The morning sun had barely climbed above the rooftops of Croft when our carriage rolled through the castle gates.
The iron-bound wheels clattered across the stone bridge before settling onto the packed dirt of the northern highway. Behind us, the Duke's castle slowly shrank against the horizon, its white towers disappearing into the morning mist.
I leaned against the window, watching everything with quiet fascination.
It still amazed me.
Just a few months ago I'd been worrying about homework, engineering projects, and whether I had enough money to upgrade my computer. Now I was traveling across an entire kingdom to meet one of the most powerful nobles in Magna Frisia.
Life was strange.
Very strange.
Across from me, Luka rested comfortably with his arms folded behind his head, looking completely unconcerned.
"You've been staring out that window for twenty minutes."
"I've never actually left Croft."
"You left Earth."
"...Good point."
Celest giggled beside me.
"I think this is different."
"It definitely is."
The city walls disappeared behind a hill, revealing an enormous landscape unlike anything I'd seen before.
Golden wheat fields stretched across rolling hills.
Windmills slowly turned in the distance.
Stone farmhouses dotted the countryside every few miles, each surrounded by orchards, grazing sheep, and fenced pastures full of cattle.
Everything looked...peaceful.
Almost too peaceful.
"I expected more monsters."
Luka shrugged.
"You won't see many on the King's Roads."
"Why?"
"They're enchanted."
I looked away from the window.
"Seriously?"
"The roads are lined with warding stones every few hundred meters."
Celest nodded.
"They suppress weaker monsters and alert nearby patrols whenever stronger ones approach."
"So this entire highway is basically protected?"
"Exactly."
"That's...actually brilliant."
Luka smirked.
"Welcome to a kingdom that has survived for over a thousand years."
I couldn't help smiling.
Back on Earth, building highways was expensive enough.
Here they had magical highways.
Of course they did.
Several hours passed as the carriage continued north.
The roads remained surprisingly smooth despite being made from fitted stone rather than asphalt.
Every so often we'd pass another carriage.
Some belonged to merchants.
Others carried traveling nobles marked by colorful banners fluttering from their roofs.
Occasionally entire groups of adventurers marched along the roadside.
Each group looked wildly different.
One wore gleaming silver armor.
Another consisted almost entirely of robed mages.
One particularly strange party included a beastkin woman carrying what looked suspiciously like an anchor as a weapon.
I stared after them.
"...Was that an anchor?"
Luka glanced outside.
"Oh."
"So it was."
"No, I mean—"
"That's Helga."
"You know her?"
"Everyone in the northern territories knows Helga."
"...Why?"
"She once killed a sea serpent with that anchor."
I blinked.
"...How?"
"No one's entirely sure."
Celest covered her mouth, trying not to laugh.
"They say she threw it."
"I don't think physics allows—"
"This world stopped caring about physics the moment you started making floating boots."
"...Fair enough."
Near midday the countryside began changing.
The flat farmland gradually gave way to forests.
Massive pine trees lined both sides of the road.
Their trunks were thicker than cars.
Sunlight filtered through thousands of emerald needles overhead.
The air smelled cleaner.
Cooler.
Even the breeze felt different.
Luka noticed me looking.
"Welcome to northern Magna Frisia."
"It feels completely different already."
"It is."
He pointed toward the endless forests.
"The White family controls most of this region."
"All this?"
"And much more."
"That's enormous."
"The northern marquisate protects the kingdom from everything beyond those forests."
I frowned.
"What's beyond them?"
Luka's usual carefree smile faded slightly.
"The Frontier."
"...Sounds ominous."
"It is."
He looked out the window.
"The farther north you go, the more dangerous the land becomes."
"Because of monsters?"
"Among other things."
Celest quietly added,
"There are places where entire armies have disappeared."
I waited for someone to laugh.
Neither of them did.
"...You're serious."
Luka nodded once.
"The northern border isn't just another province."
"It's the shield protecting the kingdom."
I glanced back toward the endless trees.
Somehow...
They looked much darker now.
By early afternoon the carriage reached its first major town.
Stone walls surrounded several hundred homes built around a bustling marketplace.
The gates stood open as merchants streamed in and out.
The coachman slowed the horses.
"We'll be stopping for an hour."
Finally.
I stretched my legs as we climbed out.
The town was alive.
Children chased each other through narrow streets.
Blacksmiths hammered glowing steel.
The smell of fresh bread drifted from nearby bakeries.
Street musicians played cheerful melodies while merchants loudly advertised everything from enchanted cookware to dried monster meat.
My engineer brain immediately locked onto the infrastructure.
Water channels ran alongside nearly every road.
Small crystal lamps hung from posts despite the daylight.
Mana-powered pumps continuously carried water uphill into elevated reservoirs.
"...That's genius."
Celest smiled.
"What is?"
"The water system."
"You noticed?"
"Of course I noticed."
She laughed.
"I forgot who I was talking to."
"This town has running water without electricity."
"Magic."
"Magic is cheating."
"A little."
I crouched beside one of the channels.
The crystal embedded inside faintly glowed blue.
"So this keeps flowing all day?"
Luka nodded.
"Maintenance mages recharge them every few months."
"...I want to study everything in this kingdom."
"I had a feeling you'd say that."
They eventually found a small restaurant overlooking the town square.
The food was simple.
Fresh bread.
Stew.
Roasted vegetables.
Smoked venison.
I was halfway through my meal when voices from a nearby table caught my attention.
"...I'm telling you, it's true."
"No chance."
"My cousin works in the capital."
"You always have a cousin."
"I'm serious this time."
Curiosity got the better of me.
I listened.
"They say Duke Croft adopted some mysterious child."
"Adopted?"
"Apparently."
"I heard he's some magical prodigy."
"No."
"Even crazier."
"They say the kid built enchanted artifacts nobody's ever seen before."
Someone snorted.
"Stories get taller every week."
"I'm not kidding!"
"They say royal scholars are already trying to meet him."
Another man leaned closer.
"I heard he's actually an ancient sage pretending to be a child."
The table erupted into laughter.
I nearly choked on my bread.
Ancient sage?
Seriously?
Another voice joined in.
"My brother heard he's a dragon."
"A dragon?"
"Disguised as a human."
Luka's shoulders started shaking.
Celest buried her face in her hands.
I sighed.
"...Please don't laugh."
"I'm trying," Luka wheezed.
"I really am."
"You knew this was happening?"
"Rumors spread faster than horses."
I groaned.
"So somewhere out there people think I'm either a dragon or an immortal wizard."
Celest looked up with tears in her eyes from laughing.
"To be fair..."
"...?"
"The dragon rumor is my favorite."
I pointed at her.
"You are absolutely not helping."
She smiled innocently.
"I know."
Outside, the town bustled on as if nothing had changed.
But for the first time, I realized something unsettling.
People were talking about me.
Not just in Croft.
Not just among nobles.
Across the kingdom, stories were already spreading—and with every retelling, the mysterious adopted son of Duke Croft became less of a person and more of a legend.
I had a feeling that by the time we reached Marquis Marcus White's territory, I wouldn't just be arriving as Adam.
I'd be arriving as whatever impossible tale had reached them first.
The carriage rolled on long after we left the town behind, the noise of the marketplace fading into the distance until all that remained was the steady rhythm of hooves against stone and the soft creak of wooden wheels.
For a while, no one spoke.
The forest had swallowed us again.
Towering pines closed in on both sides of the road like silent sentinels, their shadows stretching across the path in long, shifting patterns as the sun dipped lower in the sky. The deeper we traveled into northern Magna Frisia, the more the world seemed to narrow into this single road—this lifeline cutting through ancient woods.
I kept thinking about what I'd heard back in town.
Dragon.
Ancient sage.
Some kind of myth stitched together from rumors and exaggerations.
It should've been funny.
It was funny.
And yet…
I couldn't fully shake the feeling that once a story like that started spreading, it stopped belonging to the person it was about.
It became something else entirely.
"Still thinking about the rumors?" Luka's voice broke the silence.
I glanced over. "Is it that obvious?"
"You went quiet," he said. "That's usually when your brain starts overclocking."
Celest leaned her head against the window frame. "He does that a lot."
"I do not—"
"You absolutely do," Luka cut in.
I sighed and leaned back. "It's just weird. Back home, if someone made up a story about you, it stayed local. Maybe a school rumor, maybe social media for a day. Here it spreads across an entire kingdom like wildfire."
"That's because information here travels through guild networks, messenger routes, and noble couriers," Luka said. "And people like to believe interesting things."
"Especially about power," Celest added softly.
That made me pause.
"Power?"
She nodded. "A mysterious adopted child of a Duke is interesting. A genius is interesting. A dragon in disguise is very interesting."
Luka smirked. "People don't spread boring truths. They spread exciting possibilities."
I looked out the window again.
The forest felt different now. Less like scenery. More like something that was listening.
"So I'm basically a rumor-shaped magnet," I muttered.
"Pretty much," Luka said.
"Great."
As the carriage continued, the road began to change again.
Not in direction—but in presence.
The stone beneath us became smoother, more refined. Every few hundred meters, faint glowing markings were embedded into the roadside pillars. They pulsed gently as we passed, like the world itself was breathing.
I leaned forward.
"Those are the warding stones again?"
Luka nodded. "Stronger here."
"Why stronger?"
Celest answered this time. "We're entering the outer buffer zones of noble-controlled territory."
That phrase carried weight, even if it shouldn't have.
"Noble-controlled meaning…?"
"Meaning," Luka said, "this part of the kingdom isn't just protected by the crown anymore. It's actively governed by the White family's enforcement divisions."
I frowned. "So the Marquis isn't just a noble in a title sense. He actually runs the land."
"Exactly."
That was still something I was getting used to.
On Earth, governments were layered, messy, bureaucratic.
Here, it felt more… feudal. Clean lines of authority. Clear ownership of land, law, and protection.
But also heavier.
More personal.
Celest pointed out the window. "See those markers along the trees?"
I followed her gaze.
Small metal sigils were nailed into trunks at intervals, each etched with intricate runes.
"I see them."
"They mark patrol routes," she said. "And emergency response points. If anything crosses into this territory without permission, the forest itself becomes a warning system."
"The forest itself?" I repeated.
Luka nodded. "Mana resonance. The wards are tied into the land. It's not just magic placed on the environment—it's magic integrated with it."
I exhaled slowly.
"Whoever designed this place was either a genius or completely insane."
"Both," Luka said without hesitation.
Celest smiled. "Probably both."
The sun was lower now, bleeding orange through the trees.
We passed another checkpoint—this one more fortified than the last. Stone towers rose beside the road, each manned by armored soldiers in deep blue cloaks marked with a white sigil of a stylized tree.
They straightened as our carriage approached.
Not aggressively.
Respectfully.
One of them stepped forward, scanned the carriage, and then immediately stepped aside without question.
No delay.
No inspection.
Just recognition.
I noticed that.
"Did they just let us through instantly?" I asked.
Luka didn't even look up. "Yes."
"…Because of your family?"
"Yes."
"That feels like a lot of trust."
Celest gave a small, knowing smile. "It's not trust."
"Then what is it?"
"Hierarchy."
That word lingered.
Hierarchy.
It sounded simple, but in her voice it meant something absolute.
Like gravity.
Like law.
I sat back again, watching the soldiers fade behind us.
"So what exactly is the noble hierarchy here?" I asked.
Luka tilted his head as if deciding how to explain it.
"There are six major ranks recognized by the crown."
He began counting on his fingers.
"Barons. Counts. Dukes. Marquises. Archducal Houses. And the Royal Line."
I blinked. "Marquises are above dukes?"
"In most cases, yes," Celest said. "But it depends on territory importance."
Luka leaned forward slightly. "A duke governs internal stability regions. Marquises govern border territories."
"Border territories like this?"
He nodded. "The north, the frontier edges, monster migration zones—places where failure isn't political. It's existential."
That landed heavier than I expected.
"So Marquis Marcus White isn't just some noble," I said slowly. "He's basically holding the line against whatever's out there."
"Exactly," Luka said.
Celest added quietly, "That's why people respect him so much."
I looked out again at the forest.
For the first time, I understood why the road felt so different here.
It wasn't just protected.
It was guarded by someone who couldn't afford failure.
By late afternoon, the forest canopy began to thin.
The road curved upward along a gentle ridge, and the trees slowly parted as if the land itself was opening.
Luka shifted in his seat.
"We're getting close to the outer estates."
"What's that mean?"
"You'll see."
A few minutes later, the carriage crested the ridge.
And I finally saw it.
The land beyond wasn't just forest anymore.
It was structured.
Fields stretched in precise geometric layouts, divided by stone walls and irrigation channels that shimmered faintly with embedded mana.
Watchtowers dotted the landscape like chess pieces.
In the distance, smoke rose from what looked like fortified settlements—organized, disciplined, almost military in design.
And beyond all of it—
A massive silhouette on the horizon.
A fortress-city.
Even from miles away, it dominated everything.
Black stone walls.
Layered defensive rings.
Massive gates large enough for entire caravans to pass through.
And towering above it all, a central citadel that seemed to pierce the sky.
I leaned forward instinctively.
"…That's the Marquis territory?"
Celest nodded.
Luka's voice was quieter now. "Whitehold."
I stared at it.
It didn't look like a city.
It looked like a kingdom preparing for war and never standing down.
And as the carriage rolled forward, drawing us closer to its shadow, I realized something I hadn't fully understood before.
Whatever Marcus White was like as a person…
He didn't just live in that place.
He had built it to survive the world.