Useless Person's Diary

[Training, more training... No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't do it. I could never pass the selection...]

[Why did you have to look at me with such expectant eyes? Father...]

[It was that time again. July, Holy Calendar 824—the third Knight Selection...]

[Defeated by Tiral in twenty-seven seconds. Again... Do you hate me, Evina? I could understand how you felt. A Useless Person had stolen the opportunity that should have been yours...]

[If only things could be reversed. Why not?]

[Perhaps I should never have existed...]

Time trickled by, and the bonfire in the karst cave slowly burned out after consuming the last scrap of firewood.

The sudden darkness broke Lynn from his thoughts. With a wave of his hand, the branches and fallen leaves piled nearby floated up on their own and dropped into the heap of wood still flickering with embers.

The crimson flames sprang back to life the next moment, and Lynn turned another page of the diary in his hands.

No, calling it a diary was perhaps not entirely fitting.

It was a record of all the cowardice, inferiority, resentment, and pain that an ordinary noble boy with no exceptional talent could not tell anyone else, written across page after page.

"Lott Pedrol!" Lynn read out the boy's name.

Without a doubt, this was an example of someone driven mad by excessive expectations.

Yet what he saw was more complicated than that.

Lott's father was a baron of the Secas Empire, though he was the sort of landless noble whose family had long since declined—a man with nothing but a title, who could only barely maintain the dignity of a noble by constantly squandering his savings.

Like every parent who hoped their son would achieve greatness, Baron Pedrol had pinned all his hopes of reviving the family on his son.

For noble children like them, if they could pass the Knight Assessment before the age of twenty and possessed firm faith, they would be qualified to become a priest or Divine Official. This was undoubtedly the best way to change the family's fortunes.

For that reason, Lott had received the strictest training since childhood, with the goal of passing the Knight Assessment and becoming a member of the Church's clergy.

Baron Pedrol had even spent a great deal of money hiring a formal knight to hone Lott's combat skills.

However, Lott's talent was not particularly good. No matter how diligently he trained, it was all to no avail.

There were only three priest and Divine Official positions available in the entire Nordland Territory each year, yet countless people shared the same ambition. Among them were many who worked harder than Lott, possessed greater talent, or even held more power!

Thus, ever since he began taking the assessment at sixteen, he had met with nothing but disappointment after disappointment. Crushed between his family's expectations and the blows of reality, Lott gradually became dull, taciturn, and extremely withdrawn.

His younger sister Evina, meanwhile, was the opposite example. She possessed decent talent, and merely by repeatedly watching Lott's daily sparring sessions with the formal knight, she had developed respectable swordsmanship.

Yet to Baron Pedrol, the talent Evina displayed was nothing more than a small surprise.

In the Secas Empire, women becoming nobles was not without precedent, but that only happened when there was no alternative and the male line had died out. Otherwise, daughters were generally tools for political marriages meant to expand the family's influence.

It simply was not worth spending vast resources to cultivate them.

After all, the continuation of the bloodline was the foundation of nobility. Choosing a woman as an heir meant that all the wealth the family had accumulated risked being swallowed up and disappearing.

Unable to bear the pressure and expectations, Lott had likely intended to use his own death to force Baron Pedrol into making a choice.

In Lynn's view, Lott's choice was undoubtedly foolish.

He knew a little about the nature of these nobles. Judging by the diary's description of Baron Pedrol's character, once the man learned of Lott's death, he would only consider whether he could have another son or adopt an outstanding heir from a collateral branch.

Evina would always be the last option.

An illegitimate son like Carl, the body's original owner, had it even worse. Unless the family line was completely extinguished, he would receive nothing...

The diary of over a hundred pages soon reached its final page. Lynn was somewhat moved by the noble boy's experiences, but what truly caught his attention was a term mentioned in the diary.

"Useless Person?" Lynn muttered to himself. He had thought he would never hear that title again after arriving in another world.

After all, even a farmer tilling the fields here had value to be exploited.

Lynn slowly exhaled and reorganized his scattered thoughts. Turning to look at Lott's corpse, he decided that since he had accepted the other party's belongings, he should give him a proper burial later.

"071, how much energy is left in reserve?" Lynn asked in his mind.

[Remaining energy: 12.3%. Energy concentration detected to be continuously decreasing. Energy reserves are expected to increase by 1% every ten hours.]

Just as expected... Lynn glanced at the faintly brightening sky, unsurprised by this.

Just as he had guessed, Moon Day affected the activity of magic power. After resting through the night, the physical strength and magic power he had expended in the previous battle had almost fully recovered.

From Lott's diary, Lynn had also obtained a very important piece of information—the place where he was currently located was Harbor Town in the Nordland Territory!

In other words, the hidden underground river within the castle actually flowed directly into the Sea of Mists!

Unfortunately, in order to deal with Bishop Antioch, he had already sent the troublesome Joanne and White Dove away first.

Lynn had no way of knowing where the two Witches had drifted to. If they were skilled enough in the water, they could have gone ashore anywhere, unlike him, who could only drift with the current and slowly learn how to swim.

Without communication, finding two living people across the entire Nordland Territory would not be easy.

How to avoid the Church's pursuit was another significant problem.

Lynn pondered for a long while before a name suddenly surfaced in his mind—Lame Laud!

No matter where Joanne and White Dove were, if they still intended to travel to the Land of Wizards, they would inevitably come to Harbor Town and find a way to contact Lame Laud.

Then all he needed to do was find that man before they did!

Lynn stood and looked toward the towering city walls in the distance. Only one problem remained: how was he supposed to enter Harbor Town safely?

"071, pull up information on disguise and costume techniques. Preferably something that can be done with simple materials!"

Lynn looked at Lott, whose build and hair color were extremely similar to his own. Perhaps he could temporarily borrow the other man's identity to deceive the guards of Harbor Town.

If he remembered correctly, aside from disguising himself in ordinary clothes, the Basic Magic Compendium also happened to contain a spell suited for this situation...

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