Daniel Smith walked inside a residential house with a grim expression.

Beside him was Officer Brown along with a few members of the police department.

Daniel had come to this house before, once, to confirm his analysis about Robin Varbin’s death.

It was the house of Lady Vina and her young daughter.

"...Where is the body?" Daniel asked grimly.

Mr. Brown pointed further in. "Both...are in the kitchen."

Daniel nodded his head and, with his cane in hand, began to walk towards the kitchen.

Before he reached it, he saw a pool of blood creeping out from under a closed door.

The blood was fresh with a strong smell of iron. Clenching his fist, Daniel opened the door.

The door creaked open and the inside of the kitchen reflected in his constricted eyes.

There were two dead bodies in the kitchen. One was a lady whose head had been broken from the neck.

Another dead body of a child lay on the side with a deep cut in her stomach.

It was her blood that was seeping out from under the door.

Daniel immediately felt nauseated but held back. Mr. Brown walked beside him.

His solemn voice echoed in Daniel’s ears.

"It seems like Lady Vina tripped on the broken floor and hit her head on the table hard, resulting in her broken neck. The child must have been trying to help but in her panic she fell on a knife, slowly dying from blood loss."

Daniel kept on listening without speaking himself.

He was observing the scene, playing out the different scenarios that could have happened.

Taking in a deep breath, he composed himself and asked. "Have you informed their family members?"

"We tried." Officer Brown replied grimly. "They had Robin’s sister who lives in Riverdale Port and Lady Vina’s brother who lives in the capital city of Solara."

Daniel turned his gaze to look at the officer, an odd feeling settling over him. "...And?"

Officer Brown had a complicated look on his face as he replied. "...Both of their families died as well....And from the initial report, they died around the same time as Lady Vina."

Daniel had a hard time believing it, and at the same time he was noticing something amiss.

He slowly walked back and silently looked around the house.

"...I remember Robin Varbin obtained an Artifact and used it before being pursued by the Red Crown Society."

Officer Brown spoke in a deep and hoarse voice, like he was trying not to say the words.

"...Do you think it’s the negative effect of that Artifact?"

Daniel didn’t say anything, but his silence said it all.

---

[Capital City, Solara.]

"So you are saying your roommate is Prince Valkor?"

Kevin asked, looking at Mikhail with a grin on his face.

"Damn, looks like someone can climb the social ladder just by kissing ass."

"I am not going to be his servant." Mikhail scoffed in response.

It hadn’t even been a day and he was already tired of being with a prince who was nothing but a big baby.

Almost every time he caught a glimpse of the prince, he was sticking close to Odette.

’It’s like he can’t even live without that woman.’

Mikhail grumbled as they both walked left from an intersection.

They had already decided which subjects they would be pursuing.

Most of their classes would overlap, such as Rift Biology, Understanding Weapons and History.

Those were the three major subjects they had chosen, along with two minor subjects: Social Understanding and Economics.

’Though, I am not really interested in anything except History.’

Mikhail had already made different plans to get inside a rift. He wanted to make contributions with the churches and the Hunter Association to access better rifts.

’I can grow at least ten times faster inside a rift than outside.’

He set a short term goal of reaching level 20 as quickly as possible.

After walking for almost three minutes, they finally reached the room for the freshers’ subject consultant.

Knock! Knock!

Mikhail knocked on the door before stepping back.

"Come in."

A female voice echoed from inside.

Mikhail opened the door and walked into a rather large room with a large desk.

On the chair at the centre sat a lady with a rather aged face. She had patches of grey hair among the lush black.

Fixing her gold glasses, she smiled at them. "How can I help you?"

Mikhail and Kevin both put their subject forms down in front of her.

She picked them up, raising her head slightly to read.

Mikhail quickly took a peek at her name plate. Her name was Linda Mardom.

"Social Understanding class, huh?" She said with a soft smile. "You two aren’t nobles."

"Ah, yes." Mikhail replied. "We wish to take that class as it won’t be too important to attend."

The lady nodded her head and didn’t argue. It was well known that the Social Understanding class was just an extra.

"Though, I will have to warn you." She said in a gentle tone. "This time they chose a teacher from the Conservative party."

There were two houses in the parliament that passed bills.

And in the House of Commoners there were two parties: the Liberal party and the Conservative party.

The Conservative party had members who didn’t want to forget the past and vowed to kill every other race. They were essentially pro-war.

The Liberal party was the opposite, wanting to cooperate with other races to find a way to end the endless opening of rifts.

Mikhail frowned when he heard that, feeling rather perplexed. ’Why would the apolitical university hire someone like that?’

Lady Linda didn’t say anything else. She approved their curriculum and gave them their timetable.

They both thanked her and walked out of the room before heading back to the dormitory.

Mikhail glanced at Kevin and asked in a casual tone. "Conservative or Liberal?"

Kevin didn’t take even a second to reply. "I fucking hate them both."

Mikhail chuckled and didn’t say anything else in response.

---

Once Mikhail reached his room, he glanced towards the staircase where Kevin was entering his own room.

’I wonder how this guy will pass history class.’

Mikhail was sure Kevin wholeheartedly believed he would help him pass.

Mikhail shook his head and tried to open the door but it was locked from the inside.

’Is the prince a fucking idiot?’

Mikhail grumbled inwardly and took out his key.

But just as he was about to put it in, he paused.

’What if....’

Mikhail put the key down and bent low enough to look inside.

Just as he expected, he saw the prince lying on the sofa.

But what made him speechless was what he was doing.

While lying on the sofa, he had his head on Ma’am Odette’s lap.

...In his mouth was the lady’s breast, which the prince was suckling like a newborn baby.

’....’

Mikhail quietly turned around and walked towards Kevin’s room.