The rain had stopped by the time the carriage returned to the Valdric estate.
Gray clouds lingered above, heavy and tired — much like reinhart mind.
He still remembered the scene he witnessed at the academy
He still felt the echo of that voice, faint as a whisper in his veins, like a second heartbeat buried beneath his own. No matter how hard he tried to forget it, the memory of that crimson-haired woman refused to fade.
He could still see her eyes — calm, merciless, and far too real.
But the moment he stepped into the his room , reality reclaimed him.
A maid was waiting at the door of his room
She was young, perhaps his age or slightly older. Her purple hair, tied neatly with a ribbon, shimmered faintly under the hall's chandelier. Her violet eyes were soft, her smile gentle — the kind that could disarm even the coldest noble. Her uniform was immaculate, the silver crest of House Valdric pinned neatly to her collar.
When she curtsied, her movements were flawless.
"Good afternoon, Young Master Reinhart. I've been assigned to assist you from today onward."
Reinhart blinked, caught off guard. "Assigned… by whom?"
"His Grace, the Duke," she said softly. "He instructed me to accompany you to the Imperial Academy when the term begins — and to attend to your daily needs until then."
He hesitated. "And your name?"
"Catherine , my lord. " She smiled again, faint and polite. "I hope I can serve you well."
Her tone was light, but there was something about it — a subtle nervousness, maybe fear.
It was the kind of tone people used when talking to someone with a dangerous reputation.
What kind of person does she thinks I am or better what kind of reputation did the original owner had ?
He gestured for her to follow as he began walking toward the sitting room. "Catherine " he said after a moment, "I need to ask you something… about me."
The girl tilted her head slightly. "My lord?"
He exhaled. "i be pretty blunt but do you serve me or my father ?"
Catherine hesitated, clearly unsure if she should answer. Her hands fidgeted with the edge of her apron.
"…" She searched for words carefully, "duke pay me my salaries and give me food and shelter ." She looked down, voice softening. "but i follow you with all I had ."
is she just naive to say something like that upon first meeting or is she just being clever , that's all I had to find before I could trust her , thought reinhart
Reinhart leaned back against a couch in his room , sighing. "alright , but first can you take me to family library"
Her eyes flickered up for a moment. "…yes , my lord just in a moment ."
He smiled faintly. "servants just make life easier for people like me "
Silence stretched for a moment, broken only by the ticking of an old clock. Outside, the rain began again — a quiet drizzle against the windows.
Then he stood. "alright lead the way ."
She blinked. "yes "
"I want to visit The library."
She then hurriedly adjusted herself and started leading the way for reinhart
Reinhart didn't said anything but observed her behaviour and expression throughout the way and then they finally reached their destination which was near reinhart block and it used to be available to high nobles and scholars in the past
The Valdric library was a shadow of its former glory.
Once, scholars from across the continent had studied within its halls; now, it was little more than a mausoleum for forgotten history.
Dust clung to the velvet curtains. Old bookshelves leaned like weary soldiers. Faded banners of black and gold hung still between cracked marble pillars.
Reinhart trailed his fingers along the spines of old volumes. Titles whispered back — Chronicles of the Western Wars, records on industrial revolution, Records of the Mana Awakening.
All these books were atleast dated back to 3 year unlike what i thought would be decades because of it's state
Each told a piece of a history he barely understood.
The maid followed quietly behind him, her hands clasped before her. The way she looked around — reverent, almost sad — made him pause.
"You've been here before?" he asked.
She nodded softly. "No but my mother used to work here in this library and she used to told me about this library.... , she was interrupted by reinhart
" Alright , be quite "
Her lips parted slightly, so she just looked down and apologized
Reinhart didn't want to hear things that were not relevant and he did not like indirect things at such crucial moment
Reinhart 's gaze drifted back to the shelves.
He pulled a book — The known history of the world
He opened the book and it was last updated 3 years ago which means it will be enough to understand about this world
he opened it
( " 500 to 0 ( before imperial years ) = the world was still trapped in backward ages , many diseases and chaos , no major power was at that time , just fragmented kingdoms "
" Second ages : 0 to 600 ( IY ) = with advancement in methods of production and more knowledge and invention of gunpowder happened with which major power began to use cannons in warfare , the world began to unify slowly , across the three continents namely shenxia , eryndor and zetar
Major powers began to emerge like kingdom of valdric , melfast kingdom and sonar kingdom in eryndor
Zhou dynasty and many more fragmented kingdom to the south
While zetar continent remained divide between tribes
602 ( IY ) = industrial revolution began and so did invention of guns in eryndor and with that came demand of resources which made eryndor major powers take neighbour territory which they deemed weak under them and continent was only left with four powers by end which were Empire of valdric, kingdom of Meldor , Sonar Empire and Duvane Empire
610 ( IY ) = two alliance were formed one between Meldor and Valdric controlling the west of eryndor, the other between Sonar and Duvane controlling the east of eryndor and together these two alliance were in cold war
Eryndor powers tried to colonise other continents for resources but were both hesitant because of their enemy alliance as it might just stretch their army thin and might give opposition chance to attack
1000 ( IY ) = the age of mana began and three domains came on each continent
( SECTOR 1 = people of eryndor named it that , it was composed of mermaid, elves and beast folks which considered human as inferior)
( Murim domain = it arrived in shexia and zhou dynasty immediately made a non aggression pact with them , it was common solution as murim feared gunpowder and the strength of army of zhou which was composed of 700,000 soldier with rifles and zhou dynasty feared murim's martial artist )
( Abyss domain = a domain full of spirits , tribes of zatar formed contracts with them and This immediately alarmed world powers but could not care less because of their own continent chaos )
1011 ( IY ) = meldor was suffering from resource crisis because of which it made a desperate choice of invading this new Sector 1 , but were met by mermaid who constantly harrased their steam ships by use of their strange charm and powers to weild water , and ships which successfully landed in sector 1 were faced with magical elves who hunted meldom soldiers with their magical arrows
Overall it was a diaster but still meldom gained too much benefit in short time which was worth it and it also promoted sonar empire to do the same
Both empire got into a race to conquer these new lands , they both initially managed to capture coastal areas but not forest and soon a new problem emerged
1013 ( IY ) = a conflict happened between these colonies which is still unknown but it became the catalyst of war , so a war began and it forced both alliance to war because of their alliances
1014 _ 20 ( Valdric wars ) = Emperor of valdric died and his son maximus ascended , he launched aggressive campaigns against Sonar and formed alliance across continent with murim unethical powers like HEAVENLY Demonic cult , a natorious cult in murim
Meldom and valdric forced sonar to its end but soon meldom faced internal rebellion because of the huge losses of soldiers they suffered which prompted rebellion and a republic was established
Meldom collapsed soon after sonar and valdric forcefully siezed these territory leaving only valdric and Durvane on the continent
Durvane invited foreign powers in play because they too had gone wary of valdric aggression and together they formed an alliance to counter valdric and it's ally
All powers attacked valdric and together with Emperor Maximum von valdric surrender, the world finally breathed a sigh of relief , territory of valdric was divided into two occupation zone which were Independent Trade Republic of eryndor and second occupation zone got integrated in Durvane Empire
1025 ( IY ) = Empress of Durvane gave many former nobles of valdric , maldom and sonar ( which got integrated in Durvane too ) titles and land which was highly appreciated but controversial too as one of them was Valdric House
1027 ( IY ) = mana researched reached a breakpoint, allowing people outside domians to weild mana effectively with awakening orbs at the age of 16 and first academy was established at the grounds of former Valdric military academy
1062 ( IY ) = today world has ushered In peace thanks to the Empress of Durvane, her majesty and i hope the world stay as peaceful as today always
The end )
GOD DAMN IT , like hell the later part is literal brainwashing like hell I did aggressive campaigns, this is all that Durvane brainwashing , I bet the writer of this book is a dog of Durvane
He closed the book slowly.
The words hurt more than they should have.
He looked up at Catherine. "Tell me… what do people think of the Valdrics now?"
Her expression dimmed. "…Most call it the 'The Tyrant regime ',' my lord.
Reinhart's fingers tightened around the book.
It's brainwashing and people didn't even realise this
He placed the book back on the shelf and turned toward the window.
Beyond the glass, the city lights of Valdric shimmered faintly in the rain, beautiful and distant — a jewel dulled by time.
Catherine, looked at him — silently
"Come on," he said. "We've got work to do. Tomorrow, we start my training."
She bowed her head slightly. "Yes, my lord."
The rain fell harder as they left the library, drumming softly against the old stone paths.
"Maybe this tranmigration is not that bad ...." Reinhart thought