The healer arrived with golden hair tied loosely behind her head and a calm, observant gaze. Her name was Lilly. She held her hands above Caius's chest, and pale light shimmered between her fingers as she examined the strange energy surrounding him.
"Your body seems unharmed," she said. "But your energy is unsettled. Have you been practicing something dangerous?"
"I don't remember." It was the only answer Ryo could give without exposing himself.
Lilly's eyes narrowed slightly. "Memory loss can be a symptom of strain. Rest. If the dizziness returns, send for me."
After she left, Ryo asked Elise to bring food and keep everyone away for a few hours. He needed time to think, though thinking had become a maze with no exit.
He wrote everything he could remember about Heaven's Wrath in a leather-bound notebook. Leon, the regressor. The academy that would open in three months. The secret organization called the Echo Chamber. The demons who would infiltrate noble society. The early villains who served as stepping stones on Leon's path to power.
And Caius Veyne, who was destined to be one of them.
Ryo had to stop treating this like an adventure. He had not been granted a second life with a convenient interface and a helpful guide. He had been dropped into a world that already had plans for his death.
He considered running away. He could refuse the academy, hide in the countryside, and live quietly under another name. Yet a noble heir could not vanish without consequences. His father would hunt him down. His absence would draw attention. Worse, the novel's story might still reach him even if he avoided Leon.
He needed a way to become stronger without advertising that he knew the future.
A memory from the novel surfaced: a member of the Echo Chamber had discovered an ancient artifact in a cave behind a waterfall near the Forbidden Forest. The relic granted the successful challenger a skill, but the trial was never explained in detail. The member who obtained it had been deranged, cruel, and ultimately defeated. The important part was the timing. He found it roughly a month before the academy opened.
Caius had three months before the academy, but he could not wait until the last moment. He would go first.
A knock interrupted him. Elise entered with breakfast and a cautious expression.
"Young Master, the kitchen has prepared your usual meal."
"Thank you." Ryo glanced at her. "Elise, what was I like before I collapsed?"
Her face became guarded. "You were… more demanding than usual."
"That sounds diplomatic."
"I have served this house long enough to know that honesty is most useful when it is not cruel."
Ryo almost smiled. "Then give me the honest version."
Elise studied him. "You were proud, my lord. You rarely listened when anyone disagreed with you. The servants learned to avoid drawing your attention unless necessary."
The answer stung more than he expected. This body had a reputation that could sabotage him before he even understood the rules of his new life.
"I see," he said quietly. "I'll try not to make your work harder."
Elise looked surprised but only bowed. "That would be welcome."
Later, Ryo wandered through the mansion to clear his head. Near a side corridor, he found Lilia, the youngest maid, trying to hide a bowl of half-melted ice cream behind her apron. She froze when she saw him.
"Please forgive me, Young Master! I wasn't slacking. I only wanted one bite."
Ryo blinked. "You're begging for mercy over ice cream?"
"Senior maids say you punish people for wasting time."
"Today, I will be merciful to the kingdom of ice cream."
She looked uncertain. "The… kingdom?"
"An ancient realm. Its laws are strict, and its citizens are delicious."
For a second, Lilia stared at him. Then a laugh escaped her. The sound was so honest that Ryo felt something inside him loosen.
He promised not to report her and offered to order a premium dessert for her later. She brightened at once. When he asked about the blue pendant around her neck, her smile faltered for the briefest moment.
"It was a gift from my mother," she said.
He sensed the hurt beneath the cheerful answer and let the subject drop.
That evening, Ryo ate ice cream with Lilia in the small sitting room. They joked about his supposed new title as the "Ice Cream Angel," and for a few minutes he forgot the system, the trial, and the death waiting in his future.
The relief did not last. Three days after his arrival, the family returned from their journey earlier than expected.
The Duke was home.
Ryo forced himself to learn the room before panic could swallow the details. The desk had three shallow drawers, the wardrobe held several dark coats, and a narrow door led to a washroom with a copper basin. A signet ring rested in a dish beside a comb. When he slipped the ring on, an unfamiliar weight settled over his hand, as if the object carried its own history. He removed it at once. In the mirror, Caius's expression looked composed even while Ryo's thoughts were unraveling. That difference frightened him more than the unfamiliar face. The body knew how to stand like a noble; the person inside it had no idea what to do next.
He tried speaking to the room as though the person who had written the letter might still be listening. "If you can hear me, give me something useful. A name. A location. A way to communicate." His voice sounded strange in the chamber, richer and more resonant than it had ever been. No answer came. He searched the drawers and found a schedule of lessons, a list of household expenses, and an invitation to a banquet he had supposedly attended before his collapse. These were not props arranged for him; each document contained names and details he did not recognize. The world had a life of its own, and he had arrived in the middle of it without permission.
And Ryo's first attempt to escape the plot was about to begin.