Chapter 17: The Forbidden Diary

When Song Ze finished dinner and returned to his room, lying on the bed, he still felt dazed. It took him a moment to fully comprehend what had just happened.

No. This couldn’t go on! If it continued like this, history would repeat itself, and he would inevitably end up on the path of homosexuality!! He absolutely could not let that happen.

He had to complete the main quest and get out of here quickly! All he had to do was explore the mansion and find out the old duke’s cause of death!

Song Ze had a vague premonition that once he entered Idis’s study, he would discover something he didn’t know yet but absolutely needed to know.

****

In the following days, everything seemed normal.

Every morning, Song Ze would study etiquette with Idis (a process that inevitably involved plenty of gay undertones, which he forcefully ignored). In the afternoons, he studied with other teachers. During his free time, he wandered around the mansion under the guise of taking walks.

At first, servants followed him, but after seeing his completely normal behavior for several days—and considering his good relationship with both the late duke and the current duke—gradually, no one kept an eye on him anymore.

Song Ze breathed a sigh of relief, but one thing bothered him: ever since he arrived at the mansion, he had felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had actually lived here since childhood.

But he had clearly transmigrated here… Was it the original body’s residual memories?

Song Ze didn’t have the energy to dwell on it. The day after tomorrow would be the old duke’s funeral. A grand ceremony would be held in the mansion, inviting all the upper crust of the imperial capital, even the High Priest of the Temple.

Count William, suspected of killing the old duke, was reportedly under surveillance, but in the game’s plot, he would show up at the funeral to cause trouble. Using the power he learned from the demons, he would try to control everyone present and dominate half of the empire’s high society.

But at that critical moment, even though the protagonist’s level was low, the inherited mark on him would activate, breaking the count’s magic and saving everyone… Most importantly, he would save Duchess Idis in a classic damsel-in-distress scenario, making her fall completely and irrevocably in love with him. The elf princess would also be impressed by his heroism, her already maxed-out affection increasing even more.

After that, the protagonist’s reputation would soar, making him a famous figure in the empire, raising his status in the Temple, and earning him an audience with the Holy Maiden.

On the other side, with the plan to control the count and indirectly dominate half the empire foiled, the demon princess’s attention would again be drawn to the protagonist, and her affection would increase (it mysteriously increased, just like that).

In short, no matter how he looked at it, this was a crucial plot point in the game. Not only would the protagonist’s status rise, but he could also boost affection with almost all the romanceable targets at once.

But now, with all three romanceable targets turned into men—and even the possibility of the Holy Maiden being female looking slim—Song Ze genuinely wanted to escape from life.

Fortunately, although Idis was gay, except for that one incident, he hadn’t done anything inappropriate. He acted like a strict elder, which relieved Song Ze.

Anyway, because of the upcoming funeral, Idis had been very busy lately, and today he even had to go out to discuss matters. This was the perfect opportunity to sneak into his study!

So after lunch, seeing Idis leave, Song Ze excused himself for a walk, pretended to head to the garden, but actually nonchalantly made his way to the study door.

Thanks to the rule that no one else was allowed in, there was hardly anyone around—a convenient advantage for Song Ze.

Standing at the door, Song Ze looked left and right. Seeing no one, his heart settled, and he placed his hand on the door.

Undoubtedly, in this Western fantasy world, the door would be guarded by a magic array to prevent entry, but Song Ze was well prepared.

The mark of divine inheritance he had obtained earlier was like a cheat—it could be used in all sorts of situations and was extremely versatile. Normally, others would have to risk life and death to break through such a high-level defensive magic array, but with the mark, Song Ze’s power was a cut above ordinary forces, allowing him to bypass the array entirely.

In other words, Song Ze simply pushed the door open; the defensive magic array was as good as nonexistent to him.

“This mark is really useful. It’s truly a cheat given to the protagonist,” Song Ze muttered, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. He carefully closed the door behind him to prevent anyone passing by from noticing anything amiss.

Then Song Ze quickly scanned the room, surveying the study’s interior.

It was a very ordinary study, showing no signs of anything unusual. All the documents, books, and items were neatly arranged, utterly devoid of any trace of life. It reminded Song Ze of Idis himself—always seemingly flawless… Fitting for such a person’s study.

One thing that felt out of place, however, was a painting hanging on the wall.

Song Ze turned to look. The painting depicted two children, with a noticeable age gap. The younger child looked tense and uneasy, but still tightly held the hand of the person beside them.

The other, a teenager, had a cold expression, but his violet eyes held a hint of warmth.

Regardless, they seemed like two people with a good relationship… And their identities were obvious.

When Song Ze saw the painting, he felt a sharp pain in his forehead, as if some image was about to surface but remained indistinct.

“What’s going on… Is there a mental attack attached to this painting?”

Song Ze shook his head and averted his gaze from the painting that exuded a touching childhood friendship.

Yes.

It was definitely not some twisted homosexual feelings!!

Song Ze then looked around the study further. He didn’t randomly rummage through the books but instead followed his intuition, searching for what had been bothering him earlier.

Finally, he stopped in front of the desk, his gaze unconsciously focusing on a notebook lying on it.

This notebook was very distinctive—it looked particularly old and worn, clearly from a bygone era, giving it a sense of being out of place here.

But it was evident that the owner had taken good care of it; the cover even glowed with the light of a magic array, preventing others from easily opening it—though that couldn’t stop Song Ze either.

For some reason, when his hand touched it, Song Ze’s heartbeat suddenly quickened. He had a vague feeling that what he was about to see was no ordinary thing.

“This is probably a diary… Leaving a diary out in the open where it can be investigated—how game-like,” he thought.

When he opened it, he noticed it was from several years ago, likely written by Idis when Song Ze first arrived at the duke’s mansion.

Even though he knew such old records would be useless for the main quest and he should be looking for Idis’s recent diary, curiosity drove him to read on.

After all, which gamer wouldn’t want to read the diary of a romanceable character in a game? Even when he played the game, he had never found such an item!

The tone in the diary was cold, indicating that a child had recently come to the mansion, a useless brat in whom Idis had no interest.

“So Idis was already this cold as a child,” Song Ze mused. Idis’s personality was clearly innate.

He remembered that in the game, Idis was indeed described as very aloof as a child.

Flipping further, the entries covered various studies and daily life. It was clear that Idis was a highly disciplined person from a young age, quite mature, and with a detachment completely unlike ordinary children, as if everything around him was irrelevant.

But at some point, the diary entries about Song Ze gradually increased.

“That guy is really useless. He actually got bullied by the servants. It’s unbearable to watch. After all, he’s Father’s adopted child, and this would tarnish our family’s reputation.

I scolded the servants, and surprisingly, that kid seemed happy. After that, he kept sneaking around behind me. When I caught him, he hid, but not very well… How foolish.”

…

“Although I have no intention of getting along with him, lately I feel like that kid appears in front of me more often. He hasn’t even finished his lessons, and I really don’t want to deal with him. But his clumsy demeanor is infuriating.”

…

“Father said he should also learn magic, so we’ll have classes together from now on. The butler said studying with a commoner like him is an insult to me, but I don’t really care. Having him in class might be interesting…”

…

Song Ze was astonished. So Idis was also the type to say one thing but mean another! Though his coldness was much deeper than Aliel’s.

Wait—it mentioned letting him learn magic… But he had never learned magic, or why would he have been sent to the Paladin Academy to become a monk?

What had happened before that he didn’t know? It was too intriguing! He had played the game countless times, yet there was still so much he didn’t know.

Song Ze immediately wanted to turn to the next page, feeling that whatever he was curious about would soon be revealed.

But at that moment, the sound of the door opening suddenly rang out.

“!!!”

Startled, Song Ze clutched the diary to his chest and turned around to see Idis standing at the doorway.

Idis stood there, quietly watching him, his violet eyes carrying a noticeable shade of gloom.

“You still came in,” he said softly, closing the door as he spoke and slowly walking toward Song Ze. “So, you saw… something you shouldn’t have?”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Gege…. Hug Me, My Waist Hurts

【1v1】BL RomanceBoys Love

Read Now →
Not interested