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Only vampires and succubuses would have such looks in hell.

Considering how the shadow priest despised succubuses, it was not hard to deduce the man’s identity.

“How has he been?”

“So-so… How well can an ‘orphan’ fare? Esteemed Mister Lockser, I’m sure you can imagine it. That’s where demon kings are nurtured.”

“I know it’s strict there—”

“It’s not just that. Most students there are high demons from eminent clans, like you. A ‘pureblooded’ human like him has to tread carefully to avoid becoming the prey of other demons while attending classes.”

Faced with the shadow priest’s criticism, Lockser Clint looked a little uncomfortable. He reflexively tried to find excuses for his irresponsibility.

“I… didn’t think that he would walk this path. It would have been better if he became a clergyman serving His Majesty Demon God like Tiffany…”

Lockser sensed a murderous gaze and shuddered. He instinctively cut his words short.

He struggled to keep his head up before this shadow priest despite being an an eminent vampire duke. It had nothing to do with his strength or standing, but that this old shadow priest was the foster father of his deceased lover.

In other words, his father-in-law.

When his lover was dying of an ailment that couldn’t be treated by magic, he thick-skinnedly pleaded with his father-in-law to take in the crystallization of him and his lover—Roan.

Having an illegitimate child wasn’t honorable in hell either, especially one with a clergyman.

But he had no choice either.

Being born in an eminent clan like the Clints came with great responsibility. His hands were often tied, even when it came to his personal affairs.

The clan patriarch and elders wouldn’t allow an illegitimate child to dilute the Clints’ noble bloodline. No one in hell was more obsessed with bloodline purity than the vampires.

Shortly after Tiffany’s death, Lockser’s father coerced him to marry the eldest daughter of a branch family. The two of them had a son and a daughter together.

“You wanted him to become a clergyman? Hahaha! You must think of His Majesty Demon God’s church as an orphanage for you people’s illegitimate children!” Jeffrey scoffed before letting out a sigh.

He looked down on Lockser from the bottom of his heart, but he didn’t want to be too harsh on the latter either… There was no point saying anything now.

He had already said what he must eighteen years ago, and he didn’t want to repeat them again.

There was a pause before the aged shadow priest continued, “Roan… is a hardworking child. He knows what he wants, and he will slowly work toward it. He even came up with his name. Since you have decided not to involve him with the Clints, I hope that you’ll do what you say and not interfere with his life.”

“I know, I know,” Lockser replied with a weak smile.

He glanced at the divine idol placed at the chapel’s front with a hint of exhaustion and pride in his eyes.

“I was surprised. He’s more hardworking and outstanding than I have thought. There’s nothing he can do about his magic talent, but it’s something to achieve perfect scores for all his papers for two straight years… He might be more suited than me to be the next patriarch.”

While vampires wouldn’t die, that didn’t mean that they would be the patriarch for life.

At the turn of each century, the patriarch would hand the ‘King’ title, which symbolized the patriarch\'s position to the next generation and join the Elder Council.

However, this system meant that the Elder Council wielded tremendous power. Often, the incumbent patriarch would have no effective power in the first fifty years of his term, and he would be co-ruling with the Elder Council for the latter fifty years.

And a weak patriarch like him might just end up as the Elder Council’s chess piece for the entire hundred years of his term.

Looking at the indecisive man before him, Jeffrey calmly said, “I’ll remind you again that you have promised not to involve him in the Clints’ affairs.”

Just then, a bat flew into the church and landed on the long bench.

Jeffrey grabbed the copper tube attached to the bat’s leg and retrieved the letter stuffed inside. Then, he stuffed a note in as compensation. He waited for the bat to fly off before unfurling the letter to read it.

A smile formed on his lips.

After he was done with the letter, he passed it to Lockser. “It’s your son’s letter. I’d read it out for you, but it’d be better for you to read it yourself.”

Lockser received the letter and carefully unfurled it.

When he read that Roan had earned a Half God-tier lich’s favor by volunteering to become a demon king, and that he was recommended to the Inner Circle to shoulder heavy responsibility, Lockser immediately shot to his feet… but he quickly sat back down too.

“He has decided to become a demon king?!”

‘My child… is much braver than me.’

This left Lockser feeling ashamed, but at the same time, he was proud of his child.

Jeffrey nodded with a smile. “As you have seen, he is more outstanding than we think. He can do well without you and your clan’s support.

“I… don’t know what to say.” Lockser lowered his head in shame while clutching the letter.

“You don’t have to. Just quietly root for him from behind,” Jeffrey gently replied.

Lockser was silent for a long while before suddenly gritting his teeth. He took off the ring he wore on his forefinger and said, “Please pass this to him on my behalf.”

This ring might not be a formidable magic tool, but forged from expensive mythril and blood crystal, it could easily fetch five to six million kyrats.

Lockser, as the next patriarch, lived in abundance, but he didn’t have much spare money on hand as his father and his legitimate wife were keeping an eye on his expenses. The little bit of money he could squeeze out each month was all sent to this church.

Jeffrey pushed Lockser’s ring back and shook his head, saying, “It won’t be good for you or him if the Clints’ ring appears on the hand of an eighteen-year-old boy. Not only are you not helping him, but it might draw unwanted attention to him too.”

“But—”

Jeffrey stopped Lockser with a raise of his hand before continuing with a composed voice, “I didn’t hand him all the money you sent each month; I saved it on his behalf. There should be two million in his account now. Now that he’s eighteen and is about to take over a demon king domain, it’s time for this money to be put to good use.”

Lockser was first startled, but he soon trembled in excitement. He hadn’t expected his father-in-law to do so much for Roan.

“Thank you…” Lockser earnestly thanked Jeffrey.

Jeffrey smiled. He turned to the divine idol and replied, “Don’t thank me. He’s my grandson too.”

…

The following day, the purple chandelier above the Demon Capital lit up punctually as usual, casting gentle moonlight on the sleeping city.

To the demons of hell, ‘moonrise’ represented the start of a new day.

But what woke Roan from his sleep wasn’t the moonlight shining on his table’s edge but the knocking on his door.

“Roan, are you awake? It’s going to be the graduation ceremony soon. I’m heading to the canteen first. Do you want to come along?”

It was Egor.

As one of Roan’s few friends in Year 3 Class 2, the two of them would sometimes head to class together.

Roan shook his groggy head before propping himself off the ground.

“Give me a second, I’ll be—Forget it, I don’t think I’ll be done anytime soon. You should head there first. I’ll come right after.”

Roan saw his room’s messy state and changed his words halfway through.

Egor was perplexed, but he didn’t think too much about it. “All right, I’ll head there first.”

As the sound of Egor’s footsteps faded in the distance, Roan heaved a sigh of relief. He quickly got up to tidy up his messy room.

He was so engrossed in studying his fellow transmigrator’s diary last night that he fell asleep on the floor, but thanks to that, he managed to finish the book.

The diary’s content was fairly interesting. It might make him some decent money if he could bring it back to his old world and publish it on a website called NovelBin. He even came up with a name for the book—《This Otherworld Is Too Real》!

‘Maybe it can even climb up the monthly tickets ranking?’

The only problem was that this diary was written exactly like a diary. It was written from Isaac the Fourth’s perspective as someone from the modern world, so it was filled with complaints about the otherworld’s primitive culture and economy.

For instance, the noblewomen didn’t have the habit of bathing, and just their body odors nearly knocked him out during banquets.

There were also no cisterns in the palace toilet for flushing, and one had to be guarded against assassins hiding under the toilet while doing their business… and that was how one of Isaac the Fourth’s brothers got done in.

Similarly, there were also no light bulbs, smartphones, and internet here…

In gist, they were mundane complaints.

But the diary was also not all complaints. Isaac the Fourth had brought in his knowledge as a transmigrator to resolve these problems.

For instance, he revised the water supply network and sewage system of Lyon Kingdom’s capital. He also invented the printing press, steam engine, and fertilizers. If he had been given another twenty years, he might have started an industrial revolution.

If the diary’s content was true, Isaac the Fourth was, in no way, incompetent. From that angle, his title as ‘Incompetent King’ looked more like defamation attempts by those whose interests were threatened by him.

The diary didn’t mention what happened after the revolution, but it was recorded in 《Ors Empire Annals》 that Isaac the Fourth had faced divine retribution for committing blasphemy. Saint Sisto had personally issued a divine edict to excommunicate him.

Shortly after, the isolated Isaac the Fourth and his supporters came under the Ors Empire’s attack.

The advancements propagated by Isaac the Fourth persisted, but the Isaac Dynasty was destroyed in war. All that was left was the victors’ testimony.

A thousand years had passed since, and the Lyon Kingdom was currently in its third dynasty.

Roan was left with many questions about this piece of history.

Principal Evan mentioned that Isaac the Fourth wielded powers comparable to the gods at his peak, and the Isaac Dynasty was a powerful nation too. It was hard to believe that they would crumble to a single divine edict.

And how did Isaac the Fourth commit blasphemy? Did he do something that alarmed the gods?

It was a pity that the diary didn’t have the answers to what Roan was curious about. It abruptly halted after detailing Isaac the Fourth’s production of steam engine.

Nearing the end of his diary, Isaac the Fourth mentioned in passing that he was not suited for learning magic. The elements were averse to him as if he had insulted their mother, so he was destined to remain at Copper-tier till the day he died.

This passage showed that Isaac the Fourth was at Copper-tier when he wrote this diary, and it was through mortal means that he won the adulations of his fellow mortals.

It was probably many years later, after he instituted a series of reforms for the Lyon Kingdom, that he obtained power rivaling the gods.

Roan couldn’t care less about steam engines and the sort. Someone who had been through nine years of compulsory education like him wouldn’t be amazed by those things.

He was more interested to know how Isaac the Fourth overcame his Copper-tier bottleneck and rise to the ranks of the gods…

But that was absent in the diary!

‘Maybe that piece of information has been destroyed. Isaac the Fourth didn’t publish his diary in the end… Did he not want to, or was he unable to? Or is there something deeper behind this?’

Roan took a quick glance at Principal Evan’s research journal.

‘Well, he’s not completely off… At least he got the punctuations right. I should keep this journal. It contains a Half God-tier lich’s insights, after all. It might prove to be useful if I ever reach Half God or Master.’

Roan sighed in lamentation. He was about to close the diary and retire for the night when he spotted a few lines of words on its final page.

【I don’t think my transmigration is a coincidence. Someone else will come to this world in the same way after me… I don’t know if I should tell you the reason or whether you’ll get to see this diary if I wrote it down here.】

【You’ll most certainly be able to read this book and guess my identity if you’re my brethren… and you’ll also face the same dilemma as me in the future. I pray that if that day comes, you will understand your mission even without my interference.】

【Also, I prepared a special gift to welcome you. It’s the final item I left in this world, and I’m sure you’ll like it!】

These words were vastly different from the ones before, be it the calligraph or the ink quality. Isaac the Fourth likely added them in the heat of a moment many years after he wrote this diary.

He detailed the method to claim the ‘special gift’ at the bottom of the message.

It was a Copper-tier magic ritual.

It didn’t require a huge amount of psyche and mana, so Roan could still barely pull it off. The only problematic requirement was that one needed a relic containing Isaac the Fourth’s aura.

But the necklace he had received from Principal Evan satisfied that requirement!

Roan’s drowsiness vanished.

With an excited heart, he spent an hour drawing a magic formation with a mana chalk. He placed the necklace at the center of the formation before reading out the incantation, which, for some reason, was written in hanyu pinyin.

“Loyalty—strike the bell of grandness!

“Sincerity—fire the valves of the blazing furnace!

“Billow—let the water of purity dance to life!

“Praise—the great Machine God!”

‘Hm? The Machine God?’

Upon reading the final syllable, Roan saw a flash of white light before blacking out.

It was already the following morning when he opened his eyes once more.

He propped himself up from the floor, feeling a sharp pain at the back of his head as if he was suffering from a hangover.

This was his first time encountering this. He wasn’t sure if his headache was caused by him lying on the hard ground for the night or his mana being drained by the magic formation.

“My mana… didn’t decrease. Is the magic formation powered by something other than mana?”

Roan couldn’t find anything that could be called ‘special gift’ either, and that left him wondering if he had been fooled.

‘What’s going on?’

While he was wiping off the magic formation and tidying up the room, a very important question surfaced in his mind.

“…Where’s the necklace?”

Roan anxiously scoured the room, even pulling open the innocent drawers of his study table and emptying their contents, but the necklace was nowhere to be found.

‘It’s gone?’

Roan’s face slowly darkened.

‘I wonder if Principal Evan will die of anger a second time if he learns that I lost his antique on the very day he gave it to me… Should I spill the truth and tell him that the ‘encrypted words’ in the diary are a language from another world, and Isaac the Fourth is a transmigrator like me…’

“No… That won’t work.”

Roan’s forehead was slick with sweat. It would have been easier for him to tell that old monster that he had lost his necklace.

“I need to calm down first.”

He took a deep breath to compose himself before thinking things through.

It was then he noticed that something was amiss in his psyche. Something he had never seen before was hiding in a thin, veil-like mist.

According to the textbook, the thin mist was the manifestation of his psyche or soul.

He had never heard of a ritual that could change the form of one’s essence!

“…What’s going on?”

Nervous but curious, Roan carefully approached the thin veil. The deeper he ventured into his psyche, the more convinced he became that something was hiding in there.

‘Could it be the necklace? No… things aren’t that simple!’

When his consciousness arrived at the center of his psyche, he discovered a stone monument. He stiffened up as he read the words on the stone monument.

【’Calamity’ has been installed! Let this foolish world burn!】

【—By the Supreme Machine God Linte Isaac.】