Geoffrey nodded, a smile appearing on his face.
"Just as you see, he is more excellent than we imagined... even without the support from you and your family."
"I... I don't know what to say." Clutching the envelope, Roxey bowed his head in shame.
Geoffrey said gently,
"There's no need to say anything; silently supporting him from behind will suffice."
Roxey was silent for a long time, then suddenly bit his lip and took off the ring he wore on his index finger.
"Please pass this on to him for me."
Though the ring wasn't a particularly powerful magic artifact, it was crafted with expensive Mithril and blood diamonds and could easily sell for five to six million Hell silver coins.
As the next Family Head, even though he didn't have to worry about food and clothing, he couldn't squeeze out much pocket money.
On one hand, his father kept a tight leash on him, and on the other, his current wife, to whom he was formally married, was keeping an eye on him.
The little money he could scrape together each month, he almost entirely sent to the Temple.
Geoffrey pushed the ring back towards Roxey and shook his head as he looked at him.
"A ring of the Colin Family appearing on the hand of an eighteen-year-old boy wouldn't be a good idea, neither for you nor for him. Far from helping him, it could have the opposite effect, drawing the attention of those with ill intentions."
"But—"
Geoffrey interrupted whatever else Roxey, Duke Roxey, wanted to say and continued in an even tone,
"The money you send him every month, I haven't given it all to him... Of course, I didn't donate it to the Temple either; instead, I've mostly been saving it for him. By now, there should be around two million in that account. Now that he has turned eighteen and is about to head to the Demon King Territory for his appointment, I think it's time to use that money."
A look of astonishment appeared on Roxey's face, which quickly turned into excitement.
He had not expected his future father-in-law to have done so much for him!
"Thank you..."
Watching the Vampire Duke earnestly expressing his gratitude, Geoffrey simply smiled faintly, his gaze turning towards the Demon God Statue in front of the Temple.
"You're welcome. He's not just your child."
He's also my grandson.
...
The next day.
At six in the morning sharp, the Purple Crystal Dome high above Demon City lit up on time, spreading soft moonlight over the sleeping city.
For the demons of Hell, the rise of the "moon" signified the start of a new day.
However, what woke Luo Yan from his slumber was not the moonlight spilling onto the corner of his desk but a knock at the door.
"Luo Yan, are you up? The graduation ceremony is about to start soon; I was thinking of heading to the cafeteria first. Do you want to come along?"
It was Egger's voice.
As one of the few friends Luo Yan had in Class 2 of Year 3, they occasionally went to class together.
Shaking his groggy head, Luo Yan propped himself up from the floor.
"Wait a minute, I'll be right there—never mind, I won't be done anytime soon over here. Go ahead, I'll catch up later."
Looking at the mess in his room, Luo Yan stopped mid-sentence and changed his mind.
Egger, standing at the door, was puzzled but didn't think too much of it.
"Alright, then I'll be off."
Listening to the footsteps at the door gradually fade away, Luo Yan sighed in relief and began to tidy up his cluttered room.
He had been researching "the diary of a fellow villager" until late at night and had not expected to fall asleep on the floor.
But thanks to that, he had managed to read the entire book from start to finish.
Overall, the diary was quite interesting, good enough to be submitted to a website called Qidian in his hometown, and it might have even gotten a contract. He even thought of a title for the book, calling it "This Otherworld Is Too Real!"
Perhaps it could even make it onto the monthly ticket rankings?
The only thing worth complaining about, if any, was that the diary was too much like a real diary. Most of its content consisted of Isaac the Fourth's rants, from the perspective of a modern person, about the backward productive forces and production systems of the otherworld.
For instance, the noble ladies didn't bathe, and the stench of body odor in the ballroom could knock someone out; or the royal palace's toilets lacking flushable facilities, requiring one to be wary of assassins lurking beneath the tower—one of his brothers seemed to have been killed by an assassin wielding Extraordinary Power that way.
And then there were the lack of light bulbs, smartphones, and the inability to surf the net... In short, all sorts of trivial matters of life.
Of course, the guy didn't just complain.
To resolve these issues, he indeed did some things a transmigrator ought to do.
Such as overhauling the drainage and water supply system in the Ryan Kingdom's capital city, constructing sewers and public bathhouses, improving papermaking technology, and inventing the printing press—even steam engines and fertilizers were developed by him.
Luo Yan wasn't sure if giving this guy another decade or two would result in an Otherworld industrial revolution characterized by freakish and bizarre features.
In any case, if the contents of the diary were true, then this person could not be described as "incompetent."
The so-called stigma of the "Incompetent King" seemed more like slander and framing by the interest groups who had their cheese moved.
Although the diary didn't mention the events that occurred after these reforms, the "History of the Aus Empire" did record that Isaac the Fourth was punished by divine wrath for blaspheming the divine spirits and was excommunicated by an oracle issued personally by Saint Sis.
What followed was that the increasingly isolated Isaac the Fourth faction was immediately attacked by the Aus Empire.
Even though most of the reform outcomes were retained, the Isaac Dynasty perished in the flames of war, leaving behind only a few words from the victors to set the narrative in stone.