For the Astrea household, our talent was considered both a blessing in a curse.
Receiving two geniuses should've been a blessing for House Astrea—enough to let it flourish and blossom to unimaginable heights. But, what if they never survived long enough to see that future?
The empire wasn't at war, desperate to protect every shred of talent. In peaceful times, brilliance only paints a target. Rival houses would inevitably band together, eager to crush the Astreas before they could rise again.
Foreseeing this, the shrewd patriarch, Julius Astrea, devised a plan with the family's ancestors.
Anastasia's true talent would be partially concealed—shown enough to suggest promise of the Astreas' rise to draw allies, but not enough to be perceived as a threat.
Aurelius' talent however, would be buried completely. False rumors of his incompetence and laziness were deliberately spread far and wide. Even terrible misdeeds were fabricated to lower public opinion of him.
For the final part of the plan, Aurelius was declared the next house head.
With such a incompetent brat leading them, who would waste effort plotting the Astreas' downfall?
This also drew attention away from Anastasia—instead of fear or threat, many people felt a sense of pity towards her.
What were Aurelius' thoughts on this you may ask?
Well—he didn't care.
He had what he wanted, and he was happy, so why care about what the world thought?
In fact, Aurelius even enjoyed being hated and purposefully acting as a villain. It was amusing to him, knowing he was far superior to those that called him trash.
While I am in tune with his villain grindset, his method of acting like a villain was terrible. He was all talk—continuous taunting, trashtalking, and ragebaiting. Then, when he got into a fight, he would lose pathetically.
To me, this was not amusing, this was just the show of a shitty, eye-rolling third-rate villain.
Being his successor, instead of losing pathetically to hide my powers, I will use as little power as possible with underhanded tactics to make the hero lose pathetically!
Hopefully, at least. Can I pull it off?
During my storm of thoughts, my mind drifted back to Hawks, realization dawning that I actually have the opportunity to humiliate him now.
…Perhaps I was being too irrational and playing with fire, but—when have you ever gotten the chance to meet and do something to a character you hate?
That's right, never!
Unlike other people in my place who would probably try their best to recruit the MC and use them because of their cheat abilities, I don't give a fuck!
I'll do what I want!
I'm not afraid of changing the future. That has always been inevitable with every single story of this genre that's ever existed. It's not like I have to anyways, I'm not destined to die or have a world ending calamity approaching like some other characters, sucks to be them.
Still, don't get me wrong. Despite all my hedonistic preaching, I'm not going to go full lunatic.
I'll indulge myself—but only so long as the repercussions aren't too severe. A little risk I can handle though, I can't be too much of a pussy.
With my knowledge of the future from the novel, I plan to orchestrate some schemes. Perhaps I can get my hands on some hidden ancient relic, form connections with people that will become important, obtain rare ingredients to create the treatment for an upcoming plag— OH WAIT.
Sadly, unlike some other transmigration protagonists, I don't happen to remember the EXACT ingredients and EXACT steps to concoct a cure from an arc hundreds of chapters ago.
Okay, back to what I was going to say, the schemes I plan to orchestrate will be simple.
I've read comments from people who methodically analyze transmigration novels from their basement, talking about how they'd be using their knowledge and everything at their disposal to scheme, rise to the top, and whatnot.
Bullshit! Ahahaha—!
I doubt they could even survive a day in the wild, yet they're spouting about how they'd dominate a foreign world of magic? Using everything at their disposal?
Absolute fools deluding themselves into believing they're some kind of masterminds and the grand schemes they thought up in the shower will actually work.
Crashing and failing miserably is the only outcome I can foresee for people like them, which is why my schemes will be unconvoluted and to the point, not some galaxy-brain bullshit.
Back to Hawks, my chance to meet him will happen in about three weeks, when I can enter the Intis Institute—the best academy across the Ravenheart empire. My sister is already a student there as the top ranked first year.
Currently, I believe Hawks is working as an adventurer, making a bit of money from slaying monsters and gathering herbs to pay for tuition and school fees. Although, that effort will be useless in the end.
He will take seventh place in the entrance test and have his tuition waived, along with receiving a scholarship of ten times the money he earned from working as an adventurer every month.
Ahh! Something that I can give credit to the author for! Nobles don't mindlessly hate commoners for being commonly and peasanty. They know rare gems exist and will try their best to recruit and nurture them, nurturing them into a knight captain or something similar.
'I will give you some props for not using that shit trope author, will you give me some cheats?' I pleaded in my mind.
Sadly, I received nothing.
'Alright, forget Hawks for now. I should focus on myself. What was happening around this time again? My recent memories are kind of foggy…' I thought, sitting up on my bed, preparing to get out.
Only then did I notice a maid standing quietly beside my bed, hands folded, waiting.
I should've flinched—any normal person would when someone's suddenly right next to them. But I didn't.
My body reacted with a calmness that wasn't mine as I turned to the stunning maid.
"Young Master! You're finally awake! I saw you collapsed in the bathroom earlier, what happened? Should I inform the house head?" She asked, voice steady but concerned.
Before I could even think about what to say, my mouth answered on its own.
"No. I'm fine. What time is it?" Even my tone was controlled—measured, almost habitually refined.
I froze internally. That wasn't how I talked. Not even close.
The posture I had unconsciously straightened into. The steadiness in my voice. The lack of surprise at a servant waiting by my bedside and unconsciously answering them.
That wasn't me.
I've picked up Aurelius' habits… I realized. His instincts, his tendencies, his subtle gestures… they were all blending with mine.
"It's nearly noon, young master," the maid continued, breaking me out of my thoughts for a moment. "Master Julius requests your presence in his office. He said it was important."
"I see. I'll clean up and get dressed first. Prepare an early lunch for me." I replied curtly.
The maid bowed as a show of understanding before leaving my room while my thoughts swirled, another realization striking me.
No—not just my body, my mind too…
I thought back to my declarations from before. I was so decisive—declaring the hedonistic way of living my life, my future plan of acting like a proper villain—this wasn't me…
Ever since Aurelius' memories merged with me, it didn't just change my body, my mind too… And I hadn't even realized until now…
Actually… This might be for the best.
I don't want to be discovered that I'm not Aurelius, and I wouldn't want to pretend to be him for the rest of my life.
Not to mention, my earthling mind is definitely not fit for this world of cultivation where monsters and demons clad in human skin roam.
*Sigh* Even now, Aurelius is affecting me. I doubt I would be able to accept my circumstances this quickly otherwise.
Well, there was another reason I accepted being Aurelius.
Looking into the mirror, I was so goddamn hot!
I had tousled, slightly wavy hair in a vibrant shade of violet, with layered strands that fell loosely around my face, and swept across my forehead in a deliberately effortless style.
Sweeping to the right side, they slightly obscured my right amethyst eye which highlighted my unobscured, golden left eye that shown vibrantly.
'Damn! This is it. I have ambidextrous eyes! Or chromosomebic, whatever you call them! They're so beautiful… far better than the contacts I wore in my previous life to mimic this.'
They were so absurdly mesmerizing that I lost myself for a good minute.
My alabaster skin was completely flawless, without blemishes and smoother than marble.
Looking down, I admired my perfect muscles that would've given me and all the gym influencers on earth intense body dysmorphia.
Looking further down I saw…
'Holy WHAT? …What the actual hell is this…'
Okay, I don't regret becoming Aurelius at all.
Putting the ruler away, I finally stopped admiring my new self. It was then, something hit me (not literally).
In the novel, Aurelius was engaged to Evelyn Emberhart since before the beginning of the academy arc. In my memories, I have nothing related to the engagement party yet…
With the maid just saying my father had something important to discuss, I guess I'm going to get engaged right now, huh…