Pagopoi 28, Imperial Year 1643
The Eastern Road, Mercia – Near the Free Cities Border
The road east wound through rolling hills and past fallow fields, the winter snows beginning to melt under a pale sun. Elara Greenhill rode at the head of the column, her halfling pony picking its way carefully around the muddiest ruts. Behind her came Roderick, Rosalind, Miku, Hikari, Kaito, Daiki, and Reinhard – ten reincarnators in total, plus the teacher.
They had been on the road for three days since leaving Stonebridge. The lockdown had ended, the gates had opened, and the city had returned to its uneasy normalcy. But the rumors had followed them like a persistent cough.
At first, the rumors were confused – whispers from travelers they passed on the road, fragments overheard at waystations. A noble had been killed. In the throne room. In front of the king. By the Raven.
Then the details began to coalesce.
Pagopoi 29, Imperial Year 1643
The Village of Oakhaven – The Rusty Horseshoe Inn
The class stopped at midday to water the horses and buy provisions. The village of Oakhaven was small – a cluster of cottages, a smithy, a shrine, and a single inn called the Rusty Horseshoe. The common room was crowded with farmers and merchants, all of them talking about the same thing.
Elara signaled the others to take a table near the hearth. She ordered bread and ale, then leaned back and listened.
"…right in the throne room, I heard," a fat merchant was saying, his voice loud enough to carry. "The king himself was sitting there, and this… this creature walked down the wall. Like a spider. Walked down the wall, bold as you please, and shot the duke with a weapon that sounded like thunder."
"I heard he threw ledgers," another traveler said. "Papers full of evidence. The duke was corrupt – been stealing from the crown for years."
"Corrupt or not, you cannot just walk into the king's own throne room and kill a man. That is treason."
"Treason against a corrupt duke? The king did not even stop him. Just sat there and watched."
"The guards did nothing," a third voice added. "They were too afraid. The Raven – he calls himself Alucard now – looked at them, and they froze."
Alucard.
Elara exchanged a glance with Reinhard. The teacher's face was unreadable.
"Alucard," Roderick muttered. "That is not a Mercian name."
"It is not any name," Kaito said. "It sounds made up. Or backwards."
"Dracula spelled backwards," Daiki said quietly. "Alucard. Dracula. He is making a joke."
The table fell silent.
"A vampire," Hikari whispered. "He is calling himself a vampire."
"Or he is mocking us," Reinhard said. "Mocking anyone who might recognize the reference."
Rosalind leaned forward. "The more important question is how he walked on the wall. That is not normal magic. That is something else."
"Vampires can do that," Roderick said. "In the stories. They walk on walls, turn into mist, control shadows."
"Stories," Reinhard said. "Not reality."
"We are reincarnators in a world with magic and gods," Daiki said. "Reality is flexible."
The merchant continued, oblivious to the class's whispered debate.
"They say the Raven – Alucard – told the king he was not an enemy. Said he only delivers to those who order. A tool, he called himself."
"A tool with a name," someone scoffed.
"A tool that kills dukes in front of kings. I would not want to be on his list."
The common room erupted in nervous laughter.
Elara stood and walked to the merchant's table. "Excuse me," she said. "You mentioned ledgers. What was in them?"
The merchant looked down at her – a halfling in travel‑stained clothes – and shrugged. "Proof of corruption. Embezzlement, treason, murder. The duke had been skimming taxes, selling weapons to enemies, killing anyone who got close to the truth. The Raven threw the ledgers at the king's feet and said, 'Let these serve as proof.'"
"And the king did nothing?"
"The king looked shaken. But he did not order the Raven's arrest. Just watched him walk up the wall and disappear through a window."
Elara thanked the merchant and returned to her table.
"He had evidence," she said. "He did not just kill the duke. He proved the duke was guilty."
"That does not make it right," Reinhard said.
"It makes it justice," Roderick said.
"Vigilante justice."
"In a world where nobles sell weapons to enemies and kill auditors, what other justice is there?"
The argument was interrupted by a new voice – a young man in a guardsman's uniform, just entering the inn. He looked exhausted, his cloak caked with mud.
"I was there," he said, loud enough for the room to hear. "I was on duty at the palace."
The room went quiet.
"Tell us," the fat merchant urged.
The guardsman sat down heavily at an empty table. An ale appeared before him; he drank half of it in one gulp.
"The duke was kneeling before the king. The spymaster was reading the charges. Then we heard footsteps – on the wall. On the wall. We looked up, and there he was. Walking down the stone like it was a floor." The guardsman's hands trembled. "He wore a mask – a bird's mask, with a long red plume. His coat was blue, his boots high. He had a sword at his hip and a weapon I have never seen before – a short, thick tube with a stock."
"A shotgun," Kaito whispered.
"The duke tried to run," the guardsman continued. "The Raven raised the weapon. There was a sound like thunder, and the duke's chest… it just… opened. Blood everywhere. He was dead before he hit the floor."
"Did the king order his arrest?" someone asked.
"No. The king just stared. The Raven broke open the weapon, loaded another shell, and then threw a stack of ledgers into the air. Said they were the duke's true records." The guardsman took another drink. "Then he told the king he was not an enemy. A tool, he said. He delivers to those who order. And he called himself Alucard."
"And then?"
"He walked up the wall and left through a window. Just like that." The guardsman set down his cup. "I have seen men die in battle. I have seen magic and monsters. But I have never seen anything like that."
The class paid for their meal and left the inn. They walked in silence for a while, each lost in thought.
Finally, Elara spoke. "He is not hiding anymore. He is making a statement."
"He is making himself a target," Reinhard said. "The king will not ignore an assassination in his own throne room."
"The king ignored it," Roderick said. "He did nothing."
"For now. But the nobles will demand action. The crown will have to respond."
"Or they will be afraid," Daiki said. "Afraid that if they move against him, they will be next."
Elara looked at the road ahead. The Free Cities were still days away.
"We need to find the others quickly," she said. "Before the chaos spreads. Before the crown starts rounding up anyone who is different."
"You think they will come for us?" Miku asked.
"Not yet. But if the Raven keeps killing, and the crown keeps failing to catch him, they will start looking for scapegoats. Strangers. Travelers. People with no fixed address." Elara looked at her companions – a halfling, an orc, a gnome, a half‑elf, a dwarf, a mage, a merchant's daughter, a baker, a teacher. "People like us."
Reinhard nodded. "Then we move faster. And we stay quiet."
"And the Raven?" Rosalind asked. "Do we still try to find him?"
Elara thought about the guardsman's words. The beaked mask. The red plume. The weapon that sounded like thunder. The name – Alucard.
"No," she said. "He will find us. If he wants to."
They walked east, into the afternoon sun.
End of Chapter Seventeen