“Stop the carriage right now!”
When I shouted, the coachman looked back.
To be precise, he only turned about halfway.
The more urgent people are, the less they listen to others.
Especially when that urgency isn’t their own.
“What is it, young master!”
“Stop! Turn right— no, left!”
Even I only half knew what I was saying.
But my body reacted first.
The black line was growing darker.
It coiled around the carriage’s wheel axle, came down along the right-hand slope ahead, and pierced straight through the spot we were about to pass.
That wasn’t just a crack.
The problem was that, from the coachman’s perspective, I was nothing more and nothing less than a young nobleman suddenly having a fit.
I understood.
But understanding didn’t mean I could just die.
Another pebble rolled down from the slope.
Scrape. Scrape, scrape.
The moment I heard that sound, the sweat on my back turned cold.
“Fuck.”
I kicked the door open and lunged forward almost together with the curse.
I nearly lost my balance on the narrow carriage, but forced myself to hold on through momentum alone. Before the coachman could do anything, I snatched the reins.
“Young master!”
“Shut up and pull!”
The horses were startled and reared up.
The carriage lurched violently to the side.
The wheels scraped the edge of the dirt road.
At that angle, one mistake and we would have rolled straight down.
But that was better.
I yanked the reins left with all my strength.
At that moment.
Kwadudududuk!
The slope sank down.
There really was no other way to describe it. Rather than saying it collapsed, it was more accurate to say it sank.
The earth, soaked through by long rain, the stones piled on top of it, even the shallow-rooted grass—all of it slid as one and poured onto the road.
A huge boulder fell right where we had been about to pass.
Boom!
The ground shook.
The horses screamed, and the carriage jolted as if it had been thrown.
One side wheel lifted, then slammed back down.
The back of my head struck the doorframe, and sparks burst before my eyes.
“Ugh!”
There was no time to whine about the pain.
Smaller rocks flew like a hailstorm.
One grazed the coachman’s shoulder, and another smashed through the side planks of the carriage.
A splinter of wood scraped across my face.
One horse held on while practically collapsing to the ground.
The carriage tilted with a creak, but it did not completely overturn.
By a hair’s breadth.
Seriously, like shit.
Just barely.
And then it stopped.
Silence.
No, not complete silence.
Dust billowed, the horses’ breathing was ragged, and my heart pounded like a drum inside my ears.
“Hah… hah…”
The coachman was the first to exhale.
I breathed too.
I wasn’t even sure whether I had been breathing until just now.
My hand had gone stiff around the reins.
I had gripped them so hard my fingers wouldn’t open.
Slowly, I looked around.
The middle of the road had been smashed apart.
If we had gone straight ahead, that boulder would have crushed the front of the carriage head-on.
The coachman would have been pulverized from the waist up.
If I was lucky, I would have been pinned under it. If I was unlucky, I would have been struck by the horses and had my neck snapped.
There was only one conclusion.
There was a high chance both of us would have died.
“Insane…”
The coachman muttered under his breath.
I hadn’t expected that man to react that way before I did. I answered only in my head.
Yes. I know. This is a fucking insane situation.
I barely managed to let go and climbed down from the carriage.
My legs gave out a little.
The sensation of stepping on the ground felt strangely floaty.
The black line had vanished.
All that remained was the actually broken wheel axle, the cracked road, and the pile of stones that had spilled down from the slope.
“Young master… how…”
The coachman looked at me while clutching his shoulder.
There was a little blood.
It wasn’t a deep wound, but it looked painful enough not to ignore.
And over that shoulder, a black line, fainter than before, brushed past.
I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut and open them again.
It shows up on people too.
Seriously. Why, of all things, is this the only talent I have?
“I heard a sound.”
I threw out a rough excuse.
“From above.”
It wasn’t a lie.
I had only told half of it.
The coachman still looked like he couldn’t believe it.
Of course he would.
If I hadn’t suddenly screamed like a madman, both of us would likely be buried here.
And yet my explanation was only that I heard something?
Who would believe that?
But if I told the truth, he’d believe me even less.
“I can see places that are about to collapse.”
If I said that, I had a feeling I wouldn’t even make it to the capital and would get dragged somewhere else instead.
Whether to a sanctuary, a physician, or something like an asylum for madmen.
I didn’t want that. Very much.
I looked at the pile of stones and calculated the situation.
The carriage couldn’t pass.
The front wheel axle was badly bent.
One horse wasn’t injured, but it was terrified.
The road was about half blocked.
In other words. We were fucked.
The ending where my schedule gets ruined by a natural disaster before academy enrollment.
What a painfully unoriginal misfortune.
“Was there anywhere nearby where we could get a horse…”
When I muttered, the coachman finally came to his senses and answered.
“If we go down toward the village, there’s a small rest stop.
On foot… it’ll take over an hour.”
“Then we’ll have to leave the carriage and walk.”
“We can’t leave the horses—”
“Are you going to drag this thing there?”
When I pointed at the wheel, the coachman shut his mouth.
That didn’t mean we could just sit here crying.
The sun was still high, but if we wasted time on a mountain road, sunset would come in an instant.
Then even bigger trouble would show up.
I checked my luggage first.
One leather bag.
Clothes.
Documents.
Money pouch.
The half-burned paper Ethan had given me.
Fortunately, everything was there.
It was a little pathetic that the things I checked first right after nearly dying were money and documents.
But what could I do?
That was reality.
When people are in danger, they check what matters most.
In my case, that was money and the possibility of not dying.
“Can you walk?”
When I asked, the coachman touched his shoulder and nodded.
“I’m fine. However…”
He glanced at the pile of stones.
Then looked back at me.
“Did you truly hear it?”
The question was rather serious.
I thought for a moment, then vaguely brushed it off.
“I was lucky.”
“Lucky…”
The man’s face turned subtle.
I knew it too.
This was too precise to pass off as luck.
But I had no alternative.
The more honestly I spoke, the stronger my premonition that my life would flow in a strange direction.
It was already strange enough, though.
We managed to take only one horse with us, gathered the luggage, and headed down the road toward the rest stop.
Whenever the wind blew, the smell of the earth that had collapsed earlier entered my nose. I looked back several times.
Each time, a chill ran down my spine.
I really had almost died.
And I had known it first.
By the time we had walked for about an hour, my head was throbbing.
I didn’t want to act like I was sick, but the area behind my eyes ached.
I also felt a little nauseous.
Rather than a protagonist who had gained some incredible power, I felt more like a patient who had seen something he shouldn’t have.
When we arrived at the rest stop, my legs were quite heavy.
It was a small shelter built of stone and timber.
Beside it was a well, in front stood posts for tying horses, and inside sat a few travelers.
Two merchants, one porter, and two men who looked like guard mercenaries.
The moment they saw the state we were in, all of them looked over.
It was understandable.
The horse was covered in dirt.
The coachman was bleeding.
And I had scratches on my face while looking vaguely like I was pretending to be a noble.
A perfect sucker combination.
“What happened?”
When the rest stop owner came out and asked, the coachman answered first.
“A rockslide fell onto the road above.”
“Again?”
The owner clicked his tongue.
Again?
I immediately caught onto that word.
“Does it happen often?”
“Sometimes after a few days of rain. Seems it was bigger this time.”
I thought to myself.
Then could it have just been an unlucky accident?
…No. I saw it in advance.
I sat down by the window.
I drank the lukewarm water the owner brought me.
I felt like I was alive again.
A short while later, the front of the rest stop grew noisy again.
Another carriage procession had arrived.
It seemed to belong to a merchant company, with two wagons and several guards moving together.
I raised my head without much thought, then narrowed my eyes when I saw the emblem attached to it.
National Holy Academy Astra Temporary Transport Carriage.
“Wow.”
The sound slipped out before I knew it.
Nice. Really.
After saving my life, it immediately shoves me into the next stage.
The rest stop owner spoke with the coachman, then turned toward me.
“If you’re headed to Lumenheim too, young master, try asking over there. They should make it to the outskirts of the capital today.”
I swallowed dryly.
Things were moving faster than I expected.
Fast was good, but in this story’s world, things that moved fast generally weren’t good for people.
Still, the choice was obvious.
Sleep out here? Lose money. Fall behind schedule. Mess up enrollment registration.
Shut up and get on.
I rose from my seat.
Then, as I walked toward that carriage, I suddenly stopped.
Beside the post in front of the academy carriage. To be precise, on one wooden storage crate leaning against it.
A black line had appeared on its corner again.
Short and thin. As if it were looking at me.
I pressed my lips tightly together.
Fine. Let’s admit it now.
This isn’t a hallucination or a coincidence.
What I’m seeing really is places that are about to collapse.
The process of boarding the academy’s temporary transport carriage was simpler than expected.
A simple identity check. Confirmation of my admission notice. And an extremely obvious look up and down.
The middle-aged man managing the carriage looked back and forth between my clothes and my face, then asked.
“House Valter?”
“Yes.”
“The fallen one?”
Wow.
People in this world weren’t lacking manners; they just judged far too quickly who they didn’t need to show manners to.
I cursed only in my head.
Yes. We fell. So what?
I wanted to say something like that for about a whole paragraph, but I simply held it in.
“Is there a seat?”
The man looked at me for a moment, then returned the documents.
“In the very back.”
“Thank you.”
Thank you, my ass. Still, I had to get on.
There were already three students sitting inside the carriage.
They were obviously prospective entrants.
One was a boy with his shoulders straightened like the son of a knightly family, one
looked like a bespectacled magic student, and the last was a boy dressed somewhat like the attendant of a noble young lady.
All three looked at me once.
And roughly assigned me a grade.
A vague noble.
Doesn’t look very strong.
Questionable value to talk to.
Good.
That was exactly the reaction I wanted.
I sat at the very back and looked out the window.
The carriage began to move again.
As the rattling started, it felt like my head was shaking along with it.
Fatigue swept over me.
For someone who had almost been crushed to death by a rockslide just moments ago, I was so clear-headed it was actually strange.
Was this really human?
Or was my fear so great that my brain was reacting one beat late?
Probably both.
The bespectacled guy beside me kept glancing over, then spoke.
“I heard the road was blocked earlier.”
“Yes.”
“Were you badly hurt?”
“As you can see.”
Once those words left my mouth, his expression turned strange.
Even I thought it was a rude answer.
But what could I do when I was tired?
I didn’t even have the energy to say it nicely.
The only fortunate thing was that he didn’t ask anything else.
The closer we got to the capital, Lumenheim, the wider the road became.
The smell of countryside earth lessened, replaced by the smell of people living.
Horse dung, charcoal, roasted meat, oil for magic lamps, sweat.
Calling it the smell of civilization makes it sound impressive, but in truth, wherever a lot of people gather, it is always a little filthy.
The scenery outside the window changed too.
Farmland. Small villages. Tax collection stations. Patrol knights. Markets outside the walls. And in the distance, the outer wall of Lumenheim.
My first impression when I saw it was simple.
Big.
Fucking huge.
Seeing it on a game screen and seeing it in person were different.
The pressure a person feels when looking at a pixelated city wall is different from when looking up at a real wall so massive it blocks off a portion of the sky.
I shut my mouth and looked at the wall.
Tall towers.
White stone.
Heraldic banners.
Mounted patrols.
And countless people lining up to enter.
It was the capital.
The heart of the empire.
A place where the academy, the imperial family, nobles, sanctuaries, and lies all tangled together and turned.
It looks fine on the outside, but it’s rotten within.
That sentence surfaced in my head on its own.
It was truly a city that fit it perfectly.
Splendid, orderly, seeming fucking expensive, and at the same time, seeming like it was hiding a great many things.
There was an inspection at the gate.
The admission carriage passed through relatively quickly.
The moment I passed under the gate, I pointlessly hunched my neck.
Now it was real.
Whatever secrets the Valter family had, at least that place was still “my home.”
This place wasn’t.
The capital was not on my side.
And the Academy even less so.
The carriage ran on for quite a while longer.
The city inside the walls was vast and complicated.
Stone roads, shops, noble carriages, groups of priests, officers, young people wearing something like student uniforms.
All of it rushed past in a dizzying blur.
There was so much to look at, yet strangely, my eyes kept going first to people’s hands, their footsteps, their gazes.
A strange habit.
But it was useful.
Who was in a hurry,
who was lying,
who looked down on others—
those things were spoken by the body before the face.
By the time we arrived at the outskirts of the Academy, the sun had begun to sink.
Maybe because I’d been able to see it from far away, but once we actually got close, it was almost absurd.
It was huge.
I’d thought the same thing when I saw the capital walls earlier, but this place was huge too.
It wasn’t just a school; it was closer to a small fortress.
A tall main building, broad training grounds, dormitory wings, outer walls, towers, gardens, fountains.
It openly screamed that money had been poured into it.
It could be seen as a scene showing just how much the Empire cherished its students.
No. More precisely, it showed how carefully they managed students as assets.
I climbed down from the carriage and adjusted the strap of my bag.
Perhaps because it was the day before enrollment, the surroundings were terribly crowded.
Students, guardians, servants, knights, attendants, transport personnel.
The crests on noble family carriages could be seen everywhere.
Amid all that, I felt only one thing.
Suffocating.
Not because there were too many people.
Not because the scale was so large, either.
It was because I knew this was a place that classified people from the very beginning.
I was about to walk toward the information sign when the area by the main gate suddenly fell quiet.
Instinctively, I turned my head.
A white carriage had come to a stop.
An all-too-familiar crest was engraved on its door.
The Arsein ducal family.
And when that door opened, a girl stepped down.
Silver-tinged blonde hair.
An impeccable posture.
She wasn’t excessively adorned, yet even from a distance, her clean lines caught the eye.
Serena Arsein.
I must not act as though I recognized that face.
She was less dazzling than her illustration in the game, and far more suffocatingly proper than I had expected.
My first impression wasn’t, “She’s pretty.”
It was—
That person is going to die if she keeps going like that.
The thought surfaced so naturally that even I was a little surprised.
As soon as Serena stepped down from the carriage, she swept her gaze over the surroundings.
It wasn’t the look of someone observing students, but of someone trying to grasp the entire situation.
Two escort knights naturally took positions on either side of her.
It was a picture-perfect scene befitting the daughter of a duke.
But in that moment—
Behind her, to the right.
At the end of the stair railing.
And beneath the decorative stone statue above the main gate.
A black line flickered across my vision.
Very faintly. Still thin.
Before I knew it, my steps had stopped.
My heart gave one heavy thud.
Great. Really.
The moment I arrived in the capital, the moment I arrived at the Academy, I saw cracks forming around the daughter of a duke.
At this point, it was as if the world was telling me not to even think about living quietly.
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, I still didn’t know.