Two more days passed.
At the country villa in Blue Agate Port.
Roland sat before a balcony blooming with flowers, quietly gazing at the distant river.
It was a great river flowing from deep within the Lainer Kingdom, winding for over a thousand kilometers before finally emptying into the sea nearby.
Beyond the distant mountains, the sun sank in the west. Sunlight scattered like flecks of gold across the gentle ripples on the river, creating an atmosphere of peace and serenity.
Bathed in that sunlight, Roland seemed to have been gilded as well.
On a stone table beside him lay several books borrowed from local scholars and landed gentry.
In an age when knowledge was exceedingly precious, almost anyone with books at home came from the nobility. Through his conversations with those people, Roland had already learned quite a bit about the area in just a few days.
At the moment, however, Roland was not reading those books. Instead, he was reading the Savaran Daily, a newspaper from the Royal Capital delivered by the postman specifically for wealthy households here.
Its headlines were positively gossipy. They were full of rumors about him and Princess Rosa, all baseless speculation and idle conjecture, and were already painting it as the romance of the century.
"Do these people seriously have nothing better to do? Or do the nobles of the Lainer Kingdom actually want this to happen?"
Despite having lived two lives, this was Roland's first time seeing romantic rumors about himself in a newspaper.
It certainly made for a novel experience.
He did not take it too seriously. Once the fuss died down, nobody would care anymore. Besides, the subject of the rumors was a beautiful princess renowned throughout the Lainer Kingdom, so it hardly tarnished his reputation.
"Master, you have several