If I have to choose between the two bloodlines, I’d definitely pick the Saintess

Zexi looked at himself in the mirror, all decked out.

Clothes really did make the man.

He had woken up looking like a down-and-out young noble.

But now, dressed like this, his presence came out at once.

A simple cream linen shirt and a brown vest with gold-trimmed brass buttons.

His long red hair, after being groomed, was smooth and shiny.

He was the spitting image of a carefree dandy.

Not bad, not bad.

At least the character model was decent.

If he survived and had the duke’s estate behind him, he would never worry about food or clothing for the rest of his life.

With a face like this, he could even go flirt with girls.

What better life could there be?

After admiring himself, Zexi stretched and walked to the door.

He opened it to find Ansu standing beside the meal cart, waiting.

“Ansu, you don’t need to wait here after delivering meals. I can bring them in myself. Just go do your own thing.”

Zexi casually picked a few plates of breakfast and walked into the room, leaving Ansu standing there without moving.

Inside, her emotions were churning.

The notification for her emotion points jumped several times.

‘The young master has changed. What is this all about?’

Ansu stood there for a long while, unable to figure it out.

Then, remembering his orders, she left.

“Mm, this is good. Oh, that’s good too. As expected of the duke’s estate, even breakfast is this lavish.”

Zexi nodded with satisfaction.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten breakfast.

Back in his rented room, he had slept through every morning and ordered takeout when he was hungry.

As a shut-in, he always wrote in the note, ‘Just leave it at the door, thanks.’

Now he had eaten, it was time to get stronger.

Zexi silently recited his full name.

After a moment, the character panel appeared.

He gave his stats and status the usual once-over and found that his condition had improved a lot.

The duration of Weakness and Fatigue had decreased.

Mana depletion was unchanged.

Skill cooldowns were the same.

[Emotion Points: 209]

Huh, that’s a lot of emotion points.

So Ansu and the others really were that emotional?

He didn’t get it.

But seeing those two cheap items, Zexi immediately started buying.

[Used 20 Emotion Points to purchase the Eye of the Sage.]

[Emotion Points: 189]

After the purchase, Zexi felt his eyes clear up considerably.

It seemed to connect with his mana, and the world looked a little different.

“It feels kind of amazing. My eyes seem to have gotten a lot better.”

Zexi thought: he was only sixteen, how had his vision gone bad anyway?

Then memories surfaced of him poring over those books.

The End of the Villain Young Master, The Real Boss Is a Villain Young Master, Why Should a Villain Young Master Tolerate the Hero…

What the hell?

Why was he reading that sort of thing?

A villain young master’s self-cultivation?

Learning how to be a villain young master from novels?

God, what was he doing?

He even gave himself myopia.

No wonder he couldn’t recognize faces later.

It was because he couldn’t see people clearly.

Zexi didn’t know how to complain.

But he didn’t dwell on it.

After all, there was no way he’d go down that path.

After the Eye of the Sage was bought and disappeared, only the two bloodline awakenings remained.

Zexi chose the Alshina bloodline awakening without much thought.

Donar was something he had no idea about.

But Alshina was the first generation saintess in the game’s lore.

She was an absolute badass among badasses.

With golden hair and blue rhombus-shaped eyes, she wielded her holy sword to drive off a host of demon gods and their minions, turning the tide when humanity was on the brink of extinction.

If he could learn a few moves from the saintess’s magic warrior skills, he would definitely be able to protect himself.

Maybe he could even learn that invincible Holy Flame.

Zexi couldn’t help fantasizing about awakening his bloodline, improving his talent, and training to become a powerful magic warrior who could roam the world.

“Come on, let’s see what bloodline awakening has to offer.”

He spent the emotion points directly.

Another 20 points were deducted.

A small yellow dot appeared under the Alshina bloodline awakening.

Only then did Zexi notice three gray dots below it, meaning he had to buy three times to awaken.

[Emotion Points: 169]

Damn it, he hadn’t seen that.

He got ripped off.

Because out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Donar bloodline next to it only had two gray dots.

Was I getting dumber?

Or was the myopia too deep?

Zexi wanted to cry.

After the purchase, the Donar bloodline awakening disappeared, leaving only the Alshina one.

His body began to change.

His whole being felt warm, as if shackles had been unlocked.

Zexi felt much lighter, and his Weakness and Fatigue seemed gone.

He couldn’t help looking at the status bar.

The status bar showed only Mana Depletion: 1 hour.

Bloodline skill cooldown: 3845 hours.

Wow, the noble revival armor’s cooldown had decreased!

If he fully awakened this bloodline, would Holy Resurrection be ready?

Without overthinking, Zexi immediately bought the remaining awakenings.

The second one cost 50 points.

Not too expensive.

[Emotion Points: 119]

This time, Zexi felt warmth spread through his body again, like sunbathing outside.

But it quickly got hotter and hotter, until his body seemed to burn.

Wait, this was different from the first time.

Wasn’t this too hot?

Zexi lay on the bed, sweating profusely.

It felt like his blood was boiling.

His body seemed to be changing, and his skin looked much better.

After who knows how long, Zexi finally returned to normal.

He got up from bed, joints crackling.

He checked the clock and saw it was already noon, and his stomach was growling.

He moved quickly, feeling incredibly light.

Every motion was full of strength.

He checked the character panel again to see what had changed.

As before, his talent was unchanged; only his status and cooldowns had updated.

The status bar was now completely empty, and Zexi could feel his mana full and abundant.

Holy Resurrection’s cooldown was down to 3105 hours.

At this rate, after awakening the bloodline, the skill would be ready in just three months.

This got Zexi excited.

If he just played it safe for three months, he wouldn’t have to worry about being ambushed when he acted.

Coming to this other world made him incredibly curious about the outside.

He wanted to see the magnificent wonders and experience the grand architecture he had only seen in illustrations.

But his growling stomach pulled him back to reality.

After two bloodline awakenings, he felt like he could eat anything.

Even that exquisite chair looked delicious.

‘What are you thinking?’

Zexi shook his head and hurried to the door.

Why was he running?

Just think about how the room had a study inside it, and you’d know how big it was.

Ansu was still standing at the door waiting.

Her brows were slightly furrowed, in a way only someone who knew her well would notice.

When Zexi opened the door, she immediately resumed her proper maid demeanor.

But Zexi noticed nothing.

He came out and wheeled the cart into the room, catching Ansu off guard.

“Haven’t I told you already? Ansu, you don’t need to wait after delivering meals. You don’t need to clean up the dishes either. I’ll just put them outside the door later.”

Before Ansu could say anything, Zexi had closed the door, leaving a dejected Ansu behind.

His attitude was unfathomable to her, and it made her feel a strong sense of crisis.

She couldn’t help but reflect on her career.

Beside her, the emotion points kept jumping, but not as much as before.

Zexi was completely unaware of all this.

Having never experienced such attentive care, he didn’t know how his past-life habits would affect the maid.

Right now, he was immersed in the food.

Delicious.

How did this steak smell so good?

Even this vegetable salad tasted great.

Zexi kept praising silently, his mouth stuffed with food.

The table was covered with all kinds of dishes, plus dessert and fruit.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten like this.

After eating and drinking his fill, he stood up to digest.

Looking out the window, he saw a vast flat grassland, with the capital’s buildings in the distance.

The duke’s estate sat on a piece of land on the outskirts of the capital.

Other than the mansion, there was nothing else on the land, mainly because Zexi was the only member of the family living here.

Thinking back on these sixteen years of Zexi’s life, it seemed he had spent them alone.

His personal maid Ansu was more like an older sister who had taken meticulous care of him since he was a child.

His father came home once every five years, and Zexi had long forgotten what he looked like.

Even when letters were exchanged, most of them were about his sister.

He seemed almost dispensable.

His sister had been sent to the church when her mother died when she was eight, but Zexi hadn’t even known about his mother’s death.

At the time, he thought his sister had just gone to the church for a while.

It wasn’t until his mother was buried that he realized how ridiculous he was.

Could a child growing up in such an environment not go astray?

Maybe this was just how it was in a saintess family.

They valued women over men.

And indeed, only girls could inherit the bloodline power.

His being a boy seemed like an accident.

But Zexi didn’t think too much about it.

After all, this was a yuri game, one that even had a marriage and child-rearing feature. He had never played that feature himself, but he knew a bit about it. Both female leads could marry and have children. That was the mind-blowing part, which was why Zexi hadn’t dared to try it. He just wanted to have intimate moments, not to get married.

Looking back, it wasn’t surprising that Zexi read those young-master novels. He just wanted someone to notice him. That was all. A child who grew up starved for attention and wanted to attract notice, how much ill intent could he have?

But now things were different. Zexi just wanted to lie low. The main storyline lasted about twenty years. If he played it safe for twenty years, he could start enjoying himself. Maybe he could even fix his relationship with his sister, and also meet his sister’s partner Cecilia, see her harem, and look at all kinds of beautiful women.

Cat-eared demi-humans, the elf queen, the princess of a fallen kingdom, the dragon princess, his own fiancée the princess…

Wait. It seemed he had a fiancée!

He remembered the first death CG he had seen in his previous life, where his fiancée and Cecilia joined forces to kill him.

‘I never thought you’d fall to the demon race. I’m ashamed to stand with you. You’ll only make Uncle Os sad.’

‘Enough talk. Time to send him off.’

Then both swords pierced his heart at once. After that came the sweet scene: Cecilia forced a kiss on his fiancée Yimir, and Yimir accepted it with some reluctance.

Thinking about it, Zexi felt both happy and sad. Happy because he could see the fluff in person. Sad because he was the one who died.

The next one was Cecilia winning over his sister, and then, with tears in her eyes, putting him, her brother, to death for the greater good.

The last death CG was just Cecilia.

He couldn’t understand why he would pick a fight with someone he couldn’t beat. If he saw Cecilia, he’d run.

Zexi shook his head. After cleaning up the table, he prepared to awaken the bloodline. This was his chance to change his fate, and he had to treat it seriously.

He sat on the bed and switched to the system panel. Thanks to Ansu’s lingering shock from earlier, his balance had ticked up to 133. The final bloodline awakening required 120 Emotion Points. Without hesitation, Zexi bought it.

[Emotion Points: 13]