Reincarnated With A System Of Different Genre

Caelum simply couldn't comprehend the equation.

'One bun equals more than sixty days of training…'

It was absurd, absolutely absurd!

For the past two months, Voomie had complained every single day while being forced through Instructor Axel's rigorous training regimen.

She had run until she collapsed.

She had exercised against her will.

She had even eaten slightly less because of Caelum.

And all of that hard work, had been erased by a single bun.

Caelum had always suspected that the moment he brought Voomie back to the Annum Estate, she would inevitably become fat again.

After all, there was no shortage of delicious food and servants waiting to pamper her.

But, he had expected it to take at least a few weeks.

Not a single bite.

The worst part was that he couldn't even blame his father.

Seth had genuinely thought he was giving Voomie a wonderful gift.

'…Instructor Axel is going to faint.'

Caelum could already imagine the instructor's expression after discovering that two months of painstaking progress had vanished in the time it took Voomie to swallow a bun.

The image was so vivid that he almost felt sorry for him.

Before Voomie could celebrate any further, Caelum picked her up by her round belly.

"Damn you, Owner!" she barked indignantly, kicking her paws.

Caelum ignored every word.

There was no point arguing with a dog whose greatest ambition in life was eating and getting fat.

The group soon entered the dormitory room as Seth glanced around with quiet interest.

"The room is quite nice."

Although it couldn't compare to Caelum's personal room back at the Annum Estate, it was spacious, clean, and furnished with impressive quality.

Even by Seth's standards, it was more than respectable.

It wasn't without reason that the Imperial Zenith School was regarded as the greatest school in the Empire.

Seth casually took a seat.

"Tell me son, how has school been?"

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"You left home saying you would graduate within two years."

Caelum immediately looked away.

"...I don't remember saying that."

"Oh? You don't?"

"Not at all."

Seth chuckled before removing a device from his pocket as a holographic screen materialized in front of them.

–––

"Then I will go," Caelum declared as he climbed into the carriage.

"And I will definitely graduate from this school within two years!"

–––

"This says something else."

Caelum coughed into his fist ignoring the projection.

"School is fun and I have also met a lot of interesting people, but…"

His cheerful expression instantly soured.

"There are exams soon."

The word itself seemed to drain the color from his face.

Seth laughed.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, I am sure they will be quite easy for you."

His gaze shifted toward Paul.

"And you, I believe your name is Paul?"

Paul immediately straightened his back.

"Y-Yes, Sir Count!"

Seth nodded approvingly.

"You have a remarkable mind. The way you reasoned through things earlier was quite interesting too, so, have you ever considered working for House Annum after graduating?"

Paul's eyes widened.

"..."

His brain stopped functioning.

'A-A job offer, from the Count himself...?'

He felt as though he were dreaming.

He slowly turned toward Jojo and asked him to slap him.

Jojo folded his arms and refused to take part in this strange hobby.

Before Paul could recover, Caelum answered instead.

"He won't accept, he already promised to work under me in the future."

Paul finally snapped out of his daze.

"W-Wait! I never said I wouldn't–"

"Hmm… I see."

Seth nodded without the slightest hesitation.

"In that case, I won't interfere."

"..."

Paul's outstretched hand slowly froze in midair.

His mouth opened and closed several times but no sound came out.

Then, he turned toward Caelum and a gaze filled with endless resentment landed upon him.

Caelum pretended not to notice.

'When will Paul finally become brave enough to speak up?'

He wondered sincerely.

Completely knowing, that he himself was largely responsible for sealing Paul's confidence.

Seeing the lively interaction between the children, Seth couldn't help smiling.

"All right, tell me everything, how has your time at the school been?"

Caelum leaned back thoughtfully.

"Hmm… Should I start with meeting Bonjour or from the time I first met Paul before coming here?"

And so, the father and son began talking.

Caelum spoke about his classes, his friends, the teachers, the strange incidents that somehow always seemed to find him, and the countless ridiculous situations he had gotten himself into.

Occasionally, Paul or Jojo would interrupt to add their own version of events, usually making the story sound even more unbelievable.

Laughter filled the dormitory room.

The conversation continued for hours.

It was simply a father spending time with his son.

But the same can't be said about Caelum's shadow.

***

Grozni Gefährlich Morozov Höllenbrand had never known fear.

He refused to.

Even at the height of his mortality, when entire kingdoms united to hunt him down, he had never once trembled.

Death itself had merely become another experiment.

Yet, the existence he was currently observing was something even he couldn't comprehend.

At first glance, the man appeared perfectly ordinary.

A powerful Count of the Empire.

A loving father.

Nothing more.

But the moment Grozni extended his senses toward him, he immediately withdrew them.

The man standing before him was clearly younger than Grozni and had been born in the later eras.

Moreover, faint traces of the Dark One's bloodline flowed within Seth's body.

So faint that they were nearly nonexistent.

Ordinarily, Grozni would have dismissed them as diluted remnants inherited across countless generations.

Yet, whenever he looked at Seth.

He felt as though he were gazing into something infinitely deeper than the Abyss itself.

The Abyss, that endless darkness feared by Gods and Demons alike.

Compared to the man before him, it felt shallow.

Even Nether, the legendary realm that swallowed souls and buried forgotten gods, seemed incapable of containing the depth hidden within Seth's existence.

Grozni's ancient soul instinctively recoiled.

His hidden majesty, his presence, his very existence reminded Grozni of several terrifying beings he had respected during his lifetime.

In certain moments, it even felt as though Seth surpassed them.

'But... how?'

That single question refused to leave his mind.

And there was also a reason why he had taken Caelum as his disciple, it was to investigate his family!

Because the Dark One's bloodline alone didn't make sense for him.

If the Dark One's lineage had truly awakened, Caelum's appearance should have reflected it.

His hair should have been black, not the deep blue it currently was.

The contradiction gnawed at Grozni.

Even stranger was that, faint vestige of the Dark One Grozni had encountered long ago, a fragment of will preserved across countless ages.

Even that had not inspired the level of caution Seth now did.

Because of that, Grozni chose patience over curiosity.

He observed.

The ethereal skull he normally projected over Caelum's shoulder quietly dispersed, and he concealed his presence within the shadows.

Having only recently returned from death, he couldn't afford to make careless mistakes.

Then, he learned the truth.

'He is my disciple's father.'

For a brief moment, even Grozni's thoughts came to a halt.

The disciple he had finally obtained was the son of this unfathomable existence.

Just as he was trying to reorganize everything he thought he knew.

Without the slightest warning, Grozni felt his consciousness abruptly pulled away.

An invisible force drew him toward an entirely different place.