After finishing our sweets we headed back to the mansion, it was in the middle of the city and small-sized, for a mansion.
I was looking forward to seeing it fully since I accidently teleported us out last time.
Walking up to it and opening the giant wooden doors I was met with an exquisite staircase and lounge.
I decided to take a seat in one of the couches. It was soft and golden with accents of black, probably a product of gilded animal furs.
Ahh, life in luxury. Sadly I get to meet Valentine soon, that anticipation kind of ruins it.
I'm going to go to the Académie soon, let's recount what we know.
Vanites Valentin, MC, holds a ridiculously powerful authority in the domain of logic that can counter pretty much every authority in existence to some extent, including my own.
He, like me, is an transmigrator. He came from earth. An earth that by descriptions given, seems unrelated to mine.
This might make him feel a sort of kinship with me but it's doubtful. He's not really that kind of person.
Dominique Lacroix, one of the members of the Protagonist's club, holds an unclear authority about finding things.
She has a weird complex about being Ascended which causes her to look down on mortals to a degree unbefitting even the most arrogant of young masters.
Mathis Rosaire, someone who originally led in the in-académie force against Valentin but joined him in the end. Holds an unspecified authority regarding numbers and logical grounding.
This authority countered Valentin's authority over logic pretty well.
I sighed,
This was the problem with using the book as a guide, it was third person reporter and didn't really do any kind of deep diving into anyone's powers.
It kept things interesting and let you piece together what the power actually did.
Although I know one thing for certain, Valentin's flaw is that he cannot damage anyone using physical force. He can physically push them down but they can't take any physical harm from it.
With how broken Valentin is, such a restriction can barely restrain him, he could just throw you off the roof and say 'gravity hurt you, not me' and cause them to take massive damage.
As for the other ascenders and their flaws, I have no idea on them.
It was at that moment that Jean, in her black and gold maid outfit, placed a bunch of sweets she had baked for me on the table.
I took a bite and looked into her eyes, I don't even think she even realizes that these are burnt. I smiled, it was kind of funny. Although it takes like charcoal seeing that praise-demanding look on her face still made me happy.
But it also makes me wonder, who is Felicius?
He's not talked about in the original story, me transmigrating into him caused to become ascended, probably earning this mansion from the emperor as per allocated. Jean's comment about the Fontaine family suggests that they were not well known. The fact that they aren't with me at this time suggests that they are dead.
In the story, the original Vanites Valentine went through his ascension ritual and in doing so encountered the true MC who killed him and replaced him. It is something that was very vague and had its inner machinations shrouded in mystery, something that was unfitting to how the author normally wrote the story.
I looked up at the crystal chandelier of gold and sighed, closing my eyes and before I knew it the destined time had arrived.
"Are you ready, lord Felicius?"
"Non, but I'm not missing anything." I said to her
"Alright, be careful master." she consoled
"I will." I said, feeling my authority activate.
I finished putting on my fancy 20th century attire by slipping on my black and gold overcoat and then grabbed my cane, it was pitch black with a traditionally styled golden handle.
"Merci, take care, Jean." I said to her before walking out the door.
I looked up at the sky and focused my eyesight on the clouds, within it I could a reflection, my reflection.
The scene changed.
I found myself sitting in an ornate chair decorated with beautiful pearls, I was looking into a oval-shaped standing mirror with its edges composed of decorative silver.
Julien Watson. The emperor of the Auclaire empire. The man in the mirror. The mandala of maws. He has many names but for now he is the emperor I swear complete fidelity to.
My eyes then shifted the wooden table the mirror laid upon, on it there was a piece of parchment. In french obviously. I had originally been worried I wouldn't have been able to read it. I already decided that my ability to speak french was because I was now Felicius but I already established that Felicius came from a somewhat poor family and if couldn't read that would be troublesome.
But it seemed that I could read fine. I have to raise the status of Felicius' family I envisioned.
'Dear Felicius Fontaine,
I am so excited to have you in Watson Académie for your hopeful transition from Ascended to Ascetic. There is a party out in the ballroom that you can attend. Class will start tomorrow.
Sincerely, your professor, Mademoiselle Anastasie'
Looking at the paper I flipped it around and placed it back on the desk. Getting up from my seat I swiftly grabbed my cane and headed out of the gilded room I was in, opening the gold-inlaid door to an extravagant ballroom.
I knew the stories of the people here, Vanites, Dominique, Mathis, Alexis, and Nathanael.
So I decided to get food instead.
Shortly after sitting down and enjoying some brie and crackers someone walked up to me, by the description I read about him, it was Mathis Rosaire. He was a short boy with pale skin and long to medium length black hair and matching void-like eyes, he wore a black suit inlaid with silver with a similar overcoat. Unlike most of the people here, he didn't wear any gloves and his hair while being styled properly was also at the same time disheveled. This granted him a look that has half-presentable and half lazy.
He then spoke to me in a tone that was neither high-pitched nor deep, " Monsieur, it's nice to meet your acquaintance. My name is Mathis Rosaire, may I ask yours?"
I got up and shook his hand, "I'm Felicius, Felicius Fontaine."
He then smiled and motioned his hand to his left, securing the attention of the girl sitting on a luxurious pearl-enamored chair,
"Over there is-"
"Dominique Lacroix." She said, walking over to us. Her skin was also pale. She had long black hair that went past the shoulders and glowing amethyst eyes. She wore a black attire without accents that was a subtle mix between a suit and a dress that was slightly leaning more to a suit and carried a pitch-black rapier on her waist. She unlike Mathis, had properly styled hair that wasn't disheveled and wore a pair of black gloves that were similar to mine.
"It's nice to meet you, Monsieur Fontaine." Dominque said in a deep but distinctly feminine voice.
I nodded then replied, "As to you, Mademoiselle Lacroix."
Mathis then started to laugh in a very short manner, I'm sorry sir Fontaine, but I am afraid that the other three might not be very proactive in trying to meet you."
"Why is that?" I asked, already kind of knowing why.
"One's well, over there." Mathis said, pointing out a girl inhaling food on the other side of the exquisite ballroom.
She had thick blonde hair the same length as Dominique but unlike Dominique and even Mathis it was completely disheveled. Her skin was as pale as the rest of us and she wore a loose tan trench coat over her scarlet attire which couldn't be properly seen due to the bearing of the coat. Her eyes were described as golden yellow and while I couldn't properly see them from this distance I could tell that they were of a similar color to mine.
"That makes sense why she won't be talking but what about the other two?" I asked Mathis.
He was about to speak when a voice echoed from behind him carrying a sort of mocking element, "It seems that, Nathanael will not be attending this ball today. Hello there, Fontaine."
My eyes widened as I captured him in my full vision. Pale white skin. Medium length dirty white hair and dull red eyes. He wore an overcoat of pure white which draped down to his matching shoes with an undershirt of scarlet red. He carried a ivory cane with red crack like embroidery in his white gloved hands and on his face laid a pair of scarlet ivory half glasses which were ever so slightly tinted red. It was the MC of 'A Difference Foretold' Vanites Valentine.