Guest Room

After clearing out the area, Lucian also gathered up everything worth picking up.

A Steel-Wire Torch, a Stonesword Key, a Twinblade Talisman, and a whip. That was everything.

None of them were useful for the time being, so Lucian put them away in the Grace beside the prison.

Lucian and Julius returned to the courtyard, checking along the way to make sure no enemies had slipped through the net.

By then, Edgar had already begun working alongside the soldiers to clear away the corpses on the ground.

Irina, supported by a maid, was heading toward one of the rooms in the castle.

When he saw Julius and Lucian return, Edgar stopped what he was doing and came over.

"Julius, why didn't you get Mr. Lucian a new set of armor?"

The moment he saw the greatsword in Lucian's hand, Edgar knew they had already visited the storeroom.

But Lucian was still wearing that battered old armor, making Edgar assume Julius had failed to take out a new set for him.

"It's not his fault. I actually took a liking to a set of Banished Knight Armor."

"But I was worried it might have belonged to one of your companions or ancestors, so I didn't take it without permission. I didn't want to cause offense."

"If you don't mind, I'll go put it on."

Lucian stepped forward and explained the situation.

"I see."

Edgar nodded, recalling the set.

"That armor was worn by one of my grandfather's companions."

"When my grandfather was appointed lord of Castle Morne, one of his companions was assigned here with him."

"He left no descendants, so that equipment was never passed down. If you can wear it, I'm sure he would be pleased."

Lucian was delighted. Now he could wear it without any reservations.

"Good, then I won't stand on ceremony."

He immediately prepared to head to the storeroom and put it on.

But Edgar called out to Lucian.

"Please wait. Julius can bring the chest over. Please come with me."

Lucian did not refuse. It was not as though they were taking the armor away from him, and there was no rush to put it on.

Before long, Edgar led Lucian to a room.

"This is the room we prepared for you. It used to be one of Castle Morne's guest rooms. Please rest here for the time being."

Edgar pushed open the door, revealing the room before Lucian.

It was spacious, with a soft bed. Though there was no other furniture, it was still the finest room Lucian had seen since coming to this world.

Edgar looked somewhat apologetic.

"Because of the Misbegotten Rebellion, much of the furniture was damaged. I had it cleared out, and the rest of the room has been cleaned up as well."

"There are clean clothes on the bed. I don't know your size, but they should not be too far off."

"With Castle Morne in its current state, this is all we can offer. Please forgive us."

Lucian walked around the spacious room. There was no unnecessary furniture, and he liked the open space even more because of it.

In his previous life, the little place he lived in had already felt cramped, and it had been stuffed full of all sorts of things besides.

He had not expected living in a large room to feel this good.

Suddenly, Lucian noticed a full-length mirror in the room. One corner was broken, but it was still perfectly usable.

It suddenly occurred to Lucian that he had not looked in a mirror even once since arriving in this world.

Walking up to it, Lucian finally saw what he looked like.

Overall, he looked much the same as in his previous life, but his face seemed as though it had been retouched. He had become considerably more handsome.

And it was the rugged kind of handsome. No one would ever doubt he was a warrior just from looking at that face.

If he had been somewhat handsome in his previous life, then now he was genuinely, undeniably handsome.

The only problem was that the blood all over him and his tattered armor did not quite match the look.

Lucian was a little puzzled. Wasn't this supposed to be a soul transmigration? Why did he still look so similar?

But it could not have been a physical transmigration either. He had been a shut-in in his previous life, so where had this combat instinct come from?

Unable to make sense of it, Lucian gave up thinking about it.

Honestly, transmigration itself was already absurd enough. His appearance barely changing was nothing worth worrying about.

Lucian pushed open the partition door. Inside was a large wooden tub filled with water, with a towel draped over the side.

Though it was cold water, Lucian did not mind.

Given Castle Morne's current conditions, asking someone to heat water for him would have been a little unreasonable.

Taking off his battered armor, Lucian carefully examined his body.

The lines of his muscles were clearly defined. He was not some hulking muscle monster, but in his previous life, people would have called him a real tough guy.

He scooped up a ladle of water and poured it over himself. The water carried away blood and dirt, flowing down the sloped floor of the partition into a pit.

There was a bucket and some rough paper beside it. Apparently, this was also the latrine.

At first, Lucian was surprised that a medieval-style castle actually had a drainage system.

But then he thought of the various elevators throughout the Lands Between, along with its many magnificent cities.

The Lands Between's craftsmanship was clearly quite advanced, so building a drainage system was nothing strange.

After rinsing himself off, Lucian grabbed the towel, wet it, and scrubbed himself thoroughly until he was completely clean.

This was his first bath since arriving in the Lands Between, and Lucian washed himself carefully. After all, there was no telling when he would get another chance.

After taking care of his personal hygiene, Lucian picked up the clothes on the bed. There were two sets in total.

One was a full set of cotton clothing, meant to be worn beneath armor.

The other was a light green robe covered in embroidery, the sort of upper-class robe from the game, clothing for noble offspring.

Lucian did not put on the robe. Instead, he directly changed into the cotton clothes.

Because Julius had already carried the Banished Knight Set to the door earlier.

Lucian brought the chest inside and put on the Banished Knight's equipment piece by piece.

The sizing was quite suitable, and he finished putting it on without much difficulty.

Lucian was not impatient to cosplay. Or rather, that was not the only reason.

He needed to check his equipment load. If it was too heavy, he would need to allocate some points when he went to level up with Melina later.

Lucian currently had more than 67,000 Runes on him, nearly as much as what he would earn from farming the giant white dragon without using a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot. He was practically swimming in wealth.

When Singh died, the fivefold Rune multiplier was still active. He had gotten very lucky.

In the end, the hundred-odd Misbegotten had contributed 48,000 Runes, while Singh had contributed 19,000.

These Runes were enough to raise Lucian's level by quite a bit. When the time came, enemies on the level of the Grafted Scion and Leonine Misbegotten would no longer be so troublesome.

He tried running a few steps. There was no problem, but if he added weapons and fought for an extended period, he would probably tire more easily.

Silently refining his leveling plan, Lucian prepared to head to the Grace.

Though there was a soft bed right behind him, it was not late yet.

He would set out now, find Melina and spend his Runes to improve his strength, then go take a look at the Roundtable Hold.

Though the Roundtable Hold had only a handful of NPCs in the game, since the Confessor carried Fia's Baldachin's Blessing, there might be more Tarnished in the Roundtable Hold now than Lucian had expected.

Writing at home really was different. It felt like he could finally build up some chapters in reserve. Please vote with some free recommendation tickets, pretty please. ∩_∩