After sending Hong Bi-Yeon off, Hong Si-hwa came to find the mage Milkenen, who was her original goal. It was to discuss the "Aslan Seminar," which only the best and most promising candidates could attend.

"Hmm...."

However, she came earlier than expected and Milkenen hadn't arrived yet. She sat in the reception room, sipping her tea quietly, but it was quite boring.

"Was that too much?"

It would surely hurt Hong Bi-Yeon since she mentioned her older sister.

"No, it has to be this way."

Because she had suppressed her emotions.

Mentioning her older sister... It was a painful matter for her as well, but she couldn't help it.

For the greater cause, she had to act cold-blooded in front of Hong Bi-Yeon.

"Princess."

"Yes, what's the matter?"

While flicking her fingers quietly, Hong Si-hwa turned her head with a big smile when her magic knight called her.

"I received a file from a Stella representative, and it briefly describes the past of a student named Baek Yu-Seol."

"Oh~ really? I wonder if the past that couldn’t be dug out no matter how hard I try is written there."

"I'm not sure either. However, when I asked the professors who read it, they seemed to hesitate and avoided giving a clear answer."

"Is that so~?"

In that case, regardless of its truth, it could be an interesting story written there.

"Great. Let's take a look right away."

Rip!

Hong Si-hwa lightly tore open the envelope and took out the contents. When she saw the title, she burst into a sly laugh.

[Title: Dear Mother]

"Ahaha, so the kid is still a kid, huh?"

Moreover, starting with the phrase "I miss my mother" from the first sentence, laughter naturally came out for some reason.

"What a cute little kid…"

With that thought, Hong Si-hwa slowly read through the letter.

And the more she read, the more her expression loosened.

"Hmm...."

In there, a story presumed to be Baek Yu-Seol’s past was written like a poem.

It was a story about Baek Yu-Seol’s childhood in which even going out for a meal was difficult due to poverty.

“..... Poverty."

Most of the staff and students at Stella were either nobles or wealthy.

Poverty?

If one were to be close to such a thing, they wouldn't even be able to come near Stella in the first place.

It was the same for Hong Si-hwa. Poverty was just a distant story to her, and it was only a matter of barely getting by.

There was no need to pay attention to it.

After all, there was an immense distance between them and her. Since there was no relationship, there was no need to care…

However, Baek Yu-Seol’s writing vividly described the pain of poverty.

Every day, exhausted from eating boiled ramen, the naive Baek Yu-Seol begged his mother to eat something delicious.

Unable to afford proper meals, his mother had to dip into their emergency fund.

But for some reason, his mother only ordered a bowl of jjajangmyeon.

And for another reason, his mother didn't eat the jjajangmyeon.

"Mom, you said you don't like jjajangmyeon, right?"

In an instant, something welled up in Hong Si-hwa's heart.

The naive son didn't understand.

He didn't understand his mother's feelings when she couldn't afford more than a cheap bowl of jjajangmyeon because they had no money.

He only realized it after he grew up.

His mother didn't actually dislike jjajangmyeon.

"This... this is the past..."

She never imagined it. She simply thought he was just a slightly peculiar commoner.

She had never deeply thought about poverty, not even once.

Regardless of how the impoverished commoners managed to live, she didn't know.

But, Baek Yu-Seol lived like that.

Fighting against poverty where he couldn't even afford a single bowl of jjajangmyeon, he persevered and entered Stella Academy as a "knight" while carrying that belief.

Living like that, full of regrets, he was still able to smile in the end.

Perhaps it was because he had been accepted into Stella Academy.

… Then suddenly, Hong Si-hwa remembered the information she had investigated about Baek Yu-Seol’s past.

"The day before he entered the academy, Baek Yu-Seol’s hometown was razed by dark mages.”

“Zero survivors.”

“All of his family, neighbors, residents, and friends turned into dew and vanished."

"What is this..."

As Hong Si-hwa read further, her expression contorted.

She didn't even realize that her own face had changed strangely. Nevertheless, she tried to finish reading Baek Yu-Seol’s writing.

But she couldn't.

When she read the sentence stating that his mother fell into a deep sleep and never woke up again, her vision blurred.

"Oh, wait... Why is this happening?"

She was embarrassed by such emotions rising inside her since it was her first time.

Milkenen, who arrived late to the reception room, opened the door and entered abruptly.

"Oh, sorry for being late, Princess. There was a meeting... Huh?"

Milkenen met eyes with Princess Hong Si-hwa and momentarily doubted if she was the princess he knew.

She certainly looked like Hong Si-hwa... But weren't her eyes moist with tears?

"Prin-Princess...?"

Only then did Hong Si-hwa belatedly realize her own condition and wipe away her tears. However, she had already revealed her 'emotions' to Milkenen.

"Oh, no..."

It was an emotion she had hidden her entire life.
She had been caught off guard in the most unbelievable way.

But the tears wouldn't stop.

Because the last sentence kept echoing in her mind, and she couldn't rationalize it.

"Please go back today."

Since it was Milkenen's reception room, Hong Si-hwa should be the one to leave. However, Milkenen nodded to show the understanding.

"Please do so."

As Milkenen quietly left the room, Hong Si-hwa leaned against the sofa, accepting the handkerchief handed by her knight.

"Sigh... It feels like I have gone crazy. Don't you think so?"

While still sniffling from her runny nose, Hong Si-hwa looked at her knight, who simply bowed his head.

With a dejected smile, Hong Si-hwa gazed out the window. She couldn't forget the text she had just read. Perhaps she would never be able to forget it for the rest of her life.

There was one incredible secret in this world that he had discovered in his 29 years of life.

"Jajangmyeon tastes best when ordered from a jjamppong restaurant.”

This was by no means a joke.

It was a fact certified by 27 million jajangmyeon maniacs. The reason why he mentioned it was because the opposite applied as well.

"Jjamppong tastes best when ordered from a jajangmyeon restaurant."

For that reason, he always searched for specialized jajangmyeon restaurants to order jjamppong. In truth, he was not particularly fond of jajangmyeon, and he generally enjoyed spicy food, so jjamppong was a dish he frequently sought out.

{TN:- Jajangmyeon is a popular Korean-Chinese noodle dish that features a thick, black bean sauce (jajang) served over noodles. While Jjamppong is a popular Korean spicy seafood noodle soup. It is typically made with a spicy red broth flavored with gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes) and various seafood such as shrimp, clams, mussels, squid, and vegetables like onions, carrots, and cabbage.}

Thanks to the leakage of mana, Baek Yu-Seol’s basal metabolic rate was quite high, so after ordering three bowls of jjamppong, he had to order tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) to feel truly full.

{TN- Tangsuyuk, also known as sweet and sour pork, is a popular Korean-Chinese dish. It consists of deep-fried pork that is coated in a crispy batter and then served with a tangy sweet and sour sauce.}

He originally wanted to order one more, but he refrained from doing so because there were more than five people gathered, and he was worried about getting reported.

‘Slurp! Activate voice output.’

[Activating voice output. What would you like me to read?]

The Sentient Spec had lost many functions, but they still possessed quite a variety of features. Among them, the most frequently used feature was the automatic storage of the text he read.

However, not all information was recorded in the Sentient Specs, so from time to time, he still went to the library to read books.

Well, he pretended to read.

"Read me the beginning of the Kukutl War and the origination of the Persona Gate."

[The Beginning of the Kukutl War. Chapter 1…]

He didn't have to read the book with his own eyes. The Sentient Spec had an excellent feature of reading books aloud.

Thanks to that, he could efficiently use his time by listening to books while eating or doing physical training.

[Kukutl was later named 'empty and meaningless' by humans.]

The name stuck.

This history book started with the thought that this world had become his reality. It was not bad to keep that in mind and start reading.

When Baek Yu-Seol was playing the game, he skipped all the stories, but he started reading the history book since there would be nothing wrong in learning a word or two about the world that had become a reality.

But this wasn’t bad either.

No, honestly, it was really interesting.

When you hear about the world's history, don't you usually imagine something dull?

Like who did what during the X Dynasty or what Napoleon did.

But the history of this world was infused with the element of 'fantasy,' and each part was filled with truly intriguing elements.