Chương 2: An Unknown Kingdom

Darkness swallowed him, vast and silent, devoid of warmth, wind, or even the sensation of falling. Aldric tried to close his fingers around the hilt of his sword, but his arms no longer obeyed him. His body drifted through a place with neither earth nor sky. Around him, fragments of light formed only to fade away again, briefly revealing the figures of those he had left behind. He caught sight of a soldier kneeling among the ruins, a banner clutched tightly against his chest.

Farther away, a woman raised her weapon toward the heavens, her lips shaping his name. The visions vanished almost instantly, replaced by the shattered fortress, the sundered mountains, and the Demon King's crown crumbling into dust. Aldric reached out, but his fingers grasped nothing but emptiness. A pressure closed around his chest, gentle at first, then so violent that the air was ripped from his lungs. Light exploded before him, consuming the last traces of his world. His boots slammed against a solid surface.

The impact shot through his legs, tearing a low grunt from his throat. He bent his knees, braced one hand against the ground, and with the other kept his sword planted upright before him. His breath came in ragged gasps. Pain throbbed between his ribs, a reminder of the blows he had taken only moments earlier. The Demon King's black blood still coated his breastplate, dry in some places, thick and sticky in others. A single drop slid down his armor before splattering onto the gray stone beneath his hand.

A murmur rose around him. Voices. Footsteps. Shouts in a language he understood without knowing why. A cool breeze brushed across his face, carrying unfamiliar scents: heated metal, food, dust... and something sharper that stung his nostrils. Aldric lifted his head. A tower stood before him. The structure dominated the horizon, an immense lattice of dark iron beams woven together.

Four massive pillars plunged into the ground before joining in a great arch, after which the tower continued climbing until it nearly disappeared into the brightness of the sky. Platforms stretched across multiple levels, connected by narrow walkways where tiny figures moved back and forth. No stone walls reinforced the structure. No royal banner flew from its summit. Yet it rose higher than any watchtower Aldric had ever seen in his world.

Even the Citadel of Kharan, whose spires had once pierced the clouds, would have seemed modest beside this colossal construction. △ NEW REGION DISCOVERED △ Paris Dominant Species: Human Population: Very High Threat Level: Unknown Aldric remained crouched, his eyes scanning the translucent lines. The name Paris meant nothing to him. None of the royal cartographers had ever mentioned a kingdom by that name. And yet, the system recognized this place.

He rested one hand against the stone and studied his surroundings, searching for the first signs of an ambush. Hundreds of people stood around him. Some had stopped only a few yards away, frozen in place. Others slowly backed away with their hands raised in front of them. Children tugged at their parents' clothes, pointing excitedly at Aldric. Many of the men and women wore brightly colored fabrics, light shoes, and bags slung over their shoulders. None of them appeared to be armed.

None wore armor, carried shields, or even displayed so much as a visible dagger. Yet they continued to stare at the hero without fleeing, despite the black blood covering his body and the sword planted before him. Aldric rose to his feet. His armor creaked, and the movement stirred a ripple of murmurs through the crowd. He slowly turned, studying every possible escape route.

Behind him stretched a vast open square crisscrossed by pathways, green lawns, and rows of perfectly trimmed trees that would have made the royal palace gardeners green with envy. Beyond them, buildings filled the horizon, their pale facades lined with hundreds of windows. No walls separated the city from the surrounding plains. No moat, no portcullis, no fortress walls protected its people. He looked up at the tower. A watchtower, he concluded.

A structure so tall it could spot an approaching enemy days before they arrived. The arches at its base could house thousands of soldiers, while the upper platforms would serve as ideal positions for mages and archers. And yet, not a single soldier guarded the area. No alarm echoed down from above. He swept his gaze across the square once more. People laughed, strolled along the paths, ate their meals, or relaxed on the grass. Couples walked hand in hand. Children ran between the trees.

Off in the distance, a man lay asleep on a blanket, his face turned toward the sky. Not one of them behaved as though they feared an attack. Aldric lowered his sword. A kingdom without walls. A capital with no visible garrison. A population so vast that the system refused to display its total. The conclusion came to him with almost unsettling clarity: this kingdom was so powerful that it no longer needed fortifications. Its enemies had likely been defeated generations ago.

Perhaps all the surrounding lands already belonged to it. Perhaps no ruler remained foolish enough to challenge a city capable of building such a tower. A man approached, both hands wrapped around a small rectangular object. He wore a red baseball cap and a jacket tied around his waist. A few steps away from Aldric, he stopped and raised the object in front of his face. A faint glow shimmered across its surface. Aldric tightened his grip on his sword. The man spoke no incantation.

No magic circle appeared beneath his feet. Yet the object emitted a brief flash, followed by a nearly imperceptible click. He lowered his hands, looked at the glowing surface, and smiled. Others quickly followed his example. All around Aldric, people pulled out similar artifacts. Some were black, others white or gold. They pointed them toward him, toward the tower, or toward their own faces. Their surfaces lit up, capturing whatever lay before them.

One woman stepped beside Aldric, raised her artifact, and turned so that the two of them appeared together. She smiled while another woman tapped the glowing screen.

"Incredible," she whispered. Aldric studied the object with fascination. The Memory Mages of his world had once used enchanted crystals capable of preserving a single moment in time, but creating even one image required hours of preparation and gemstones of extraordinary purity. Here, every civilian seemed to possess an artifact of their own. Even children carried them. Some swiped their fingers across the glowing surfaces, enlarging images or making them disappear with a simple touch. He turned toward the crowd.

These people must have mastered a form of magic far beyond anything he had ever known. Perhaps these artifacts were used to preserve the memories of the dead, send messages across great distances, or watch over the kingdom's borders. Their simple appearance almost certainly concealed unimaginably complex workings. There were no visible crystals, no runes, no traces of mana. Yet the light responded to the slightest touch. A little girl approached him.

Her black hair was tied with two red ribbons, and a small animal-shaped backpack hung from her shoulders. She stopped a few steps away, her eyes fixed on Aldric's sword.

"Mister... are you a knight?" she asked. Aldric inclined his head. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. « Yes." The child's mother placed a hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her back. Her eyes drifted over the black blood covering Aldric's armor.

"I'm sorry," she said softly.

"She loves costumes. » Aldric did not understand the last word, but he bowed his head politely. The woman walked away, guiding her daughter with her. The little girl glanced back several times, a bright smile on her face. He watched as the people gradually returned to their daily lives. Some still stole curious glances in his direction, but none of them seemed genuinely alarmed. Perhaps they believed he was a foreign soldier or a knight from some distant noble house.

The system had allowed him to understand their language, but he still knew nothing of their laws, their customs, or the identity of the ruler who governed this kingdom. Aldric sheathed his sword. The blade slid into its scabbard with a metallic scrape. Several people applauded, perhaps believing they had just witnessed some kind of performance. He acknowledged them with a nod before walking away. The ground beneath his boots was perfectly smooth.

Pale stone slabs formed pathways through the lawns, without a single crack or loose paving stone. Benches lined the walkways, their frames made of wood and metal. Small black containers stood at regular intervals, some overflowing with paper and colorful cups. Aldric had no idea what purpose they served, but he committed their locations to memory. In an unfamiliar land, anything could conceal a weapon or a defensive mechanism. As he walked, the crowd parted before him.

Conversations faded into silence, only to resume once he had passed. Children laughed as they watched him go by. A man asked if he was filming a movie, but Aldric did not understand the question and continued on his way. He looked up at the tower, whose iron framework cast an immense shadow across the ground. Every beam was fastened to the next by thousands of metal rivets. No mason in his world could have assembled such a colossal quantity of metal without the structure collapsing under its own weight.

He approached one of the tower's massive pillars. People stood waiting behind barriers, forming orderly lines. They presented small slips of paper or their glowing artifacts to guards dressed in dark uniforms. Aldric stopped at a distance. So this was the garrison. It was surprisingly small, yet the soldiers carried neither spears nor swords. Even so, their authority seemed more than enough to maintain order. Not a single civilian attempted to pass without permission.

A glass box glided upward along the side of the tower, carrying several people toward the heights above. Aldric followed its ascent until it disappeared behind the first platform. His fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword. A mechanism like that would have required dozens of mages or an enormous system of counterweights. Here, it operated without any visible effort.

"A kingdom of master smiths and enchanters," he murmured. △ OBSERVATION SKILL CHECK △ Unknown Technology Detected Analysis Failed Required Skill: Modern Technology Lv. 1 Aldric frowned. The system recognized this form of magic, yet refused to reveal its true nature. He had encountered ancient artifacts before whose identification required a specific skill, but never had the system used the word Technology. He dismissed the window with a wave of his hand. A sudden flurry of wings erupted beside him.

Aldric spun around, his hand already resting on the hilt of his sword. A dozen small gray creatures descended from the sky and landed on the stone pavement. Their necks shimmered with flashes of green and violet. They bobbed their heads as they walked, pecking at crumbs left behind by passing pedestrians. They vaguely resembled the mountain crows of his homeland, but their bodies were rounder and their beaks much shorter. One of them wandered toward his boot, stopped, and looked up at him.

It showed no trace of fear. Aldric took a step forward. The creature merely shuffled a few inches aside before calmly returning to its search. A child ran straight through the flock. The birds burst into the air in a chaotic flurry of wings, circled overhead for a moment, then settled back onto the ground almost immediately. A woman sitting on a nearby bench scattered pieces of bread at her feet. The creatures rushed toward them, their wings beating furiously, while several hopped onto the backrest of the bench.

Aldric crouched down. One of the birds approached him, pecked at a dark stain on the pavement, then walked all the way to his hand. Its round eyes met his. Aldric remained perfectly still. In his world, small creatures avoided cities. Armies, predators, and famine forced them into hiding. Here, they lived among humans without the slightest fear. No one hunted them. No one threw stones at them. Children laughed as they watched them scurry about, and adults shared their food with them.

Aldric slowly extended a finger. The bird pecked at the metal of his gauntlet before tilting its head.

"You're a brave little one," he murmured. The creature let out a soft coo before wandering away. Aldric rose to his feet, his gaze drifting over the hundreds of birds scattered across the square. This city even protected the smallest forms of life. Perhaps it was not merely powerful. Perhaps it was peaceful as well. He continued walking, gradually leaving the tower's shadow behind. Ahead of him, a vast lawn stretched toward a row of buildings with matching facades.

People lay on the grass, some with their eyes closed, others absorbed in books. A woman jogged past, pushing a small wheeled carriage in which a child slept peacefully. Farther away, two men tossed a brightly colored disc back and forth, letting it glide through the air before catching it. Aldric slowed his pace. His world had known no place like this since the war began. Even before the Demon King's invasion, the squares of every capital had been crowded with merchants, guards, and beggars.

Here, the people possessed an enormous space reserved for nothing more than walking, sitting, or gazing at the sky. The wealth of this kingdom had to surpass anything he had ever imagined. A sweet scent caught his attention. Near one of the pathways, a man stood behind a small decorated cart. Sticks covered in a fluffy pink substance slowly rotated behind a transparent panel. Children waited in line, holding shiny coins or small pieces of paper in their hands.

The vendor handed them the sticks, and the children tore off pieces of the pink substance with their fingers before happily popping them into their mouths. Aldric watched the scene without approaching. The food looked impossibly light, almost like a cloud. There was no cauldron, no fire, no cook. And yet, the cart continuously produced the strange confection. He reached for his belt. His coin pouch was still there. The gold coins of Asteria clinked beneath his fingers. He took one out and studied it.

The king's face was still engraved on one side, encircled by an inscription. He had no idea whether this currency held any value in this kingdom. A sharp pain tightened across his chest. He closed his hand around the coin. The king. The soldiers. The survivors. He had left his world at the very moment of victory. He had no idea whether they had seen him disappear. Perhaps they believed he was dead. Perhaps they were still searching for him among the ruins.

The system had spoken of a Main Game, as though everything he had lived through had been nothing more than a tutorial. Yet the dead had not been illusions. The wounds covering his body were real. And Elwen's face would never fade from his memory. Aldric looked up at the blue sky. The crimson rift was gone. No dragons soared through the clouds. No meteors fell across the horizon. For the first time in years, the sky held no threat.

"I'll find a way back," he murmured. He continued walking. The trees lining the path were spaced with perfect precision. Metal lamps stood between them, though no flame burned behind their transparent panes. Aldric assumed they would come to life after nightfall, perhaps powered by the same mysterious energy as the memory artifacts. A low rumble rose from beyond the buildings. He stopped. The sound drew closer, accompanied by a steady mechanical hum. A mass of metal emerged at the end of the street.

It glided across the ground at astonishing speed, rolling on four black wheels. Its polished surface reflected the sky. Behind a pane of glass, a man sat with both hands resting on a large circular wheel. Aldric watched the creature pass. Another followed, then a third. Before long, he spotted dozens of these machines moving between the buildings. Some were small and nearly silent. Others were massive, growling like wild beasts. White lights shone from their fronts, while red lights glowed at their rear.

Unknown Vehicle Detected Analysis Failed Aldric approached the edge of the street. White lines marked the pavement. People waited on the sidewalk, then crossed only when a glowing symbol changed color. No guard directed the crossing. And yet, the machines stopped on their own before the waiting crowd. He remained motionless for several minutes, fascinated by the order hidden within this apparent chaos. The vehicles passed one another without colliding. Civilians walked among them without fear.

Children held their parents' hands, and some even stepped in front of the machines without slowing down. Aldric placed one foot onto the road. A sharp sound erupted. A harsh metallic screech tore through the air, loud and unrelenting. Aldric spun around. A black machine was hurtling straight toward him, its bright lights fixed on his body. Behind the glass, the man inside had his mouth open, his face twisted by either fear or anger. Aldric saw neither wheels nor a driver.

He saw only a roaring mass of metal charging directly at him. His knees bent. His fist tightened around the hilt of his sword, every muscle in his body tensing. Then he jumped.