After running for a long time, knowing she was about to near the Capital City, the girl started deliberately slowing down.
She didn't want pointless stares at her when she suddenly appeared by the city gate.
So when she reached there, she wanted to be running at a normal speed, if not even walking.
So, the last half a day, the girl traveled the least, because she was progressively slowing down.
But she didn't really mind.
Like that, she arrived at the city gate at the evening of the day before the month she was given passed.
It was better to arrive early, because she doubted she would be able to pass through the city gate easily.
The Capital City had high security at the gates, and all the people who entered had to be identified by the guards.
But the girl didn't have a name to be identified by.
Luckily for her, the line to the inspection was short as the sun was about to set, so it wasn't long before she was in front of a guard.
The guy was tired from a long day of standing there, so he didn't even look at her.
"Name?" he asked, clearly impatient.
"Don't have one," the girl answered instantly.
The guard raised his gaze to look at her.
"Are you trying to mess with me?" he was very easy to anger because of being tired from his work.
A single wrong word could probably make him snap.
"No, Sir!" the girl quickly shook her head.
"My inherent power prevents me from ever having a name," she explained.
But it was obvious the guard didn't believe her.
He was about to motion for the other guards to take her away, when he noticed the girl reaching into her clothes to take something out, saying she could prove it.
The next thing he saw in front of his nose was a letter with the broken seal of the Academy of Magic on it.
The guard narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but he still took the letter.
After reading it, he narrowed his eyes at the girl, still not trusting her.
"There is no way to know whether you didn't steal this from the real recipient. We will contact the Academy of Magic and they will send someone to confirm whether you really are the person they called for."
"Where should I stay until then?" the girl tilted her head, though she already knew the answer.
For cases like that, there was a cabin in the side of the gate.
There, the guards who weren't guarding at the moment took breaks.
And people who had to be kept at the gate were placed there, under the watch of the bunch of guards on break.
The guard at the gate roughly pushed the girl in and told the others to watch over her.
Then, he returned to his post.
"Good evening, Sirs..." the girl greeted them, standing by the door.
She knew not to go further inside without being invited.
"So? What are you here for?" one of the guards cleared a seat by the table for her.
The girl gladly sat down after days of being on her feet.
"I don't have a name, so I need to be verified," she explained simply.
"No name?" the guard had only a few times met someone like that.
Most of those people were malnourished children from the slums, who didn't get to live long.
But the girl in front of him didn't look malnourished, and certainly not like she would die young.
The other guards in the break room didn't care about the girl, continuing with what they were doing.
As long as she didn't attack anyone, they wouldn't pay her any attention.
The guard chatting with her was actually the special case.
When people were put in the break room, they were disregarded until they could come out.
Most of the time, they couldn't even sit down like the girl could.
But, maybe because she looked only twelve years old or around that age, the guards didn't say anything about her sitting down.
Even men roughed by wars knew not to be harsh to children.
Though if they looked closer, they would see that the girl's gaze was unlike that of a child.
For a while, the girl chatted with the guard that let her sit down.
She didn't really tell him anything about herself, just like he didn't tell her anything vital about himself.
They just chatted about random things.
Chatting with the girl, the guard reached a conclusion about her identity (far from the truth).
He thought that she was from the slums like most nameless people, but unlike most children there, she got scouted by some kind of guild (that conclusion was because she was clearly bright for her age) and thus didn't have to go hungry.
While the two chatted, some of the nearby guards also ended up listening, the girl's voice spreading through the closed space.
Her views of the world were naturally different from theirs, and listening to it was nice.
But only the first guard actively conversed with her.
Some time later came the moment for the guards to change shifts with the night guards.
The night guards closed the gate and all went into the room.
They were beforehand informed of the presence of the girl there.
When they came in, the girl was already standing, knowing she was just a guest there and the place was the guards'.
But the night guards were quite easygoing.
"You will be here the whole night. Sit wherever you like. Even the table if you want." the guard with the clearly highest rank spoke first, also settling into a seat.
From the night guards, not a single one spoke to the girl again, but the atmosphere in the room was somewhat better than before.
The girl just sat in the corner and rested her head on the wall.
With the earlier guards around, she wouldn't have dared to fall asleep even if she was exhausted to death.
But, somehow, with the night guards, she didn't have that feeling.
And the girl was excellent at reading people.
Very quickly she dozed off.
In the end, she had been running for days without a chance of rest.
In those days, she didn't even stop to eat or drink.
Her last sip of water was back at the field along with a few bites of food.
The guards probably noticed that the girl, in their eyes a child, fell asleep, so they actually lowered their voices as they spoke amongst each other.
And the leader actually walked over to one of the drawers at the wall and took out a folded blanket.
Those were there for cold nights in winter, when the nights had to stay in the room for hours.
Making sure not to wake the girl up, the leader draped the blanket over her.
All that, the girl was unaware of as she slept.
But that also didn't mean that she had let her guard down.
It was a skill she had learned in her past life; to not wake up when minor things were going on around her, but keep her guard up to wake up once something dangerous was happening.
That let her sleep anywhere, turning sleep into a tactical weapon.
Because being able to sleep anywhere, in front of anyone, she could make them think she was vulnerable, with her guard down.
Of course, that wasn't a skill she learned as an author.
An author didn't need to be always on guard.
It was a skill from before then.
When she wasn't even considering being an author and her life wasn't as peaceful.
Instead it was dark and gruesome, giving her many such skills; such as the skill of being able to ignore her pain and discomfort to do other things (like she did in the field when she let the Death Presence make her body rot while she untangled the power thread around her heart).
In the morning, the girl's eyes snapped open when someone shook her shoulder.
"Yes?" she was instantly wide awake, surprising the guard leader.
"People from the Academy of Magic have come for you," he spoke calmly, taking the blanket from her.
Seeing the blanket, it was the girl's turn to be surprised.
From the moment she saw the night guards, she knew they were safer to be around compared to the earlier guards, but she didn't expect to be taken care of like that.
She quickly stood up and turned to leave, but before that, she turned to the guards for the last time.
"Thank you!" she bowed her head down low before walking out of the room.
Outside, under the gate stood two people, behind them a carriage.
The carriage was made to look inconspicuous, but the girl still noticed the extinguished way it was made.
But, of course she noticed.
She was the one who designed the carriage in her book.
And since that carriage was present...
She moved her gaze to the two people.
A woman in the Academy of Magic's teacher robe, next to a tall man.
Short hair turned silver by age, deep golden eyes, body covered by a dark cloak, but a red robe still peeked from beneath it.
The girl didn't wait to be reminded or for the man to introduce himself.
She just bowed down at the waist, though she didn't really want to.
But she knew the consequence that would follow if she didn't do it.
Because even that man was her very own creation and she knew him better than he knew himself.