Abir was wandering,
"Why the hell did Ryan Astraus provoke the protagonist in the first place?"
"He had everything. Good looks, money, a mansion, and a disturbingly devoted maid."
"If I remember correctly, his eventual exile came after he attempted to drug the second princess at the coming of age ceremony."
"Well screw that. Now that I knew in advance I could just not do that." Revolutionary idea, really.
Smirking to himself, he resolved to stay rich, keep his head attached to his body, and avoid exile at all costs.
But then a thought struck him, and his grin shattered.
"When was the ceremony again?"
As his gaze flicked to the outfit Lénne had just delivered, realization dawned, his face froze in horror.
"Tomorrow?"
There was a moment of absolute silence before the castle walls trembled with a single thunderous cry.
Sprawled on his bed, he frantically searched for any clues about his new world.
" System, grandfather, goddess, some wise old monk, anyone? "
"Nothing ?"
Silence…
"What the hell? Where are my cheats? Don't I get some OP skill or something?"
Despair settled in.
"The ceremony was tomorrow. It was too late to rewrite history. Would apologizing be enough?"
"Probably not."
And then a new nightmare took root.
"What if they forced me to grovel?"
"What if I had to do something humiliating like licking the MC's feet's in public?"
He shuddered, but then resolved.
"A real man wasn't afraid of a little humiliation."
"If it came to that, I would do it with dignity…as long as she was wearing black stockings."
His mind settled.
He made his decision.
"Tomorrow at the ceremony, I would fall to I knees before the heroine at the speed of light and beg for forgiveness."
But before he could fully embrace his tragic fate, something smacked him right in the head.
"Ow! What the hell!"
Rubbing his forehead, he scowled at the object that had so rudely assaulted him.
At first glance, it looked like a phone, but upon closer inspection, it was something far more mystical.
"A cool book!" Which was radiating magical energy.
His face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.
"Yes, my cheat. My God hasn't forsaken me after all, have they?." Excited, he clutched the book to his chest.
"Sure, I'm a cannon fodder, but now I have a fighting chance."
Determined to seize control of his fate, he flipped it open, ready for whatever power lay within.
But then he froze.
The pages were blank.
…Dead silence…
Then came a long, painful blink.
"what?"(confused)
He frantically flipped through every page, hoping for hidden text, an activation phrase,
"Anything? Nothing."(agitated)
"Okay," he muttered. "Maybe it needs a ritual or something. It was a western Europeansetting after all."
"And what was the most cliché activation method?"
"Blood!!"
Without thinking too long, he ran his finger across his lips, leaving a small scratch.
He let a few drops fell onto the pages watching intensely waiting for the magic to reveal itself.
But then dark energy enveloped him and soon everything became dark.