The Imperial Academy.The Grand Courtyard - Central Portal Hub.09:00 AM.
The morning following the brutal, blood-soaked conclusion of the preliminary combat tournaments, the atmosphere across the Imperial Academy had shifted from raucous, violent excitement to a tense, suffocatingly rigid academic dread.
Today was the official commencement of the mandatory First-Year Dungeon Simulation Exams.
The sprawling, manicured lawns of the Grand Courtyard had been entirely transformed overnight. Towering, heavily reinforced obsidian obelisks were erected in a massive circular formation, humming with a deep, resonating violet energy. These were the primary spatial anchors for the artificial dungeon dimension—a pocket reality meticulously crafted, maintained, and heavily monitored by the Academy's Senior Arcanists to test the students in highly controlled, simulated life-or-death scenarios.
Rudeus sat alone on a polished stone bench near the perimeter of the staging area.
He was already fully geared up, wearing his standard-issue dark-grey practical combat uniform. His heavy, lethal Six-Flanged War Mace rested casually across his lap. His expression was a mask of cold, unbothered indifference, though his crimson eyes continuously, analytically scanned the throngs of nervous, chattering students gathering in their assigned pairs and squads.
It was highly noticeable that a massive, invisible ten-foot radius of absolute isolation had formed around him. None of his first-year classmates dared to stand anywhere near him. The vivid, horrifying memory of Aemond Blackfyre's shattered silver helmet and pulverized face was still entirely too fresh in their minds. To them, Rudeus was no longer the pathetic, crying 'Defect'. He was a dormant monster, and they were terrified of waking him up.
Rudeus let out a long, heavy sigh, completely ignoring the fearful, sidelong glances directed his way. He tilted his head back, looking up at the bright morning sky.
'Where the hell is she? Why is she running late?' Rudeus complained inwardly, tapping his armored fingers against the iron haft of his mace in an erratic rhythm.
Punctuality was a non-negotiable virtue in his past life, and standing around waiting in a highly exposed, public staging area made his veteran instincts itch with paranoia.
Just as his annoyance was threatening to boil over into genuine frustration, a shadow fell over his face, momentarily blocking out the warm sunlight.
Rudeus looked up.
Standing before him was Princess Veronica Adnelia Van Rosania.
She was breathtaking, even dressed for war. She wore a specialized, highly functional silver-and-blue leather combat uniform that hugged her aristocratic curves while allowing for maximum magical mobility. Her cascading silver-blue hair was tightly woven into a complex, practical braid that fell down her back.
However, her usual haughty, untouchable aura was entirely absent. Instead, she looked incredibly awkward, her oceanic blue eyes darting away from his gaze.
"Hey... sorry I'm late," Veronica said, her voice unusually soft. She raised a gloved hand and nervously scratched her cheek, an entirely un-royal gesture that highlighted her underlying anxiety.
Rudeus stared at her for a second, analyzing her shifting demeanor. He let out a long, tired sigh and simply nodded his head. He didn't have the energy to lecture royalty on military punctuality.
"It's fine. Just sit down before the proctors start taking attendance," Rudeus muttered, shifting slightly to make room on the stone bench.
Veronica didn't hesitate or complain about sitting near him. She gracefully took a seat directly beside him, close enough that the faint, intoxicating scent of crushed Glacial Lilies momentarily overpowered the smell of ozone from the nearby portals.
They sat in a somewhat heavy, complicated silence for a few moments, watching the Senior Arcanists calibrate the massive obsidian pillars.
"Hey..." Veronica broke the silence, her voice dropping to a low, conspiratorial whisper meant only for his ears.
"What is it?" Rudeus asked, turning his head slightly, keeping his expression neutral.
Veronica looked down at her hands, taking a deep, steadying breath.
"I already formally spoke to my Father this morning. I told him about the annulment of our Imperial engagement," she announced, her words carrying the heavy weight of a shattered political alliance.
Rudeus's crimson eyes widened slightly in genuine surprise. He hadn't expected her to move that quickly. He assumed it would take weeks of bureaucratic maneuvering and crying to get the Emperor to budge.
He looked at her for a long, calculating second. The tension in his chest loosened significantly. His golden ticket to absolute freedom was finally being printed.
"Thanks," Rudeus said, his voice sincere and completely devoid of its usual caustic sarcasm. "You actually really troubled yourself to get that done so fast. Truly... thank you, Princess."
Veronica looked up, surprised by the genuine gratitude in his tone. A faint, dusty pink blush dusted her pale cheeks, and she offered a small, somewhat strained smile.
"It's nothing. I explicitly promised you yesterday, right? I am a Princess of the Empire. I need to keep my word," Veronica replied, smoothing the fabric of her trousers. "And besides, you kept your word too. You fought brilliantly and won your preliminary bracket... even if the faculty technically disqualified you for excessive brutality."
Rudeus nodded slowly, a dark, self-satisfied smirk playing on his lips as he remembered the satisfying crunch of Aemond's helm.
"So, what was the Emperor's reaction?" Rudeus asked, his tactical mind pivoting to assess the geopolitical fallout. "I imagine the Sun of the Empire wasn't exactly thrilled to have his grand political chessboard flipped over before breakfast."
Veronica let out a heavy, weary sigh, her shoulders slumping slightly.
"Of course he was profoundly angered by it at first," Veronica admitted, her brow furrowing as she recalled the tense meeting in the Imperial solar. "He yelled. He lectured me on duty. But I stood my ground. I explicitly stated to him that I absolutely did not want to continue this toxic, miserable engagement anymore. I told him it was destroying my peace of mind."
She looked away, staring at the swirling violet energy of the portals.
"And... because my Father harbors a massive, crushing complex of guilt regarding my mother, and because he loves me to a fault... he eventually just sighed and yielded. He told me he would draft the official edict and personally relay the news to the Grand Duke."
Veronica's expression darkened, clearly deeply troubled by the implications.
"At the very least, my Father was relatively alright about it, considering I used my 'Champion's Boon' from winning the tournament to force his hand," Veronica said, her voice tight with anxiety. "Though... I am incredibly worried about your father. The 'Shield of the North'. He is currently busy commanding the Vanguard forces on the northern borders. When he receives an imperial missive stating that his son's royal engagement has been unilaterally broken... he will be furious."
Rudeus let out a sharp, cynical laugh, shaking his head. He looked at Veronica with an incredibly serious, utterly unbothered expression.
"Seriously, Princess, you should not lose a single wink of sleep over my 'Father's' reaction," Rudeus stated coldly. "Because frankly, I don't even fully comprehend the original reasoning behind this marriage pact, and I highly doubt it was built on genuine affection or respect between our houses."
Rudeus paused, his mind flashing back to the horrific, blood-chilling revelations Amanda had dumped on him in the subterranean gym three months ago. Amanda had revealed everything about his mother's true identity as a fallen Witch from Clovius, and the sheer, monstrous depravity of Raemond Blackfyre.
But crucially, Amanda had admitted that even the Night Ravens didn't know the exact, classified political reasoning behind why the Emperor and the Grand Duke had suddenly decided to arrange a marriage between the favored Princess and the despised 'Defect'.
"I bet my absolute bottom dollar that my father won't even bat an eye or truly care about the annulment," Rudeus declared, his analytical mind assembling the fragmented puzzle pieces of the game's lore.
He leaned closer to Veronica, dropping his voice lower.
"Listen to my hypothesis. I bet your father, the Emperor, was the one who initially, desperately proposed this marriage contract entirely to protect you from the First Empress's political faction. He needed to tie you to the strongest, most terrifying military force on the continent to ensure she wouldn't try to assassinate you like she did your mother."
Veronica's eyes widened slightly, absorbing his blunt, treasonous assessment of her family dynamics.
"Though this is strictly my own tactical theory," Rudeus continued, raising a finger, "I am absolutely certain the Grand Duke Raemond only accepted the arrangement because your Father offered him something incredibly massive in return under the table. And knowing my father's singular obsession with his endless, bloody war against the Arendelle Kingdom... I bet he already received that payment upfront."
Veronica stared at him, her highly educated, politically groomed mind spinning rapidly as she processed his theory.
"Which essentially means...?!" Veronica gasped, a sudden, brilliant realization dawning in her oceanic eyes.
"Exactly," Rudeus nodded, a sharp, calculating glint in his crimson eyes. "Since the Grand Duke already received his upfront payment—be it massive imperial funding, highly classified abyssal artifacts, or advanced weaponry for his Northern Vanguard—there is absolutely no tangible problem for him if this engagement is annulled now. He already got what he wanted. He fundamentally doesn't care about the internal politics of the Capital. He only cares about the war."
"I see... I see! That actually makes an incredible amount of sense!" Veronica whispered, her face lighting up as the intricate political knot untangled in her mind.
"If you view this entirely from my Father's strategic point of view, he forged this contract to protect me by establishing a hard alliance with the Grand Duke. And since my Father already paid the Duke's price, the Duke is satisfied regardless of what happens to the actual, physical engagement between us children!"
But then, Veronica frowned, a new wave of aristocratic paranoia hitting her.
"But—" Veronica interjected, leaning closer to Rudeus, "The ultimate question remains: would the formal annulment of our marriage inherently break their underlying military alliance pact? If the alliance breaks, I am vulnerable again."
Rudeus confidently shook his head, a dismissive smirk on his lips. "Nope. That is a political impossibility."
"Huh? What do you mean it's an impossibility? It doesn't make logical sense, right? A broken marriage usually signifies a broken treaty," Veronica argued, completely shocked by his absolute certainty.
Rudeus sighed, adopting the tone of a tired professor lecturing a particularly stubborn student.
"Princess, you need to look at the board and think outside of the conventional aristocratic box," Rudeus instructed, tapping his temple. "We have already established that the Grand Duke won't genuinely care that the contract marriage is annulled because he already secured his military funding, correct?"
Veronica nodded her head slowly, following his logic.
"Which ultimately means that the foundational alliance pact is still firmly in place. It is not entirely broken; it is merely resting on a different, unspoken currency," Rudeus explained, his eyes scanning the crowds to ensure no one was eavesdropping on their high treason.
"But the absolute, biggest key to this entire equation—the absolute lynchpin that guarantees the alliance will survive this annulment—is the fundamental reality of the Imperial Court."
Rudeus locked eyes with her, delivering the final piece of the lore.
"The First Empress and Grand Duke Raemond Blackfyre absolutely, fundamentally despise each other. They are bitter political enemies from the very first place. Their respective noble houses have clashed for decades over border taxation and military jurisdiction."
Veronica's jaw dropped slightly.
"I see... yeah, that makes absolute, perfect sense! How could I have been so blind and forgotten that?!" Veronica whispered fiercely, a rush of relief flooding her system. "Grand Duke Raemond violently hates the First Empress, her entire extended family, and the influential merchant House she originates from. He would never, ever ally with her faction!"
'Well, I only obtained that highly classified, inner-circle political information because it was explicitly detailed in the deep lore menus of the game,' Rudeus admitted inwardly, a smug sense of satisfaction warming his chest.
'Even in the original timeline, when Veronica eventually, canonically annulled their engagement to pursue the Protagonist, the Grand Duke cared absolutely less than nothing about it. He maintained his ironclad alliance with the Emperor to spite the First Empress. Which makes this entire, miserable engagement functionally useless from the very first place. It was nothing but a fragile, performative cover-up designed to ease the Emperor's paranoia.'
Veronica sat back, her mind reeling with the sheer, brilliant clarity of his deduction.
"So... this entire, miserable engagement of ours... it was nothing but a grand, elaborate political cover-up from the very beginning?!" Veronica stated, her voice a mixture of awe and profound anger at being used as a pawn.
Rudeus's crimson eyes widened in genuine, unadulterated shock.
He stared at the Princess.
'Damn. She is incredibly, terrifyingly smart, huh?!' Rudeus thought, feeling a sudden surge of deep, begrudging respect for the girl he canonically hated.
'She literally, instantly connected the final dots and figured out the overarching truth the exact second I provided her with the baseline context. She didn't let her emotions cloud the brutal logic of statecraft. That... that right there is exactly the terrifying, brilliant intellect of the future Emperor of this Empire.'
Rudeus simply nodded his head slowly, offering no further verbal reply, confirming her devastating conclusion in silence.
Veronica sat beside him, clearly vibrating with a complex mixture of anger at her father's manipulation, and a profound, liberating happiness that she was finally stepping out of the dark. She was murmuring to herself, rapidly recalculating her entire political standing within the court based on this new paradigm.
Rudeus watched her for a moment before a sudden, terrifying thought struck him.
"Wait a minute. So... what was Amanda's response to all of this?" Rudeus asked, his voice suddenly tight with apprehension. "I bet the Deathstalker was goddamn angry that you threw away a valuable political tie to the North."
Veronica snapped out of her murmuring. A highly amused, slightly guilty smile touched her lips.
"Oh, she is!" Veronica laughed softly, though it carried a hint of nervous energy. "She is absolutely furious!"
Veronica leaned closer, her oceanic eyes sparkling with mischievous delight.
"She was literally seething with anger at me yesterday evening when I returned to the suite. Well, my Father formally asked me what I desired as a reward for my spectacular victory in the tournament, and I boldly, publicly requested the immediate annulment of our engagement."
Veronica giggled, covering her mouth with her gloved hand. "Amanda nearly gave herself an aneurysm trying to maintain her stoic maid persona in front of the guards. Until this very morning, she is still in a remarkably foul, terrifyingly dark mood..."
"I see. I see..." Rudeus swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. A cold sweat began to form on the back of his neck.
"Wait," Rudeus asked, his voice cracking slightly, filled with a sudden, impending sense of doom. "Did you... did you happen to tell her that it was my specific plan and my tactical condition for being your partner?!"
Veronica smiled brightly, her eyes curving into happy crescents.
"Mhm!" Veronica nodded enthusiastically, completely oblivious to his terror. "I told her you demanded it! I thought she would be impressed by your negotiation skills!"
Rudeus stared at her, his soul temporarily leaving his body.
'Ohh, shit. Holy absolute shit,' Rudeus screamed inwardly, his mind visualizing a thousand different ways a poisoned dagger could find its way into his ribs.
'I really, truly hope I can actually manage to survive long enough to escape this academy after this simulation concludes! I mean, yes, it was technically my plan to begin with, and because Veronica successfully convinced her father, I can finally, legally escape this academy, cross the border, head toward the Northern Continent, enter the Arendelle Kingdom, and save Rosetta...'
Rudeus brought a heavy, armored hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, feeling a massive migraine developing.
'But if Amanda thinks I actively manipulated her beloved Princess into breaking an Imperial decree... she is going to hunt me down to the ends of the earth and skin me alive before I even reach the border checkpoints!'
"Sigh... you really, truly enjoy putting my life in absolute, mortal danger, don't you, Princess?" Rudeus groaned, dragging his hand down his face in pure exasperation.
Veronica only looked at his miserable, terrified expression and laughed heartily, a bright, melodic sound that drew the confused stares of several nearby students.
"TEAM 23! PLEASE APPROACH DEPLOYMENT GATE ALPHA!" The booming, magically amplified voice of the Senior Arcanist in charge of the primary entrance portal finally echoed across the courtyard, cutting through the ambient chatter.
Veronica stopped laughing. She stood up smoothly from the bench, brushing a stray speck of dust from her silver-blue uniform.
"Well. It seems it is finally our turn to enter the fray, partner," Veronica said, her voice dropping back into a serious, highly focused register.
"Yeah..." Rudeus grunted, pushing himself up from the stone bench. He gripped the haft of his Six-Flanged War Mace, his Vanguard instincts instantly taking over. The time for political maneuvering was over. It was time to survive.
Veronica turned to face him. To his absolute, unadulterated bewilderment, she extended her delicate, gloved right hand toward him, offering it palm up.
Rudeus stopped. He raised a highly skeptical eyebrow, looking from her hand to her face.
And then, he just let out a short, cynical laugh.
"Really? Are you entirely serious right now?" Rudeus asked, utterly baffled by the gesture. "You literally just spent the entire morning finalizing the legal annulment of our suffocating marriage contract... and right here, right now, in front of the entire academy faculty, you are offering your hand to your freshly discarded ex-fiancé?"
Veronica only smiled—a sharp, fiercely intelligent, and entirely unapologetic grin. She shrugged her shoulders elegantly.
"Well. What can I say? I simply want this specific moment to be dripping with historical irony," Veronica declared, her oceanic eyes shining with a newfound, liberated confidence.
"Irony. Really?" Rudeus deadpanned, clearly annoyed by her theatrical flair. "We are about to step into a monster-infested simulation, and you want to focus on dramatic irony?"
"Yep!" Veronica affirmed cheerfully.
She didn't wait for him to accept. She stepped forward, reached out, and forcefully, securely grabbed his large, armored hand with her own.
"Now, let's go and enter that gate before they dock our points!" Veronica ordered, spinning around and physically dragging him toward the humming obsidian pillars.
"Hey! Wait a damn minute! I can walk on my own!" Rudeus complained loudly, stumbling slightly as he was forcefully pulled across the courtyard by the surprisingly strong Princess.
Despite his verbal protests, he didn't pull his hand away.
Together, the newly annulled ex-fiancés stepped into the blinding, swirling violet vortex of the primary deployment portal, instantly vanishing from the Academy grounds.
***
The Artificial Dimension - Sector 1.Simulation Sub-Level: The Verdant Plains.
The sickening, stomach-churning sensation of spatial displacement lasted for only a microsecond.
When the blinding violet light faded, the cold, marble architecture of the Imperial Academy was entirely gone.
Rudeus and Veronica materialized standing on a soft, grassy hill.
Veronica's oceanic blue eyes widened to their absolute limit. She released Rudeus's hand and took a few hesitant steps forward, completely awestruck.
"Woah!" Veronica gasped, raising both of her hands to cover her mouth in genuine, unfiltered amazement.
She looked up at the sky. It wasn't a stone ceiling painted with clouds. It was a vast, sprawling, impossibly realistic expanse of cerulean blue, dotted with fluffy, drifting cumulus clouds. A warm, gentle breeze swept across the hill, carrying the hyper-realistic scent of blooming wildflowers and fresh pine. Ancient, towering oak trees bordered a crystalline river that wound its way through the valley below.
"This... this is incredible," Veronica whispered, spinning around in a slow circle to take in the breathtaking environment. "It's exactly like a pristine, untouched countryside from one of the deepest, most beautiful outer territories of our Empire. I can even feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. How did the Arcanists manage to simulate environmental temperature so perfectly?!"
While Veronica was busy acting like a sheltered tourist experiencing nature for the first time, Rudeus was entirely unimpressed by the scenery.
He didn't look at the beautiful sky or the pretty flowers.
He immediately dropped into a low crouch. His crimson eyes darted methodically across the landscape, rapidly sweeping the tree lines, analyzing the flow of the river, and checking the directional rustle of the tall grass for any signs of unnatural movement or hidden ambushes.
'Hmm. It seems we are randomly deposited into varying biomes to prevent immediate clumping of the student squads,' Rudeus analyzed inwardly, his tactical mind running a million miles an hour.
'Though... despite the hyper-realistic aesthetic, this is still strictly the designated 'First Floor' of the simulation. According to the syllabus, only incredibly low-level, easily manageable monsters are spawned in this specific upper sector, and they are spread out so thinly you can rarely even encounter one without actively hunting for it.'
He stood back up, satisfied that they were not in immediate danger of being swarmed by goblin variants.
"You really should stop daydreaming and admiring the fake foliage, Princess," Rudeus stated, his voice flat, cutting through her awe. "We are on a clock, and we need to secure a designated extraction point to officially pass this exam, right?"
Veronica visibly startled, pulled abruptly out of her reverie.
"A-ahh! Yeah! You are absolutely right! I'm sorry, I was just caught in the moment. The magical engineering here is simply spectacular," Veronica stammered, quickly composing herself and adopting a more serious, focused expression. "Let's get moving and locate a mana-beacon."
As Veronica began to walk down the hill, taking the lead, Rudeus followed closely behind, his eyes narrowed in deep, paranoid thought.
'Why does she seem so incredibly, genuinely excited and focused to be here?' Rudeus questioned inwardly, staring at the back of her silver-blue braid.
'Right. Of course. She doesn't know. I am literally the only person in this entire artificial dimension who actually knows the catastrophic, world-ending incident that is about to unfold in this exact simulation.'
A cold, heavy knot of dread formed in Rudeus's stomach.
This specific simulation incident was not just a difficult exam in the game's lore. It was the inciting incident. It was the precise, horrific tragedy that would ultimately cause the protagonist, Adelina Van Hestianna, to fall into a magically induced, agonizing five-year coma. Though, as he remembered the overarching narrative structure of the game, that trauma was entirely, narratively necessary for her character development and the eventual awakening of her divine Sword Saint powers in Arc 2.
'Well... actually... shit,' Rudeus frowned, massaging his temples. 'I completely forgot what the actual, genuine, mechanical reason was for her five-year coma. Was it a curse? A demonic poison? A shattered mana core?'
He gritted his teeth in frustration. His memory was failing him when he needed it most.
'Regardless of the mechanics, I absolutely should not be careless today,' Rudeus resolved, his grip tightening significantly on the leather haft of his Six-Flanged War Mace until the leather creaked in protest.
'Right! I also completely forgot that that goddamn, sadistic demon Professor Vane—or rather, the Greater Demon General Dratkthar—will undoubtedly be lurking down here in the lower levels orchestrating the disaster.'
Rudeus's crimson eyes flashed with a dark, predatory anticipation.
'But this time... the timeline is entirely different. Dratkthar is already ultimately, severely weakened because of my intervention. I tipped off Amanda, and the Night Ravens have been actively hunting and bleeding his accomplices for three months. He won't be at full strength.'
He cracked his neck, adjusting the heavy iron armor on his shoulders.
'Still. I absolutely must not be careless or arrogant. After all, because of my mere presence, the established plot of the story has already been massively, irreversibly changed. The butterfly effect is in full motion. Anything could happen.'
"What exactly are you thinking so deeply about back there?"
Veronica's voice suddenly interrupted his intense internal monologue.
Rudeus blinked. Veronica had stopped walking. She had turned around, bent her body slightly forward at the waist, and was peering closely into his face, her oceanic eyes filled with a highly perceptive curiosity.
Rudeus instantly smoothed his features into an unreadable mask.
"Nothing of consequence," Rudeus replied smoothly, casually adjusting his mace. "I was just meticulously planning out our optimal tactical route to ensure we effortlessly pass this exam without expending unnecessary energy."
"I see. I see," Veronica nodded slowly, seemingly accepting his lie. She stood up straight, turning her gaze back toward the distant, simulated forest line.
She turned her back to him, but as she did, she aggressively gripped her own right hand, her nails digging into her palm.
'Right. The primary objective,' Veronica thought frantically, a surge of cold sweat breaking out on her back. 'I still have three of the mandatory, life-or-death objectives left to complete.'
She quickly, covertly willed the System interface to materialize. The glowing blue screen popped up in her peripheral vision.
She scanned the terrifying quest log.
[ Active Objectives for Quest 1: Alter Your Ultimate Demise ]
[ 1. You must formally and sincerely apologize to Rudeus Blackfyre. (Status: Still in Progress - Insufficient Sincerity Detected). ]
[ 2. You must actively assist in uncovering the truth of Professor Vane's true demonic identity before the simulation ends. (Status: Still in Progress). ]
[ 3. You must officially choose Rudeus Blackfyre to be your designated vanguard partner for the mandatory First-Year Simulation Exams today. (Status: SUCCEEDED). ]
[ 4. You must successfully navigate the lower levels and actively save Adelina Van Hestianna alongside Rudeus. (Status: Still in Progress). ]
Veronica let out a long, silent, incredibly stressed sigh. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
'This stupid, hovering blue box has absolutely, entirely ruined my previously excellent mood,' Veronica complained inwardly, swiping the screen away with a frustrated wave of her hand.
She squared her shoulders, forcing a look of absolute determination onto her face. She couldn't afford to panic. She had to survive.
"Let's go now. Follow me closely," Veronica commanded, her voice abruptly shifting from awe-struck tourist to a highly stressed, dictatorial commander. She began marching briskly down the hill without waiting for his acknowledgment.
Rudeus stopped walking. He raised a single, incredibly perplexed eyebrow, staring at the back of her head. He let out a long, exasperated sigh.
'Is this Princess seriously, clinically bipolar or something?!' Rudeus thought, completely baffled by her wildly swinging emotional states. One minute she was holding his hand and acting shy, the next she was staring at the sky in wonder, and now she was barking orders like a stressed-out drill sergeant.
He shook his head, thoroughly dismissing the attempt to understand the chaotic mind of a teenage royal.
'Whatever,' Rudeus decided, hefting his mace and following her down the hill. 'As long as she doesn't get in my way when the real monsters show up, she can be as moody as she wants.'