Discard Useless Tools

The bedroom door slowly opened, and Ram entered carrying two heavy books.

Unlike her younger sister Rem, Ayanokouji did not feel any special hostility from Ram. There seemed to be a significant difference between Ram and Rem.

"Ayanokouji-sama, I am here to guide you in your writing studies under Roswaal-sama's instructions." Ram said slowly.

Her voice was almost identical to Rem's, but the tone was different. It had a more mature yet slightly arrogant feeling.

"No problem." Ayanokouji nodded slightly.

At that moment, light footsteps could be heard again outside the door, and a half-elf girl with long silver hair entered with light steps.

"Haven't you started yet?" Emilia asked with a smile, "I wanted to come and see if there's anything I can do to help."

"We're about to start, Emilia-sama." Ram said respectfully to Emilia, then placed the book in front of Ayanokouji and began teaching him how to use various grammatical structures, "Let's start with the most basic texts. This is a children's picture book for speaking. Ayanokouji-sama will read this first. Although this seems very difficult for you as an adult, Ram will do her best to teach you."

"Alright, I'll do my best." Ayanokouji said slowly, understanding that Ram was quite sharp-tongued.

Then Ram took a storybook and taught him how to use the characters in this country. Although Ram wasn't a good teacher, Ayanokouji learned very quickly.

He had excellent learning abilities and had mastered many languages before. Even though he had never encountered the words in this world, Ayanokouji could still grasp the meaning of the language. He had studied common points before, and then, by analogy, he quickly understood the grammatical structure of this text.

'The grammar and sentence structure are basically the same,'

He thought to himself, and then began to quickly internalize these words.

He had already mastered more than ten languages. However, he deliberately controlled his test scores at school and maintained an average level, so as not to draw attention.

In just a few hours, he had mastered many words and could understand much of this storybook.

He could pretend to be a very ordinary person with unremarkable learning abilities, as he did in his previous school. However, there was no need to hide his learning ability in this situation. The more he learned, the faster he could read the contents of the Forbidden Library.

Now Ayanokouji needed to properly show his talent and prove his ability so he could integrate more into Emilia's faction and gain her trust.

"I didn't expect Ayanokouji-sama to have such a good mind even though you come from a small, unknown country."

Ram closed the book and said to him. Although her tone sounded very respectful, there was always a bit of sarcasm and venom in her words.

"Let's end it for today. I will leave the book here, and Ayanokouji-sama can read it by himself at night."

Although she said this, Ram was still slightly surprised in her heart.

If Ayanokouji initially appeared illiterate, he learned too quickly, and an ordinary foreigner would need weeks to reach this level, but the boy in front of her had learned it in just a few hours.

"Yes."

Ayanokouji nodded, and Ram also packed up her things and left the room.

"As expected from Ayanokouji, you learn so quickly!" Emilia smiled and said slowly.

"After all, I can still speak your country's language." Ayanokouji said. At the same time, he chatted with Emilia to gain more information about the competition for the throne from her words.

Of course, he didn't ask directly. Instead, he used topic guidance and indirect methods to get the information he wanted from Emilia.

Through this conversation, Ayanokouji learned that besides Emilia, there were three other throne candidates: Priscilla, who inherited the noble Barielle family's wealth, Duke Crusch Karsten, who was close to the royal family, and Anastasia, who was the president of a large Kararagi merchant guild.

He analyzed the other three throne candidates. In terms of status, Priscilla had a noble family background, Anastasia had great wealth, and Crusch had the strongest overall power.

Compared to the three of them, Emilia could be said to have no advantage at all. If he chose based on status alone, Ayanokouji would undoubtedly choose Crusch Karsten without hesitation, as it was clear she was the best among the throne candidates, and as long as she performed steadily, she was the most likely to have the last laugh.

❀❀❀

"That is a wise choice."

Crusch nodded, watching Ayanokouji's evaluation of her on the screen, and slightly nodded.

Although she was in her own home, Crusch still wore her military uniform.

Her long green hair was tied with a ribboned bow. Her smooth face was adorned with two amber-like eyes, and her beautiful and charming face looked too upright due to her serious expression, making it difficult for ordinary people to approach her.

"Meow, this young man named Ayanokouji Kiyotaka doesn't seem to be an ordinary person, meow. If I can win him over to serve you, Crusch, the throne will surely be within your grasp, meow!"

Besides Crusch, Felix said seriously.

He had mid-length flaxen hair neatly styled on his shoulders and wore a white headband. The cat ears on his head showed his Demi-Human identity, and the blue and white dress on his body hid the fact that he was actually a man. But he looked far more attractive than most women.

"Maybe."

Crusch nodded thoughtfully. Ayanokouji had shown wisdom and ability beyond ordinary people. If she could win him over to her side, she could certainly take a step closer to the throne.

But at the same time, Crusch also had concerns. If Ayanokouji really switched to her side one day, could she truly control him?

Could she become a puppet to someone named Ayanokouji Kiyotaka?

❰❱SKY SCREEN❰❱

Although he considered Crusch Karsten the most suitable candidate in his heart, Ayanokouji also had other important considerations: the character of the candidates.

For example, although Emilia was currently the weakest among the throne candidates, her character was the easiest to control for Ayanokouji.

No matter how perfect a tool is, if it is not used smoothly, it is just trash. He would discard it without hesitation.

At the same time, Ayanokouji had decided that if there was an opportunity in the future, he would gather information about the other throne candidates and collect their weaknesses.

This way, no matter who he decided to use as his tool in the end, it would be easier to eliminate others who stood in his way.

Ayanokouji had no intention of starting a new venture himself. It was too troublesome to form his own faction, and he had no interest in running for the throne. He chose to participate in this competition for the throne only because he wanted to use the power of the throne candidates to ensure his survival in this world.

Furthermore, he learned from Emilia that the throne candidates were not chosen based on blood but were recognized by the dragon and acknowledged by the dragon crest.

This made Ayanokouji think about the moment he saw Felt touch the dragon crest in the last regression. The crest glowed. Combined with other information, could Felt be the candidate recognized by the dragon?

He knew that if Felt was indeed one of the throne candidates, it would be equivalent to having another trump card in his hand and one less competitor for Emilia.

However, this was just a sudden guess in his mind. There was no evidence to prove it.

Considering various possible issues, he did not tell Felt about it.

Felt herself did not know about this in this regression. Ayanokouji also did not ask Emilia about the suspicious dragon crest.

Although Emilia now trusted him very much, Ayanokouji certainly couldn't waste this trust now.

So he decided to look for opportunities to gather more information about the throne candidates himself.

"Ah, it's already late. I suddenly lost track of time chatting with you, Ayanokouji!"

Emilia's purple eyes glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, and she immediately stood up and said in an apologetic tone, "Sorry for delaying your rest time, Ayanokouji. Get some rest. It's been a hard day for you after a long journey, so have a good rest, and I won't disturb you anymore!"

After speaking, Emilia also left the room.

Although Ayanokouji still had a few unanswered questions, he had already obtained enough information from Emilia. If he continued to ask, he would appear too purposeful.

After Emilia left the room, hr did not choose to rest immediately. Instead, he picked up the books Ram had left behind and started studying. Even without Ram's explanations, he also learned by deducing the meaning of the words.

Unknowingly, two more hours passed. He closed the book and prepared to rest.

Although he wanted to master the language of this world as soon as possible, Ayanokouji also knew that sleep was very important for humans. Only enough sleep could ensure sufficient energy and clear thinking the next day.

He opened the door and prepared to go to the bathroom before sleeping. Ayanokouji had memorized the structure of the entire mansion during the day.

After leaving the room, he quickly passed several other rooms, walked through the corridor, and reached the corner—only to find that the bathroom next to him was not the one he expected to be there but rather the bathroom by his own room.

Ayanokouji clearly remembered the oil painting hanging by his room door, and this oil painting appeared before him now.

'Is it another painting exactly the same?'

He dismissed this thought because he was confident his memory from the daytime was not wrong, and the bathroom should be in this location. He knew the number of steps he had just taken through the corridor was more than during the day, meaning the corridor had become longer.

'From the current perspective, there are only two possibilities. The first is that the house's structure has changed, and the second is that my sense of distance and direction has been somehow disrupted, and I need to investigate further.'

His face did not show any panic, but he continued walking forward, and it didn't take long for him to reach the oil painting several times.

This made him realize that the corridor space had changed. The corridor, which should have been less than ten meters long, was cut from end to end by some special power and turned into a circular space.

This quickly made him think of the ability Beatrice demonstrated during the day.

The girl possessed some kind of magic that could distort space. Without knowing the abilities of Roswaal and Ram and Rem, the person most likely to cause this situation was Beatrice.

"It seems you want to give me a fight as a newcomer." Ayanokouji muttered to himself.

Through his observations of Beatrice in the morning, he could sense that Beatrice was a tsundere and somewhat childish. Finding the door twice in a row in the morning made Beatrice a little unhappy; the likelihood she would play a trick to tease him was very high.