Night had settled over the kingdom, bringing with it a blanket of deep silence and a cold breeze that whispered through the empty streets. Everyone was asleep.
Aurora stirred, waking slowly before sitting up with heavy-lidded eyes. She glanced around her dark room, her gaze eventually finding the clock on the wall.
12:34 AM, she noted, looking away. It's already midnight. I didn't even notice. Time really flies without stopping for a single second.
She pushed the blanket aside and got out of bed, her feet sinking into the plush carpet. I've always hated falling asleep early and waking up randomly in the night. Back on Earth, I would have just started gaming, but in this world, I have nothing to do. She let out a soft sigh and walked to the window.
She stood to the left of the frame and looked out at the beautiful night. Stars shone brilliantly in the vast sky, but they were outshone by the five moons that bathed the world in their gentle, multicolored light.
I always wondered what it would be like to see those five moons in reality. The author described them as majestic and beautiful, but seeing them now… the words didn't do them justice. They're breathtaking.
This world was six times the size of Earth, with landmasses and oceans to match its scale, its gravitational binding energy being fifteen times more than earth's. Its five moons were not all white. Four of them were arranged in a perfect square, with the fifth suspended in the center. The upper-right moon glowed white, the upper-left was a deep green, the lower-right was a pale blue, and the lower-left was a vivid purple. The central moon burned with a steady, crimson red.
Thinking about the moons makes me wonder something else. How do people who get transmigrated into a novel even perceive the world like I do? A novel is just text. Shouldn't we see everything as words, not moving pictures? I could understand if it were a visual novel… She shook her head, confused by her own train of thought. Thinking about this stuff really makes my head hurt.
A breeze stirred, gently shaking the leaves of a nearby tree. Aurora continued to gaze outside, her expression calm.
I already know my head will ache and my eyes will burn from lack of sleep. Well, it doesn't matter. This was always my routine in my past life, too. She reached out, pushed the window open, and let the cold night air rush into her room.
The chill grazed her skin, sending shivers through her body. Her hands grew slightly numb. She closed her eyes, a small smile touching her lips as she enjoyed the sensation. She raised her hands, blew warm air into her cupped palms, and then rubbed them together vigorously.
She repeated this for a while until her hands were warm again, though the persistent cold soon began to seep back into her fingers. She placed her palms on the window sill and leaned forward.
I'm going to become an adventurer tomorrow, she thought. Should I go outside for a bit now? I'll just come back before sunrise. It should be fine.
If I go through the front gate, the guards will notice and probably tell Arthur. It would be better to go out through this window, but climbing down the tree might leave scratches on my dress. Someone would notice in the morning. She closed her eyes, thinking for a moment, then opened them again.
I almost forgot. I might be able to use the spell the original transmigrator used to sneak out sometimes. The problem is whether I can actually use it or not. I won't know until I try.
Aurora stepped back from the window and closed her eyes. Slowly, a dark energy began to emanate from her body. She held the pose, and after a few seconds, the energy was reabsorbed into her skin.
She opened her eyes; her irises were now tinged with black. That should be enough. She stepped forward.
As her foot touched the floor, she melted into the deepest shadow in her room.
Outside the kingdom, in the nearest forest that was 28 miles away from the kingdom's entrance, near the tree line, a dark figure coalesced from the shadow of a great oak. It was Aurora.
She stepped fully out of the tree's shade. 'I might be a prodigy,' she thought, a flicker of pride in her mind. 'I didn't expect to pull it off perfectly on the first try. Then again, I guess that should be obvious, since I'm the protagonist of this story and I didn't quite expect to reach this place so fast, I think it took me maybe under ten seconds to reach this place.'
The power she had used was dark magic—a spell that allowed the user to travel through the shadows of any object or living being. It wasn't like teleportation but it made travel easy by removing the obstacles that came in the way.
She looked around. Trees stretched in every direction, an endless, quiet sea in the moonlight. The forest was calm, but deceptively so. I need to be careful. Even though it looks peaceful, this forest is home to some of the most dangerous monsters in the world.
She recalled the important details from the novel. This was the Dark Forest, described as one of the most perilous places on the continent. It was immense, roughly three times the size of Russia on Earth.
'Let's see. I woke up at 12:34 AM and spent about ten or fifteen minutes in my room. I still have just over five hours until dawn. That should be enough for a little exploration. I can't see much of it tonight, of course. I'll have plenty of time for that after I officially become an adventurer.'
'AAAHHHH!!!!'
While she was thinking to herself, suddenly a scream from deep inside the forest came. Aurora's eyes widened upon hearing the scream as she turned around and looked towards where the scream came.