After some time, the lectures from the old scruffy man had stopped, and the man immediately dismissed the class.
It didn't take long for most students to start moving, banding up in twos and threes, each group leaving the mighty Sanctum Regalis.
Ragnar personally waited for the numbers to dwindle in his favour before moving. He wasn't quite fast with having his memories mixed, and he certainly did not want to slip up encountering someone he supposedly knew and barely remembered now.
So he let the numbers thin out. However, his request was somewhat too good to be true.
One of the Lords close by had stayed by his side since the class had been dismissed. At first, he spoke no words and simply waited there as though he had no business with Ragnar.
Ragnar hoped that was the case, because he barely recognized this person even with the original host's memories and wondered if it was just the memories or if he just couldn't recall some things.
Soon, two others came to join the Lord by his side—two males about the same age, each looking scruffy but quite handsome. But they weren't Lords.
'I have a bad feeling about this,' Ragnar thought as he turned to walk out of the Sanctum Regalis as soon as he could. But just as he thought he was in the clear, he felt a hand wrap strongly around his own.
"Don't tell me you're running away, My Lord. Is that how little you think of me?" The strong, dashing voice boomed behind Ragnar, and he immediately felt compelled to stab a fork down the throat of the man speaking.
He turned his head around, his face a bit discontent and filled with intent. He hated the voices nobles used to address others—that mocking tone they usually instigated to make others feel quite lower than they were. It was deplorable.
At this moment, Ragnar had disregarded that he was in the body of a noble as well.
"Ohhh, why the angry look on your face? I am just taunting you a bit," the young Lord grinned, letting go of Ragnar and patting him on the shoulder. Then he waited as though he wanted a reply the normal Ragnar would have given, but nothing came—just a dangerous stare that emanated bloodlust.
That was his mistake. This wasn't the normal Ragnar, and definitely not even Ragnar.
The Lord furrowed his eyes. "I just wanted to remind you that this Realm Crossing is very important to you. You know, your family is about the weakest of the nine noble families. As a friend, I'm just trying to remind you to make it out. You already have a weak Arcana, so—"
He stopped here again, probably waiting to be threatened by a punch or dreary insults from Ragnar. But nothing came.
He was... indifferent, maybe.
"Why are you so inconsistent with your behaviors? Last week, you were so petrified of me. Yesterday, you seemed rather scared of something else. And today, you think you can fool me with some sort of false confidence. Hahahahaha... Come on, Ragnar," the young Lord raised the back of his palm to wipe his eyes. This was the first time his voice had gone higher than its normal tone—into one much truer.
And this was also the first time Ragnar's calm demeanor broke into a resentful scowl. "Aren't I a human being? Am I a novel where I only possess one behavior? Can't I be angry and sad some days? Or is that decided for me like I'm some kind of written essay?"
Ragnar could now recognize the person standing before him. It was Lord Hunter—someone who had managed to bully the former Ragnar by mocking the failures of his family. Despite the original Ragnar knowing how to keep his emotions to himself, he had surely suffered a lot within from this bastard.
"Oh, so you finally speak. You do have some moxie within you," Hunter placed his hand on his lips and chuckled, waving to his two henchmen standing behind him as he began to walk away, already gaining the priceless reaction he wanted from Ragnar.
But Ragnar stayed and let the emotions linger in him. He let out a silent huff and watched Hunter and the other two leave the Sanctum Regalis.
---
{Your bloodlust boils}
{Mission: Kill the Arrogant Lord. He must be your first kill, or there will be no rewards}
---
Ragnar read the notification and could not agree more. 'I will surely kill that bastard first or last, killing him is my reward.'
With that, he left the Sanctum and went back into his room.
Shutting the door behind him, now he could think about his current situation—
Especially with one thing Hunter had said bothering him this entire time.
"What is an Arcana?" he asked himself out loud, trying to think back through Ragnar's memories.
And surely, information popped up in his head pertaining to the statement Arcana.
The former Ragnar was an information geek. He loved the adventures in books, and this made the information about Arcana much more digestible because of the vast knowledge he had amassed.
Well, he could more appropriately understand them easily thanks to owning the memories.
An Arcana was the gift each person possessed that signified they could cultivate to get stronger.
And his Arcana was with his eyes.
Ragnar instinctively activated his Arcana, and immediately, it was as though his sight had been forcefully taken from him—then replaced with a new vision.
At first glance, it was easy to know what had changed in the young Lord's eyes. He could see the room in far more detail. He could see the flooring, the faint shoe marks that could not be seen by normal eyes.
'Eyes that can see details, follow movements and predict them, even see through objects, see tracks, and so on…' Ragnar was surprised, remembering all this from the old Ragnar's memories as he turned his gaze all around the room.
It was a very useful Arcana—in the right hands, that was.
Ragnar had a bit of fun using his Arcana around, testing every single ability his new eyes possessed. And then… he stopped all of a sudden. The new vision of his eyes had caught something very strange.
Ragnar's eyes widened, then furrowed, as he glared at his work table and chair. They were covered with some strange substance he had not noticed earlier—something very senile and with only one obvious explanation.
"Blood..." Ragnar muttered under his breath. "Isn't that where I woke up?"
Saying this, reality came crashing down on Ragnar.
"No… Oh no!"
"Don't tell me..."
Ragnar placed both hands on his head and frowned.
"You were murdered in here."
Now, his perspective of this world immediately crumbled.