Chapter 3: An Incredibly Amazing Childhood Friend
At that critical moment!
“Insolence.”
An incomparably pleasant yet godlike and majestic cold snort exploded beside Luo Lin’s ear.
Boom—!!!
A mass of pure golden flames, blazing to the absolute extreme like a phoenix reborn from fire spreading its wings, instantly burst forth from Alice’s fingertips.
Bang!
It exploded directly onto Saul, who was about to slice through Luo Lin’s neck.
The golden-red flames instantly illuminated the entire Vienna Hall.
Alice didn’t even chant a spell.
She merely raised her slender, jade-white wrist and casually pressed downward.
The previously arrogant Saul, the Saul who had been trying to kill Luo Lin, didn’t even have time to scream before being swallowed whole by those phoenix divine flames imbued with purification power.
In an instant, he was burned into a charred lump emitting black smoke, barely clinging to life!
The knights finally reacted and immediately stepped forward, firmly restraining the half-dead Saul before dragging him away.
“By Serah above, Her Highness is way too powerful! That cultist had already broken free from the Transcendent-level Royal Knights!”
“Such terrifying magical power density… could it be that Her Highness has already reached Master rank?”
Alice elegantly withdrew her hand, completely ignoring the discussions among the nobles.
She turned and walked onto the platform before calmly sitting in the host seat of the tea party.
At this moment, an unquestionable pressure surged within those clear pale sakura-colored eyes as her voice echoed throughout the hall.
“Pass down my orders. Thoroughly investigate the Saul family, along with the affiliated family of Laura Catherine. I want to see how many rats like them are still hiding around.”
Standing beneath the steps, Luo Lin slightly raised his head.
He looked at the cold and peerlessly beautiful girl seated above, the girl who could suppress powerful enemies with a mere gesture.
This was the fated female protagonist from the original owner’s memories.
The future queen of the Holy Church State.
And Luo Lin’s childhood friend.
Just as the atmosphere had fallen into dead silence due to the appearance of a cultist at the tea party—
“So amazing, Your Highness! You’re practically a superhero!”
“You not only exposed the disgusting cultist hiding within our Holy Church State and his accomplice Laura, but also protected everyone here!”
Luo Lin spoke with great emotion, waving his arms dramatically while praising Alice with all his might.
“Praise Her Highness!”
“Praise Her Highness!”
These old foxes of the political world immediately caught onto Luo Lin’s rhythm.
After all, the Royal Knights failing to immediately detect a cultist was a massive dereliction of duty.
At a time like this, if someone could step out and smooth things over so that the princess could downplay the matter, then naturally that would be for the best.
Alice froze slightly.
Ripples spread across her usually cold pale sakura-colored eyes like stones thrown into spring water.
“Hmph, something like this is nothing for me.”
Subconsciously, she bit her full lower lip and crossed her slender white silk-clad legs.
The little leather shoes on her feet gently swayed up and down along with the motion.
‘He’s handing all the credit over to me?’
‘Is this really that big idiot childhood friend who only knew how to wag his tail behind Laura?’
While the nobles were tense with anxiety, terrified that the princess might hold them accountable—
At last, Alice merely waved her delicate hand covered in white lace gloves.
“Everyone, continue the banquet.”
A while later—
“Then, Your Highness, please allow me to take my leave first. After all, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your enjoyment in interrogating the ‘heretic.’”
Luo Lin knew when to stop.
He understood the art of “leaving room for imagination” far too well.
Show off completely.
Max out the atmosphere.
Then decisively retreat without giving the other party any chance to recover and find fault.
Placing one hand over his chest, he performed an impeccable noble farewell salute.
Then he turned around and swaggered out of the Vienna Hall beneath the gazes of all the nobles present.
Only after walking out the doors and feeling the cool early autumn breeze of the Holy Church State, mixed with the fragrance of sacred flowers, brush against his face did Luo Lin’s perfectly straight back finally collapse.
“Huuuh—”
Luo Lin let out a long breath.
He felt like his inner shirt had already been soaked through with cold sweat.
He dove straight into the outrageously luxurious unicorn carriage belonging to the Mozart Grand Duke family and collapsed onto the velvet cushions like a puddle of mud.
As the carriage wheels rolled across the smooth stone roads with soft creaking noises, Luo Lin finally had time to sort through the massive and chaotic memories inside his head.
Several minutes later, suppressed laughter suddenly erupted inside the silent carriage.
“Hahahahaha! Hehehehe! Young Master here really drew an epic SSR-level script!”
While laughing, Luo Lin repeatedly smacked the soft seat cushions.
At this point, he had finally figured out the original owner completely.
What “heinous villainous young master”?
What “tyrannical cannon-fodder villain”?
Quit joking with Brother Lin!
This unbelievably stupid original owner, the kind of idiot who deserved to be placed in a museum exhibit, hadn’t actually succeeded in doing a single genuinely evil thing during the eighteen years before Luo Lin transmigrated into him!
According to the memories, the original owner had indeed used his family’s influence to suppress rivals in order to please that green tea woman Laura.
But what exactly had he done?
Following Laura’s instigation, he hired assassins for a murder attempt, only to get so nervous that the assassin he hired turned out to be directionally challenged and wandered straight into the city guard barracks.
He tried to poison someone’s wine, but his hands shook from nervousness and he accidentally poured sugar from the kitchen into the drink instead.
The other party even praised him, saying, “Today’s sweet wine tastes especially good.”
He tried abducting a civilian girl by force, but grabbed the wrong carriage and kidnapped the city defense commander’s ferocious concubine instead—a two-meter-tall woman capable of smashing rocks on her chest.
In the end, he had to pay three thousand gold coins to settle the matter.
These were the original owner’s so-called “evil deeds.”
They were stupid beyond belief, like some ridiculous comic relief villain from a romantic comedy anime.
And what shocked Luo Lin the most was Alice’s attitude toward the original owner.
As the future queen of the Holy Church State, the fated female protagonist possessing legendary fire-element affinity and an awakened phoenix bloodline, Alice was as proud as a white swan.
Yet such a flawless girl had repeatedly lowered her proud head to help clean up the original owner’s messes.
Whenever the original owner caused disasters for Laura’s sake, Alice secretly sent people to deal with them.
Whenever the original owner got mocked by other nobles at banquets, Alice would release pressure with a cold face to help him out.
Several times, when the original owner was nearly beaten crippled by the grand duke, Alice even rushed overnight to the ducal mansion to plead on his behalf.
“This is absolutely a textbook-level top-tier tsundere childhood friend!”
Luo Lin screamed wildly in his heart.
“Was the original owner blind or missing part of his brainstem?! Leaving behind such an angelic childhood friend just to simp for some scheming green tea illegitimate daughter?!”
Thinking this, Luo Lin stretched lazily.
Listening to the crackling sounds from his bones, a satisfied smile slowly rose on his lips.
In his previous life, he had been an ordinary college student from the bottom of society.
To get into a good university, he studied himself half to death.
To find a good job, he walked on thin ice during internships, acting like a grandson and working like livestock.
Even in his twenties, he lived like some worn-out old dog in his fifties.
He hadn’t even held a girl’s hand before getting sent away by an out-of-control truck.
“To hell with hard work! To hell with this rat race!”
Looking out the carriage window at the bustling night scenery of the Holy Church State, Luo Lin’s eyes gradually became feverish and unrestrained.
“Your daddy here is now the son of a grand duke! The ultimate rich second generation in this world! Since Goddess Serah gave me a second chance at life, then in this lifetime, I, Luo Lin, am going to carry the word ‘playboy’ to glorious heights!”