The cute maid saw the evil smile on his face and became vigilant.

"You aren't seriously thinking of stealing from the Great Kingdom, are you?" Lara narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.

"Who me? 'Course not~" Yuan played it off with a chuckle. "Why would you think that I would steal something when I just got here, do I really look like a cunning thief to you?"

"I totally am." he faintly smirked.

The maid continued to stare at him sharply, but seeing him still eating his food leisurely as if he didn't notice her glare, she decided to let him be for the time being.

"I see... Well then, I think I have entertained you long enough, I'll take my leave now."

"Hold on a minute."

"...What is it now?"

Yuan put his dining utensils down and crossed his arms somberly at her. He stared straight into the maid's eyes and asked her, "What happened to the group of heroes who defeated the Demon King, where are they now?"

The cute maid stayed silent for a moment, as she studied his somber expression.

"Why do you ask that...?"

"No reason other than wanting to meet them." Yuan tried his best to suppress the hostility he felt by tightly gripping his crossed arms around him.

"I see... The other heroes I don't know of, but one of them I do know is currently serving as the Head of the Court of Magicians in the kingdom." Lara formally called her name and title, "She is Anastasia Clyde, the Graceful Sorceress of Averon."

"...And, what about the others?"

"I do not know." she shook her head. "I should really be going now, thank you for sharing your meal with me, Sir Yuan."

"Right... I'll see you around then."

Lara bowed her head at him and finally took her leave, closing the door on her way out of the room.

Yuan sighed dejectedly, but at least he obtained some useful information about the current world of Imahen from that cute maid named Lara.

"Basically, the world is at war with each other because of the divine treasures of the Demon King, and those bastards are nowhere to be found..."

Yuan took a deep breath and resolutely stood up from his seat, returning to the isolated corner of his room.

He once more sat down on the same spot as before, adapting the lotus position yet again. And for the entire night, Yuan quietly gathered magic power from the atmosphere into his mana reserves.

...

The next day.

After his deep meditation, Yuan felt completely refreshed. He did some early morning stretching to flex his stiff muscles, making them relax. Following that he exercised his teenage body by doing push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and squats.

"Mhmm... That's better."

By the end of it, his whole body was glistening with sweat and oil from all that training exercise. After carefully wiping the sweat off of his body, Yuan got in the showers and cleansed himself from bad odor and fatigue.

When he got out of the bathroom, he noticed a piece of paper with a letter written on it placed on his bedside.

He curiously picked up the letter and read its content aloud, "Good day Hero, you and your companions have been summoned by the Princess to attend a formal gathering this morning. You will have your breakfast prepared over there at the dining hall where the gathering will take place; if you know the way please go directly to the dining hall, and if you don't have a servant guide you there."

Yuan threw the letter away after having read its message. He then went to the large wardrobe in his room and opened it; inside were all types of clothes imaginable to him.

Yuan swiftly selected a formal but comfortable wear that he could easily move around in. Afterwards, he left his room and stood on the corridor outside.

Picking a particular direction to go to, Yuan walked towards the door of a specific room with an engraved number of VII on its surface.

He knocked on the door to announce his visit to the person inside while loudly shouting, "Hey Jacob, get up man! We have to get going."

With his incessant knocking and yelling, the door was finally opened for him. Standing on the other side of the doorway was a groggy youth with messy bed hair who was sleepily rubbing his eyelids while yawning.

"Uooahh... Hey, what time is it?"

"How the heck am I supposed to know that, they don't have clocks here y'know."

"It must still be early, right? So why did you have to go and wake me up, can't a man catch some z's..."

Yuan swept his gaze from top to bottom, and it certainly did look like Jacob wasn't ready to head on over to the dining hall with him.

"Didn't a servant come to wake you up or something?"

"Yeah, some old butler guy did, and he also gave me a letter."

"And, did you read it? The letter?"

"Nah, I was still too tired to care about that so I just tossed it aside and went back to sleep."

Yuan sighed at his best friend's relaxed attitude as he told him, "Dude, how can you be so lax. Don't you know that we're technically in another world now, can't you at least take these things seriously?"

"Meh, it's not like we can do anything about it." Jacob shrugged his shoulders at him. "If there's nothing else I'm heading back to bed."

Jacob quickly tried to close the door on him, but Yuan was faster to put his foot in to block the door from closing.

"Hoi! This isn't the end of it!" Yuan almost popped a vein on him. "Get out of your room right now!"

And so, Yuan compelled his best friend Jacob to get ready for the formal gathering hosted by the Princess. With no other choice, Jacob could only follow his command and languidly prepared to go together with him.

Half an hour later, every single one of Yuan's classmates were finally gathered outside of their rooms as they prepared to head over to the dining hall as a group.

It was finally time to formally meet the Princess of Averon once again, but the only difference this time was that he was born anew.