“Very well, Young Master.”
Scott Grier bowed slightly and stepped aside to clear a path.
Roland nodded with a gentle smile and took his leave.
As he walked away, he could still catch a few whispered conversations. As a Fifth-Rank warrior, his physical conditioning was comparable to a superhuman's—while saying he could leap into the heavens and tread the earth might be an exaggeration, he was not far from it.
“The Young Master is so gentle. He's countless times better than those arrogant nobles outside.”
“This is what a true noble is like.”
“Exactly, exactly.”
If other nobles heard these words, they would likely pass immediate judgment, bellowing, “What? How dare lowborn commoners like you pass judgment on nobles and spout nonsense about what a true noble is? You must be tired of living!”
Then, these maids would most likely suffer unfair punishment.
However, what they said sounded rather pleasant to Roland's ears.
Inside the dining room, Scott Grier watched Roland's departing back, withdrawing his gaze only after Roland vanished around the corner. As the head butler of the Lucifiel family, he handled almost all official business when the Grand Duke was away, occasionally consulting Roland for his opinion on a small portion of matters.
After all, this household still had its masters.
At the same time, Roland's suggestions always gave him a fresh perspective.
In his eyes, his young master was an extraordinarily low-profile and restrained individual—perhaps even restrained to a fault. Even if the servants made mistakes in front of him, he would not scold them, but would instead ask with concern if something had happened, offering rewards rather than punishment.
He would gloss it over by saying, “You must be exhausted. Go get some rest.”
In short, this noble, who should have looked down on everything, bound himself with a code of discipline even stricter than Scott's own. As the head butler of the Grand Duke's estate, Scott Grier was himself a Seventh-Rank Sword Saint and a Fourth-Rank mage—a powerhouse capable of dominating any region—yet he found himself unable to see through his young master.
However, there was one thing he was certain of.
Concealed beneath those polished-gold eyes was an arrogance beyond ordinary human comprehension.
...
Upon returning to his room, an ancient book appeared in Roland's hand.
The cover looked somewhat oxidized, showing its considerable age.
Flipping open a page casually, he saw that most of it was blank. Not a single character was visible on the yellowed paper, but soon enough, pitch-black words began to emerge as if endowed with life, recording information about Scott Grier, including his rank and abilities.
【Individual: Scott Grier】
【Rank: Seventh-Rank Sword Saint / Fourth-Rank Mage】
【Individual Traits: Battle-Tempered Spirit (Red): Your soul has been honed through thousands of trials, undergoing a complete transformation upon reaching the Seventh Rank. Charm, confusion, and other special abilities of the same rank have their effects reduced by 30% against you.】
【Swordsmanship Mastery (Red): A skill-based ability representing the sum of your swordsmanship capabilities.】
【Absolute Focus (Purple): Your focus is significantly increased, boosting skill-based learning efficiency by 20%.】
【Perfectionism (Blue): You possess a habit of searching for and fixing flaws in abilities you have already mastered, increasing the maximum output efficiency of all abilities by 5%.】
【Meticulousness (Green): You possess admirable keenness of observation.】
【Execution Capability (White): Years of habit have built strong execution discipline.】
【...】
“Tsk, even an incomplete Book of Truth possesses such detection capabilities?” Roland looked over Head Butler Scott Grier's information with interest. “No wonder my former self insisted on keeping this thing by my side—even going so far as to graft it into my body—despite the risk of backlash.”
The Book of Truth was a Crown Relic that remained extremely mysterious all the way to the end in the original game's plot. Roland Morningstar Lucifiel was its sole owner from beginning to end, and even he had not fully tamed it; in the normal storyline, he was eventually backlashed by the complete 【Book of Truth】 and sealed away along with it.
This item had been in Roland's hands from start to finish.
Powerhouses all over the world were still frantically searching for it in pursuit of truth.
It was said that the secrets of the world were hidden within the book, making even true gods covet it.
However, what Roland currently held was merely an incomplete version.
There were still nine vital title pages scattered across the world. Yet even so, this costless and virtually uncapped detection method was remarkable enough to be called miraculous. At the very least, below the level of a true god, almost no secrets could be hidden from him.
After playing around with it and finding no other functions for now, Roland pulled it back into his body.
At the same time, the mark of the Star of Omniscience and Omnipotence appeared on his forehead, only to quickly fade away completely.
Roland had also used the 【Book of Truth】 to inspect his own abilities.
They could only be described as extravagantly lavish—the kind bright enough to blind anyone's eyes.
While Scott Grier, a Seventh-Rank powerhouse, possessed only two red traits, Roland had a staggering nine. Not to mention, even his color traits far outnumbered the head butler's red traits—and what was more, he had just obtained two through a forbidden ritual.
Ever since awakening the memories of his past life, his mind had not stopped spinning for a single moment.
For even Roland himself did not know the complete timeline of this world.
His memories were limited to the events prior to the 【Original Sin · Pride】 chapter. He knew very little about the plot under the curtain of 【The End】, simply because the game had not been fully completed when he transmigrated. That was just the main story; there were still many IF-route storylines left unfinished, and numerous lore details relied entirely on enigmatic riddles.
In other words, before he arrived here...
...the story was far from over.
Therefore, Roland had to think. Relying on his foresight as a creator and his developer's omniscient perspective, he needed to evaluate everything and weigh all the pros and cons. Arrogant as he might be, he was by no means stupid. Taking the 【Book of Truth】 alone as an example, the patches during the game's development in his past life had not even been fully implemented.
After considering it back and forth, Roland merely let out a light smile.
“Well, the unknown just makes things more interesting...”
Rate on N.U.
