Rein walked along the stone pavement and watched people move through their routines.
Vendors argued over prices. A woman carried a basket of folded cloth. Two children ran past him with wooden sticks, pretending they were swords. A man hammered metal in front of an open workshop, the rhythm steady and practiced.
Most of them wore clothes Rein could only describe as medieval.
Which was ironic, because he was also wearing a very similar attire, a medieval attire.
Brown trousers. Leather boots that still felt stiff. A white shirt slightly too loose around his shoulders. Simple. Functional.
He caught his reflection in a shop window made of polished glass. He looked like he belonged here.
That bothered him more than it should have. His cheek rose in slight annoyance.
The houses lining the street were made of stone and wood, but not crude. Patterns were carved into beams. Doorframes held etched symbols. Some windows were framed in shaped iron that curled into deliberate designs. The architecture was careful and fwkt like it didn't exactly belong here, even though it fit perfectly with the surroundings.
Still, it was not fully medieval either.
Some buildings rose three stories high. A few were made of brick and cement. Their walls were straight and measured in a way that felt closer to modern construction.
It's like a mixture of modern and medieval times.
"This here is the community inn."
The voice beside him was calm and pleasant.
Rein glanced over.
The man walking with him was tall, broad-shouldered. Golden blond hair tied loosely at the back. Blue eyes. Clean features. The type of face that looked like it had never known hunger or bad luck.
"You can stay in here for a while," the man continued. "Just reach my house in about five hours."
He pointed toward a building not far from the inn. It was close enough that Rein could see its stone walls and dark roof tiles clearly.
"I will," Rein said.
The man nodded once.
Then said before he walked away.
"By the way, don't take deski's words at face value, she has a tendency to be vague"
He smiled and walked away.
'jeez that guy is handsome'
His name was Midas.
Rein stepped toward the inn entrance.
'So I really am in another world'
The thought did not feel dramatic. It felt bitter.
He had woken up about two hours ago in a dimly lit room. It had taken him several seconds to understand he was not dead.
The ceiling had been high. The air smelled faintly of herbs and something sharp. It had been a hospital, apparently the largest building in this surprisingly small town.
When he opened his eyes, Deski had been sitting beside him.
She had been reading.
Rein had caught a glimpse of the book cover before she slammed it shut.
"The Northern Duke Is In Love With Me?!"
She had moved faster than he expected.
After confirming he was alive and after discovering that the wounds across his shoulder and chrst had left barely any scars, Rein had begun asking questions.
He did not ease into it. In fact, he had basically started rambling.
He asked about the town. About the monsters. About the world itself.
Deski had answered for nearly half an hour. She had stuttered through it, growing more tired with each response.
Eventually, she had groaned and leaned back in her chair.
"Save your q—questions in a note and ask me l—later."
Then she paused.
"In fact… why don't you just read a b—book, here."
She had handed him two.
The Mystical System.
The Basic History of the World.
Though he hadn't read them at all, From her explanations, he had gathered this much that she had answered with certainity:
He was in Monolithos. A town protected by a spirit stone embedded at its center. The stone created a protective blessing that kept monsters like the ghoul out.
The town held around twelve thousand people. It felt cramped because the protection only extended so far. No one wanted to live outside the boundary.
There were many settlements like this. Cities. Districts. Citadels.
They were mainly called sanctuaries.
Some were far larger.
Shien.
Ivoryhold.
Whiteout.
Names spoken with weight.
The monster they had encountered was called a ghoul. Also referred to as mistborne.
Rein suspected ghoul was a category, not a precise species.
When he asked about monster categories, Deski had given vague answers.
Ghouls.
Dominion.
Piercer.
Demons.
Abominations.
And many more, apparently.
She had not elaborated.
Click
The inn door opened as he pushed it
'So Midas already informed the inn owner I would be coming?'
The interior was moderate in size but crowded with furnitur. Tables placed close together. Chairs stacked near walls. A shelf lined with bottles and mugs. It felt compact, but not uncomfortable.
Rein stepped inside and closed the door behind him
He removed his sword and hung it carefully by its guard on a wooden rack near the wall.
Then he moved to the bed
It creaked slightly as he sat down
He leaned back and focused on the memory that had stayed with him since the fight.
The words
He had seen them in the middle of combat. The system.
He lay fully down, staring at the ceiling
'I have a system'
The pillow was softer than expected. His head sank into it slightly
"Alright, Here goes nothing."
He concentrated on the memory. On the image of floating text layered over a faint white screen.
For a few seconds, nothing happened
Then something shifted in front of him
A translucent interface formed in his vision.
---
Name: Rein Shenhe
Race: [Gate Guardian's Empty Shell]
Rank: Unawakened
Soulbound Relic: [A Certain Memory (Severer)]
Wings: None
Feathers: None
Attributes: [Opacity] [Lake That Reflects the Sky]
Affinity: Untuned
Skills: [Awakened Swordsmanship: Severing ★]
Mandate: [Dhyana]
Bloomings:
Frond: N/A
Bark: N/A
Petal: N/A
Grove: N/A
---
Rein stared at it
"That's… a lot."
He exhaled slowly
"Let's start with the obvious."
Rein Shenhe
"That's me."
So far, nothing strange
Then his eyes shifted upward.
[Gate Guardian's Empty Shell]
His expression tightened
"What the hell is that?"
The words carried weight, atlest it felt as if it did, he wasn't exactly sure if it was meant to be something grandiose or not.
He felt unease creep into his thoughts
It wasn't panic, Just something cold
Gate Guardian's Empty Shell
Without consciously deciding to, he focused on the line.
He did not ask out loud not did he form a clear sentence in his mind.
But something responded
Another screen appeared
It manifested suddenly, causing him to tense, flinch even.
---
[Gate Guardian's Empty Shell]: An incomplete shell of a being who had been born with the choice of everything, yet chose to remain nothing, and die an unrippling death.
---
Rein read it twice
Then a third time
"Unrippling death," he repeated quietly.
He did not like that phrase
'Am I not human then?'
The idea unsettled him more than the monsters had.
He had lived as a human. Thought as one. Bled as one, He had grown up around people who were human, Being told he was something else felt wrong on a level deeper than logic.
"No, Race might not mean species."
Maybe it was like a title. A role. A classification based on ability.
Something abstract, He clung to that explanation.
He did not want to dig further into the alternative.
"Whatever."
He dismissed the pop up
His eyes moved down the list
Rank: [Unawakened]
"So there are ranks."
He leaned forward slightly on the bed.
"What are the ranks here?"
That was likely in one of the books Deski had given him.
Which raised another question.
"Why does she even have those?"
If this was common knowledge, why did she carry beginner level material?
He shifted his attention again.
Soulbound Relic: [A Certain Memory (Severer)]
He didn't focuse on it this time, not yet atleast.
"A certain memory,"
That did not clarify anything.
Severer, That word aligned too well with the sword.
He looked toward the wall where it hung.
The blade had cut deeper after that moment of clarity in the fight. Rein had vividly felt his surrounding slow down, and his blade had cut true.
[Awakened Swordsmanship: Severing ★]
He stared at the skill.
He had never trained with a sword in his previous life.
Yet in combat, his body had moved with awareness, which wasn't because of some mystical ability, rein fully beloved that he had done what he did because of his mindset, he had been lucky many times during the fight, and he had somehow strikes at the right moment.
It had not been perfect, in fact He had nearly died
But it had not been blind panic either
His gaze shifted again.
Attributes: [Opacity] [Lake That Reflects the Sky]
"What does that even mean?"
He did not focus on them yet.
Affinity: Untuned
That sounded simpler. Untuned meant no alignment.
Mandate: Dhyana.
Another unfamiliar term
Bloomings
Frond, Bark, Petal, Grove.
All marked N/A.
"Is this a tree?"