Gray dawn settled over the capital.
Moisture covered the cobblestones, and a thin mist drifted between the carriages.
The Douglas banner fluttered above the main road: a silver dragon against a black background.
Three hundred knights waited in formation.
Black and silver armor. Spears. Swords. Horses prepared for a long journey.
The Douglas family was leaving the capital.
And this time, they were not leaving to celebrate a victory.
It was a journey of mourning.
Lusian rested his head against the carriage window.
The main carriage traveled ahead of him.
His father, Duke Laurence, and Martha were inside.
The woman Laurence had loved since his youth.
Caleb's mother.
Both were dressed in black.
Martha held a small locket between her hands.
Inside was a portrait of her son.
Caleb Douglas.
The heir who would never return.
Lusian looked away.
He did not know what to feel about Caleb.
But he knew exactly what his death had caused.
The Douglas family was wounded.
His father had lost a son.
Martha had lost her only son.
Lusian closed his eyes.
"What am I supposed to do now...?" he muttered.
He had spent the last few nights thinking.
He had tried to remember everything he knew about the game.
The important events.
The wars.
The monsters.
The characters.
The dates.
But the harder he tried to organize his memories, the more problems he found.
His memory was not good enough to remember exactly when everything would happen.
Caleb was dead.
Isabella was at his side.
He himself was now the Douglas heir.
And Elizabeth...
Lusian opened his eyes.
He did not want to think about her yet.
There was another problem.
He did not know what the next event would be.
"First, I need to return to the duchy," he thought.
That was the only thing he knew for certain.
He had to strengthen the Douglases.
Prepare their defenses.
Gather information.
And find out what was happening to the world.
The caravan began to move.
The northern gates slowly opened, and the first carriages left the capital.
Lusian watched as the walls disappeared behind them.
Then he felt someone's gaze.
He turned his head.
Isabella was sitting across from him.
The former Miss Armentt kept her back straight and her hands resting on her knees.
There was something strange about seeing her like this.
Until recently, Isabella had been a noble.
The daughter of an important house.
She had worn the finest dresses.
She had servants.
She had a family name.
And now she wore a servant's uniform.
Her only ornament was the silver mark around her neck.
The oath.
Isabella noticed Lusian watching her.
"What is it, my lord?"
Lusian took a moment to answer.
"Nothing."
He turned his gaze back toward the window.
But that was not true.
It felt strange to him.
Not because Isabella was a servant.
But because he was the one who had placed her in that position.
After Caleb's death, the Douglases had demanded her execution.
Lusian had managed to prevent it.
But to do so, he had been forced to make her his servant and bind her with an oath.
To him, it had been a way to save her life.
To anyone looking from the outside...
Lusian probably looked like a cruel noble who had taken a young noblewoman as a slave.
It was not exactly a good image.
"Miss Isabella."
"Yes?"
"Do you regret it?"
She looked at him.
"Regret what?"
"The oath."
Isabella lowered her eyes toward the mark around her neck.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
"I used to have a home," she finally said. "A family. A name."
Her fingers slowly tightened around the fabric of her dress.
"Now I am your servant."
Lusian remained silent.
Isabella raised her eyes.
There were no tears.
No hatred, either.
Only an expression he had never seen on her before.
Disorientation.
"I'm still trying to understand what that means," she admitted.
That answer surprised Lusian.
He had expected resentment.
Maybe fear.
But Isabella seemed to be trying to rebuild her own world.
"You don't have to pretend in front of me," Lusian said.
She smiled faintly.
"Then what should I do?"
Lusian did not answer.
Because he did not have an answer.
Isabella had lost her position.
Her freedom.
Her family.
And he did not even know how to help her.
"I'm sorry," he finally said.
Isabella blinked.
She had not expected to hear that.
"Why?"
"Because I was the one who made the decision."
She stared at him for several seconds.
Then shook her head.
"You saved my life."
Lusian looked away.
"That doesn't mean you have to thank me for everything."
Isabella smiled faintly.
"Then I suppose we'll have to get used to each other."
Lusian let out a small laugh.
"I suppose so."
The carriage continued forward.
Outside, the capital slowly disappeared into the mist.
Around them marched the Douglas knights.
Adele rode along the left flank on her magical beast, Rasha.
Behind her traveled Thunder, Umber, and Larriet.
Everything seemed normal.
Until they left the first villages behind.
Sofia was the first to notice.
The windows of the houses were illuminated by mana crystals.
But they were shining too brightly.
"Stop for a moment," she ordered.
The caravan slowed down.
Sofia examined one of the crystals.
Its blue light pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
As if it were absorbing energy from the air.
Albert approached.
"What is it, my lady?"
"Since when have the crystals been shining like this?"
Albert frowned.
"I don't know."
Sofia raised her gaze.
The fields had changed as well.
Some areas of farmland were completely dry.
In others, the plants had grown far too quickly.
And in the distance, a group of animals was desperately running toward the forest.
Lusian watched from his carriage.
His expression changed.
This was something he remembered.
Not exactly.
But he remembered the idea.
The mana was increasing.
Far too early.
"That can't be..."
He stood up.
"My lord?" Isabella asked.
Lusian did not answer.
He looked at the fields.
Then the forests.
Then the crystals.
In the game, this phenomenon began much later.
And above all, it did not begin here.
"This is happening early."
Sofia heard him.
"What is?"
Lusian fell silent.
He could not explain it.
How was he supposed to tell her that he knew about this phenomenon because he had seen it in a game?
"Hello. I'm a player who died and woke up inside this world."
That did not seem like a particularly useful explanation.
"The mana is changing," he finally said. "And if it keeps increasing, creatures from the most saturated areas will begin to move."
Sofia watched him carefully.
"And what will happen?"
Lusian looked toward the villages.
"The animals will flee."
"And then?"
"The monsters will follow their prey."
Sofia immediately understood.
"And the villages will be caught in the middle."
Lusian nodded.
That was the problem.
He did not know how to stop it.
But he knew what would happen if he did nothing.
"We need to start moving the population."
Sofia raised an eyebrow.
"Move them?"
"To the larger cities. Places that can defend themselves."
Lusian began pacing back and forth.
"We need to know how many people live in each village, how many soldiers we have, how much food we have stored, and which areas are beginning to experience changes."
Sofia smiled slightly.
"A census."
Lusian stopped.
"Exactly."
It was an imperfect solution.
But it was something.
For the first time since leaving the capital, he felt like he had a starting point.
Then a roar tore through the forest.
The horses panicked.
The soldiers raised their weapons.
"Formation!" Albert shouted.
Three creatures emerged from between the trees.
They looked like wolves.
But their bodies were covered in black plates, and their eyes glowed with an intense blue light.
One leaped onto a horse.
Adele reacted before anyone else.
Rasha charged forward.
Her sword pierced the creature's neck.
Thunder appeared behind her.
Lightning exploded beneath its hooves, sending the second monster flying several meters through the air.
Larriet finished the third.
Everything happened in less than a minute.
The soldiers remained silent.
Lusian looked at the corpses.
"What level?"
Albert approached.
"Ninety. Maybe higher."
Lusian felt a chill.
Level ninety.
Far too strong.
Far too far from the areas where they should appear.
"It's beginning..."
Sofia turned toward him.
"What?"
Lusian clenched his fists.
"Nothing."
He could not stop an event he still did not understand.
But he could prepare.
The caravan continued.
By late afternoon, they came across an abandoned village.
There were no soldiers.
No survivors.
Only destroyed houses.
Sofia stared silently at the corpses.
Lusian did as well.
This time, he said nothing.
There was no need.
The phenomenon was already claiming lives.
And they had just witnessed it with their own eyes.
Hours later, they made camp.
The soldiers cooked the meat of the monster Sofia had defeated.
Lusian ate enthusiastically.
Isabella watched him in silence.
"It's delicious," he said.
Adele laughed.
"My lord, slow down."
"I'm hungry."
"The last time you ate meat with that much mana, you were sick for three days."
Lusian put the piece of meat back on his plate.
"That was an exception."
"Of course."
Isabella could not hold back a small smile.
Lusian noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're laughing at me."
"I would never do such a thing, my lord."
Lusian narrowed his eyes.
"I don't believe you."
For the first time since leaving the capital, Isabella seemed to relax.
Just a little.
But it was enough.
As the camp filled with conversations and the fire illuminated the soldiers' faces, Lusian raised his eyes toward the sky.
Strange lights could be seen between the clouds.
Blue.
Purple.
Far too bright to be stars.
His smile disappeared.
He knew what it meant.
The world was changing.
And he had arrived too late to stop the beginning.
But perhaps he was still in time to change the ending.
Lusian lowered his gaze to his hands.
"First, the census."
Then the defenses.
Then...
He did not have a complete plan.
He was not even sure the first one would work.
But he could no longer afford to sit around thinking.
The caravan would continue toward Eldras at dawn.
And when he arrived, Lusian would begin moving the pieces.
Without knowing that, on the other side of the kingdom, other pieces had already begun to move as well.