- The Grussiva Family

For 3 days, he feigned sleeping when there was someone around to serve him, while the rest of the time, he trained himself in controlling his mana.

Afterward, he spared some of his time at night reading books in the mansion's library, focusing on Drago's family history, family tree, and those of Drago's personality. After all, he did not gain any memories when he swapped souls with him.

There, he discovered that Drago's last name was Grussiva and that his complete birth name was Derek Alfonse Grussiva. His family had a long line of Dragon Knights who swore loyalty to the Kingdom of Grimley. The first Dragon Knight was a half-dragon known as Legna or by his real name Luive Esdale Grussiva, his great-great-great-great grandfather. Half-dragons had problems conceiving children and it was rare for a generation to even have two. To maintain the "Half-dragon lineage", the Half-dragon of the pair will need to transfuse their blood to one of the next generations through a ritual, effectively passing on the title of Dragon Knight. In Drago's case, his father died in battle before he was at the age ready to receive his blood, and forcing the ritual would have risked his death, ending the family line.

He had to wait for 5 years before undergoing the ritual and his father's blood was preserved. Aside from the efficacy of the preserved blood deteriorating after 5 years, an incident occurred during the ritual which resulted in the purity of his dragon blood being the lowest among all the generations of Dragon Knights in the family. Otherwise, he would not only be the strongest hero of Grimley, he might even be able to defeat the 4 King's guards even if they banded together against him.

However, Zex counted himself lucky after he experienced those 3 days of training in mana control. If Drago was half-blood, he would not have won the battle at Castle Nalva, nor would he be able to use his mana even for a little bit after just 3 days.

He could only imagine how Drago's father fell in battle. The records only cited his death from a battle against a formidable invading kingdom and that his death was deep within enemy lines right after killing the enemy commander and taking out a few generals and thousands of men. He wondered how much of that was real and how much was exaggerated. However, when he recalled the power level of Drago in his draconic form, he had thoughts that the record understated the truth, most likely to save face that their army was not able to keep up with him.

Nevertheless, the fact that Drago's father was slain on the battlefield told him that there are much more deadly forces at play in this world.

For him to survive, he needed to become stronger.

After 6 days and 6 nights, he was able to grasp the structure of the whole kingdom's surface, the politics, and the situation of its inhabitants while having a grasp of Drago's personality and history.

The king of Grimley was benevolent. The Grussiva Family was one of the strongest retainers of the royal family ever since the kingdom's infancy, representing one of the 4 vineyard families who are the kingdom's cornerstones. Funnily enough, the estates of the four families are located at the four corners of the Kingdom with jurisdiction over the 8 outer districts made up of the lower and middle-class families.

He could not find any dirt on the king… at least not in the books he read. He can only take his research to the surface if he wishes to learn more.

Drago was an only child. His mother passed away years after his father died in battle, making him the head of this family.

Unfortunately, Drago was always at the forefront of battles ever since he trained as a knight of the kingdom. He never took a wife nor bore any children to his maids. Many accounts written in the books and letters touch on the topic of betrothal but were turned down by him. One letter was even sent by the king regarding his daughter, the first princess, to be promised to him. However, Drago was so stubborn that he earned the ire of both the king and the princess. This caused the king to halt any further assistance with regards to such issues and banned him from attending any balls held by the nobles, to which Drago thanked him.

"What a chad." Zex mused as he read about this but a thought dawned upon him the next second. "Wait! Was Drago gay?"

Although this disturbed him for a bit, he pushed it as far into the back of his mind as possible.

He wouldn't care less if his body previously belonged to a non-straight man, but if Drago had another man he is currently in a relationship with… the thought of himself having to act as a lover to another man dreaded him.

In his previous life, he never had a wife nor any kids because of a scar he had in his heart when he was a young adult. However, he had relationships here and there with women and wished to have a better chance in this world.

Recovering from this episode, he continued to formulate plans from the given information all through the night.

When the next morning came and the servant entered the room to clean and attend to him, he opened his eyes to the servant's surprise.

"M-my lord! You're awake!" The servant panicked and knelt to his side.

"Who… who are you?" Zex asked.

The servant stood up and bowed. "My name is Evia, my lord! Don't you remember me?"

"N-no… I… I can't remember." Zex said seemingly having a hard time as he was massaging his forehead with his palm.

Yes. He decided to play the amnesia card.

Hours later…

"He is suffering from memory loss. Although his body is in good shape, his blood flow is quite erratic. I just have no idea why. I suggest you call for the holy priests to send someone. He was in a battle against a Demon Lord, after all. I have a hunch that demonic energies are at play here." The physician explained to the head butler after he ran some tests on Zex's body.

The head butler nodded and ordered the servants to lead the doctor out.

Once it was only the head butler and Zex left the room, the former moved closer to Zex and bowed. Earlier, this guy introduced himself as Farlou before calling the doctor over.

"My lord. I shall request for a holy priest to check up on you in a few hours. Is there anything you need?" Farlou said courteously.

Hearing this, Zex closed his eyes and said: "Thank you. I'm fine."

Farlou nodded and bowed once more before taking his leave.

After all those days of training and incorporating Arissef's mana control techniques, he was able to regain his original level of [Mana Control] and was at the peak of the Grand Master level. This allowed him to once again be able to infuse black flames on individuals he encountered. Everyone who entered the room already carries black flames within their bodies and he could monitor their movements at any time. With his level of control and the minuscule amount he tagged them with, nobody will be able to detect them unless someone with 5 times the tracking skills of Edge observed them. Of course, he was also leeching off of their skills to expand his arsenal and gain experience.

He had a vague feeling that his [Mana Control] was about to grow even more soon. It was just that he still could not pinpoint how.

4 hours later, the holy priest arrived to inspect Zex's condition.

To the priest's surprise, a heavy trace of demonic energy was devouring Zex's soul. He quickly performed a high-tier purification spell on the spot to prevent any more damage from being done.

This alarmed the head butler and the servants as they were worried for their master. Or should I say, they were worried about their jobs?

When the spell was complete, the priest was sweating a lot and felt drained. He explained to the head butler that their master needed to rest for a few more days to recover, to which the head butler obliged.

For a few more days, Zex was infusing visitors with black flames allowing him to gain information, classes, skills, and experience, training mana control, and refining his Mana Core during the day, while reading in the library at night. Due to his blood and his mana, he didn't need any sleep to recover. However, he needed to eat a lot to replenish his energy faster and fix the damage to his body from when Drago used his draconic form.

This daily routine went on until the day he was summoned to the castle by the king.