Returning to his room, Ryan lay on his bed and looked out the window at the distant clouds.
Dark clouds were gathering, but it didn’t look like it would rain today. It would probably rain tomorrow.
As he watched the clouds, his mind wandered.
He had confirmed that his father had no interest in him. He didn’t care whether he was alive or dead; if he were dead, he might care more, not in a good way, but because he would think he had finally gotten rid of a nuisance.
At first, he thought Brandon had changed history, thus affecting the fact that his father chose to send him to that place and that no one protested. But now he understood: that wasn’t the case.
It was simply that his father and most people considered him useless, possibly a disgrace to the royal family. They didn’t think he was worth investing in, and this, in part, made a lot of sense.
Among the nine princes, even the eighth was a professor at Blue Eden Central University, a renowned puppeteer, and a history lover. And he is only four years older than Ryan.
Meanwhile, Ryan was in a sorry state. At 20 years old, he had not become a Walker. Although there is no specific age for this, it is miserable and demonstrates a lack of talent.
Therefore, it was normal that they didn’t like him. After all, the strong have the right to express their opinions.
But somehow, that didn’t make him feel good. Perhaps those were the feelings of the original Ryan. He had to force himself not to think about nonsense, setting about creating the strategy he would follow the next day.
After all, there was nothing he could do. He understood this world. It is a world prone to despising those who are weak, sometimes to an exaggerated degree. This was nothing new; the world had been created that way by its original author.
In fact, he spent the first half of his first life in this place, avoiding clichés, as they bothered him most about the novel. Luckily for him, the second novel took a more mature approach, leaving the clichés aside a little.
Unfortunately for him, he was the protagonist’s brother. He was prone to them. But having one of those clichés of contempt happen to him with his father didn’t feel right. It was the old Ryan roaring to be accepted.
Although this was also his "fault", he had entered the body of a prince who died at the novel’s beginning and managed to survive. These are the consequences of entering the body of an undeveloped character.
He could suppress these intrusive feelings and simply began to devise a strategy.
Thus, the day passed quickly.
--
Brandon is one of those people who goes to bed very late and gets up very early, but he is not affected by sleep.
A few hours of sleep is enough for his body to recover.
He is often envied by most of his siblings precisely because of this. But it is just a small trait of his, which he inherited from his father.
Today was no exception; he even woke up earlier than usual. His room was decorated in purple and gold, and overall, it had few striking decorations.
The few were made specifically to enhance a hand-painted picture of a couple by a famous painter in the kingdom.
He and his beloved.
After getting up and getting ready, he walked over to where the painting hung on the wall and looked at it for a long time.
"I’m about to go on a mission, Rachel," he murmured. His voice trembled as he spoke, but his body remained steady.
"I’m sure you’d be very happy to know that the ruin we discovered when we were children gave me great power and the chance to obtain even greater power, right? Haha."
"The ability I told you about the other day even allowed me to influence some of my father’s decisions, so I’m more than satisfied. Little by little, I’ve become the Author of our story. Thanks to that, I reached the Plan Changer Level, and if all goes well, I could soon be a Senior Strategist." A small smile formed on his face.
He thought he had the tender smile that Rachel liked to see, but if he were looking at himself right now, even he would feel afraid.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t see himself and didn’t care either.
After several seconds, he stopped smiling, and a tear fell from his right eye.
"Don’t worry, Rachel. I’ll create your story again. The Key to the Divine Door will be mine. I’ll ensure that, and I’ll be the Author you always wanted me to be."
There’s less and less time left. He repeated this to himself over and over again.
Brandon spent many minutes staring at the image on the wall. Perhaps nothing was going through his mind—only memories of the past.
A past that fate had decided to erase. But he... was going to rewrite it.
Suddenly, a feather brush with a golden tip appeared in his hand.
"Chained Edition," he said.
Suddenly, the room shook.
His ability could be used again. It was time to change the game, once more.
"It’s been a plan for many months, but..." His smile blossomed, as did his intentions on a semi-transparent paper floating before him.
It was time to change plans.
--
Dawn broke quickly, and Ryan woke up very early. He had once been a hunter who always had to keep his senses alert, so he didn’t usually sleep much, unless he was very exhausted.
Although he was no longer a hunter, the habit would not go away so easily. Besides, it helped that the owner of this body was a voracious reader, just as he had been on Earth. He used to stay up late reading and get up very early to continue reading.
So his body was not affected by the fact that Ryan had gotten up early.
After getting ready, he met up with the people who were going on the mission at the south exit of the castle.
When he arrived...
He frowned.
’What about these people?’ he thought, astonished.
There were a considerable number of people, at least 200.
’Didn’t Captain Garner cancel the recruitment?’ he thought.
He started looking for Captain Garner somewhere, but he wasn’t there.
He saw Max training with one of Brandon’s subordinate guards, so he approached him.
"Ryan, you’re here!" Max immediately stopped to greet him.
"I see you got up early," Ryan said.
"Haha, of course. I was anxious, so I couldn’t sleep much."
Ryan nodded and looked at the crowd of people present. "Did it always have to be so many? I heard that the maximum for this raid was 50."
Max nodded and wiped the sweat from his brow. "One of Lord Brandon’s researchers, an expert in Inanimate Destiny magic, told him it was better to bring more people. So he brought more."
Ryan raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "And that’s it?" he asked.
"Hm? Yes, isn’t it? We have to do what the leader says."
Once again, he was perplexed.
’Damn it, only an idiot who is good at divination magic on inanimate objects would tell him it was a good idea to bring more than 200 people, and everyone agreed to bring more people? It could cause the Ruin to collapse! Clearly, it wasn’t an expert in divination who said that; that bastard must have changed the plans!’ he complained.
Luckily for him, Brandon’s changes couldn’t alter a person’s thoughts, so he didn’t have to worry about everyone present’s intentions.
On the outside, he showed nothing but a poker face.
Just then, he heard a voice behind him.
"Young Master Ryan, what are you doing here?" The voice sounded concerned, and he recognized it, so he turned around and nodded.
"Arnold, long time no see. I thought you were with my brother in the South."
"I returned yesterday. The King summoned me to assist Lord Brandon in this ruin... I did not expect to see you among the participants."
Ryan smiled and nodded to Max to go train, then stepped aside with Arnold. In his memory, he is a kind person—too kind. However, he did not participate in this mission during the novel, which is another significant change.
"What’s going on, young master? Were you forced to come? I heard that the King..."
"Shh." Ryan gestured for him to be quiet, shaking his head. "Don’t talk about it. The rocks have ears these days."
"..." He nodded, silent but concerned.
"Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I’m more intrigued by your presence here. Why would a subordinate of the first prince have to help the third prince with his missions?" he asked.
"Haha, I don’t know. The king just asked me to come, without warning."
Ryan nodded and looked ahead.
’Something’s up... I see people connected to the First and Second Brothers here. Why? What are you up to, Brandon?’
"Young Master, don’t you find it strange?" Arnold asked suddenly.
"What?" Ryan looked back at him.
"Those people... don’t you feel that they are strange?"
Although Ryan turned to stare at them for more than three minutes, he couldn’t find anything strange.
Even so, Arnold wouldn’t say something without reason. He’s not the kind of man who talks just for the sake of talking. They must have something; perhaps he could see it thanks to Spirituality.
"What do you feel when you see them?" he asked, and Arnold didn’t know how to respond.
"I think Lord Brandon shouldn’t have brought strangers here. They might be up to something, since they look a little strange, but telling him would be disrespectful," he said, looking at him sideways, as if trying to tell him that Brandon might change his mind if he told him.
But this was enough for Ryan to understand a few things.
Brandon would never bring a stranger he didn’t trust on a mission like this. Every successful mission like this earns him points, so he would only bring people he trusted.
If Arnold said they were strangers, he had to believe him, since he knew everyone in the castle better than anyone else. But if Brandon brought them, he must have some power over them. That made them very dangerous.
’Besides, he wouldn’t change plans at the last minute just to bring in strangers. But I don’t understand what’s going on,’ he thought. This was a little stressful, but he stopped worrying about such nonsense.
He looked at Arnold, who was giving him some things.
"Young Master, since I don’t know what might be inside that ruin and what these foreigners are up to, take this with you. The Queen gave them to me for my journey. They are high-level potions." After passing him some items in a storage device, he took others from his own inventory.
"These are healing potions. Please take them with you. They will keep you safe."
After inspecting the contents and quantities, he looked back at Arnold. "You’ll run out of supplies if you give me so much of this," he said.
"It’s okay. I don’t need the higher-level ones; I’m a Walker. And you shouldn’t be going to that place, so you should use them. Remember, I’m a Laboratory Alchemist. I specialize in making healing and poisonous potions; I’ll just make more along the way."
Ryan nodded. He was still worried, but he nodded. He needed this kind of thing now more than ever.
Just then, Brandon appeared with his subordinates. At the same time, lightning struck.
It looked like it was going to rain heavily.
"Gentlemen, thank you for coming. On behalf of the King, I will say a few words."
"First, these carriages will take us to the designated location. Please begin boarding while I speak." As he ordered, everyone began to board while listening to him speak.