The First Adoption
"Here you go—five platinum coins as payment."
"Hm."
With a faint clink, I peeked inside the leather pouch she handed over. Sure enough, just as she'd said, there were five gleaming platinum coins nestled within. They shone with a luster that would leave clear bite marks if I tested them with my teeth, and I could unmistakably sense the mana circuits proving their minting by the Holy Empire.
I pocketed the pouch with a faint smile.
"The real deal. Tell Duke Teiran I'm grateful. Like I said, I didn't expect it'd arrive this quickly."
"No more requests lined up this time?"
As I slung the sword I'd propped against the bar table base onto my belt and prepared to leave, the master spoke up. A woman with mysterious purple hair and matching violet eyes. She looked quite youthful at a glance, but those in the know never judged her by appearances alone. Owner of the underworld powerhouse Moonlight, one of the capital's top information brokers. Her name was Violet. I was one of her occasional collaborators, drawn by her meticulousness and cool-headed dealings.
Grandly put, I was just a mercenary operating through her as a middleman.
Everything was set to go.
"Ahh."
I downed the cocktail glass on the table in one go, wiped my mouth, and replied.
"I'm almost at the sum I've been aiming for. Still a bit short, but that's something I can fill in slowly from here..."
"Oh? Already that close?"
"So, I probably won't be dropping by for a while. Unless I run low on funds again."
"Hmm... It'll be lonely."
"Save the empty words."
I chuckled at Violet's words, which lacked any real sincerity, and gave her a final farewell. Over these seven years, I'd owed her and her organization quite a bit, so there was some genuine sentiment there.
"We'll cross paths again if fate allows, Violet. Take care."
"You too, Kyle. Don't go getting yourself cut up in some reckless swordfight."
Though she handled her collaborators with ruthless calculation, Violet wasn't devoid of emotion. She waved lightly, a soft smile on her lips, and I gave her one last glance before stepping out.
Ding-a-ling—the bell on the door jingled.
Moonlight Shelter
I turned away after one last glance at the nameplate affixed to the building.
The Imperial Capital Dersia was an incredibly bustling city. And that held true even for its back alleys.
I passed through the underground districts teeming with information brokers and shadowy organizations, the red-light district ablaze with garish lights, and the commercial zones where merchants plied their trades, my steps carrying me onward to somewhere.
Tucked in my bosom was the leather pouch Violet had just handed me, along with every coin I'd scraped together through blood and sweat. Twenty-five platinum coins and half a dozen imperial central bank checks. Enough to rival a few years' tax revenue from a decent fiefdom. No ordinary mercenary sum, but all legally earned.
Took long enough.
It had been seven years since I'd abruptly transmigrated into this world. At first, adapting to a life that wasn't mine, surviving the threats closing in from all sides—it was overwhelming. But I'd scraped by, clawed my way up to become a renowned top-tier mercenary.
This was the fruit of that labor. Enough to build a dozen mansions in the capital. Most mercenaries would retire content with a tenth of it.
...I wish I could too.
Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. This money had a vital purpose. Thinking of the wounds and blood I'd shed to amass it brought tears to my eyes, but what could I do? Such was my fate as a transmigrator.
There was something I had to do.
"Edenberg. One adult ticket."
Clink!
For that very reason, I boarded a steam locomotive bound for a city far from the capital.
In a world where swords and magic were real but civilization lagged behind my previous life in scientific progress, transportation had advanced decently through magitech. This steam train and the airships slicing through the capital's skies were products of that fusion.
Lucky for me. Life would have been a hassle without them.
I leaned back in my seat and waited. Soon, with a jolt and a hiss of steam, the train pulled away from the station.
Compared to the KTX from my past life, the speed was pathetically slow, so the trip to eastern Edenberg would take time.
"Hm."
I rested my head against the rough seatback and closed my eyes. A short nap now would keep fatigue at bay upon arrival.
Thankfully, sleep came easily. Seven years as a mercenary had conditioned even my once-modern bones to doze off anywhere.
As consciousness faded, my mind drifted to the not-so-distant past. To those bleak early days when I'd plummeted into this world without warning.
Screeech!—with a wail like a banshee, the locomotive scraped the rails, gradually slowing.
"Mm."
I opened my eyes around then, shaking off the lingering drowsiness. Rolled my stiff shoulders and peered out the window. The scenery had shifted entirely from the capital's—a sprawling panorama unique to here.
Edenberg, the county treated as a major city in the east, if not quite on the capital's level.
I grabbed my bag from the luggage car and disembarked leisurely.
Sleepy still.
I thought I'd rested enough, but the lethargy clung stubbornly. Maybe because I'd dreamed of my first days here—slaughtering monsters solo in the dream, no less.
Anyway, I'd finally set foot in Edenberg, my first target.
No fresh waves of emotion, though. Just another city full of people. And I still had plenty of buffer from the timeline I'd set seven years ago. I'd hit my goal faster than expected.
Clink.
Feeling the pouch's weight against my chest, I took my heavy first steps.
Destination already set. Decided the moment I transmigrated and grasped this world's truth.
"This it?"
Of course, first time setting foot here meant...
"Nope."
...a few minor hiccups finding the way.
"This time for sure?"
No big deal.
"Wrong again."
I'd arrived while the sun still hung high, but by the time I found it, sunset was painting the sky. The city was absurdly vast and sprawling. A chaotic mess compared to the capital's orderly grid, every street radiating disorder.
"Hoo."
I wiped sweat from my brow and sighed at my hard-won destination. Time wasted, but tolerable. No real variable.
Feigning nonchalance, I scanned the worn map and stepped into the dark back alley.
A district where the capital's tidy underworld gave way to grim seediness. Overt stares bored into me from all sides, but I crossed unfazed. Maybe thanks to the sword at my hip—no one picked pointless fights.
Low-tier thugs lurked here and there, but I ignored them. One goal only.
"Pretty sure it was around here..."
Muttering, I pocketed the map and trusted instinct.
A street I'd seen in the "game" once, even explored. Unlike wandering the city for alleys, reaching my mark didn't take long.
"...Here."
Beyond the alley swarming with shady lowlifes they ignored lay the slums—a shantytown strewn with the poor, orphans collapsed everywhere.
And there, in that very place, was the one I'd longed to meet.
"...?"
"Greetings."
Huddled in the ruins, shrouded in filthy rags hard to spot, "she" was a girl whose beauty—even knowing her look—drew involuntary awe. Sea-blue hair like the ocean, ruby eyes like embedded gems. Likely hidden deliberately. She knew her allure too well; in these slums, beauty like that spelled trouble.
Her dust-caked, unwashed state probably helped shield her, along with the hazy mana permeating the area, warding off approach.
I smiled kindly at the girl who flinched up at me.
"I've come all the way from that distant city to see you, Miss Beatrice Edenberg."
"...!?"
At my monumental opener, naming her full title, Beatrice's eyes flew wide in shock. She'd thought herself well-hidden. Pity—I wasn't some medieval everyman. Once a modern guy, a player who'd experienced this world as a game. And a man who'd slaved seven years solely to claim her one day.
To reassure the girl—maybe fourteen or fifteen—I extended a hand with my softest, warmest smile.
"Now, let me make you a fine proposal, Miss Beatrice Edenberg. Hear me out."
And so, I began the first groundwork to adopt her as my daughter.
Pop!
"...Huh?"
The witch who would awaken as a "disaster" in the near future, later drowning the empire in a sea of blood—Beatrice Edenberg—bolted before hearing my rational, mutually beneficial adoption pitch.
I blinked at her frantic retreating back.
Seemed I'd left a thoroughly rotten first impression.
...Not what I had in mind.