The next day, I woke up very early and began to prepare for my trip to the Empire.


    While doing so, I began to think about the agreeable time that I spent with my family the day before.


    ''For some reason, Mom''s character changed a bit. Is it because of Dad''s situation,'' I pondered, but it was not like she was acting.


    From the data that Cristal''s connected, it seemed like my mother left the before my father because he wanted to continue searching for me. My mother seemed to have felt a little bit guilty about this fact.


    Instead of feeling sad about this, I smiled because everything I would achieve in this world would be meaningful as long as there were people who cared about it like that. Thus, I couldn''t let them down.


    "I have a viin woman to deal with, don''t I?" I mumbled without any particr reason. After all, no sane people would be as strong as a God just to deal with a single woman, and the issues rted to my family appeared to be more important.


    Yet, if the world would be destroyed, there would be no family to worry about and the reason for such a thing was a woman. Again and again, I thought about how ridiculous this idea was. However, after the recent events and the new facts that I learned, it was possible, but the only question was, how?


    This was the reason why I was heading to the Empire, the Holy Academy, and everything else was just opportunities.


    "I will uncover the mystery behind this and create a world where my family can leave in peace, even if it''s just temporary. Who cares about what happens next as long as they could die happily? Also, I could never put my mind to finding my dream woman if this continues… Lately, I tend to forget about this," or so I thought out loud.


    "Well, it feels like the relevance of this goal has diminished ifpared to what I could achieve now. Still, I would have loved it if someone loved me while I was still my old self and then apanied me while I was evolving to this point. After all, how do I know that someone loves me if they don''t ept me when I was at my worst? Makes me wonder about what Liu thought of me…"


    These thoughts crossed my mind but I knew that it was not the time to think about love and romance. This topic was something that needed to be dealt with carefully because it was important to me to have someone to die for.


    Indeed, I would be fine even if I was alone but if this situation continued for a while, I knew that I would be a different being altogether and not stay a human anymore.


    Well, I was exaggerating while thinking about these things, but thesest few days I felt that something was changing in me.


    Some people would consider this as a weakness and I knew what they wanted to imply, but they were just probably a bunch of people who were not loved by their families.


    Moreover, the love that was shared between two people was special, at least that was what I concluded after observing my parents, and I wanted something like that.


    Was that selfish? Was it cringeworthy? I didn''t care as long as I wouldn''t fill a void in my chest when I woke in the morning.


    Consequently, this train of thought led me to think that what I was about to do at the Empire was actually for my good and my happiness.


    Thinking about it made me feel a little bitplicated because it felt like everything that happened was actually for my good even though it was certainly not the case.


    It seemed like this part of my personality wasn''t affected by the changes that had happened to me. I was still worried about my love life, and I felt like it kept me as human despite everything that went through my mind most of the time.


    "Well, putting the love topic away, what should I do about you?" I wondered out loud, looking at the ck cape in front of me.


    All of this time, it stayed inside of this room, and I wasn''t wearing it since I met up with Joshua and Caroline.


    I was already wearing my uniform that those who would take the Academy''s test should wear on the day of the test.


    p The outfit itself was not extravagant, on contrary it was quite refined and looked extremely expensive to make, indicating that I was about to interact with a more advanced form of civilization. Still, I kinda disliked the fact that it was white and only with a little bit of ck here and there.</anda>


    "Okay, I will bring you. Wearing a ck cape on the exam day would make my new character more impactful," I said.


    After saying that, the ck put itself on my back and I made a charismatic pose.


    Swoosh!


    "Perfect! This is how the second rival of the main character should act," I said.


    To put it simply, I was trying to show off my power to hide my real power. And ying the second rival of the main character in all of these popr ''shounen'' novels would do the trick.


    These particr characters were prideful and most of the time, they tried to reach the main character''s first rival, the super genius, and perfect guy. "They have  indeed a certain level of skills, but they still struggle in some areas, and more importantly they have interesting background story with which the readers could rte, justifying their prideful and rough attitude."


    "Are you talking to yourself, master?"


    "I am visualizing my new identity. Hahaha…" I said while making another charismatic pose and walking forward. "This will do when I pass by the most powerful student…"


    The trick was to show off my skill but never do anything more than that. In other words, I needed to show that I was struggling when I was faced with problems beyond the skills that I was showing off.


    Along with that, I also needed to show that I was training in secret.


    Of course, I would attract a lot of attention if I did that but their curiosity would be directed at what I was trying to achieve by attending the Academy. Overthrowing the top students? Bing famous? Revenge? Only these trivial things would cross their minds as I would just look like a prideful kid who didn''t know much about the real world.


    Still, there would be people who would not be fooled by bad acting, thus I needed to take the risk and act like how a fearless but a bit ignorant young Lord with superiorityplex issues would act.


    "I cannot wait to receive a lot of challenges from those noble''s kids. I will also show my acting skills while the top students are beating me down… I need to look at them with that defiant look on my face and say the famous line: ''I will take you down next time; then stand up and walk away with a determined face," I mumbled.


    "I''ve been wondering for a while now, but maybe you are just crazy," nca said looking at me. She joined me as soon as I woke up, then we talked about various things rted to Linda, the kind of character that she needed to y, and some general knowledge rted to the Empire and the Gift.


    "Well, I hope you understand what character you should y. But don''t you know about the fact that sometimes doing something silly can relieve your stress, and relieving your stress can increase your ability to focus?" I answered. What I did might have looked stupid but in fact, I just made it look silly.


    After all, even if it was a bit different, I would be more or less back at school again. I would spend my time inside a ssroom again.


    Thinking about it that way, I didn''t want to think about the dark side of this world all of the time. Maybe the Academy could be fun in some unexpected ways.


    "I am saying this again, but you are weird. Your smile is also creepy," nca said after hearing me and looked at me with cold eyes.


    "Is that how you talk to your master, Cristal?! I said in a deep voice as if scolding nca.


    "…" nca didn''t say anything but her expression said it all. For some reason, she was afraid of me. What did I even do to make her feel this way, I couldn''t remember doing anything much apart from threatening her a few times.


    "I am just ying my character. And you should get used to being called like that from now. Well, let''s go, my parents and everyone must be already waiting for us," I said, heading toward the door, and all of my luggage followed me as I used my power to transport them effortlessly.


    -------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Notice: Discord Server! You can now join the official discord server: https://discord.gg/FW37yPFq. There''s also a link in the synopsis if you can''t ess this one.