“—’so, Rene, I hope that you’ll be able to look after my daughter in my ste—’ GOD DAMMIT! WHAT DID YOU FUCKING DO, KARIN?”

A woman slammed both her hands on her desk. She looked twenty-ish, but she was actually in her early thirties.

She was Viscount Irene Nightshade, the only Half-Void Noble in the entire Empire. 

Irene swept her blonde hair back and wiped the sweat on her forehead. Her blue eyes gazed at her broken table with annoyance. 

The day was going normally for her, you know, signing documents and all that. So, imagine Irene’s surprise when she saw a peculiar letter mixed in with all the important papers.

Normally, she would’ve thrown it away, but the letter was from her old friend—Karin Gray. When opening the letter of her closest friend, Irene had expected at least an attempt at explaining why she’d gone silence for twelve goddamn years. 

However, after a short greeting, Karin straight up told Irene to take care of her daughter for her since she was going somewhere far away.

‘I’m a Viscount, not a nanny!’

Still, this was something serious. Although the Karin that Irene knew had a careless personality, she wasn’t this careless and irresponsible. Above all, Irene knew just how much her friend loved her daughter. 

Well, at least enough to refuse the massive inheritance that would’ve been hers if she hadn’t run away to protect her daughter.

So, Irene concluded that something was terribly wrong and called her personal butler in.

“Alfred, clear me schedule for today and tomorrow.”

Alfred, the butler in suit, looked at Irene with a worried gaze.

“But milady, you have an appointment with Count Asshol tomorrow.”

At her butler’s words, Irene’s eyes became blank. While she looked like she was seriously deliberating whether to cancel the appointment or not, in reality, she was just trying to recalled who the fuck Asshol was.

Eventually, she decided to just ask her butler.

“Who is he again?”

“He’s the Count whose son…grabbed your rear in a banquet a few months back.”

“Ah, that guy!”

She didn’t need to think about it anymore.

“Cancel everything. If that bastard and his perverted son complain about my decision, tell them to go fuck themselves.”

Sighing, Alfred walked out of the room and left the eccentric Viscount to herself.

.

.

.

.

Irene stepped out of her car. Currently, she was in a relatively quiet town. Of course, she was going undercover. Otherwise, everyone would swarm her car to ask for autograph since before a Viscount, she was a Hunter.

She made sure that the house she was standing in front of was the right one. After cross-checking with the address on Karin’s letter, she politely rang the doorbell. But after two minutes of useless waiting, she sighed and decided to just kick the door down.

‘Good thing I brought the Curtain artifact,’ she thought. Otherwise, everyone in a three-block radius would’ve called the police on her.

Irene went inside the house, only to find absolutely no one there. She did a clean sweep of the house, but found nothing but a slip of paper on the kitchen table.

She read through it and confirmed that Karin wrote it. The content was roughly about her saying goodbye to her daughter and how much she loved her.

‘At least it’s consistent with what I got.’

Though, there was another line on the other side of the paper. It definitely wasn’t Karin’s handwriting, and it was obvious that whoever wrote this did it in a hurry.

===

To the Noble that was supposed to pick me up:

I’ve already left. Don’t look for me. 

===

That was it; nothing more, nothing less. Despite the so very sincere plea written right here, Irene wasn’t having any of it. After all, how could she let her friend’s daughter wander out there alone? The kid was just thirteen!

So, Irene got back into her car and told Alfred to mandate a search for the child inside her territory.

*

*

*

*

I was currently on a bus out of Viscount Nightshade’s territory. Feeling paranoid, I checked my backpack again.

‘Warm clothes, essential stuff, and five-hundred Lumens. Yep, everything’s still here.’

The bus I was in was empty, so there wasn’t really a reason to check my stuff. Regardless, I did so again, and again…and again. Mostly because there wasn’t any better thing to do besides gazing out at the endless field of snow outside.

When I was starting to get bored of viewing the contents of my backpack, I began thinking back to what happened after I passed out.

‘Marcela is someone from a world called ‘Earth’ and I inherited her memories. This world’s a novel. Neither Marcela nor I know how it’s going to end.’

That basically summed up the situation. Although it was normal to panic now, I was strangely calm. Sure, I did get a bit scared at first, but…everything just made sense? I didn’t know how to describe it. The best word I could come up with was “familiarity.”

It was almost like I’d experienced this before…

That aside, my calm didn’t extend to the letter Mom left me. I cried. Hard. In fact, I was pretty sure that my eyes were still swollen right now.

However, since I was smart, I soon deduced that Mom didn’t abandon me. Because if she did—and all the years she spent living with me was a lie—then I didn’t know if I could bear living anymore.

Besides, the powerful voice told me to thank my “Mommy,” so I guessed that she did what she did for my own good. And the fact that she arranged for a Noble to take care of me proved that she still loved me.

But…I didn’t need any Noble raising me, nor did I want to. All I wanted was to reunite with Mom. And it just so happened that this world was a novel, and I had all the relevant knowledge on how to get stronger quickly.

That was why I ran away. Currently, I was on my way to Duke Ecertold’s territory to obtain a powerful Martial manual. I wasn’t really worried since I knew everything there was to know about this world.

I yawned. Today was indeed a long day. So, until I reached the Northwestern frontlines, I simply fell asleep to conserve my energy.

.

.

.

.

The Northwestern frontline town of Ascurt. 

Despite officially being recognized as a town, it was more like a bunch of smithies and leather workshops huddled together in a tight space. 

I got off the bus and walked through the town. This being the town of smithies and soldiers, there were a lot of sweaty men running around. Of course, I attracted quite a bit of attention being a little girl.

Despite that, no one dared to approach me. I guessed that it was partly due to my Eyes of Fear, but considering the fact that none of the adults back in my hometown were affected, it was probably more likely that they thought I was a child of a high-ranking soldier or something.

Anyways, I soon got to the only different building in the town—the Administrative hall. Instead of buff sweaty men, this place was full of wounded men in armor.

I pitied them. They didn’t have the knowledge that I had, so wounds were an inevitability for them.

Walking up to a counter, I tried to speak to the clerk behind it, but I was simply too short. So, I grabbed a nearby helmet and used it as an improvised stool.

Now barely being able to see the glasses-wearing clerk, I cleared my throat and said,

“I’d like to apply as a soldier.”

The clerk darted his eyes around confusedly. No doubt he was scared shitless. When he finally looked down and noticed me, his confusion seemingly only intensified.

“W-What? Who are you?”

“I’m not from here.”

“T—”

“I’d like to apply as a soldier.”

The clerk rubbed his eyes as if he was still in disbelief. Then, he muttered to himself, “Okay, maybe she just looks small.”

Turning his gaze back to me, the clerk regained his professional demeanor. 

“Very well. We have a shortage of soldiers anyways, so everyone is welcome. Do you have any kind of identification on you?”

I nodded and handed him my birth certificate.

He looked over it, rubbed his eyes, cleaned his glasses, and read it over again. Confirming that everything was indeed real, he looked over to me with concern.

“A-Are you sure you want to enlist?”

“I’m certain.”
“But—”

A bald man with twirly mustache suddenly intruded on our conversation. “She said that she’s sure of what she’s doing. Let her in.”

“G-General!” The clerk exclaimed.

Well, even without the clerk saying that, I could tell that he was a General thanks to the badges he had on him.

“She’s just barely thirteen, General!” The clerk continued. “We shouldn’t. She hasn’t even awakened her Stat—”

“We’re short on soldiers. Anyone will suffice.”

“But—”

“Are you refusing my orders?”

“I— Very well, General.”

Satisfied, the General twirled his mustache before going away.

Then, the clerk heaved a heavy sigh before turning back to me.

“This is your final chance. Are you sure you want to enlist?”

“...Yes.”

He took out a document and handed it to me. It was filled with warnings and legal provisions. Looked like he was really trying to warn me against joining…

But no matter. I was determined to get the Martial manual no matter what, and being a soldier would be the shortest path to acquiring it.

So, after I signed my name, I handed the document back to him.

I was now officially a soldier of the Empire. To be honest, it went a lot better than I thought it would.

Everything was surely going to be smooth sailing from now on…