After Sothis left, Renn did not choose to rest.
Dragging his exhausted body, he sat at the desk in his room, forcing himself to stay alert as he began to recall the game knowledge in his mind.
The first thing he needed to master was the power hierarchy of this world.
Knowing who he could provoke and who he couldn’t was the fundamental prerequisite for survival.
The power grading in this world consisted of five tiers:
Tier One — God Tier, Tier Two — Ancient Tier, Tier Three — Calamity Tier, Tier Four — King Tier, and Tier Five — Ring Tier.
There was only one Tier One existence in the entire world: the Creation God who had brought this world into being.
Because the era of the Creation God was so distant, everything related to Him had long since vanished into the river of time.
Only fragmented words and records in certain ancient forbidden lands remained.
The God Tier had gradually become unknown to the public; only a few extremely ancient beings knew of its former glory.
Below the God Tier was the Ancient Tier, consisting of five beings.
Two of them were angels bestowed with the title of Saints.
They each inherited a portion of the Creation God’s authority.
The other three were the Ancient Dragons who wielded power related to the world’s origin — the Blazing Dragon, the Moon Dragon, and the Cloud Dragon.
The Cloud Dragon that Renn intended to seek out in the Royal Capital was one of these Ancient Tier existences.
She was arguably the most powerful backer in the entire game, without exception.
To compete for their respective authorities, the two Holy Angels engaged in conflict through the secular forces of the Church and the Monarchy in the name of faith, leaving them no time to care about anything else.
The Blazing Dragon resided in an ancient forbidden land and would not leave easily.
The Moon Dragon lived in seclusion year-round; from the beginning of the game to its end, she was only mentioned in a few brief lines.
Only the Cloud Dragon truly appeared as a major character in the game.
However, likely due to the developers’ concerns regarding game balance, the Cloud Dragon never took active initiative throughout the entire main storyline.
Consequently, the Cloud Dragon’s presence in Lita’s harem was relatively low.
She usually behaved quite lazily, and her role was merely to occasionally drop some high-level information to Lita to flesh out the world-building.
In this regard, the current Renn could do the same.
He could completely replace the Cloud Dragon’s role for Lita without causing too much impact on her future experiences.
Regarding the fact that he was “stealing” the opportunity for a contract with the Cloud Dragon from Lita, Renn did feel a hint of guilt, but not much.
Furthermore, the contract with the Cloud Dragon was tied to his own life and safety.
Renn couldn’t possibly show any humility or restraint under these circumstances.
Strong backers were meant to be clung to by those with the capability!
As for the remaining three tiers, there were nine beings in the Calamity Tier, including four Elf Kings and five Calamities.
The Little Elf King who protected the Elf Hall was one of those Calamity Tier beings.
Thinking of this, Renn already felt light-headed and swollen-brained.
It seemed that the act of recalling game content placed a heavy burden on him.
He feared that if he continued, he might actually drop dead from exhaustion.
The King Tier and Ring Tier were grading systems exclusive to mages.
He would be able to learn about them systematically once he reached the Royal Capital Magic Academy, so there was no need to rush.
Therefore, Renn only scribbled a few notes for the subsequent content, intending to try recalling more after he obtained the Memory Sprite.
The double fatigue of mind and body caused Renn to collapse onto the bed and fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, without even taking off his clothes.
***
The next morning, Renn woke up naturally, his spirit having recovered significantly.
“Young Master, breakfast is ready.”
At some point, Sothis had already stood respectfully by Renn’s bed.
It looked like he had been waiting there for a while.
“Mr. Sothis? Did Father agree to last night’s matter?”
Renn wasn’t too surprised.
Wasn’t it normal for him to be silent?
For someone who had served in an assassination unit, those who made noise while walking would have died and been reincarnated long ago.
“Yes. My Lord will explain the specific details to you personally.”
Sothis naturally knew Renn was referring to the matter of accompanying Lita for the Sprite Covenant.
He nodded and looked at Renn’s slightly wrinkled clothes, then turned his gaze toward the washroom inside the bedroom.
“Do you need to bathe and change first? I can arrange for a maid to come over.”
“I can do it myself.”
Having just arrived, Renn was still not quite used to the decadent lifestyle of the nobility.
The thought of needing someone to serve him even for a bath was more or less uncomfortable.
Most importantly, there were no young maids in the mansion.
For the sake of Renn’s “health,” the maids Claude usually assigned to Renn were old enough to be his mother.
Because he was an adopted son, the previous Renn had been relatively self-reliant and lacked the arrogant and pampered habits of a noble.
Sothis did not find it strange that Renn refused a maid’s service.
He bowed slightly to Renn and then vanished silently from the room.
This technique of suddenly disappearing right under one’s nose made Renn’s eyes burn with envy.
He decided to find an opportunity to ask Sothis for guidance in the future.
After a quick wash and a simple hot shower, Renn found a set of loose clothing in the dressing room, changed, and went out to the first-floor dining room with Sothis.
“My Lord is preparing for matters related to the Sprite Covenant. You may go to the dining room for your meal first. The two young ladies are also there.”
After leading Renn to the door of the dining room, Sothis had no intention of following him inside.
Recalling what happened last night, Renn felt a bit apprehensive.
“What about you, Mr. Sothis?”
“I will go inform My Lord that you are waiting for him in the dining room.”
A faint trace of a smile seemed to flicker in Sothis’s eyes.
Because Renn rarely had moments of such trepidation, he found it somewhat refreshing.
As if feeling it would be a bit irresponsible to just leave like that, Sothis comforted Renn.
“Your intentions last night were good. Miss Miria is a kind lady; she will understand your well-meaning efforts.”
“What about Lita?”
“Aren’t you going to tell her the truth yourself?”
The implication was that the current Lita knew nothing, was very angry, and Renn should pray for his own luck.
Renn shrugged and decided to face his grim life head-on.
He no longer hesitated and pushed open the door.
What met his eyes were two beautiful silhouettes —
Lita sat in the chair next to the main seat, her blonde hair gilded with a layer of pale gold by the morning light.
Her fingertips held a fragrant pancake, and a bit of jam was smeared at the corner of her mouth.
In the silver plate before her, warm thick soup was emitting curls of steam.
Miria sat by her side, her elbow resting gently on the edge of the table.
She held a cup of steaming milk in her hand, her expression soft and a smile on her face as she watched Lita’s somewhat unrefined eating habits.
Hearing the door open, the two looked up at the same time.
A flash of surprise and unexpected joy appeared in Miria’s eyes.
She was about to stand up to greet Renn when Lita’s voice interrupted her.
“Disgusting! Don’t come over!! What are you doing here?”
Like a kitten protecting its food, Lita stood up and shielded Miria behind her, staring indignantly at Renn at the doorway.
“Eating breakfast. What else could I be doing?”
Renn had long expected Lita’s hostility, but the way the little girl hissed was quite cute.
He couldn’t help but want to tease her.
With a faint smile on his face, Renn intentionally sat down in the seat opposite Lita.
Seeing this, a nearby maid quickly brought Renn a serving of breakfast — oatmeal porridge and cheese pancakes, paired with bacon and fried eggs, a salad, and a herbal tea specially prepared for him.
Seeing that Renn still acted as if nothing had happened, shamelessly sitting across from her to eat breakfast, Lita instantly bristled.
Her gaze grew sharp as she looked coldly at Renn.
“Scum is not welcome here!!”
“Oh.”
Renn didn’t even lift his head, focusing on his food.
‘Crazy!’
‘What does you not welcoming scum have to do with me?’
‘I’m not scum.’
“How can you even eat!?”
This dismissive attitude caused Lita’s emotions to gradually turn volatile, and a light breeze began to blow across the dining table.
Renn was startled.
‘Has this girl still not stabilized the magic source in her body? It’s different from the game’s development where it fully stabilized after one night. Did something go wrong?’
‘…It seems to be because I’m not dead yet.’
In the original story, because the deceased was given respect, the grudges were written off.
But now that he wasn’t dead, the grievance of “stealing” Lita’s girl naturally remained.
Putting himself in her shoes, Renn instantly understood why she was so furious.
If he had encountered a situation where a beautiful childhood friend was almost forced by a trusted brother, he might be starting a succession war right about now.
It was only natural that it was hard to bear.
In fact, the fact that Lita could restrain herself from fighting him to the death was already considered an act of mercy.
‘Where did this Goddess come from? To be so broad-minded!?’