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DevilDarkness#0506

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After Rio reached his room, and saying goodbye to Bernhardt, Esme did a quick scan of the room he was staying in and after finding everything alright, she informed him about it.

Rio walked in and looked around. The rooms at the palace weren't anything unique, it was pretty much the same as his own room. Rio also didn't have much stuff placed around his room like momentos or something, there was one painting of his family and some drawings or doodles which Amelia pasted around just for fun. So the empty room of the royals didn't feel odd to him.

"You can take your rest for a while. Or I can get you something to eat if you're feeling hungry." Esme asked to which he just replied "No I'm fine. I can't eat anything for a while after what happened at the gate. My stomach's still a little rattled up."

"I warned you before. You should've been more careful." Esme said, remembering how clearly she had told him about the effects of teleportation gate before. Since he was newly awakened his body still needs time to properly fully adjust to the feeling of mana, traveling through long distance teleportation gates where you get swamped with lots of magic at once, and travel through space, of course your body won't be able to handle it well.

Rio remembered it too, but he ignored the lesson thinking it'll be similar to what he went through during his awakening, when he blinked and he was on the opposite end, but sadly it wasn't the case. "Yeah, well I thought it would feel the same as teleportation circles."

"They're different." Esme said and shook her head.magic

"Yeah, learned it the hard way." Rio said as he stroked his stomach, though the feeling of nausea was gone now, he still felt a little uneasy remembering that experience of puking his guts out.

"Okay, then take some rest. I'll be near, call me if you need anything."

"Bye Esme, take some rest too." Rio said as Esme walked out and closed the doors behind her. She's probably staying next door or in instant range knowing her.

Rio walked towards the window and looked outside, he took a deep breath as the serene environment carried a tinge of flowery smell everywhere.[Host]

Hearing system speaking, he got back from the window and sat on his bed. "Yes system."

[What are you doing?]

"About what?"

[Bernhardt, you were being too respectful and friendly with him. That is not supposed to happen.]

"What does it matter what was supposed to happen? Since I already planned to change my engagement event, then Bernhardt and I wouldn't be enemies. He'd have no reason to hate me."

Rio said as he remembered the plotline of that guy, in the story ever since he was little, Bernhardt always wanted two things: Rebecca and the crown. He didn't have anyone else that he knew in the royal palace except his mother, so whenever he saw Alfred playing around with Rebecca, Bernhardt felt jealous, so he wanted her for himself. It was just a petty attention seeking thing in childhood, which turns into some twisted love and then into lust once the plot starts & this guy loses all his brain cells. Second thing he wanted was to rule this kingdom, he wanted to be the heir, to be the crown prince, but sadly for him, to keep the support of the Raven family and Blake family, the king made Alfred the crown prince. Igniting a little bit of hatred into this guy's heart.

This birthday celebration is probably the first time when his ambitions will take a hit, because then not only will the king announce Rebecca's engagement with Rio, which breaks his first wish. He also learns that he will never even have a chance to compete against Alfred for the position of crown prince, due to all the support Alfred has and he doesn't.

His mother Beliana, didn't belong to any major power, and what happened between the king and her was just a fling in their youthful days, which hit the mark and she got pregnant. Beliana knew she had no right to ever say the truth or ask anything from the king, so she left the Schilla empire and ran away, but due to some strings destiny pulled, the king learned about this bastard son of his and brought him into the royal palace.

Obviously king Maximus wasn't generous and held any love for this son or the woman he fucked once, what he was interested in -was the power this son awakened. Bernhardt had the element of lightning just like him, and this looked like a good investment plan to Maximus.

Beliana, ever protective of her son, teaches him everything and tells him to leave his greed for the crown's position as both mother and son had no sway within the palace. They had no backing, no support, and no power to speak of -if even after knowing that, they kept fighting for crown prince's position, the only thing they would get was death.

Even if queen Athena gets generous and lets them compete, the Raven family behind her or that sister of hers in Blake family would never allow for Athena to lose -and everybody knew that. That's why no one ever even thought of supporting Bernhardt.

But how can these canon fodder go against the plans of destiny, Bernhardt never learned this lesson. After this event his jealousy towards Alfred turns into hatred, as Alfred got everything he wanted without doing anything. He had the power, support of family, Rebecca everything- whatever Bernhardt lacked Alfred got for free.

So grew the classic tale of hatred between brothers vying for the throne.

Since Rio was engaged to this siscons dream girl, over time this guy started hating Rio too. Obviously with Rio's spreading infamy due to a certain kid's prophecy, hid Bernhardt's real hatred when he kept picking fights with Rio in the academy. Since Blake family already had its hands full dealing with the aftermath of other stuff, Rio let this idiot be, so as not to give Maximus an excuse to turn against Blake family.

This walking complex of inferiority, also picked fights with the protagonist, which ended up pushing Rebecca into his camp. And spelled his doom.

– But now stuff was different, since Rio already planned to change the events of engagement, there was no need for him to pick a fight with some Royal or to antagonize the king.

This was another experiment for Rio -he already learned that he can turn enemies into allies due to Esme. He learned that he can steal stuff cause of Asher. Now it was an experiment to see -Can he alter the entire setting of a character before the plot starts. Can he turn this stepping stone into something useful?

[What're you thinking?]

"Nothing, Isn't it nice that I actually got a friend my age. I'm trying to be friendly with my enemies instead of killing them, that's character development right there."

[First of all he is not your age. And second, your character development is just you messing around the plot. Changing his destiny could lead to some pretty big changes in the future. His role is to be a stepping stone and your actions might alter that route completely.]

"No it won't. Maximus never announced his successor in the novel until the end, remember. This guy loves his throne too much, just like his chosen God. He'll never leave it until he lives.

This race of competition between kids to see who's worthy, it's just his backup plan of necessity. Hell if it wasn't a requirement, I bet Maximus will kill his kids himself, fearing they'll take his throne from him after growing up, he's that insecure about being a king."

[So Bernhardt and Alfred, they're both tools for Maximus. What's wrong with picking Alfred as your friend then. He's strong, smart and he'll be protected by destiny too. In the novel he wins, so why not choose him instead of some washed up villain.]

"What's the rush? Don't you want to know what happens when we give this guy what he always wanted? In the novel he always complained about the unfairness he suffered, so I will give him a fair chance to compete against Alfred, let's see which brother wins. It'll be much more fun."

[My money's on Alfred.]

[No ignore that. It still isn't enough about why you picked Bernhardt instead of Alfred, is it?]

"No it's not. By picking Bernhardt, I can see the changes my actions bring in the plot. It can help me understand the cause and effects of my actions better until the plot starts. As you said they don't have much protection of fate now since the plot hasn't begun, so this guy will teach me the limits I can play around without getting repercussions from the heavens. But if I pick Alfred now, it won't change anything, and even if it did I'll have to wait until the plot starts to see how much effect it has on the plot."

[Let me get this straight, in simple terms if you push Alfred forward you'll have to wait until plot starts to know how much further he went from his supposed role, but by changing the destiny of Bernhardt you'll be able to see the results of your actions much clearer and sooner. Giving you enough time to prepare other routes.]

"Now you get it."

[It is a bold move. But you're right, it's better to learn as much as you can about the causality before the plot begins.]

"Yupp. Now ignore this and show me my status. Been a while since I checked it."

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A/N - Yes, I know what you're thinking. This Bernhardt guy goes the stepsister route. Why is Rio okay with that, -cause the fuck it matters to him, who likes whom. Plus as MC said, it is all just knowledge from the novel, who knows by changing Bernhardt now, he never turns into a perverted young master villain type guy later. Stripping away a stepping stone from under the protagonist's steps. Wouldn't that be fun? 🤔😌