"Ahhhh—!"
Upon entering his dorm, Soren collapsed onto the floor, clutching his face in his hands.
"I wanna die…"
Thanks to his actions after the last duel ended, people had been looking at him with disgust ever since.
'It's a misunderstanding…'
'I was just happy about completing the quest.'
He ruffled his hair with tears in his eyes when the translucent silver window that was the cause of his current situation caught his eye.
"「Quest」"
Ting-♪
.
▶ Main Quest Complete! [First Steps (1)] ◀
[Difficulty: C-]
[Reward: Inventory, Hidden Reward]
.
"Sigh, let's hope it was worth it… Oh?"
Soren noticed that the difficulty had dropped at some point.
"Hmm… 「Inventory」"
Whoosh–
Another window appeared next to the quest window.
Soren picked up a book nearby and looked at the inventory window quizzically.
"How do I use this..? Maybe…"
He pushed the book in his hand into the inventory window and…
Plip
…The window completely absorbed the book.
Ting-♪
Then, an icon of a book appeared on the screen, and Soren pressed on it.
.
[When They Bloom - Volume 1]
[1★]
[A romance novel written by the author Lilith Valentine]
.
[Withdraw [When They Bloom - Volume 1]?]
[Yes] [No]
.
After his experimentation had ended, Soren sat on the corner of his bed, thinking to himself.
In the world of Ivansia, there were items you could buy called 'spatial rings', which acted much like his new inventory.
The problem with these rings, though, was their price.
Spatial rings, being items owned almost exclusively by nobles, were extravagantly priced, meaning that for someone like Soren, it was next to impossible to buy.
'That's not even the worst of it.'
Along with their price, spatial rings also had minimal storage, usually only enough to hold a few pieces of equipment at most.
'At least it seems to work the same as in-game.'
With his gaze directed back at the inventory window, Soren was thankful that nothing had changed.
Unlike spatial rings, his inventory had a limit of 999 of any item with a total of 300 item slots, so as far as Soren was aware, it was practically infinite.
'This'll be very useful.'
At some point in the future, Soren would have to travel, whether to visit specific locations or, in some cases, even go dungeon diving.
In instances like these, an inventory would be invaluable.
If he didn't have this, he would've had to either haul his luggage himself or hire a porter, which Soren was heavily against.
'I should be careful around others, though.'
It wasn't as if he thought anything would necessarily happen if others discovered his inventory; he just felt that it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Now the hidden reward."
.
[Receive Hidden Reward?]
[Yes] [No]
.
'Let's see what this is all about..'
.
[Yes]
.
▶ Quest Received! ◀
.
▶ The Truth (1) ◀
[Details: Find the letter hidden in Soren Arden's room.]
[Difficulty: PERSONAL]
[Reward: Book 1, 150 Points]
.
"The hell..?"
Upon seeing the quest, Soren was dumbfounded.
A personal quest for a 1★ character and a character that didn't even exist in TKS at that.
Personal quests, unlike main or side quests, were obtained through raising a character's affinity and revealed backstory, which, for someone in Soren's current situation, where he had been transmigrated into an unknown character without any memories, was a lifesaver.
'But what's up with that reward?'
Being a personal quest, the reward had to be something to do with Soren himself.
Soren rummaged through his brain, trying desperately to figure out what it could be.
In the end, there was only one thing that came to mind.
'[Library of Memories]'
'It must have something to do with that.'
"...But where could the letter even be?"
Living in the dorm for over a month, Soren had explored his room entirely and thus couldn't imagine where a letter could be hidden.
'There aren't even that many hiding spots.'
"Sigh, for now let's just start with the desk, I'll find it eventually…"
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
An hour had passed with no luck whatsoever.
"Seriously, where could it be?"
He leaned back in his chair, racking his brains, trying to figure out where it could be.
"If it were in an obvious place, the dorm maids would have found it already and placed it somewhere noticeable…"
'...But is there even anywhere to hide anything in this room?'
He looked around, but sure enough, there was nothing.
The only things in his dorm were a desk, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a mirror, a bed and a bookcase.
All in all, an elementary room with only the bare necessities.
He had already searched the desk and chest of drawers.
He opens the wardrobe daily.
There's nowhere to hide anything in the mirror.
That left the bookshelf.
He stood up and walked over to the bookshelf, pulling out a book.
A giant bookshelf in the corner of the room, filled to the brim with books; however, Soren had already pulled the books out, not finding anything.
'Then where else could it be?'
As he turned the pages of a book, an idea came to mind.
He closed the book, held both sides of the cover, and then shook the book above his head.
'If it's something as thin as a letter, then it could easily be hidden within one of these.'
It would also explain why it hadn't been found until now, as Soren hadn't read the majority of the books on the shelf, and the maids wouldn't bother touching them either.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Ten minutes later…
"There's only three left…"
'If it's not inside of one of these, I might give up for now, this is the last idea I have.'
As time passed, his confidence quickly crumbled, replaced with anxiety that this would take a long time.
He picked up another book from the shelf.
'3 left…'
Shake shake
Then it happened.
Flutter
A letter fell from the book in Soren's grasp.
"Finally!"
Soren fell back on the bed, relieved he wouldn't have to pull apart his room to find the letter anymore.
He looked up at the letter in his hand.
'It's open.'
The wax seal had already been broken, and the paper torn.
'It was probably the original Soren.'
He reached into the envelope and pulled out the letter within.
Upon seeing the condition of the letter, Soren felt a sense of nervousness wash over him.
The paper was crumpled, as if it had been rolled into a ball, and there were tear stains all over.
He unfolded the letter slowly, subconsciously gulping as anxiety slowly rose within him.
Then, as he started reading, his body froze.
"...What is this?"
– To Soren, I have stumbled upon some information that you might find helpful as the person closest to the victim…
The letter began abruptly, with no formalities whatsoever, and got straight to the point.
– When investigating the scene of Freya Arden's unfortunate passing, we discovered something strange: the corpses of the monsters scattered around Freya…
It began detailing how they found the scene of Freya's death suspicious, as it seemed unlikely that Freya had even fought monsters in the first place.
The following sentence made Soren's heart sink.
– Through this investigation, we began to believe that monsters or demons did not cause Freya Arden's death, like we had initially believed, nor was it an accident.
"..."
– This led us to look further into this case, and through that, we found something that we want to share with you. I kindly request that you refrain from taking any drastic action upon reading the contents of this letter…
Attached below was a separate piece of paper, a contract formed between two parties.
Soren's eyes widened.
'That's the Arden seal.'
"Why is that there..?"
As Soren's eyes continued downwards, his anxiety soared.
On the contract attached to the letter, there were two names: Joseph, a commoner with no family name, and, more importantly, Sofia Arden.
Soren could already tell what the letter was trying to imply, but he still wasn't convinced. After all, a single contract with Sofia's name on it didn't give much information.
But upon further inspection, he noticed something he had previously missed.
The date.
Seeing the listed date, Soren could no longer deny it.
He bit his thumb, deep in thought.
He wondered why this letter was addressed to Soren.
It was a letter clearly hostile towards the Arden family.
Yet, it was not only addressed to Soren but also ignored his family name, which was a disrespectful act in a world full of arrogant nobles that place so much importance on their background and lineage.
Then there was the fact that the letter placed importance on him being the closest to Freya.
It was impossible not to piece things together.
All he could do was let out a hollow laugh at the newly discovered information.
'He's been abandoned.'
"At least that explains some things."
He said as he leaned back in his chair.
As the son of a count family, Soren should have been living in extravagance, but in reality, it was quite the opposite.
5 silver and 38 copper.
That was the total amount of money Soren currently has.
Even beyond that, there were other factors, such as lower nobles like Doron being openly aggressive, despite knowing Soren was of a higher status.
Then there was even the fact that Soren had no personal belongings besides an axe, and even that was Freya's, not his own.
He was glad that he finally understood his situation better, but right now, there was a more important thing on his mind.
'Who sent this letter?'
He leaned forward again and held up the letter, then turned it around, but nowhere at all was a sender listed.
'I guess it makes sense.'
With such hostile accusations directed at such a powerful family, it could have been disastrous if a name had been listed.
"So what now?"
It was apparent that the sender was trying to tell Soren that Sofia Arden was the one behind Freya's death, but what did that mean for him?
Soren Arden was gone.
Isaac had taken over his body, leaving him with no memories of Soren's life.
He didn't know Sofia, never mind Freya, so he struggled to feel involved in such a situation.
As a student of Stellaris Academy, he was only allowed to leave the campus during the summer and winter breaks, so he was unlikely to encounter Sofia Arden anytime soon.
Then there was the fact that if Soren had been abandoned, it was even less likely for him to run into her.
'I wouldn't be able to do anything anyway.'
Not only was he an abandoned noble, not much better off than a commoner, but he was also weak.
Beyond that, he didn't even have any connections; his only friends at Stellaris were Lilliana, a professor and noble from Einhardt, and Felix, a commoner with ties in Yggdrasil.
Both were people who not only were not involved in Fialova at all but were also people whom Soren didn't consider close enough to ask for help.
It may have seemed like a somewhat mean thought, but he had only known these people for a few weeks at best; there was no way he could trust them with such important information, and even if he did, he doubted that they would be able to help.
In the first place, if there were anything that could've been done, the original Soren would have already done it; it was obvious from the state of the letter that he had already read it.
"Well, there's nothing I can do for now."
He rubbed his eyes, then glanced back at the quest window that had been there ever since he first picked up the letter.
.
▶ Quest Complete! [The Truth (1)] ◀
[Reward: Book 1, 150 Points]
.
[Book 1 has automatically been added to Unique Skill [Library of Memories]]
.
'Looks like I was right.'
He looked up at the clock in the corner of his room.
'1:27 AM..'
He felt exhausted after reading the letter, but there was still one last thing he had to do before sleeping.
He opened his mouth and spoke.
"「Library of Memories」"
Whoosh–!
In an instant, he was transported to the centre of a circular library, and unlike his previous visit, there was a new addition.
In front of Soren stood a lectern, and on that lectern was a single book.
He reached out, opened the book, and his consciousness began to fade…
————「❤︎」————