Eren left before sunrise.
Not because he feared being seen—no one was watching—but because habits were difficult to discard. The sky beyond the Veridian estate was painted in muted greys and pale gold, clouds stretched thin like torn fabric. Morning mana currents flowed gently, invisible but perceptible, brushing against his senses with unfamiliar texture.
He followed the road.
For the first time since transmigration, there were people.
Carriages rolled past him, some pulled by beasts whose forms defied logic—scaled horses with ember-lit veins, six-legged oxen whose hooves never touched the ground fully, drifting inches above stone. Merchants walked in clusters, voices overlapping, mana flickering faintly around charms and tools.
The Veridian city rose ahead.
Not a medieval sprawl.
Not a modern skyline.
Something in between.
Stone towers reinforced with metallic mana conduits. Wide streets etched with glowing runes that pulsed faintly, regulating traffic and ambient mana flow. Bridges arched gracefully over lower districts, layered vertically rather than spread outward.
This was a city designed for power.
Eren slowed unconsciously.
In The Ashen Crown, the Veridian capital had been described as "order given form." Reading it then had been one thing.
Standing inside it was another.
Nobles passed by without looking at him, their presence dense with refined mana. Their clothes were elegant but practical—long coats threaded with reinforcement glyphs, gloves designed to channel arts safely. Guards stood at intersections, their armor humming quietly with amplification fields.
And servants.
Everywhere.
But not like the one assigned to him.
These servants moved with confidence, mana signatures strong and clean. B-rank at minimum. Some were stronger than minor knights. They carried parcels, handled beasts, maintained infrastructure.
Rank dictated placement.
Always.
Eren's eyes took it all in silently.
Advertisements hovered above the streets—floating mana projections anchored to crystalline pylons.
"IGNIS-FORGED CORES — FEEL THE HEAT OF TRUE REFINEMENT"
"AEQUOR PRESSURE TALISMANS — MOVE WITH THE TIDE"
"BEAST CONTRACTS AVAILABLE — LOYALTY BEYOND BLOOD"
One projection caught his attention.
A small, fox-like mana beast perched atop a merchant's shoulder, its tail flickering between shadow and light. Its eyes were sharp. Intelligent.
A pet.
A partner.
Not a tool.
Something twisted faintly in his chest.
Useful, he told himself immediately.
Beast pets enhanced survivability, scouting, mana recovery. That was all.
Still, his gaze lingered longer than necessary.
He looked away and continued walking.
Veridian Station
The station dominated the lower city—a vast structure of reinforced stone and metal, threaded with glowing mana lines that converged toward the central platform. The air hummed faintly, charged but stable.
Mana trains rested along multiple tracks.
Not steam.
Not electricity.
Pure mana propulsion.
Long, sleek carriages levitated inches above the rails, stabilized by kinetic arrays and resonance anchors. Their surfaces reflected light strangely, as if half-real, half-conceptual.
Eren paused at the edge of the platform.
This, too, he remembered from the novel.
The mana train network connected major territories, crossing distances that would take weeks on foot in mere hours. Controlled. Regulated. Monitored.
He purchased a ticket without issue.
No verification beyond a mana signature scan—brief, shallow, dismissive.
F-rank signatures weren't flagged.
He boarded.
Inside, the carriage was quiet but not silent. Seats arranged in clean rows. Mana crystals embedded along the walls emitted a soft glow, maintaining temperature and pressure.
Across from him sat a pair of adventurers—low rank, judging by their gear—whispering excitedly. Further down, a noble youth leaned back casually, a small beast curled in his lap. Its breathing was slow, steady.
Eren looked away again.
The train began to move.
There was no jolt.
No sound.
The city slid past the windows smoothly, then blurred, then vanished as the train accelerated beyond ordinary perception. Outside, landscapes folded and stretched, mana fields bending space subtly to allow transit.
Eren watched without blinking.
Technology built on magic.
Magic shaped into infrastructure.
A world that had normalized the impossible.
In the novel, this had been background.
Here, it was overwhelming.
And exhilarating.
Reflection
As the train sped onward, Eren rested his head lightly against the window.
This world was vast.
Too vast to be contained by a single clan, a single dungeon, a single fate.
The Veridian estate already felt distant—not physically, but conceptually. A cage disguised as lineage.
His fingers curled slightly.
Black Nox waited somewhere far ahead, sealed and forgotten.
But between here and there lay cities, people, beasts, choices.
He had lived one life defined by obedience.
He refused to let this one shrink to a single objective.
"…After the dungeon," he murmured quietly, almost absently, "I'll get one."
A beast pet.
Not immediately.
Not emotionally.
But eventually.
Because survival alone was not enough.
The train surged forward, mana humming beneath his feet, carrying him away from the shadow of the Veridian Dynasty and toward something unknown.
Eren closed his eyes.
For the first time, the future felt open.