Chapter 471: A Suspicious Orphan

Cherion sat near the tall arched windows of his private quarters, slowly swirling the dark remnants of cold tea in a porcelain cup. Outside, the afternoon sun was having a wonderful time stretching itself across the manicured gardens, completely unaware that inside the room, the atmosphere had the charm of a funeral nobody had bothered to announce.

Across from him, Flio stood stiffly with his hands folded in front of him, looking like a man who had been summoned to the palace without being told why and had already accepted that his life was about to become significantly worse. Over by the doorway stood Reiner, looking like he wished he could magically blend into the dark wood paneling and vanish off the continent. Near the curtain stood Ezek, looming like a decorative suit of full-plate armor that occasionally exhaled.

Cherion set the teacup down on its saucer with a soft clink that somehow sounded much louder in the quiet room. He leaned back into the plush armchair, resting his chin on his palm as his thoughts drifted back to the strange, fragmented dream from the night before, a fleeting rush of memory that clearly belonged to OG Cherion.

It wasn’t his memory, which would have been convenient, but apparently living in someone else’s body came with the occasional bonus feature of getting random pieces of their past shoved into his head without warning. The memory itself had been brief and disjointed, barely more than a few fleeting images and emotions, yet whatever he had felt during it had stubbornly followed him into the morning, leaving the same strange, cold sensation sitting in his stomach as though it had decided to move in permanently.

Flio must be wondering why he had been called here in the first place. Cherion had never summoned him like this before, not personally, not without giving him some reason beforehand.

"Flio," Cherion began casually, tilting his head slightly. "What do you know about Philia?"

Flio’s posture locked up instantly. A visible flicker of absolute terror passed through his eyes, his mouth opening and closing like a landed fish as he tried to carefully weigh a response. Beside the door, Reiner let out a barely audible, miserable squeak and suddenly became deeply fascinated by the floor, as though he had just discovered the most interesting patch of wood in the entire palace.

Seeing the sheer panic rising in the man, Cherion waved a hand dismissively and let out a light, easy laugh.

"Oh, relax. Don’t look at me like I’m about to execute someone," Cherion said, offering a disarming, effortless smile. "I know what you’re thinking, but I personally don’t hold any animosity toward him regarding the whole Crown Prince situation."

Flio blinked, clearly caught off guard by the relaxed tone. "You... don’t, My Lord?"

"Not at all. The broken engagement, the dramatic public scene, it’s all in the past," Cherion assured him, leaning back with a completely unbothered posture. "I’m cool about it. As cool as a vanilla sundae."

Flio frowned, his eyebrows knitting together in utter, painful confusion. "...A vanilla what, My Lord?"

"Never mind that," Cherion chuckled, waving it off before Flio’s medieval brain melted trying to comprehend modern frozen desserts. "Just tell me what you know about him. Don’t leave anything behind, ok?"

Flio cleared his throat nervously, adjusting his collar before recalling the general information available throughout the palace grounds. "Well... from what is officially known, Lord Philia grew up in the orphanage. He spent his entire childhood there until His Highness, the Crown Prince, happened to visit the lower district years ago and brought him to the palace. The rest, as they say, is history."

Cherion listened quietly, but inside, his mind was already dissecting every single word.

That’s just the basic plotline from the novel, Cherion thought, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes into the back of his head. Philia was introduced as the pure, saintly protagonist raised in an orphanage, complete with halo lighting and dramatic background sparkles. But what about before that?

In the novel Cherion had devoured back on his couch in the modern world before that unfortunate heart attack sent him straight into this new life, Philia’s background prior to the orphanage was never fully explained. He was simply an orphan, end of story. But Cherion distinctly remembered reading a random author Q&A comment thread at three in the morning where the author dropped vague hints about hidden powers, even OG Cherion had possessed unique abilities in the author’s initial draft notes. If the villain had secret power, Cherion reasoned, isn’t the author supposed to give something significant to the main character, too?

Besides, the real Philia sitting in this palace wasn’t nearly as sweet, innocent, or harmless as the protagonist written on the pages of that novel.

"Okay," Cherion pressed softly, tapping his index finger rhythmically against the armrest. "Before that. What about before the orphanage? His real parents, or his family?"

Flio hesitated again, searching his memory carefully. "I... well, if I am not mistaken, there was a quiet rumor from the old orphanage records. It was said he was dropped off by an unknown man. He was found in the forest, abandoned by that man before the orphanage caretakers brought him in."

Cherion’s eyes narrowed slightly. Dropped near the forest by a mysterious man? What is this, a classic fantasy trope generator?

"Oh," Cherion murmured, a faint, intrigued grin touching his lips. "Interesting information. But it’s still not enough for me."

Cherion raised his hand, curling his index finger in a subtle motion. "Come closer, Flio."

Flio blinked in surprise, but dutifully took two steps forward, leaning in slightly over the small wooden tea table.

"Can you do me a favor?" Cherion whispered.

"What kind of favor, My Lord?"

Inside, Cherion felt an unsettling weight pressing against his chest. Seeing Philia act so differently from the novel’s original saintly protagonist was one thing, but the dream from last night was making him deeply uneasy.

In a world where the main plot had already drifted completely off its original rails, anything could happen. The main character could easily turn out to be the villain, and vice versa. He needed to uncover the absolute truth before he got caught in the crossfire.

"I need you to get more information about Philia," Cherion instructed, his voice dropping into a low, deadly serious whisper that left no room for argument. "Not just his past... but everyone around him right now. His personal attendant, the people at that orphanage, don’t miss a single person. I want to know everything about him."