(Three weeks have passed since Silvia's visit.)
She had left shortly after that strange woman whispered something into her ear. It hadn't bothered him much at the time. Looking back, though, it had stuck with him. He had wanted more answers from his mother. In the end, he had been left with more questions than answers.
Still, life has been relatively kind to him since then.
No unexpected twists. No unpleasant surprises. And most importantly, no one had accused him of another murder.
The most exciting development, however, was that he could finally walk on his own.
Without support. Without assistance.
To Leo, it was his first genuine achievement since arriving in this world.
And the progress didn't stop there.
He had recovered a considerable portion of the original owner's memories. Nearly seventy percent, by his own estimation. Most of them were rather dull. But the information concerning this unfamiliar world had genuinely caught his interest.
There was just one problem.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall a single thing about the boutique incident.
It was as though that particular memory had been deliberately erased from the original owner's mind.
With little else to occupy his time besides recovering, Leo eventually decided to venture beyond his room and explore the manor.
The moment he stepped outside, he found himself surrounded by all sorts of strange gossip.
Most of it concerned him.
That wasn't particularly surprising. After recovering a substantial portion of the original Leonal's memories, Leo had gained a clearer understanding of the sort of person he had once been. And from the perspective of a reasonable person, he couldn't exactly blame the servants for talking behind his back.
The former Leonal hadn't exactly been a model young master.
Still, if Leo wanted to survive in this unfamiliar world, he couldn't afford to have everyone despise him.
He needed to change the way they saw him.
Or at the very least, put on a convincing performance.
Anything that improved his chances of survival was worth trying.
He began by striking up conversations with the maids. Gradually, he extended his efforts to the other servants working in the ducal manor.
His first few attempts were painfully awkward.
The servants were understandably wary of him. Their reluctance showed in every hesitant response and carefully chosen word. Some barely answered his questions. Others seemed desperate to find an excuse to leave.
Well, he couldn't blame them.
If someone with a terrible reputation suddenly started acting like a completely different person, suspicion would be the natural response.
So Leo persevered.
He tried to draw upon the original owner's memories, searching for traces of the kind-hearted boy Silvia had described. Gradually, he began to understand how Leonal had once interacted with the people around him.
And little by little, he found his rhythm.
Conversations that had once felt like interrogations slowly became more natural. The servants began to relax around him. Some even started responding with genuine warmth.
Despite being the young master of the manor, Leo made a conscious effort not to throw his status around. He had no intention of treating the servants as though they existed merely to obey his every whim.
However, he was careful not to change too much, too quickly.
People didn't simply wake up one morning and become entirely different versions of themselves. Not without a reason, anyway.
A sudden transformation would only invite suspicion. And the last thing Leo needed was for the servants to start wondering whether something was seriously wrong with him.
So over the course of those three weeks, he made sure his changes remained gradual.
He still had his moments of impatience. Occasionally, he let his irritation show or responded in ways that reminded the servants of the young master they had once known. He didn't force himself to act cheerful all the time, either.
Instead, he tried to make his better behaviour seem like a natural change rather than a complete reversal of character.
Perhaps it was the head injury. Perhaps the experience had given him a different perspective on life.
Whatever explanation the servants settled on, Leo didn't particularly care. As long as they accepted it.
He had seen enough of the consequences of Leonal's former behaviour to know where that path could lead.
His first attempts at conversation had felt like being introduced to a distant relative by his mother. Someone whose name he knew but whose face he had never seen. There was an uncomfortable politeness to everything. Neither side knew what to say.
But as the days passed, the awkwardness gradually faded.
For the first time since awakening in this world, Leo began to feel as though he was making some progress.
And while he was busy rebuilding his reputation, he was also piecing together a clearer picture of the world around him.
According to the original owner's memories, this world had two continents. One was Varyun. The other was the Darwin Continent. And that was where he was now.
Within the Darwin Continent, he was in the Kingdom of Valerium. A realm governed by the Five Great Houses.
Silvia's earlier explanation had introduced him to the significance of those houses. But the memories he had recovered provided a much broader understanding of their influence, their history, and the world they ruled.
Yet the more Leo learned, the more he realised how little humanity actually knew about its own world.
Unlike Earth, where maps covered almost every corner of the globe, the people of this continent were still struggling to explore the lands beyond their known territories.
The thought fascinated him.
With only two large landmasses, much of the world remained uncharted. Vast stretches of territory had never been mapped. Entire regions existed only in rumour and speculation.
According to one prevailing theory, regions existed beyond the reach of ordinary humans. Places that could only be accessed by those who had surpassed a certain threshold of power.
Whether those places were real or merely the product of ancient speculation remained uncertain.
But there was one region whose existence nobody seemed willing to question.
The Wyrdlands.
Common folk referred to it as the Land of Outcasts. Ancient records used the name Wyrdlands. It was believed to be the origin of the Anomalies. Creatures whose very existence threatened the survival of humanity.
The rumours surrounding that place were enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.
One tale, whispered from one generation to the next, claimed that even a Tier Three Manifestor couldn't survive within the Wyrdlands.
Whether the story was entirely true or not, Leo had no intention of finding out for himself anytime soon.
But what troubled him most wasn't simply the prospect of encountering an Anomaly.
It was what happened when a human came into contact with one.
Miasma.
A corrupted form of energy that could seep into the human body and spread like a malignant sickness. For an ordinary person, exposure meant a slow descent into corruption, with little hope of survival.
Those who had awakened as Doctrines, however, possessed the ability to resist its effects.
They could confront the Anomalies without immediately succumbing to the corruption that accompanied them.
Of course, that didn't mean they were invincible.
Their ability to withstand Miasma depended on the strength of the creature they encountered, among other factors.
For a moment, Leonal wondered what kind of powerhouse his father actually was.
The question had been bugging him for a while now. He tried to dig through his memories for an answer. Unfortunately, all he found was a dead end. A blank sheet where his consciousness seemed to stop.
He didn't dwell on it for long. His memories were still a mess and there is no point forcing himself to remember things he couldn't. At least, not for now.
Instead, he decided to make better use of his time.
Bored with doing nothing, Leo called for Elira. Asked her to bring him some books on the history of the continent.
His request caught the maid completely off guard.
If her memory served her right, the young master had never shown the slightest interest in books. In fact, she couldn't recall him ever picking one up in his entire life. And now, out of nowhere, he was asking to read about history?
Elira couldn't quite make sense of it.
Ever since the incident, the young master had changed in ways she couldn't explain. His behaviour. His manner of speaking. Even the things he showed interest in. All of it felt different from the boy she had known.
She wanted to ask him what had happened. Whether the injury had somehow changed him. Or if there was something else going on.
But Elira knew her place. A maid couldn't simply question her young master's behaviour whenever curiosity struck. No matter how strange things seemed, asking such personal questions would be overstepping her position.
Just as she turned to leave, a thought suddenly struck Leo.
"Hold on, Elira."
The maid stopped and turned back to him.
"Do we have a library in this manor?"
He vaguely remembered reading about wealthy aristocrats in his previous life. Apparently, having a private library was practically a status symbol among the nobility.
Well, if this family is as rich as I think it is, they should have one, right?
Elira blinked at him for a moment before nodding.
"Yes, young master. We do."
Leo nodded to himself, feeling as though he'd just confirmed something important.
"Then lead the way."
Elira didn't show much of a reaction this time. After everything that had happened till now, any of his unexpected requests barely surprised her anymore.
"As you wish, young master."