Thomas White is a great polymath who possess all knowledge and mastered every expertise, in the world of science and technology, he is at very top, he is a neutral scientist as he is not trulky allied with global confederation, he also don't support resistance either. The world is split in two fation, global confederation, the global government and resistance, the freedom fighter wanting the restoration of old system, the global confederation promised peace, prosperity and progress, which they managed to achieve but at the cost of widening the gap between upper class and middle/lower class, the inequality, the displacement and so on, resulting many to struggle to make a living, the global confederation while not tyrants, just strict meritocratic government cause resentment among those who are struggling as everyone are not perfect like talented people who somehow manage to overcome difficulty or rich who has resources and connections to make up for their lack of talent, this result in birth of resistance, who wants to overthrow their percieved oppressive meritocrats and the government they derigatively refer as globalists, resulting in insurgent acts to bring down the current government to restore the old ones, the resistance while indeed fighting for freedom and human rights, their ruthless actions and disregard to law, result in chaos, which disrupts the peace and prosperity that world has achieved, this results in both faction being morally grey as both of them did questionable deeds though the intentions of both sides were good.
Because of this very reason, Thomas a citizen of global confederation territory, didn't fully allied with global confederation, but he didn't support resistance either, instead, he is focused in his company aiming to create latest technologies to improve progress, he is also charitable person who helped the poor and middle/lower class, perhaps the reason why he is not target of resistance forces.
Thomas is revered as polymath, the reason for this is his eternal life, as he never aged, he did this by creating an anti-ageing serum many years before global confederation is formed and Thomas being a young biochemist at that time, the serum stopped his ageing, practically giving him eternal life, giving him unlimited time to learn every scientific knowledge and master every expertise, he also know about the technology used by both resistance and global confederation but chose to keep it himself to avoid troubles.
One day, Thomas begin a new experiment in search for medicine for new disease that appeared, but Thomas made a slight mistake, causing a lab explosion, leading to his death, the serum thomas used gave him unlimited lifespan, it did not make his immortal, and could be killed, Thomas's life ended in tragic accident, his life was supposed to be end there, but fate has other plans, in next moment he found him in the body of an infant who has just born, Thomas realised that he got himself in same situation as the transmigration stories from comics and animation, he happened to pass time read those comics or watching such anime, but he never expected to experience it in real life.
Thomas White now Leo Blackwater, the ninth prince of the Blackwater Empire, one of the powerful nation of the continent, Leo after turning to age of 5, decide to learn more about this world, the world he reincarnated in is similar to earth except the supernatural exist here, this is fantasy world, the civilizations are similar to earth's medieval era, as the people of this world never needed advanced technology, in fact they don't know science, even basic ones, as all problems are solved by magic and alchemy.
Leo was excited to know what magic he might possess, but his hope dashed as he was found with no magical power, luckily for Leo, this is meritocratic nation not magical nation, so, he wasn't disowned, but his lack of magical power made it difficult for him to compete for throne, as while this nation support merit and not magical strength, the mages with their powers possess more merit than an ordinary person, meaning the only way for Leo to gain enough merit is through alchemy and knighthood.
However, Leo choose a different path, the path of technologist, as a scientific polymath, he choose to recreate technology from his past life, and turn this medieval nation into modern nation, there's another reason, the competition of throne is fierce and no one know when a knife is pointed towards them, if thomas has magic aptitude, he would manage, but he has no magic, meaning he has to rely on alchemy or knight skills to gain recognition, which is why he decided to take a path not known to other to avoid suspicions.
He decide to live a double life, in public he is just a useless and lazy prince with no capability, but under disguise he will be a mysterious scholar, that achieve many things just by relying on natural laws and not arcane, he will gather as much merit as he can and when time comes, he will reveal his identity, with enough merit his grasp of throne will be guarenteed, and once that happened, he can turn the empire to become like global confederation who achieved everything, but unlike global confederation, the empire will provide equality, equal opportunities and human right, under Leo's rule.
Thomas, decided to start his double life, he decide to wore a black mask, a black dress and a black cape, he took on alias of shadow scholar, he intended to become a mysterious scholar who is unknown to others and possess unknown knowledge (science) that could change the world for better and help ordinary people to achieve everything they can dream of.
In public, he decided to pretend to be a lazy prince who is good for nothing, indulge in luxury, a good for nothing baggage whose only good quality is that he didn't commit serious crime.
Leo, secretly ordered the mask, clothings and cape, after getting it he ordered the manufacture of glass items (chemistry kit) to a craftsman, allowing him to start his work in secret soon.
Thus, the double life of a reincarnated polymath begins.