Content: Pay off the villain Marlow's usurious loan and regain your freedom.

　　Reward: 150 experience.”

　　150 experience? Rowland glanced at the virtual experience bar in his mind, which showed 0/100—the numbers were exactly the same as in the game. With this 150 experience, he could level up to 2 and become an ordinary person with a normal body.

　　But here came the problem: with his current body, plus being new and unfamiliar with the environment, earning twenty silver coins within a month seemed a bit difficult.

　　Yes, he had only borrowed ten silver coins at first, but even if he paid it back within a month, it would double directly—if that’s not usury, what is?

　　If he didn’t pay, then Marlow would have his thugs use appropriate methods to show Rowland why people called him a villain!

　　How should he repay the money? Rowland was pondering this when a crisp voice suddenly sounded in his ear.

　　“Hey, what are you daydreaming about?”

　　Rowland was startled. He looked up and saw a young girl in a light green long dress standing by the stone railing at the dock not far away, waving at him in greeting. He looked carefully at her delicate face and was sure he had never seen her before, so he asked curiously, “Do I know you?”

　　“No, you don’t know me. I’m here to deliver a small gift from the lady to you,” the girl in green said.

　　She gently placed something wrapped in a light green cloth embroidered with silver thread on the stone railing, then explained, “It’s some snacks—maybe they can help fill your stomach.”

　　Rowland was quite puzzled, but he did smell the aroma of food. After hesitating for a moment, he finally chose to accept it. He had nothing now, so he wasn’t afraid anyone would try to take advantage of him. Besides, the girl mentioned the word “lady,” which made it even less strange.

　　In the game’s Vendôme, it wasn’t uncommon for noble ladies to occasionally feel sympathy and give alms to the poor. These ladies, with nothing to do all day except having affairs or competing with each other, had very rich emotional lives. They could shed tears for a stray dog dying by the roadside, so of course they could give a vagrant like him some pastries.

　　This was perfectly normal.

　　“Please thank the lady for me. May the Holy Light bless her,” Rowland said, using an NPC line he’d learned in the game.

　　His gaze passed over the girl and landed on the dock not far away, where a simply styled carriage was parked. The window was closed, but a small gap was left open. The kind lady was probably watching him from behind the window, and this girl was likely her maid.

　　The delicate maid squinted her eyes and smiled, “I’ll pass on your thanks. The lady also has a message for you. She said: There are often storms at sea, but after the storm, you can usually see a rainbow. She hopes you’ll see your own rainbow too. Even though your loved ones have passed away, you still have to keep living, don’t you?”

　　“Thank you again, sincerely.” So someone had seen him bury his foster father at sea—no wonder.

　　The girl in green smiled slightly, then turned and left. She boarded the black carriage not far away, and the carriage turned around and departed.

　　Rowland watched the carriage go off. Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to the family crest on the carriage. The crest’s design was crossed swords and muskets, surrounded by a coiled, roaring dragon.

　　This was... the Dragon Guardian Crest! Its sole user was Countess Vivian. The person sitting inside the carriage was Vivian!

　　Rowland was stunned for a moment, and countless thoughts surged up from the depths of his memory like a tide.

　　In the eyes of ordinary people in Vendôme, this countess, like Vendôme itself, was blessed by the gods.

　　She was incomparably beautiful, praised as the moon of Vendôme. She possessed extraordinary wisdom and was a famous archmage on the continent. She was also extremely powerful, as her cousin was none other than King Hayes Primo, the ruler of Vendôme.

　　She was a favored child of heaven, to be admired from afar but never profaned. The only regret was that she lost her husband at a young age and had remained a widow ever since. But no one minded this; all the ambitious young men on the continent thought her husband had died very sensibly, and countless outstanding youths tirelessly pursued her.

　　Unfortunately, no one had succeeded so far, because the countess had sworn to remain faithful to her husband for life.

　　But Rowland knew the truth: this Lady Vivian was not human. Her true form was a noble legendary Emerald Dragon. The so-called lord’s cousin and the so-called widowhood were just smokescreens to conceal her identity.

　　The reason she stayed in Vendôme was because, a hundred years ago, the lord of Vendôme had done her a great favor. To repay this, she swore to protect the lord’s family for three hundred years.

　　However, when the Month of Withering came, the countess revealed her true form to cover the lord’s family’s retreat, holding off the orc army. In the end, she died heroically on the battlefield, and even her dragon body was devoured by the rampaging orcs as army rations—a truly tragic end.

　　Thinking of Vivian’s ultimate fate, Rowland couldn’t help but sigh. But so what if he knew? He couldn’t change anything—at least not now.

　　Right now, he was just a weak, powerless teenager, his body so malnourished that he was skin and bones. He couldn’t change anything, and no one would believe him if he said anything. If he said too much, he might even be arrested for spreading heresy.