"Are you aware of what you have done?"
It was a voice he had never heard before, asking an absurd question to which he wanted to answer no, but he didn't.
Because that wasn't the first thing he noticed.
The first thing he noticed was the cold stone floor and the broad hands pressing on them. The stone floor was unusually cold…like pressing your palm flat against ice.
Jin slowly raised his head.
A middle-aged man sat at a work table a few feet away. He had broad shoulders, silver grey hair, and a presence so sharp that it felt like it was quietly suffocating him. He was writing something with a quill, not even bothering to look up.
Jin looked at the man's eyes and immediately averted his gaze. He didn't know why, but he simply couldn't bring himself to hold that gaze, looking at the eyes that seemed as endless as an open sky.
Jin didn't know who the man was.
He looked around him.
Torch holders lined the towering stone pillars. An entire wall was swallowed by the stacks of books, and on the opposite side hung the banners bearing a regal white griffin crowned in gold.
It was a completely unfamiliar place.
"I will ask you once more."
The man's voice resonated through the room, filling the silence between the two.
"Are you aware," he said slowly, "of what you have done?"
The way he asked it, it wasn't really a question. It was as if they both knew the answer, and this was just a ceremony to make it known.
But Jin did not have any answer.
To be honest, he was in confusion.
'What is this situation?' he thought, blinking at the absurdity of it all.
He had just gone to bed after reading the recently released chapter of his favorite novel, and now…he was here. Kneeling on a stone floor in a room out of a different century.
And the hands….he looked down at them.
'Whose hands are these?'
They were attached to his body, sure, but those weren't his. His hands were frail and skinny, not broad and chubby like this.
'Am I dreaming?'
That was the most possible thing he could think of, but the cold should have woken him if this were a dream. The headache pounding behind his eyes was the only thing that was familiar, the hangover that would result from a whole night of plunging into the pleasure of alcohol.
'Then where am I?'
The banner caught his eye again. Something about it kept pulling him to him, but he couldn't quite name what.
"A Gannon," the man said, "does not sneak through the lower quarters at midnight harassing the maids."
Jin went still.
The man let the sentence breathe before continuing.
"A Gannon does not disrespect the knights of this household and strike them in public like a brute."
'Gannon…'
Jin finally thought of something when he heard the word.
"A Gannon does not drain three bottles of Veltieren Red before noon and conduct himself like a thug in public."
Sweat was beginning to gather at his temple despite the cold. Jin was listening - he was also, with all desperation, hoping what he just realized wasn't the truth.
"But those things," the man continued. "I could tolerate. I have tolerated them." A Pause. "For years, I have tolerated them, because you are my blood. Because I believed - foolishly, it seems -that you would eventually find your way."
Silence descended between the two.
"I was wrong."
The man's eyes finally fell on Jin fully. When they did, he understood why he had avoided them.
"You put your hands on Lady Esther?" Each word was spaced to make him understand the severity of the situation. "On Count Sinclair's only daughter. On the daughter of the Royal Counselor. On my dearest friend's daughter."
Something cold moved through Jin's chest.
He was beginning to understand.
Not just the situation but the shape of the person he had apparently become. And it was not a flattering shape.
"Encrid."
The name landed like a stone dropped in still water.
"You are not worthy of the Gannon name."
And that was it. That was the key turning in the lock.
Encrid.
Encrid Gannon.
The words he had imagined came fast and certain, not exactly like memory but like recalling a story he had read so many times.
Duke Gannon's fourth son, the outlaw who was kicked out of the family because of his antics. A degenrative noble whose only narrative purpose was to illustrate the Sinclair family's read-that even one of the four great ducal houses, considered as pillars of the empire, would sacrifice his own blood rather than risk their displeasure.
One sentence.
|| The Sinclair held such influence in the empire that Duke Gannon - one of the four pillars -disowned his own son, Encrid, for laying hands on Count Sinclair's only daughter, Esther.~ ||
That was the only sentence in the entire fifteen volumes of 'The Last Age of Radiance,' where the name Encrid Gannon was mentioned.
Jin stared at the stone floor
'I reincarnated into a novel.'
And not as the protagonist. Not as the rival. Not as a villain, a love interest, or even a notable side character.
But as a man mentioned once in the entire novel, to make someone else look powerful.
The silence in the room stretched.
'You have got to be kidding me.'
He has reincarnated into a novel as a degenerate noble who was about to lose even that title as a noble!
Jin was still processing that when the words appeared.
They floated in the air in front of him, plain and white, as if someone had projected text onto the inside of his vision.
[ System Initialization Complete. ]
Jin blinked.
The words didn't go away.
[ The 'Narrative Updating Protocol' system is now online ]
A Golden finger!
Jin, who was cursing his fate, suddenly felt alive and rejoiced!
'A system! I have a system!'
He felt as if God had finally shown some mercy on the poor soul. The incredible chronicles of innumerable main characters who roamed the fantasy world with their amazing systems flashed by his mind.
[ Recognizing Host….Encrid Gannon ]
How many times had he imagined himself as a main character with a system! His time is finally here!
'Hurray to the reincarnation! Hurray to the fantasy world.'
Even though he might be a neglected character, with the system…
[ Accessing Host's narrative relevance… ]
Suddenly, there was a pause.
[ Narrative Relevance - 0.04% ]
[ Status: Critically Low ]
Jin stared at that number for a long moment.
'Zero point zero four??'
Not even a clean, dignified zero he could mourn with some self-respect, but a zero point zero zero four?
All the joy and excitement of the golden finger puffed out into thin air.
[ Warning: If Narrative Relevance reaches 0%, catastrophic consequences will befall the Host.]
The word " catastrophic " was doing a great deal of work there, even as it didn't exactly tell what.
[ Golden Tip: Involve yourself in the story.]
'Involve in the story??'
It wasn't that the words were hard to understand, but the implication was.
[ Accessing Current Situation… ]
[ Critical Situation Detected! ]
[ Generating Emergency Quest… ]
The text shimmered, and a title resolved itself in the air before him, underlined in deep red!
[ Survive the Duke's Judgment ]
[ Duke Gannon has reached the end of his tolerance with the antics of his youngest son. The duke has resolved to formally disown Enrid Gannon and strip him of the family name. If the scenarios follow the narrative - all social standing, resources, and connections tied to the family will be severed. ]
[ Completion Condition: Avoid being disowned. ]
[ Failure Result: Narrative Relevance falls to 0%, resulting in a canonical event. ]
[ Time Limit: 2 Minutes ]
Jin looked up.
The Duke sat with his hands folded on the writing table, watching him with the patience of a man who had already reached his conclusion and was simply waiting for the formality of finish.
There was no anger in his face. What was there instead was a cold stillness, like a door about to close.
'He looks scary.'
Duke Aegis Von Gannon.
One of the four pillars of the Empire and probably among the most influential people in the whole universe of 'The Last Age of Radiance.' From what Jin has read about him in the novel, he was a strict, upright, and unyielding man. Unlike Encrid, who was mentioned once, the Duke plays an important role in the story.
Later in the novel, he becomes master to one of the main characters. He trains him in secret for two arcs, pushing him past limits and helping him rise to a higher realm.
'Now that I think of it, there was a scene.'
In one of their training sessions, the main character asks the Duke about his fourth son, who was disowned.
|| His upright master, who wore his expression like armor, unmoved by anything, had gone quiet. And then after a long pause.
"He was a pitiful child. I should have paid him more attention." ||
That was all.
The main character hadn't pressed, nor did the duke say anything else, and the chapter moved on.
But Jin had remembered it.
'That means the duke still has some affection towards his son.'
Jin thought, but he knew he couldn't lean on it.
Affection and forgiveness weren't the same thing.
The original Encrid had likely thrown himself at his father's feet and begged.
And it hadn't worked.
The duke had disowned him anyway. Which meant begging was a door that had already been tried and found locked.
'So what would work?'
Jin tried to think of a solution. It was hard to do so while the stone was biting into his knees and the headache pressed at the back of his skull.
But he did so anyway.
Aegis was a man of principle. He didn't operate on sentiment or mercy but on merit, logic, and the cold mathematics of consequences.
He hadn't disowned Encrid out of hatred. He had done it because keeping a son like that was a liability to the family that he couldn't afford.
It was a practical decision, which meant the only argument that could possibly work was a practical one.
[ Time limit: 10 seconds ]
'Damn it,' Jin's thoughts lurched.
The gears in his mind were still turning, but there was no time.
But right then it landed.
Jin raised his eyes.
He met the Duke's gaze directly for the first time and looked directly into his pale, endless blue eyes.
He didn't look away this time.
"I would like to take the walls, Father."
✦ ✦ ✦
Volume 01 - Let me Live!