Chapter 18: Lone Genius, The Mocked Ghost’s Rejection
"Get lost, if I dared to sell your books here, wouldn’t I be risking my head?"
"But sir, please take a look first..."
The bookstore owner cursed and grumbled as he threw a stack of colorful notebooks out the door.
Along with them came a frail young scholar wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
The scholar propped up his broken lenses, scrambling to gather the books.
"Young man, I’m not saying this to be harsh, but no bookstore will take these things you’ve written. Why don’t you go write some fairy tales for kids to fill your stomach?"
The owner offered one last piece of kind advice, reluctantly picking out a book and tossing a few copper coins to the scholar before shutting the bookstore door with a look of disgust.
The young man carefully hugged the books in his arms, slowly picking up the copper coins from the ground.
In his carelessness, one of the books slipped from his hands and flew out, landing in the hands of a girl standing nearby.
"Sorry, miss, that book is mine."
"‘The Balance Between the Royal Family and Major Nobles,’ ‘Conflicts and Contradictions Between Nobles and Commoners,’ these books have names I’ve never heard of. Sir, would you sell this book to me?"
The girl clutched the notebook, her face full of curiosity as she expressed her desire to buy it.
This caught the young scholar completely off guard.
Ever since he was expelled from the academy, his books had been avoided like the plague.
"Of course! But, are you really going to buy it? They say these are forbidden books."
"Absolutely, I think they’re very interesting. By the way, sir, may I know your name?"
The young man realized that, despite their lengthy conversation, he had been quite impolite to the charming young lady.
He quickly brushed the dust off his clothes, straightened his collar, and answered earnestly,
"Weber Burns, my apologies for the poor impression. Right now, I’m just writing some notes to sustain my livelihood and pay for my studies."
Spending his days buried in the library, Weber had mostly only greeted books.
Though the girl before him looked only eleven or twelve, he still felt flustered, unsure how to converse.
But seeing the girl engrossed in flipping through his book, Weber suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of accomplishment, and his nervous emotions naturally eased.
"Sir, could you guide me on some questions?"
"Of course, but I haven’t yet asked for your name, miss."
"My name is Loka."
Looking into her eyes, filled with a thirst for knowledge, how could Weber, as a scholar, refuse?
He nodded and followed the little girl to the end of the street, only to be suddenly bagged and abducted by a mysterious black shadow.
"Welcome, Mr. Weber Burns."
The hood was removed, and the blinding light made him unable to open his eyes.
Barely adjusting to the stark contrast, Weber found himself tied up in a mysterious room.
The girl from earlier watched him calmly, a faint smile on her face.
"Um, Miss Loka, have we been kidnapped by someone?"
"Of course, I’m the one who brought you here, Mr. Weber."
Loka carefully scrutinized the clueless scholar before her, beginning to doubt whether her memory was still clear.
Weber Burns, in his previous life, was merely an obscure scholar, but his field of study caused a massive uproar—research on the internal conflicts among nobles and commoner doctrines.
In his previous life, a single draft from his old residence exposed the open and covert struggles among the empire’s Four Major Families.
This reclusive scholar, who had never mingled with noble society, had long seen through the dark underbelly of the aristocracy.
Due to his pure pursuit of knowledge as a scholar, he even presented his findings at the Royal Academy, where noble heirs gathered.
Unsurprisingly, this research, once exposed, was bound to touch someone’s interests.
Expelled from the academy on baseless charges, burdened with exorbitant tuition debts, and facing constant setbacks, this genius who could have shone in his field met an early demise.
But Loka, with just a single page of his notes, had successfully incited the ambitions of the rebel army.
If not for the variable of the sixth princess emerging halfway, she would have already become the new ruler.
Her thoughts returned to the present.
The young man before her had already accepted his fate as a prisoner.
"Miss Loka, are you also here to kill me?"
Ever since his expulsion from the academy, he had faced countless assassinations and ambushes.
Sometimes a carriage would suddenly charge at him on the road; other times, a flowerpot would fall precisely one step ahead of him from a rooftop.
He even suspected his own bad luck.
Until one day, while returning from selling books, a group of black-clad figures rushed toward him.
Fortunately, he rolled into a turbulent river nearby, drifting downstream to escape.
He had thought the recent quiet meant they had given up, but it seemed he was still being targeted, lured into a trap like this.
"If I wanted to kill you, I’d just leave you alone, and you’d have been dealt with days ago."
To ensure the conversation in her plan went smoothly, Loka had arranged for her subordinates to protect Weber until the timing of today’s plan.
"You mean, you saved me?"
As he spoke, the ropes binding Weber were suddenly untied.
Loka leaned back leisurely in her chair, still flipping through the notes he had written.
For some reason, the girl before him exuded a composure unlike others her age.
"I don’t expect repayment for saving your life, but I need you to do some things for me."
Loka returned the notes to Weber and extended her hand.
"I need someone who understands the entire empire, the entire noble society and you, Mr. Weber, I hope you will join me and serve under me."
This eleven- or twelve-year-old, seemingly naive girl now revealed boundless ambition and a confident smile, as if she herself were the supreme throne.
Weber’s expression gradually grew serious.
"May I ask, Miss Loka, why would you recruit a powerless scholar like me?"
"I want to overthrow this empire."
Loka said it without hesitation, as calmly as if she were talking about an everyday matter, but it couldn’t hide the ambition in her eyes.
"I need you as my advisor, to devise strategies against those lofty nobles. Of course, your works will be celebrated by the world after our success."
Weber’s body trembled slightly.
As an adult, the words of this young child were almost unbelievable.
At that moment, Weber fell into deep thought.
"Master, he left."
Watching the figure slowly depart, his master showed no sign of wanting to pursue.
Lycan felt puzzled but dared not voice his doubts.
"It seems persuasion by profit won’t work. Prepare to use coercion..."