----------Scroll No. II----------

"The treasury has only 60 gold remaining."

"…"

During the last seven years, the Late Earl, Lord Julius Wymborne, abandoned all administrative management of Uxila with no supervision leaving the former chamberlain do everything he pleases greatly increased the taxes in the territory. In addition, the expenses of the Lord Julius while being indulged in alchemy took an astonishingly three-fifths of the annual budget.

The earldom's entire earnings for one year amounted to about 1,000 gold after deducting alchemy an miscellaneous expenses. Meaning, the supposed remaining budget should be 400 gold, but because of the embezzlement of tommy and the high cost of the physician, only 50 gold remained. Of course, that was not possible.

The remote coastal Earldom of Uxila have naturally become even poorer. The Late Earl's reputation can be imagined. Hence, making the whole Wynborne's image dripping with mud.

After the accidental death of Julius Wymborne, the Earl household was inherited by Callyx. An eight-year-old young Earl who can't make a difference, in the eyes of the commoners of Uxila, couldn't improve their lives

But all of his expectations were shattered. thus, he did what he was told.

In addition…

"The household can only survive oft two months."

It was a situation where there was less than months left for him to save the falling house.

"…Damn it."

"Joan! Call forth the Knight Captain and the Administrator immediately. Hurry!"

"Yes, Master."

Once Callyx went to the Grand Hall, he waited as Head Maid call upon the important people of the Wymborne house. A large house would have many servants of varying specialties, but a household in a province like the Wymborne house didn't have many servants.

First, the Knight Captain. A Knight Captain's duties included keeping the territory safe, training soldiers. Then, there was the Administrator. The Administrator's duties included collecting tax, distributing the tax money to different needs of the territory, and calculating the tax to be sent to the capital. To add one more person to the list, the Chamberlain had the duties of looking after the personal assets of the lord's household and managing general employees.

There were supposed to be four people, yet these three people are the only one that has arrived. Seeing the reaction of Callyx, Joan spoke

"Milord, the position of the Chamberlain is vacant, since we don't have suitable person to filled it with."

Callyx just nodded, that now he remembered that Tommy is now a removed.

The people standing in front of him were Callyx's direct subordinates. Callyx went straight into interrogating the Administrator as if wanting to eat the Administrator alive.

"The treasury is almost empty, the house only have 60 gold remaining. 60 gold! Are you telling me you, the Administrator, didn't know about this!?" Callyx loudly questioned.

The Administrator was sweating bullets as he replied, "That is.… I knew the previous lord had left some problem of the finances, but I didn't know of the proper time to tell My Lord about it…."

"The proper time? When is there a proper time for a report!? You need to report these things immediately!"

"That is… I'm sorry. I didn't want to disturb your state of mind… since it only been weeks that his lordship Julius went back to the embrace of the Eight… and your grace has been involved in the accident not long ago."

Callyx got a good feel for the type of person the Administrator was after speaking a few sentences with him.

One would run into these people now and then living in society. The kind who knew of a ticking time bomb but would hide it and not report it to their superiors for fear of getting reprimanded.

It was a ticking time bomb that could blow up at any time, but he was too foolish and held onto it the whole time. To put it simply, the Administrator was a useless coward.

Callyx's assessment was accurate. The Administrator of Earl Wymborne's household had served for quite a long time, but one couldn't say he was a talented individual even in passing. The former Earl knew that but still kept him around for a long time. That's because the administrative work for Earl Wymborne's household wasn't too difficult and the Administrator never committed any fraud.

To be honest, the guy didn't have the guts to commit any fraud. One needs intelligence and guts to embezzle some money while managing it. At the very least, a person needs one of the two to even attempt it. In that sense, the household's Administrator wasn't talented but was still capable of doing some work.

'Damn it…'

If only the situation wasn't so perilous. Whatever the case may be, the bomb had already detonated.

The situation wouldn't get any better by interrogating the other party. It was time to fix the problem somehow.

"Father must have had plan or something, that would help with the house out of situation."

Seeing that nobody responded Joan spoke up.

"Yes milord. The former Earl said that he had something that family has been passing since the founding of the Wymborne household.

Finding Callyx with a stoic expression, the Head Maid was apologetic as she spoke.

"He didn't tell me what it was either. I asked him but he didn't tell me…."

"Where is this item?"

"It's inside the safe the Lord manages directly."

"Phew…"

Callyx breathed out a deep sigh while thinking.

'I don't know what it is, but it must be an expensive item, right? Then it may be good to not dwell on it but instead find some way to sell it to manage the castle.'

"I must see it for myself. Joan, lead the way."

The first thing to do was to verify what the item in the household's safe was.

'let me see what the end result.'

He had succeeded the house as the Lord, but Callyx had not opened the household safe yet. In truth, this was because he didn't expect much from the safe since Wymborne's house wasn't rich to begin with. However, if there was an item inside is a family heirloom, it became a different story.

Joan stayed outside the room while Callyx opened the household safe with some anxiety and curiosity. There were some important household documents within the safe but nothing of value stood out.

"Huh?"

Callyx discovered a single letter while searching through the stack of documents. The envelope of the letter had some words in the former Earl's handwriting. It was written [To my beloved son].

The moment Callyx ripped the envelope to check the contents of the letter….

Flash!

A brilliant light entirely swept over Callyx.

"Huh? What is? What… Ugh!?"

Callyx then felt 'something' significant enter his soul. It was a formidable amount of information, but it also felt like it changed the core of his awareness. The one certainty was that Callyx had no way to fight the changes with his consciousness.

"Gasp…. Gasp…. Gasp…."

After everything was over, Callyx had cold sweats while steading his breathing. Timewise, it had only been about five minutes, but the strange sensation was enough to make Callyx feel like several decades had passed.

"Just what is this…?"

First his father's death, then the drowning accident, awakening to memories from his previous life, to this strange occurrence he knew nothing about…. He felt like his daily life was breaking down lately.

Then, Callyx once again checked the envelope that he himself had ripped. Inside, he found a white sheet of paper and a letter his father had written him. Callyx checked the letter first.

'My beloved son Callyx,

If you're reading this letter, it must mean that I've passed away and you've succeeded me as the head of the household. I'm leaving this letter here separate from my official will because I have something I want to tell you intimately.

Callyx came to the realization that this letter, which was separate from the official will, was more important. With that, he read the letter carefully, word for word.

You may already know this, but since the passing of your mother, I lost all interest on things, so I indulge myself in alchemy, just to direct my emotions from destruction, I felt bad for not being with you when you needed me the most… I am sorry.

and I also apologize that I left all administrative working to Tommy, which is definitely the bad move.

As you're already aware, our Earl house originally held the position of Marquis and held a lot of sway in politics within the capital. However, we got swept up in conflics, where the kingdom lost two-thirds of its land. Making the kingdom a size of a normal dukedom.

The family were relegated to the position of Earl, falling to a noble house outside politics. I was constantly reminded by my father and grandfather from an early age to restore our house, and I tried my best to do so.'

"That was definitely the case."

'Callyx consented while bringing up the memory of his father. His father Earl Julius Wymborne longed for the house's former days, yet the incident where his mother died, took all of his aspirations, but whenever he was even a little drunk, he would ramble on to his son about restoring the house to its former glory. Callyx had dismissed his father's words previously as simple complaints, but it seemed his sincere feelings were closer to a sense of duty.

I've tried my best to restore the house to its former glory, but I was limited by my abilities.

I tried many things, but luck was not with me. In such a circumstance, I heard from a doctor recently that I will not have much longer to live. My death is unavoidable, but it is such a shame that I could not restore our house to its former glory.

In that state, I remembered that the founding patriarch left a valuable heirloom. I find out that it is an ancient relic, I had high expectations that it would be helpful to our territory. Yet here comes the realization.

It is an ancient relic, but nobody knew the purpose of the scroll'

"What?"

Callyx squinted his eyes in concentration as he continued reading the letter.

'The item I saw is a relic called the Crown's Decree. In truth, I knew nothing about the scroll except for its name but I had the conviction that this item will grant our House strength.

Unbelievable, was a word that was probably made to be used in a situation like this.

However, regretfully this relic is a useless item to anyone except to those that have the aptitude for it.

A normal scroll is an item that can be used by everyone, but I have been told this item only shows effect to a person that has the aptitude for it. And unfortunately, that was not me. Perhaps it can be construed as being fortunate. Even if it showed some effect to myself, it wouldn't have been much help to our House since I don't have much longer to live.

However, it could be different with you. If you have the aptitude to use the Crown's Decree, then it is sure to be a great source of strength for you. If by chance you don't have the aptitude for it either, then sell the scroll again and pay off the debt the House owes.

I don't know what the results will be, but I have faith that you will return our House Wymborne to glory once more.

Your father, Julius Wymborne.'

That was the entirety of the contents of the letter.

"So, the relic Father left behind was a scroll? But a scroll….

Huk!?"

Callyx had a rude awakening. The white blank sheet of paper that was inside the letter. Why was it a blank sheet?

'No way? No way? Please don't let it be….'

Callyx studied the blank sheet of paper inside the letter with trembling hands. At a glance, it just seemed like a normal white blank sheet of paper. However….

"No way…."

He brought up the worst possible scenario he could think of.

"my ace card!!"

His saving grace flew off just like that. Regretfully, he had the right aptitude for this damn relic.

Life changes in one shot. It was a phrase he heard several times during his previous life as Ren Ramirez. It was a saying that came from longing to win the Lotto, or one day getting a huge opportunity to lift your life up in one shot.

But however, if one listened to that phrase carefully, there was another meaning. You can lift up your life in one shot, but in reverse, it can go awry in one shot too. What happened to Callyx just now was the latter.

"NO!!!"

Now that the scroll had become a blank sheet of paper, the gold needed to sustain the house, became something he needed to gain with his own ability. If he couldn't get the funds, the Wymborne House would completely fall.

"I have to do it no matter what."

Callyx decided to steel his heart. It wasn't something that he could resolve by worrying about it. Now was not the time to worry about it but to take action. One small comfort he had was the ability he gained from the ancient relic.

"Open the Crown's menu," Callyx instructed and a menu window that only he could see was brought up.

[Crown System Lv.0

Host: Callyx Wymborne [Earl of the Uxila Territory]

Status: Grade 0, Hu…exe

[Error found, system unable to synchronize with body and soul of Host. Host is found to be {unknown} race for system activation.]

[System booting…. Corrupt data has been neutralized, synchronization activate, body and soul analyze begin…

…

…

[Data collected. System will combine. Please stay on hold.]

…

…

[Certain Condition Detected. Requirements Met for Unlocking |Crown System]

[System booting… new data has been adapted successfully]

[Crown System Lv.1

Host: Callyx Wymborne [Earl of the Uxila Territory]

Status: Grade 0, Unknown

Strength – 45 Command – 75

Intellect – 55 Politics – 49

Special Trait – Charisma

Charisma LV.1: Able to use the carrot and stick appropriately to raise the loyalty of servants.

Territory – Seaside territory.

Population – 1,345 people.

Funds – 63 gold.

Main Products – Wheat, Barley, Oat.

Army Strength – 1 Knight, 3 Cavalry, 20 Infantry, 5 Archers.

Available Developments – Salt ]

He stood there with his mouth agape for quite a while. Milton, who had Ren Ramirez's knowledge, was familiar with such a thing.

"A game system…?"

He was able to check the status of his territory at a glance as if he was playing a simulation game. There was also something else he could find out. But he noticed the word unknown on the panel.

Callyx remembered the long barrage of notification came gushing out to his face.

"Why didn't the system consider me as a human." asked himself, but propt sounded instead

[Finding appropriate response for the host]

[FAILED, system unable to answer host. Host is below specified grade.]

"The fxck?!"

Callyx breathe slowly and tried to keep his head cool.

"Let's just postpone the queries for now, since I can not to anything about it."

Once he willed it 'closed' it faded from the forefront of his mind. This was essentially a notification. He has the urge to explore his ace card, yet he remembered something he needed to do first.