What did I do last night?
On Alicia’s bed, Roel stared at the foreign ceiling before him as he thought nervously. He could feel Alicia’s body pressing against his, and her warmth made him feel a little fidgety. Vaguely, her soft breathing could be heard. This scenario was strongly suggesting the notion of ‘the following day after the consummation of marriage’, and that really scared Roel.
Wait a moment, didn’t I fall asleep last night after drinking the Loborian Advancement Serum? How did I end up in Alicia’s room then? This shouldn’t be… Is this a dream?
Roel pinched himself.
Ouch, it hurts.
He tried leaning in to take a whiff of Alicia’s scent.
Mm, a little fragrant. Yeap, this really isn’t a dream. But, how did things turn out this way?
Roel’s eyes flickered around nervously as he racked his mind to figure out what was going on. He couldn’t understand why the two of them were sleeping on the same bed, and the gaps in his memories of last night really made him flustered.
What kind of play is Alicia referring to…
Carter flashed across his mind, and Roel wondered if he should arrange for an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. But again, he suddenly remembered that there was no blood relation between him and Alicia, so maybe things weren’t that bad? Besides, the societal norms in this world were very different from his previous one. Forget about how they weren’t actually blood siblings, but even if they were, it still wouldn’t be anything much, at least by the standards of this world.
Similar to the Middle Ages in Europe in his previous life, relationships between siblings weren’t a forbidden fruit yet. Civilization hadn’t realized the dangers of it, so there was no one who gave a damn about it. Even royals were guilty of it too.
While coming up with all sorts of excuses to reassure himself that it was alright, it suddenly dawned on him that he was still a child. He quickly looked at his clothes and realized that there were all still on him. Then, he took a deep breath and exhaled deeply, releasing all of his anxiety and nervousness.
For the time being… I should escape first.
Regardless of whether something happened or not, he felt a little uncomfortable having Alicia stick so closely to him. For some reason, this lass was becoming more and more charming, such that it was getting harder for him to maintain his self-control.
He carefully lifted Alicia’s head and wiggled his body out bit by bit. Once he was out, he took a pillow to fill up the gap created by his absence. Then, he sneaked out of the room before shutting the door lightly.
Having finally escaped from Alicia’s room, he breathed out deeply in relief. He took a look around the corridor, only to realize that there was no one outside.
“This is odd. Anna should have at least been here with me. Where is she?”
Roel was initially planning to ask Anna what happened the previous night, but the latter was nowhere to be seen. He took a look at his own pajamas and decided to head back to his room to change his clothes first. Unexpectedly, before he could make a move, he heard a voice coming from the far end of the corridor.
“Your Highness, the young master is out at the moment.”
“Oh? That’s not what I heard from the guards outside. However, since you’re the one saying it, I’ll take your word for it and visit Alicia instead. She’s a good friend of mine, so surely that shouldn’t be an issue for you?”
The familiar voices of Nora and Anna sounded from the corridor. The crescendoing patter of footsteps sounded like death tolls in Roel’s mind. He wanted to dart away and hide, but it was too late.
“Your Highness, Miss Alicia had a late night and isn’t awake yet. I shall send a servant to inform the young master of your arrival too. I believe that he should…”
Nora suddenly halted her footsteps, causing Anna’s words to trail off too. Anna turned in the direction where Nora was looking at, only to find a flustered black-haired boy dressed in pajamas standing right in front of Alicia’s bedroom.
The criminal was apprehended on the spot.
…
Half an hour later, in the guest room of the Labyrinth Villa, a golden-haired girl sat on a sofa chair with her legs crossed, impassively listening to a recount of the story from a maid standing before her.
Meanwhile, a black-haired boy fidgeted uneasily in his seat as his gaze alternated between the speaking Anna and the clearly infuriated Nora.
“Last night, young master Roel retired earlier than usual to his bedroom, intending to have a good rest. However, not too long later, he dashed out of his room to look for Miss Alicia. His face was abnormally reddened in excitement, and he was swaying around unsteadily. I suspected that he might have drunk some wine, but I couldn’t smell alcohol on him.
“I tried to advise the young master to return back to his room to rest, but the young master insisted on looking for Miss Alicia. So, I obeyed his order and sent a servant over to inform Miss Alicia. However, the young master said that it was very urgent and that he couldn’t wait any longer. He charged toward Miss Alicia’s bedroom and barged right in.
“Miss Alicia was astonished, but due to their close relations, she wasn’t displeased. So, the two of them began having intimate interactions…”
“Wait wait wait! Anna, stop talking nonsense! W-w-what do you mean by intimate interactions? Nora, this is…”
“Roel, shut up.”
Roel was just about to argue his case when he found himself faced with a ‘kind’ smile from the golden-haired princess, and his body stiffened. His attempt to defend himself was shut down immediately; he felt stifled. In the end, he could only slouch back down into his seat.
Seeing that Roel had wisely chosen to back down, Nora turned her gaze back to the witness.
“You may continue speaking.”
“Yes, Your Highness. The young master and Miss Alicia continued their intimate interactions till midnight. Once again, I advised the young master to return back to his room to rest, but he turned down my suggestion. After that, he drove all of us out of the room, saying that he wanted to spend the night together with Miss Alicia. We have no idea what went on in the room afterward.
“The following morning. When Miss Alicia’s maids entered the room, they noticed that the two of them were sleeping on the bed together. They dared not disturb them, so they quietly backed out of the room. Even until your arrival, neither of them had left the room. This is all I know about the matter.”
“Very well. You may take your leave.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The Roel X Alicia Ship fanclub manager sold Roel out clean before bowing respectfully and taking her leave. Before the matter had been revealed, as Roel’s personal maid, Anna felt duty-bound to conceal the truth on behalf of her master. However, now that things had already developed to this point, her desire to stan Alicia surpassed her loyalty toward Roel.
To be fair, Anna hadn’t lied about anything. Roel’s actions last night were that of a typical drunkard, doing as he pleased. It was fortunate that he was still a child, so it wasn’t that bad. Nevertheless, whether he managed to hit a homerun or not didn’t matter; the important part was that he had gotten on Alicia’s bed with the girl!
Even if Her Highness Nora is exceptionally forgiving to the young master, I doubt that she would be able to tolerate such stuff, Anna thought to herself as she took her leave and closed the doors, leaving behind a deadly silence in her wake.
One of the most terrifying moments in life was when silence suddenly settled in the midst of a heavy atmosphere. Roel found himself fidgeting uneasily on his seat. He couldn’t understand why it was so, but for some inexplicable reason, he felt like he had wronged Nora.
He had roughly understood what had happened after hearing Anna’s story. To put it simply, he had a blackout after drinking. He had only experienced it once in his previous life, and it was the result of drinking tequila at the egging of a friend. The sheer force of it knocked him out, and he couldn’t remember a thing about what happened afterward.
Roel had never thought that the serum could do so much evil even when he had taken preventive measures. It was even worse than the first time, and he felt deeply aggrieved as a customer.
How am I supposed to guard against a drunken rampage? This is too much!
While feeling bitter inside, Roel sneaked a glance at Nora and saw that she was taking deep breaths, seemingly trying to calm her emotions. It was apparent that she was deeply agitated by Roel’s ‘dazzling performance’.
“I didn’t do anything at all, really! Nora, you have to believe me…”
Roel muttered weakly. He didn’t even dare to raise his voice before Nora right now out of fear that he would accidentally agitate her further. Upon hearing his words, Nora closed her eyes and lowered her head. A moment later, she raised her head once more and looked at him.
“I’ll listen to your explanation, but if you dare lie to me…”
“There’s no way I would do that! I live my life embracing honesty!”
Faced with Nora’s narrowing eyes, Roel quickly threw out a guarantee before coming out clean.
“Actually, I acquired a serum recently that’s said to be able to help me advance to Origin Level 5. I was in a good condition yesterday, so I decided to use the serum. However, I didn’t expect the serum to have some side effects. I found myself blacking out after drinking it, and it was only this morning that I finally regained my consciousness.
“It’s fake alcohol. There must be fake alcohol inside! Fake alcohol really ruins lives!”
Roel smacked his thighs as he lamented his actions regrettably. Meanwhile, seeing the earnest look on his face—as well as the lack of reaction from the pendant she was wearing—Nora’s anger finally subsided a little.
Human civilization had declined since its golden era. The development of alchemy had regressed significantly, and there was nothing in current times that could match the Lobor series. Due to that, it was inevitable that Nora would have a poor impression of serums and be opposed to their consumption.
Nevertheless, she knew that not everyone was as blessed as her to be able to make breakthroughs relying solely on her talent. While Roel had awakened his bloodline, he was likely to be a Copper Bloodline at the moment. Considering that he had spent years developing slowly due to the lack of a bloodline, it was understandable why he would be anxious to raise his strength, even if he had to rely on serums for that.
Nora felt that it wasn’t her place to criticize him for that, but it was another thing if he got into trouble for swallowing things of unknown origin, especially when it created such a massive misunderstanding.
“Roel, I understand your desire to become strong, but it’s extremely dangerous to consume serums when you don’t know what side effects they might pose. You’re really being too reckless here! I’ll need to have a talk with Uncle Carter about this, so as to…”
“Wait wait wait wait wait! I think that there’s no need to trouble my father over something like this. It’s just a drunken rampage…”
It’s one thing for you to nag me, but we shouldn’t get our parents involved here, alright? What am I supposed to say if Carter asked me where I got the serum from?
The anxious Roel was trying to change Nora’s mind when suddenly someone knocked on the door.
“Lord Brother? Are you in there?”
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