CHAPTER 291: THE BIG BAD WOLF [PART 1]

After leaving the clock tower, Alex took a stroll around the academy without a destination in mind.

The chat he had with Latifa swirled around his head, and he wondered whether he should ask Dim Dim for advice.

Alex sighed. He remembered when he first arrived in this world, in the body of his game character, Alex Stratos. All he felt then was excitement and happiness, believing he had been given a second chance at life.

Now, he felt complicated. The body he possessed right now seemed to hold secrets that even he didn’t know.

The fact that Latifa saw the memories of his game character instead of his memory proved that "Alex Stratos" had his own memories.

But what he found most peculiar was the memories Latifa saw of him as a baby, held by a King. Latifa also claimed seeing a young Alex, around nine to ten years old, being pursued by armed warriors and protected by a knight holding a shield with a Gryphon emblem.

He couldn’t be certain, but the old knight whom the fox lady described perfectly matched the Guardian of the North, Luthor Vademont. He was Rowan’s great, great-grandson, who had sworn to protect the Royal Family.

When Alex had played the game ELO for the first time, he chose the Aetherian Empire as the starting point.

There, he met the Unique NPC, Luthor Vademont, also known as the Guardian of the North. At that time, he wasn’t Alex Stratos. He was still testing the game to have a feel of what it was like, so he had used a random one.

After playing the game for a while, he didn’t expect to be so moved by Luthor’s Story Quest.

A Guardian who wasn’t able to protect the prince he vowed to protect.

As such, Alex decided to create a new character and named it Alex Stratos.

Inspired by the knight’s storyline, he connected his character’s lore to the plotline, citing himself as the lost prince of the Aetherian Empire, whose true name was Aetherius Alexian Vademont.

He explained his new name as a disguise for until the arrival of the prophesied time for him to fulfill his destiny. Before then, the world shall know him as Alex Stratos.

There were other things written in his lore, but the gist revolved around this setting.

Alex sighed deeply, now knowing that the Aetherian Empire did exist.

Its King was still in his prime and still commanded the strongest empire in the continent.

However, if what Latifa said was true, then things might become veeeeeeeeeery complicated.

’Should I travel to the North during the summer vacation?’ Alex thought.

If he didn’t spend a long time in the North, he would be able to return before the start of his second school term in the academy.

Alex hadn’t included the background of his character for his future plans during his stay in Arcana, but if he really was part of the Royal Family, he might need to change his approach moving forward.

He had also considered the possibility that he was a bastard child of the King, which might be the reason why he was being pursued by some armed forces and protected by the Guardian of the North.

’But the Guardian of the North had failed to protect the prince under his protection,’ Alex mused. ’Wait... if that prince is actually me—did I die?!’

Alex immediately tossed this idea aside. He couldn’t possibly be the prince who died.

Why?

Because he didn’t even know the name of that prince!

It was not mentioned in the story, so he just created the name Aetherius Alexian Vademont in his character’s lore.

The chances of that being the name of the Prince was next to impossible, and Alex was more inclined to believe that the dead prince in the story had a different name.

’Yeah... I mean I have zero chance of having similar names with the prince, right?’ Alex crossed his arms, while deep in thought as he continued to walk.

However, a second later, he bumped into something.

"Kyaaaah!"

"Ugooh!"

Alex felt as if all the air in his lungs was expelled from his body as he crashed on the ground after getting hit by something fast.

The young man groaned as he tried to prop himself up from the ground.

His gaze then landed on a young lady who was holding her head and kneeling on the ground, clearly in pain after colliding with him.

He was very tempted to tell her to watch where she was going, but since he was also guilty of not paying attention to his surroundings, he couldn’t really blame her.

Alex even thought that it was his fault that the young lady got hurt, so he immediately tried to help her, and apologize.

"I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking," Alex said as he endured the pain in his chest. "Are you hurt?"

The young lady finally raised her head, and looked at Alex with teary eyes.

"Ah!"

"Huh?!"

Alex came face to face with a young elf lady with long silver hair and a pair of blue eyes that could melt anyone who gaze at her.

"You are..." Lapiz blinked.

"Your future husband," Alex completed her sentence without hesitation.

"... No. You’re Alex Stratos."

"That’s right. That’s the name of your future husband."

"..."

Alex, who had finally regained his senses, wanted to smack himself silly. What was wrong with him!? How could he mention something absurd in front of the young lady again?

He had forgotten that the main reason he ran away from the clock tower was due to this very same dialogue!

Alex lightly coughed and offered his hand to help Lapiz stand up. He wasn’t expecting for her to take her hand since they weren’t that close.

But to his surprise, the young elf reached out and grabbed his hand firmly.

After helping her to stand up, Alex reluctantly let go of her hand and looked at the young elf who had collided with him out of the blue.

"Are you alright?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Lapiz replied, still rubbing her head with her left hand. "I’m alright. It’s my fault for using wind magic to increase my speed and running on the academy grounds."

Suddenly, Alex’s eyes widened in shock because he remembered this exact same scene in the game.

Lapiz was running away because she and her sister had an argument, and she hurriedly left their dormitory in order to find a place to think.

’If I remember correctly, this is the time when Lapiz decided to quit Obsidian Fangs, believing she’s not qualified to be part of it,’ Alex thought as he recalled the event.

However, there were no multiple-choice answers for this event.

It would simply be Lapiz having a one-sided hit-and-run event with the Protagonist, which would be the spark of her romance route at a later time.

But seeing how hurt she looked right now, the young man couldn’t possibly be shameless and take advantage of her current state of weakness.

"I don’t know what’s bothering you, but do you want someone to talk to?" Alex asked.

"... My sister said I shouldn’t interact with the Blackmail King," Lapiz replied. "She said that if we cross paths with each other, I should run away in the opposite direction."

’Damn you, Aeris!’ Alex cursed one of the Main Heroines in his heart. ’You’re my future sister-in-law, and you’re doing this to me? Hmph! Just wait until the Third Arc. I’ll get back at you!’

Lapiz had no idea what Alex was thinking, but for some reason, she thought that the young man in front of him was like a big bad wolf, who was about to eat her whole.