Little Tyrant Doesn’t Want to Meet with a Bad End

‘Roel Ascart was an extremely careful person’, this was an evaluation shared by almost everyone who knew him after he regained the memories of his past life.

From the moment Roel became cognizant of the true nature of this world, he knew right away that he wasn’t someone blessed by the world. He was far too aware of the threats lurking around him that he couldn’t rest at ease even after he won Alicia and the others over to his side.

One of the reasons why that was the case was his fear of the original plotline.

Having lived in this world for many years now, Roel couldn’t think of Eyes of the Chronicler as a simple game anymore. This world was indubitably his current reality, regardless of whether it was the world of a gal game or not. Going by the plotline, the academy arc was definitely going to be a vital phase for him.

He had worked hard thus far to shake up the plotline as much as he could, and he didn’t think that his efforts had been in vain since he had significantly changed Alicia, Nora, and Charlotte’s view of him. However, he still wasn’t convinced that this was enough.

It was true that three of the female capture targets no longer bore hostility toward him, but he thought that it would be foolish to simply shrug off the threats posed by the other key elements that led to his downfall.

The black-haired, blue-eyed young man who was trudging on while staring at a piece of paper in his hand was a familiar person to Roel Ascart, for he was the protagonist of the Eyes of the Chronicler, Paul Ackermann.

If Roel remembered correctly, this was the opening scene that occurred thirty seconds into the game, a cutscene that could be collected and replayed from the main menu.

In Roel’s previous world, it was a tradition for the protagonist to be late for school on his very first day due to some compelling reason, whether he overslept or bumped into a beautiful girl with a piece of bread in her mouth. As the protagonist of a gal game, Paul had such a cliché scene too, just that the bread had been replaced with a hulking carriage.

In the very first scene, Paul Ackermann held onto a map drawn by his maid as he searched frantically for the Saint Freya Academy in this massive yet foreign city, worried that he wouldn’t make it in time for the entrance ceremony. It hadn’t been long since he had been found, and this was his first time being in a city as big as Leinster too since he had grown up in the countryside.

To make things worse, he had forgotten to bring his ‘Book of Truth’ insignia along with him, resulting in his act of asking for help to be mistaken as a poor attempt at flirting, so no one paid him any heed at all.

Left with no choice, he could only refer to the only clue he had—the incredibly abstract map drawn by his maid—and try to find his way around. However, he was too engrossed in the map that he failed to check his surroundings carefully before crossing the street, resulting in him unintentionally standing in the way of the Sorofyas’ carriage and alarming its horse. This infuriated Charlotte, who was in a rush for time, and he ended up getting berated by her.

This was Paul and Charlotte’s very first meeting, and any future development they had was built on this coincidence.

Of course, all of this was going to change now. Roel Ascart was here to ensure that.

…

“What in the world was Leysha painting?”

Paul stared at the map in his hand with an awful look on his face. He repeatedly raised and lowered his head, hoping to compare the landmarks in the map with his surroundings, but he was unable to connect the two together.

It had already been a month since he arrived at Leinster, but he hadn’t had any time to walk around. He was here was to undergo special training after all.

Despite being an illegitimate son Austine’s emperor had from an affair while he was surveying the civilians, the first sixteen years of Paul’s life could be said to be fairly lackluster. As an orphan who was picked up in a remote village in the Austine Empire, he had never received mcuh love or been properly educated. He had only learned some basic reading and calculation skills from a retired priest and devoted the rest of his time to working on the farmland.

Paul thought that this kind of life would continue forever until he was suddenly taken out of the village by a secret spy in a manner that could almost be considered as a kidnapping. From then on, his life had been an upheaval.

Before he knew it, everyone around him was calling him the prince of the empire. The emperor, who looked to be middle-aged but was actually already more than a century old, was suddenly his father, and he found himself with two older brothers who bore great hostility toward him and an older sister whom he hadn’t met yet.

The impression he had of the time he spent at the capital of the Austine Empire, Siaus, could be summarized in two words—’maliciousness’ and ‘enmity’.

With the two princes of the Austine Empire nearing thirty years of age and the princess, Lilian, having displayed her superior talent, most of the officials and nobles had already chosen their own factions. There was no space for a newcomer like him to squeeze in here.

As a weak transcendent who lacked a proper upbringing and powerful support, not to mention that he was an illegitimate son who had been left outside for more than a decade, it went without saying that his sudden appearance was unwelcomed within the Austine Empire’s political circle. Many nobles looked at him with scorn and disdain.

In the three months Paul stayed at the capital, there was not a single noble to paid him a visit. This was more than enough to highlight the attitude of the nobles toward him. In view of this, the emperor, Lukas, was left with no choice but to send Paul, despite already being sixteen years of age, to the Saint Freya Academy in hopes of making up for the time he had lost from wandering outside all of these years.

He was put into a month of seclusion where knowledge encompassing governance, history, language, etiquette, swordsmanship, magic, and so on were crammed into him, but this desperate last-minute effort didn’t spur any significant growth in Paul, especially in terms of his transcendent abilities. He couldn’t put it into words, but he felt like something was lacking here.

What was comforting was that even though he didn’t get along with the nobles, he struck it off well with the servants. The current quandary he was in was just an accident.

In truth, Paul had been sent out all alone under the instructions of his etiquette teacher, who intended it to be an exercise to build up his confidence. A student of the Saint Freya Academy wearing the ‘Book of Truth’ insignia would surely be able to easily win goodwill from the crowd, making it much more convenient for him to ask for directions. It was likely that he might even be approached by women!

But who could have thought that Paul would be so careless as to forget to bring the ‘Book of Truth’ insignia with him?

Without the insignia, all he had left was just a map casually drawn by his maid. For someone who had spent his life in the village to suddenly be left to wander all alone in the crowded streets of a huge city was deeply disconcerting. He tried to approach some of the passers-by along the way for help, only to be disregarded and ignored.

“I think I have to cross the road here?”

Trying his best to curb the anxiety and stress that were threatening to explode from him out of fear of being late, Paul kept his attention intently on the map as he murmured to himself. To his surprise, a gentle voice suddenly sounded by the side of the road.

“No, you should walk straight ahead.”

“Ah?”

The shocked Paul raised his head, only to be faced with a smiling black-haired young man.

The latter wore a black overcoat over a white shirt and a neat tie. He had a tall but slightly thin figure, and his golden eyes glimmered with a warm and comfortable light.

Paul was stunned for a moment by Roel’s glowing presence before he instinctively realized a fact.

I’m standing in the presence of a noble.

Such thoughts led to him subconsciously lowering his head diffidently. Roel took his reaction into sight and contemplated for a moment before asking.

“This fellow classmate over here, are you looking for the Saint Freya Academy?”

“Ah? Y-yes, I am. Huh? Classmate?”

“Yes, classmate.”

Roel tapped on his ‘Book of Truth’ insignia as he directed a smile at the bewildered Paul. Paul’s pupils dilated in response before hurriedly thanking him in a fluster.

“Thanks… Ah no, I mean, I am grateful for your kind help. Senior, I-I am a new student enrolling this year, and this is my first time at the academy…”

“Senior? Ah, you’re mistaken. I’m a freshman as well.”

Roel stretched his hand forth to stop Paul, who was just about to bow to him. Paul was stunned for a moment before he breathed a sigh of relief and finally revealed a smile.

“You’re a freshman too? That’s wonderful! I’m Paul Ackermann. May I know your name?”

“I’m Roel Ascart.”

Paul had been observing Roel intently, and his heart was finally put at ease when he saw that the latter didn’t appear to have any ulterior motive. However, when he heard that the other party was the son of a marquess from the Theocracy, he found his heart palpitating in unease once more.

He was aware that the Saint Mesit Theocracy was at loggerheads with the Austine Empire. The son of a high noble like Roel should be well aware of the significance behind his family name, but the other party didn’t bother probing deeper into it. This left Paul with no choice but to second guess the other party’s intentions.

Does he not care, or has he simply not put the two together yet? Or is he currently mocking me in his mind?

Paul’s thoughts were all over the place due to his lack of confidence in his own identity. After a moment of hesitation, he finally voiced out his thoughts.

“Roel, you should have heard of my family name, right? I… I’m actually the illegitimate son of Austine’s emperor.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. What about it?”

“Ah?”

Roel’s calm response took Paul completely off guard, leaving him in a daze. Seeing this, Roel calmly elaborated a little more on it.

“Whether you’re an illegitimate son or not doesn’t hinder me from helping a fellow classmate find his way to the academy. Besides, your birth is not something that you have control over. Most importantly of all, I believe that we’re all nothing more but students here in this Capital of Academies—or at least, that’s how I prefer to think of it.”

“… I see. I understand, thank you.”

After a slight moment of silence, Paul finally answered with a slightly hoarse voice. He lowered his head to avert Roel’s gentle eyes as he found his impression of nobles changing a little.

This man is different. He’s unlike those nobles who point their fingers at me in criticism in order to sustain their hold on power. It’s just as that phrase, ‘nobility comes from the heart, not from one’s standing’.

What a good man he is!

Paul Ackermann discreetly glanced at the young man beside him with eyes filled wth admiration. On the street ahead of him, an elaborately adorned carriage raced past him amidst a slight breeze.

“What a beautiful carriage.”

“Indeed.”

Paul innocently expressed his thoughts, and Roel nodded in agreement with a smile. Barely after their exchange, the commotion broke out amidst the surrounding crowd.

“Wait a moment, that insignia…”

Noticing the commotion, Paul took a closer look at the carriage before his eyes widened in excitement.

“It’s the Sorofya House, the richest house in the whole of Sia! I never thought that they would send their offspring here too. The direction it’s heading in… isn’t that where our academy…”

The agitated Paul’s words suddenly trailed to a halt, which led to Roel blinking his eyes in confusion. At the same time, the surrounding commotion also silenced as well. Roel traced the gazes of the crowd, only to be taken aback too.

The carriage had suddenly stopped.