Interlude

Waking up from a miserable night of nightmares and anxiety-filled dreaming, Sam pondered what to do with his time. He originally thought of warning his parents of the incoming threats but, after hearing about this perpetrator who is unjustly terrifying his family, he decided that it would bring no new news and instead probably make his parents even more scared for their lives.

Sitting upright on his bed, he envied those protagonists which had a clear plan on what to do and how reality warped to fit their needs. However, the reality wasn't like that as the world doesn't revolve around one person.

"What to do... What to do... Should I go adventure around and try to build up my views on this new-found land? All I know of this world is that the capital is called 'Framila', the state I am in is called 'Mildaruk State' and this state is a part of an alliance called 'The Holy Alliance of Five States'. Of course, that's assuming that the Dungeons of Framilia was in the capital. I know barely anything about the rest of the world or this country and I do not know the hierarchy in this world, although I'm sure that it can't be much different from Earth's..." Sam thought before walking to the door.

"May as well do that, then. There's no reason to think about what to do and have no time to do it at the end of the day." Sam nodded to himself, opening the door and making his way to the front of the manor.

His household's manor seemed to be quite large, mostly donning the colour scheme of blue and white, which assaulted Sam's eyes quite a bit.

"Couldn't they use a darker colour? This is more blinding than the gold and white colouring of Heaven!" Sam scolded the architects of the building silently, a look of disapproval on his face.

Suddenly, a worried servant came running to him like a wounded dog running to its owner.

"Master Samuel, master Samuel... Wh-what's wrong? Is something not right? We are currently cooking your breakfast so please, wait just a few more minutes. Please don't get angry, we're doing all that we can and we can't afford to lose another servant..." Said the servant in a cowardly voice.

Sam chuckled at this sight as he remembered seeing this face in his flashback. His name was Nathan, a scrawny head servant who had to deal with the preparation of food, cleaning and attending to Samuel himself.

In the past, the previous owner of Samuel's body had not been kind to the hardworking servants at the manor, often bursting out into rage-filled tantrums over the smallest details, usually consisting of food being a few seconds early or a few seconds late or, albeit rare, seeing a speck of dust on a treasured item.

Seeing Samuel chuckle, Nathan jumped back a bit in retreat before a look of bewilderment appeared on his face.

"Are you all right, young master? Is something wrong?" The head servant enquired once more. He'd heard of the situation which happened and didn't know whether him hitting his head had caused some brain injury or memory loss.

Deep down, Nathan wished for Samuel to forget his mean-spirited ways from his incident and perhaps treat him a little bit better. After all, he had been close to walking out many times within the past few years due to Samuel's uncontrolled tantrums. However, he had always stayed due to the comforting looks and awards given by the noble parents who often felt bad for Nathan, frequently apologising to him for Samuel's behaviours.

Seeing this chuckle from Samuel, a glimmer of hope shone in his mind as he believed that this change had come, relieving him of his worries. Yet, he still had to be cautious, this all could be a ploy or a misunderstanding, after all. He quickly stood straight as a plank as he awaited Samuel's orders.

"Ah, nothing. How long will it take until breakfast? I need to hurry off to somewhere if you don't mind." Sam said in a warm and comforting voice, believing that he should be friendly with his servants now, relieving them of their long-due stress. He had always been an advocate for treating everyone equally when reading webnovels, dropping them as soon as he saw any unnecessary violence towards commoners and leaving bad reviews after storming the comments with negativity.

Nathan was taken aback when he heard these words flow out of Samuel's mouth. His wish had come true! Had the Gods realised the harsh conditions of his life and rewarded him for his hard work and positive work ethic?

"It will only take a few minutes! Hah, speak of the devil, breakfast is coming this way now! It's your favourite, medium-rare steak with a side of roasted pork covered in garlic and pepper. Also, where are you going? I'll escort you to help you just in case we have another incident on our hands." Nathan exclaimed in pure ecstasy, with a tone of disapproval at the end of his remark.

Although Samuel didn't like pork that much on Earth, he didn't mind it and simply nodded at the head servant before responding.

"I'll just be exploring the area. I'm way too bored and I have nothing else to do. I appreciate your offer but I believe that I can handle myself properly." Sam responded in kind before his words were cut off by the reprimanding yell of his father from across the hallway.

"O' no you don't, young man. You still have a lot of homework which you missed while you were unconscious from the incident. Your school had to deliver the stack of papers to our door last night while you were sleeping soundly. You have until the end of today to get all of that homework done or else you won't have supper tonight! I want them done to an acceptable standard worthy of our noble name or else you won't hear the end of it!" Bellowed his father, his words betraying his comforting smile on his face.

Although Samuel wanted to respond, he couldn't betray his father's expectations when it was clear as day that his father didn't want to upset him and only yelled for his good.

Unexpectedly, after hearing his harsh words, the system alerted in his mind.

"Ding!

New Quest!

Finish all the homework set. (Expires in 24 hours)

Quest Information: Complete all homework set by the Prestigious School of Framilia within 24 hours.

Rewards: Finish to a high standard: 50 Power Stones & +10 Reputation for 'Prestigious School of Framilia' & +5 Familial Reputation

Finish to a low standard: 10 Power Stones & -10 Reputation for 'Prestigious School of Framilia' & -5 Familial Reputation

Accept? (Y/N)

Warning: Refusal will result in a beating, taking approximately 10 HP away from your maximum health and your familial reputation will be lowered by 25 temporarily (30 days)"

After reading the last segment, he quickly gulped down a ball of saliva as he hurriedly yelled: "Accept!"