Lilian lingered in the room for a while longer.
First, she stuffed all the daily necessities she had brought from the Azure Garden into the cabinets, and then she took it upon herself to place her own towel and mouthwash cup in the bathroom.
“Don't you live in the Azure Garden?”
Facing his questioning, the girl argued plausibly, “Lilian will be coming over often to take care of the Young Master in the future, so isn't it only natural to prepare in advance?”
In the end, it took Lisa sending a third urge through the dormitory's communication crystal for Lilian to finally leave reluctantly.
Before leaving, she clung to the doorframe with teary eyes.
“Does the Young Master really not need Lilian to stay and make dinner?”
“No.”
“What about bathwater?”
“No.”
“Warming the bed—”
“Get back there already!” Lynn pinched the pink-haired dumpling by the scruff of her neck and threw her out of the room without mercy.
Bam! As the door slammed shut, the world finally fell quiet.
“Honestly...”
Lynn picked up the rabbit mouthwash cup that a certain pink-haired girl had placed in the bathroom without permission. He stared at it for a few seconds, but in the end, he didn't throw it back into her paper bag.
Forget it, it was just a cup.
Since that girl had already gotten the attached keycard anyway, even if he took it away today, she would only return tomorrow with even more bizarre items.
He only hoped this dormitory wouldn't be slowly chipped away from “Lynn's single apartment” into “Lilian's second dormitory.”
“...At least, not too quickly.”
He collapsed onto the soft bed and let out a deep sigh.
Currently, there were three essential goals he needed to accomplish.
First, he needed to make contact with the main characters in the storyline as quickly as possible to earn Emotion Points and improve his own abilities.
Second, he had to prepare contingency plans for the major events of the first school year in the original storyline, ensuring that he could resolve them swiftly when they occurred without affecting himself or those around him.
“The third point... and the most important one...”
Lynn furrowed his brows in worry.
Watch out for completely unexpected developments caused by the butterfly effect. For example...
“For some reason, those people from the Chaos Order have targeted me.”
“And after I heavily injured Alastor, one of their Seats, they're even less likely to let this go.”
Although the Reinhardt family had given him quite a few life-saving scrolls and items after the last incident, he had also come to study at the Imperial Royal Magic Academy, which was known as an “impenetrable line of defense.”
However, based on his memory of the game's plot where the academy's security was breached like a sieve, he really couldn't set his mind at ease.
Beep beep!
The wristwatch on his hand let out a rapid alert tone.
It was a magical artifact provided by the Imperial Academy, which recorded every student's personal information.
Name: Lynn von Reinhardt
Class: Class 1, Grade 1
Current Academy Points: 100
He browsed through it briefly and discovered functions such as class schedule display and course selection arrangements.
“...Though it's quite crude, it's roughly similar to the campus apps from my previous life's university.”
After the rapid alert, a notification popped up on the magical artifact.
‘All freshmen are requested to proceed to the lecture hall of the main magic department building at 19:00 tonight to attend the opening ceremony.’
‘The ceremony will cover a series of important matters, including department placement. Please make sure to attend.’
“Still five hours left...”
With this rare free time, he might as well take a stroll around the campus.
With this thought, Lynn pushed open his door. He walked all the way out of the dormitory down the spiral staircase.
The midday sun filtered through the gaps of the crimson maple leaves, casting alternating patches of light and shadow onto the road. In the distance, mage towers towered into the clouds, with staff members riding gryphons or using Levitation gliding across the sky from time to time.
Compared to the academy map in the game, which was limited by performance and could only serve as a background, the Imperial Royal Magic Academy before him was clearly far more vast.
The elemental towers of the Arcane Department, the vast training grounds of the Knight Department, the magnificent palace of the Regal Department—which looked as if it wanted to carve the word "wealthy" onto every single brick—and the Primordial Department, which was always shrouded in a thin layer of mist...
It was impossible to see the boundaries of the campus with the naked eye alone.
“No wonder a map was specially included in the freshman handbook.”
Lynn looked down at the simple route projected by his watch; the densely packed building names on it made his head spin.
Rather than a school campus, this felt more like a small city complete with its own commercial streets, arenas, and magical beast sanctuaries.
“Let's check out the main magic department building first.” He casually decided on a direction.
Since there was plenty of time before the opening ceremony anyway, even if he got lost, he would have enough time to find his way back.
Just as Lynn was about to walk past the flowerbed ahead, a rustling sound suddenly came from the bushes.
Immediately after, a snow-white shadow suddenly darted out from between the leaves.
“Ying—!”
The creature was extremely fast, drawing a white arc in midair as it lunged straight toward Lynn's chest.
Lynn's body reacted before his mind did.
A crimson firelight suddenly flared in his palm, while his other hand was already resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
But when he saw clearly what was lunging at him, the magic power he had just gathered quickly dispersed.
It was a fox.
It wasn't very large, completely covered in fluffy snow-white fur, with its pointed ears drooping weakly on both sides of its head. The tail behind it, which was almost as big as its body, also hung limply.
Lynn reached out with both hands and caught it securely in his arms.
The white fox seemed to have finally found its desired resting place; its four paws tightly gripped his clothes, and its fluffy head buried itself unceremoniously into his chest.
It even rubbed against him quite affectionately a couple of times.
“...”
Lynn looked down at the snow-white bundle in his arms.
The little fox also happened to look up, staring at him with its watery, light-blue eyes.
After a brief exchange of glances, it struggled to prop up its upper body and gave Lynn's chin a soft lick with its wet little tongue.
Wait, have we met before?
Licking me on our very first meeting, isn't that a bit unreserved?
A translucent system prompt helpfully floated into his field of vision.
【Target detected: Moonfluff Snow Fox】
【Gender: Female; Physiological State: Adult】
【Under the influence of the trait “Apex Cao Cao,” initial favorability has received an extra modifier】
【Current Favorability Level: Close】
“...I knew it.”
Just how many major disasters was this trash trait 【Apex Cao Cao】 going to cause him?
What if one day, as he walked past the academy's magical beast breeding area, he was completely blocked by a group of elderly female magical beasts?
And the next day, he would see his famous name plastered all over the Imperial Gazette—
《Shocking! Men fall silent upon seeing this, and women weep! The Duke of Rhine's son sneaks into the magical beast park late at night to point his sword at female magical beasts?》
“Snowball!”
A slightly anxious girl's voice came from not far away.
Accompanied by a flurry of light footsteps, a slender figure chased after it from the other side of the flowerbed.
The newcomer had long, water-blue hair, and her amber pupils beneath scarlet eyeshadow appeared clear and gentle.
A pair of rimless gold-rimmed glasses added a scholarly air to her.
...
Her hair, as blue as lake water, fell slightly as the delicate girl smiled apologetically.
As they brushed past each other, a mixed scent of herbal incense could be smelled.
The girl's tone was lively and soft. Whether it was the expression on her face or the slight tilt of her head when she spoke, she carried a sense of intimacy that instinctively made people lower their guard.
It should have been a dreamlike encounter, but Lynn's heart was completely unperturbed.
Tsk, why is this black-hearted woman putting on such an innocent act?
This delicate face was not the girl's true appearance, and even her polite, refined tone was merely a careful disguise.
But...
With this polite fake smile and this incredibly pretentious tone, under the sharp eyes of Detective Lynn, your true identity has already been fully exposed!
It's you, isn't it! Anna Via!
The peerless lightning mage, the jewel of the Bauhinia imperial family, the second-ranked talent on the Imperial Elite List... there were simply too many halos surrounding her.
Even in the talent-rich Imperial Royal Magic Academy, she was the well-deserved center of attention.
And in the wildly popular game Dawn from his previous life, Anna was also one of the super-popular heroines who ranked near the top of the player popularity charts.
Excessive attention meant that her every word and action was scrutinized. The imperial princess, unwilling to disappoint expectations... could only find a moment of leisure and relaxation when she disguised herself and went out under a fake identity.
But reasonably speaking, running into Her Highness disguised in this 'persona' should have been a plot point triggered by the protagonist Irene only in the second semester.
Back then, Irene had accidentally helped the disguised and injured "Anna," and subsequently realized through a series of events that she was actually the second princess of the empire.
Yet now, the freshman opening ceremony hadn't even started.
This plotline had actually advanced directly?
Is it the butterfly effect again?
But thankfully, she doesn't know that I've already recognized her.
Several thoughts flashed through Lynn's mind in quick succession, but his face betrayed no abnormality whatsoever.
But none of that matters. What's important is—
I was just worrying about how to make contact with a new key character to farm Emotion Points and copy new traits... and here you are, delivering yourself right to my door!
Your Highness, you truly are my lucky star!
Rate on N.U.
