A piece of news that was enough to ignite the entire Royal Magic Academy exploded like a spark falling into boiling oil in just one morning, causing a massive upheaval.
Princess Shireen, the most beloved youngest daughter of His Majesty the Emperor and the jewel of the Empire, has, in the grand courtyard of the academy, launched a sacred "Oath Duel" against her fiancé—Chloe Orost Dodor, son of the Grand Duke of the North! The stakes are the marriage contract that maintains the peace between the Empire and the North!
The news spread like wildfire, reaching every corner of the college at incredible speed, and naturally also reached the school's infirmary.
Sunlight streamed through the clean glass windows, casting dappled shadows on the gleaming floor.
Soros, the boy who recently suffered a "mishap" during a practical lesson, is lying quietly in his hospital bed. He has slightly messy brown hair, and although his face is pale from blood loss, his eyes are still bright.
Princess Shireen sat on a chair by the bed, her usual pride and fierceness gone, and she appeared unusually calm and gentle.
She was carefully peeling an apple for the boy on the sickbed with her slender, fair hands.
Her attitude towards Soros was completely different from how she treated Chloe.
In her heart, Soros was special.
He was one of the few people in the academy who neither flattered her because of her noble princess status nor distanced himself from or feared her because of the majesty of the royal family.
All he saw was "Shirin" herself.
It was this rare purity that made her cherish this friendship so much, and it was precisely because of this that when she learned that Soros's leg had been broken by Chloe in a ruthless manner during a practical lesson, her long-suppressed anger finally broke through the critical point.
Chloe's atrocities not only hurt her cherished friends, but also trampled on her dignity and bottom line.
"Shireen…" Soros couldn't help but break the quiet atmosphere in the infirmary first: "Everyone is saying that you challenged Chloe to a duel to break off your engagement?"
The princess paused almost imperceptibly as she peeled the apple, her long eyelashes drooping to conceal the complex emotions that flashed across her eyes.
She gave a soft "hmm," which was taken as an admission.
Soros's face immediately showed deep worry: "But... is this really alright? I heard that your engagement to Chloe is related to the stability of the North. Will His Majesty the Emperor... allow it?"
Shirin pursed her pink lips, handed him the peeled apple, and then said calmly, "The rules of the academy's dueling arena are ironclad laws established by our ancestors together with the Senate when the nation was founded, symbolizing that fairness and oaths cannot be taken lightly."
"Since Chloe has personally agreed to the duel, even Father cannot disobey her."
Soros paused, lowered his eyes, took the apple but didn't eat it, his face filled with guilt. "If I weren't so useless, you wouldn't have risked offending His Majesty for my sake..."
"No, Soros, don't say that." Shirin shook her head, looking at him with a determined gaze: "Even without you, I would have found a way to break off this engagement if given the chance."
"I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with a coward who only knows how to bully the weak and fear the strong by relying on his family background. It makes me feel disgusted. In this matter, I should thank you. It was your injury that made me make my final decision."
She paused, her voice softening: "Besides, you're a friend I acknowledge. You've been unfairly bullied. If I don't stand up for you, who will?"
Soros stared blankly at the determined-looking girl before him, his chest filled with an indescribable emotion.
Unlike the surging public opinion outside, Chloe herself, as the other center of this storm, appeared unusually calm, or even... detached.
He was currently holed up deep within the magnificent, palace-like library of the Royal Magic Academy, in a quiet corner by the window.
The hustle and bustle outside the window seemed to be a world away from him.
The duel in three days? He didn't take it to heart at all.
Losing the game, breaking off the engagement, and saying goodbye to the main characters—this process was already set the moment he transmigrated and figured out the current situation.
The princess is the protagonist, and the marriage contract is not a blessing for him, the minor villain, but a time bomb that could explode at any moment and endanger his life.
What he's more concerned about now is whether this world is reliable or not, or if it's some kind of heavily modified version, which would greatly diminish his "prophet" advantage.
He opened a thick, heavy book, his fingertips tracing the pages still fragrant with ink.
It was a strange feeling. The words used in the book were both strange and familiar to him, just like the language here. He had never seen them before, but now he could recognize them skillfully.
He turned the pages one by one, and information about the world was rapidly etched into his mind, corresponding one by one with his understanding.
There are only two types of extraordinary systems: warriors and mages.
The levels are universal, ranging from low to high: low, medium, high, king, saint, emperor, and god.
The world map is also correct, showing five major continents divided by the Endless Sea, with the main human settlements located in the five allied nations of the Southern Continent.
The Saint Romania Empire, where I am currently located, is one of them.
As for the others, the distribution of dragons, elves, dwarves, orcs... is also quite familiar.
"It seems the basic settings haven't gone wrong." Chloe nodded to herself, feeling slightly relieved.
Aside from his troublesome identity, the circumstances were relatively friendly at the start. His gaze continued to sweep across the pages until the "Religion" chapter, where the names of "Central Vatican" and the contemporary saint "Ferghari" caught his eye.
"Saintess? Fogelli?" Chloe paused, raising an eyebrow. "That name…"
He quickly flipped to the section detailing the history of the Papacy.
The book describes how, about three hundred years ago, the Papacy encountered an unknown "disaster," and its high-ranking officials were almost completely wiped out.
When the then-Saintess was in a time of crisis, she was given a new mission and transformed the position of saint, which was originally more symbolic than powerful, into the de facto head of the Papacy.
This description doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything.
However, the more Chloe looked, the wider her eyes widened.
This isn't right! Isn't this something that happened in another text-based simulation game I was playing?
Moreover, if his memory hasn't become confused, then the disaster that wasn't mentioned in the book must have been caused by him... Back then, he really risked his life to pack up those old relics of the Vatican's high-ranking officials and send them to heaven, paving the way for Ferguson.
—Wait a minute, that text-based simulation game, it seems to have three chapters, right? The chapter about Scarlett is the last one, and if Scarlett becomes real, then what about the other two chapters…?
Chloe immediately got up and walked quickly to the bookshelf, her eyes scanning the thick books rapidly.
Then he pulled out a large, black-covered book called "Dark Age: The Demon Emperor's Chronicle".
Sure enough, after a few pages, he saw that ominous name—Demon Emperor Rubysis.
He quickly put down the book and pulled out another one, "The Chronicles of the Dragon Clan".
Turning to the title page, the names of the four great dragon kings of the dragon race are prominently listed in the table of contents.
Besides the day dragon king Clayton and the night dragon king Oberton, he also saw those two familiar names.
Ophelia, the Fiery Dragon King.
Frost Dragon King, Elena.
*Snap*—Chloe closed the heavy book and stood there, stunned.
No, is that right?
He felt it was a bit absurd; it turned out that he hadn't transmigrated into a single game world, but rather into a hodgepodge of two games?
One has become history, and the other has become the future?
"..."