The next day, June 21. Weather: clear.
Bright sunlight streamed in through the window and landed right on Luke's face. Only then did he slowly open his eyes. He rolled over, changed sleeping positions—then realized he couldn't fall back asleep.
As his mind gradually cleared, he sat up in bed and, as usual, stretched.
If nothing else, stretching after waking up naturally without an alarm was always the best.
That was when he heard movement in the yard—both from the front and the back.
He glanced out the front window first. A flash of brilliant blonde hair immediately came into view. Lux was sitting in the yard, and across from her sat Yurna Doer.
The maid was accompanying her in a game of five-in-a-row.
Then he listened to the crisp, rhythmic sounds from the back yard. Even without looking, he already knew who it was.
Still, Luke walked to the back window and opened it. Fiora appeared in his view, wearing a tight training outfit.
Her posture was composed, every motion elegant, and the outfit did nothing to hide how good her figure looked.
Not bad scenery for first thing in the morning.
Maybe she sensed his gaze. Fiora paused, looked up toward the second floor, her cool eyes sweeping over Luke once—then she ignored him and continued swinging her blade.
The training dummy in front of her was already covered in countless sword marks.
Luke withdrew his gaze, slipped into his slippers, scratched an itch on his back, and headed downstairs.
The moment he stepped into the yard, Lux heard him and turned around.
"You really can sleep."
She gave him a mildly disgusted once-over.
Luke was wearing loose pajamas, his pant legs hanging sloppy, cheap sandals on his feet, and his hair looked like a bird's nest—pure just-woke-up chaos.
Not a shred of nobility to be found.
Forget nobility—this guy was a prince.
The only thing on him that could hold up any dignity at all was his face.
"Isn't a day off literally for sleeping?" Luke said, completely unbothered. He walked forward a few steps and casually picked up the water and toothbrush the maid had already set out.
After squeezing toothpaste on, he squatted by the flowerbed and started brushing his teeth like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Hmph. At this rate, I'm going to surpass you sooner or later!" Lux snorted, turning her attention back to the board.
She'd gotten up early today specifically to study her game. While she was grinding, Luke had been sleeping in.
If this kept up, it wouldn't be long before she could step on him and look down.
Just imagining it gave her a thrill.
Luke chuckled through his brushing, like it was genuinely funny.
After he finished, he rinsed his mouth and splashed his face with water, then went to make breakfast.
It was pretty obvious the three people in the yard had been waiting for him to wake up—none of them had eaten, and the morning was already more than half gone.
So what he cooked was closer to lunch: warm porridge, plus several hearty dishes.
Eat once, skip lunch. If anyone got hungry later, they could deal with it then.
After eating, Luke stood up and gave Fiora a look.
Duelist that she was, Fiora met his gaze and fell silent for a second.
Then she quietly stood, gathered up the bowls and chop—no, bowls and utensils—and carried them toward the kitchen.
She was going to wash the dishes.
If nothing unexpected happened, for the next fifteen days, that job was hers.
Lux looked at Fiora with sympathy. Luckily, Lux knew her own limits—she'd only played four games, meaning four days.
She could grit her teeth and get through four days.
Luke then looked at Lux and lifted his chin.
Lux pointed at herself like, Me?
Luke flicked his eyes toward the broom in the corner.
Lux immediately understood. She stood up, grabbed the broom, and started sweeping without a word.
Luke smiled, satisfied, and strolled out into the yard.
Flopping into the rocking chair felt amazing—light as air, nothing to do, no responsibilities.
"Sign in," Luke thought.
Not long after, the system's voice rang out.
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained a top-grade spiritual medicine—Pure Snow Lotus]
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained 1 Basic Skill Upgrade Card]
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained 1 LV6 Random Secondary Profession Card]
"Use the upgrade card. Level up Godspeed Tracking Arrow."
He didn't hesitate. The upgrade card he'd just received vanished from his inventory.
[Basic Skill Upgrade Card used successfully. Congratulations, host. Godspeed Tracking Arrow has been upgraded to LV4]
The instant the system's voice finished, a warm current appeared at the corners of Luke's eyes, then slowly spread through both of them.
In no time, his entire vision was wrapped in that warmth—so comfortable it almost made him want to sigh.
Luke closed his eyes and enjoyed it.
After a moment, the sensation faded.
When Luke opened his eyes again, he realized the world looked sharper.
"So this level-up improves vision?"
He blinked and looked around the yard.
His eyesight was already good. Now, with Godspeed Tracking Arrow at LV4 boosting it again, everything looked like a movie.
Like going from HD to ultra-HD.
It was definitely different.
"Nice, nice. This makes looking at beautiful women even more satisfying."
Luke sat up, pleased, and thought again, "System, use the master-grade secondary profession card."
He'd gotten another master-grade profession from sign-in, and he was curious.
The next second, the system's voice sounded.
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained LV6 Secondary Profession—Physiognomist]
"Hm?"
This one actually caught Luke's interest.
A flood of information poured into his mind. After a while, he finally opened his eyes and sorted it all out.
A physiognomist was basically a fortune-teller—reading people and places.
Reading the "shape" of a location, judging whether it felt auspicious or problematic.
Picking lucky dates, figuring out what a day was good for and what it was bad for.
Reading omens—whether trouble might be coming and whether it could be avoided.
And beyond that, reading faces and palms, even things like relationships.
In short: a lot.
And from what Luke understood, this wasn't like his old world, where you could say "believe it if you want."
In this world, this stuff really did have some bite to it.
Because the world had plenty of similar professions.
Freljord shamans, Ionia's fate-readers and diviners, Shurima's astrologers—plus all kinds of other mystics elsewhere, the sort that waved a crystal ball around and muttered ominously.
Among them, there were definitely people with real skill.
Luke's physiognomist profession worked like he'd just described: reading locations, picking dates, reading omens.
But if you thought you could pinch your fingers and know everything from five hundred years ago to five hundred years from now—see the past, predict the future—that was basically impossible.
Even if he somehow reached LV9, it still wouldn't happen.
To put it plainly, this profession was reading "luck"—small luck, big luck.
At LV6, Luke could read small luck at best. Anything bigger and the accuracy fell apart.
Like trying to calculate Demacia's future national fate—if Luke dared do that, blood would shoot straight out of his throat.
Or trying to calculate the exact day he'd die.
That kind of thing was better left alone. Try it, and you might actually cause trouble.
There was a reason people said you shouldn't read your own fate—because the bigger the question, the higher the cost.
And in this world, someone might truly be willing to pay that cost to force an answer.
Luke kind of wanted to read his own fate.
But after thinking about it, he decided against it.
His luck already looked like it was through the roof, so what was the point? Even without "reading," just his face alone screamed a comfortable life.
He ran through the date in his head—June 21.
Then, just for fun, he did a quick little calculation and got something like: good for starting a family and getting married, bad for funerals and travel.
And just like that, Luke suddenly felt like he was pretty amazing.
Since it was "bad for travel," he decided he wouldn't go out.
Of course, this kind of thing didn't mean you absolutely had to obey it.
"Bad for travel" didn't mean something terrible would definitely happen if you stepped outside.
Fate was fate. Big stuff was hard to talk about.
But on a small scale, it really came down to what you did.
Your choices could turn good things into bad, and bad things into good.
If you lived your life panicking over every little sign, you were basically finished.
That was when Luke thought about the date again and realized he'd been in the capital for almost a month.
"Seems like in three more days, it'll be a full month."
He muttered twice, feeling oddly excited about what the monthly sign-in reward might be.
With nothing else to do, he leaned back in the rocking chair, closed his eyes, and decided to nap.
When he woke up again, there was an extra figure in the yard.
Kahina—dressed bright and pretty—was sitting in a chair, watching Lux and Fiora battle over the board.
As if she felt it, she turned and looked at Luke. Seeing his eyes open, she smiled sweetly.
"Your Highness, good afternoon."
Hearing that, Lux and Fiora both shot Luke a quick glance, then returned their eyes to the board, focused again.
"It's already afternoon?"
Luke stretched and checked the sky. The sun really did look harsher now.
He hadn't expected to fall asleep again. This time, he truly had no sleepiness left, so he sat up.
"Want some water?" Kahina asked from the side.
Luke nodded.
She sprang up and hurried inside. A moment later, she came back with a glass of ice-cold cola.
Luke took it and finished the whole glass in two gulps. The fizz hit, and his whole body felt instantly refreshed.
Then he looked at Kahina and asked, "When did you get here?"
"I've been here for a while," Kahina replied.
"Oh." Luke nodded, then asked casually, "Did anyone read the newspaper this morning?"
"Quite a lot," Kahina said. "It's free, so when we handed it out, a bunch of people came over and took copies."
She continued, "I don't know the full reaction yet, but most of what we printed was neighborhood gossip. People were talking about it a lot this morning."
Luke smiled. "Then it's working. Keep it free for the first two days. On the third day, try charging for it—nothing expensive. Two copper coins per paper."
It wasn't that Luke was desperate for money.
He wanted to test market reaction.
When something free becomes paid, that's when you see how much people actually want it.
"Okay," Kahina said, nodding.
"Can we pretend this move didn't count?"
At that moment, Lux looked up with puppy eyes, pleading with Fiora.
Luke glanced at the board and saw Lux had already been checkmated—she was refusing to place the final losing move.
Fiora smiled helplessly. "That's the second time you've asked to take back a move."
"It's the last time! I swear—just one more chance!" Lux promised immediately.
Fiora put a hand on the board and lifted Lux's last move away.
Lux grinned, quickly placed a new piece to block, and the position came back to life.
But only a few moves later, Lux stared at the board again, expression blank—she'd been checkmated all over again.
Fiora looked at her, amused. "Want to take it back again?"
"No…" Lux admitted defeat.
Then, almost immediately, she lifted her head, refusing to accept reality. "Again!"
But Fiora shook her head and stood up. "No more."
Lux blinked. "Why?"
Fiora smiled faintly and didn't answer.
Lux looked even more confused.
Luke chuckled and supplied the explanation for her. "Pretty obvious. She thinks if she keeps playing you, her level might drop down to match yours."
That instantly annoyed Lux. She glared at Luke. "Say one more word and I'll—"
Luke laughed. "You're bad and you don't want anyone to say it?"
Lux snapped, "You're the bad one!"
"At least I don't ask to take back moves. Twice. And you were about to make it three."
"I'm telling you—don't underestimate me!"
"Oh yeah? Then what—don't underestimate you when you're older, either?"
"AAAAH!"
Lux looked like she was about to explode, teeth clenched, eyes blazing at Luke.
Luke was honestly a little worried she might actually bite him, so he quietly slid behind Kahina.
Kahina, now being used as a shield, raised both hands and stopped Lux, trying to calm her down. "Don't be mad. You're not bad, really."
"Kahina…" Lux looked at her best friend, touched.
Then Kahina said, "You're just kind of… not very smart."
Lux: "?"
How dare she!
Best friend? Lies! All lies!
In that moment, Lux felt like the entire world was against her.
She stared at Kahina with a dark expression, suddenly feeling like she wanted to stab her too.
That was when Luke looked at Kahina's profile, thinking for a second, then called her name.
"Kahina."
"Hm?" Kahina turned to him, puzzled. "What is it?"
Luke didn't speak. He stared at her face for several seconds.
So long that the girl started getting embarrassed, her cheeks reddening.
Only then did Luke ask, "Have you been having nightmares a lot lately?"
Kahina froze. "How did you know?"
That exchange caught Lux and Fiora's attention too.
Luke put on a mysterious expression and slipped into full show-off mode, smiling lightly. "You probably won't believe it, but I can read faces."
"Read faces?"
Now it wasn't just Kahina—Lux and Fiora were both confused.
Luke explained, "I mean I can look at your face, or your palm, and predict whether you're headed for good luck or bad luck."
All three girls were half-believing, half-skeptical, staring at him like he was definitely up to something.
But after he explained, Luke stopped talking and just sat there looking mysterious.
That made the girls even more uncomfortable.
What's the point of talking halfway and then stopping?
Lux narrowed her eyes. "If you go outside acting like this, you'll get punched. Show us, then!"
Luke sighed. "Fine. But I'm not doing it for free. This costs money."
The three girls looked at each other.
Kahina was the first to step up. She pulled out her coin purse. "How much?"
"However much you want," Luke said confidently. "Pay, then see if I'm accurate."
Luke wasn't short on money.
But if he didn't charge, where was the immersion? Where was the vibe?
So Kahina pulled out two gold coins and handed them over.
Luke took them, weighed them in his hand with a satisfied smile, and slipped them into his pocket.
"Hold out your hand. Palm up."
Kahina obediently held out her right hand.
Luke reached out and took it, pressing down slightly so the lines were clearer. Her fingers were slender and delicate, her hand small.
Just that alone startled Kahina—her hand trembled.
Fiora narrowed her eyes slightly, and Lux's gaze locked onto their hands too.
Luke said calmly, "Palm reading is two parts. First, you look at the lines. Second, you look at the whole hand. You can't see much without using your hands."
Hearing that, the three girls temporarily set aside their suspicion.
They watched quietly.
Luke looked over the palm lines—easy to read at a glance—then pinched the width on both sides of Kahina's hand, pressed her palm, and lightly squeezed near her pinky.
By the time he finished, Kahina's face had gone noticeably redder.
Luke began, "Among your major signs, the cross and island markings are each in their proper places—clear signs of good fortune. But your star marking is messy, and it overlaps the cross. That's a sign of bad luck… though it might not necessarily affect you directly."
As he spoke, he pointed out the areas so they could all see what he meant.
Seeing that he actually sounded like he knew what he was doing, the three girls stayed patient.
"Your life line is long—good longevity."
"Now look at this mount below the pinky—full and well-shaped. That suggests you're sharp and capable, with strong money luck. And your palm is slightly hollow—meaning not only do you have money, you know how to keep it. Your business path will be smooth in the future."
At that, Luke released her hand.
"Now let's look at your face."
His gaze settled on Kahina's face as he asked, "When you look in the mirror every day, have you noticed changes in your appearance?"
Kahina thought for a moment and shook her head. "No."
"Exactly," Luke said slowly. "Changes in someone's face are usually subtle—so subtle you can't really tell."
Then he continued, "But today, I can see your temples are a little flat, and the area at the top of your nose looks pressed down and dull—no brightness to it. That means your mind has been unsettled lately, and you're not sleeping well. You've been having nightmares."
"The reason is that you've had too much on your mind recently, and you've been feeling pressure from all sides. You've probably run into some kind of trouble at the Royal Academy."
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.