Chapter 4: Son of the Ravenmoon IV

"Is the author a god?"

As he wondered, he began to recall the description that the author had given his current identity. According to the book, Herbert Ravenmoon was incredibly obsessed with Princess Amelia, it was to the point where he would scheme for a whole five years to increase her prestige bit by bit to the point where she could be placed on par with him. By the time that she could consider doing anything else, she would long have been announced as his fiance and therefore be forever tied with him. Naturally, everything would work out for him at this point in the novel, however, half a year before they would be married, the protagonist would appear like a knight in shining armor and steal his fiance away from him. The protagonist would then destroy his family and kill him in one sword strike.

It would have already been good for him if everything ended like that, unfortunately, the author has a bad reputation for making all the villains in the story have a pitiful and relatable backstory to the point that readers would spam hate comments at the author for giving them bad endings.

Herbert's backstory was just as pitiful, he was originally born with an identical twin brother. Herbert was born with a healthy and strong body while Albert was born weak and sickly. Being fawned upon was something natural for Herbert, it was especially so when they discovered his high aptitude with the Ravenmoon family's techniques. Being eclipsed by his twin brother, Albert still desperately worked hard to catch up with his brother's talent and become acknowledged by his family, unfortunately, his hard work was not enough to catch up to Herbert. It was during this time that Albert met with the young Princess Amelia, despite having met with Herbert, she was the only one whose attitude did not change upon seeing the difference between the two brothers. Although she was cold and indifferent to everybody, the fact that she treated everyone equally was enough for the young Albert. Eventually, under his insistence, the two soon became friends.

At an early age, Herbert had become the kingdom's youngest knight while Albert still struggled tremendously under the pressure that his brother gave him. Although Herbert had been lauded as a genius, his training was never easy. Seeing him survive through whatever they throw at him, Herbert also began to silently resent his brother for being too weak. All the pressure and expectations from the family were dumped onto him and as he kept on bottling it in, he couldn't help but have his emotions flare up every time he sees his twin brother spending time leisurely. And so, he couldn't help but feel elated when he brought up the topic of having a fiance one time during a family dinner, and as a candidate, he mentioned the name of Princess Amelia. He could never forget the look on Albert's face as he grimaced and remained silent on the corner.

Unfortunately, before Herbert could finish reminiscing, he was disturbed by the sudden change in scenery from his window. As such, he decided to loudly knock on the roof to let the servant know that he would like the carriage to stop. Before returning home, he had commanded his servant to go through a short detour to the western side of the city, since the area was still around the noble's district, it had a couple of large mansions and was fairly bright despite the late-hour. In front of Herbert was the branch of a well-known information-gathering guild, from his knowledge, this place had just recently cropped up due to the wavering control of the royal family over the kingdom. The moment that he had received his newfound memories, Herbert had temporarily decided on a few courses of action and one of them was to arrive at this place. As he took his first few steps, all of a sudden he could feel a whooshing sound coming from his back.

As he furrowed his brows, a couple of black-clothed men immediately surrounded him with their backs facing him. These were the secret guards that had been protecting him from the dark and would only come about when there is a serious situation or if there had been any attempts at his life.

What followed was a series of shouts that came from the hidden assailant that had tried to run when he saw that things weren't going well. After failing to recognize him, Herbert had decided to instead return home. His mood had been spoilt and he no longer felt like going in person for a request. As he once again entered the carriage, he commanded his guards and servants.

"Take him in for information and clean up all the mess. Make sure nobody finds out."

The men in black nodded and soon took off with the unconscious assassin. His stone-faced servant soon bowed respectfully and asked in a monotone voice.

"To where would we be headed, young master?"

"I'm tired, let's go back home."

"Understood."

As the carriage started to move, Herbert felt a subtle chill flow through his bones as he swiftly tried to recall what should have originally happened in the book and compared it to what had happened just now. His brows furrowed as he slowly muttered under his breath.

"Did the author punish me just now for not following the plot? No way, right? Is the author really a god? No, I must be just imagining things. This would have happened one way or another even if I followed the original plot. After all, if even I can sneakily bring in a whole group of armed men to protect me, who is to say that other nobles can't send an assassin to kill me?"

While he was thinking so, it didn't take long before his servant came and opened the door for him saying that they had already arrived at the Ravenmoon's manor in the capital city. He quickly entered the manor and soon went on his way towards a study and called for the butler to prepare a letter for him. This letter was addressed to his father who was still in their territory at Umbra. After finishing it, he then made the butler have someone send it before the winter snow arrives. He also added made other letters that had his written orders or requests on them and had the butler send them to their supposed recipients.

When he had finished with everything that he had to do, he soon went upstairs to his bedroom and changed his clothes into something warm and comfortable. With his head on the embrace of his soft mattress, he stared at the ceiling with his thoughts in disarray.

"In this world, I have forsaken the name Albert and was forced to become Herbert."