Philip Leblanc.
The newly appointed Second-Ranked of the Academy, the genius son of Censor Alphonse Le Blanc, Baron, was blending into his surroundings, quietly observing the oblivious engaged couple not far away.
In the original Starlit Romance, he was one of the important romanceable characters around Livia.
His personality was the complete opposite of Hugo’s—a man of few words, gloomy in temperament, who toyed with conspiracies and the hearts of men with ease.
In Philip’s personal route, this elusive shadow learned of the Stern Family’s treatment of Livia and was consumed by rage.
Using the coldest of schemes, he uprooted the entire rotten Stern Family, exiling them back to their border lands, clearing every obstacle to Livia’s succession and making her the true pillar of the Kingdom.
And he became the Prime Minister supporting Livia, using iron-fisted measures to hollow out the King’s power.
The two of them—one with pen, one with sword; one in shadow, one in light—combined wisdom and violence to pull the collapsing Kingdom back from the brink and usher in another renaissance.
However, in this Cycle, many people had deviated from their original paths of Fate due to Allen’s Rebirth.
This genius schemer, who at the end of his personal route was called the “Raven Chancellor” by the people, was naturally no exception.
Allen de Laval…
Philip recited this name in his mind.
This name—he knew it all too well.
Not long ago, it was a cautionary tale known throughout the noble circles of the Capital, an example of a wastrel used to spur on one’s own children.
But in the blink of an eye, the winds had shifted.
Public confession, repentance, a Duel with his fiancée, thwarting the heretical plot…
Through a series of moves, the name Allen de Laval had become synonymous with prestige, and he had even become engaged to the Kingdom’s Hero, Livia von Stern.
His father, Bernard Viscount, had risen meteorically to the seat of Minister of Finance, leading a transformation unprecedented in the Kingdom’s thousand-year history.
And so Allen de Laval went from being the cautionary tale of noble circles to the “model child” spoken of by others.
How ridiculous.
Philip believed that this assessment was an insult to that man.
Before Allen and Livia visited the Headmaster, he had already stepped into that office.
He didn’t mince words. He directly demanded to know whether Allen’s position as Top Student had been purchased with money.
After all, barring any unforeseen circumstances, that position should have been his.
In the Academy, such unspoken rules were hardly a secret.
The Laval House now wielded immense power; it would be perfectly normal for Bernard to polish his son’s image by tampering with grades.
In response to his interrogation, the aged Headmaster said nothing, simply pushing a personally graded examination paper toward him.
He saw that paper.
The next second, everything Philip prided himself on came crashing down.
Every word on it seemed to mercilessly mock his own shallowness.
This wasn’t talent—it was a dimension of thinking he couldn’t understand, couldn’t even imagine.
His cherished logic and scholarship were as fragile as a crumpled piece of wastepaper before that answer sheet.
So this was what intellectual domination felt like.
Allen de Laval was no genius at all.
He was a monster.
A monster countless times more terrifying than himself.
And his father, the new Minister of Finance, was likely just a puppet pushed to the front.
This chilling deduction was not without basis.
Since the Laval Family turned the tide in an unprecedentedly short time after that fog-shrouded heresy attack, they had leaped to the center of the Kingdom’s politics.
This was not the King’s Divine Grace.
This was something the Laval Family had forcibly seized with their own hands.
Unlike his idealistic, world-naive judge of a father, Philip had long ago begun secretly investigating the Laval Family.
His keen instincts never let him miss even the slightest shift in the Capital.
And then, he discovered many interesting things.
The Thieves’ Guild—a festering tumor beneath the Capital for years—had vanished overnight.
Their front, the Our Lady Inn, now bore the sign of the Continental Hotel, with a new owner.
What had replaced the Thieves’ Guild and its controlled gangs were the Mutual Aid Association and the Workers’ Patrol.
The once-united Robe Nobility had split, with a new force supporting Reform quietly rallying around the Laval Family.
And moderates like his father, along with the lofty King, seemed utterly oblivious.
But what chilled him most was the Laval Family’s publishing enterprise.
Those ridiculously cheap newspapers and books were penetrating every corner of the Kingdom at unprecedented speed and breadth, reshaping the thoughts of the masses.
He had spent a great deal of time reading articles and novels under pen names like “Andersen” and “Dumas.”
By analyzing the diction and ideological threads, he had reached a stunning conclusion.
This was no literary collective.
This was a single person.
After reading Allen’s examination paper, he had fully confirmed it.
Today, he waited here to verify his final hypothesis.
He bet that Allen de Laval would definitely visit the Headmaster regarding College Reform.
Sure enough, Allen and Livia entered the Headmaster’s office together—and stayed for a long time.
He had guessed right.
Every clue pointed to the same person.
Allen de Laval was the center of the storm sweeping the Kingdom, the true soul of the Reform, the hidden hand controlling everything.
The only thing beyond his calculations was the relationship between Allen and Livia.
It wasn’t the hollow distance of a political marriage, nor the hypocritical pleasantries of nobles. It was… an intimacy and unspoken understanding he couldn’t analyze with logic, one that even struck him as absurd.
Just like now—the two were bickering over something, and Livia even wore a hint of girlish coquetry he could scarcely imagine.
This powerful Crestbearer who had single-handedly secured victory in the Grey Mist Battle and mercilessly slaughtered countless Sea Raiders—the Kingdom’s Hero—was at this moment like an ordinary girl deep in love.
Philip recalled the Duel between Livia and Allen earlier. He had witnessed both their power firsthand and had watched their entire battle against the delirium beast.
That final strike that pierced the clouds and rent the sky still made his heart pound to this day.
As a master of intelligence, he had never cared about his own life and safety to obtain the truth.
But even having gathered those critical pieces of information, a genius like him found, for the first time, that he couldn’t understand these two people at all.
Their identities, their purposes, the source of their power… everything was shrouded in mist.
This… was truly fascinating.
Philip’s ideal was to become a minister second only to the King, to save this collapsing Kingdom.
But now, someone his own age was not only doing what he dreamed of, but doing it better and more thoroughly than he could ever imagine.
For the first time, this genius felt a shudder mixing envy and excitement.
Chaos is a ladder. As a Baron’s son, climbing required an unimaginable price.
But… what if someone had already paved the road to the summit for him?
A glimmer of unprecedented light flashed in Philip Leblanc’s eyes.
He had found a new, even crazier ideal.
He wanted to see with his own eyes where Allen de Laval could take this world.
Philip’s mind raced faster and faster.
The Handicraft and Labor Mutual Aid Guild was the hottest topic among citizens these days.
Philip keenly sensed that this Organization was far from as simple as its long, harmless-sounding name suggested. Beneath the tip of the iceberg, it must conceal deeper, vaster secrets.
Especially that so-called “Workers’ Inspection Team.”
The newspapers loudly touted them as guardians of the citizens, folk heroes maintaining order in the Lower City.
Most short-sighted nobles would probably be fooled by that polished exterior—even applauding the disappearance of street vagrants.
But not him.
Philip had spent days personally following and observing these units’ drills outside the city.
Their formation training and tactical exercises were so rigorous and advanced that they far surpassed the Kingdom’s regular army.
Those clean, efficient killing techniques, that iron discipline—every detail proclaimed a cold truth: this was an army forged for war.
Moreover, through his father’s connections in the High Court and his own intelligence channels, Philip had obtained another stunning piece of information.
July 17. The Major Guilds, backed by the Sword-Bearing Nobles, would launch a deadly joint attack on the Mutual Aid Association.
His fingertip unconsciously pushed up his glasses, the lens reflecting a cold gleam of light.
If Allen de Laval’s hastily assembled paramilitary organization could, in such a short time, defeat that powerful enemy assembled by the old forces head-on…
He would not hesitate to join the Mutual Aid Association and personally tear open that curtain.
He wanted to see clearly how many more cards capable of overturning the entire Kingdom Allen de Laval had hidden beneath his table.
If this mysterious Academy Top Student could truly become the master of the Kingdom in the end…
Philip wouldn’t mind being the one and only beneath him, above all others.
After all, this didn’t deviate from his original goal.
Absolute power itself might not be that interesting.
What was truly interesting was what kind of world one could carve with that power.
Philip watched the two’s oblivious, intimate interaction from afar, deep interest flashing in his profound eyes.
This man, who should have been interested in the Protagonist Feng Aotian, now had eyes only for the obsession of deciphering the puzzle that was Allen.
Marianne’s worry had become reality.
Allen de Laval was attracting everyone, regardless of gender—yet he himself couldn’t even handle the affections of two young women.
The real Romantic Turmoil was only just beginning.