A bright morning, another beautiful day greeted the doorstep of Gracefall Territory.
Click.
Closing the door of a room, Ray came outside.
Tok. Tok.
Then, he started walking ahead. His usual demeanor was nowhere to be found, and what replaced it was a stoic face.
One that seemed unmoved by everything. But looking closer, there were slight cracks on that face.
Like he would occasionally twitch his eyebrows, curl up his lips, scrunch his nose.
Tok. Tok.
His footsteps were rather loud in the hallway. Soon, he reached a large door adorned with beautiful inscriptions.
Protecting the door were guards, but after seeing the Count, they saluted and then opened the door quickly.
Coming out of the door, Ray again started to move towards the [Transportation portal].
The portal was more like a small spherical room. Again, there were guards surrounding it.
Opening the door of the portal, he stepped inside. It was like a black, cloudy scene inside the portal.
[Please enter the coordinates.]
A metallic voice echoed inside the portal. After a rather long pause, Ray replied.
"... City of Dawn."
[Please be careful, it may be a bit discomforting.]
Swoosh.
The spherical portal suddenly started to vibrate and stopped after a while.
---
After what seemed to be a minute, the door of the portal finally opened.
[We have reached the 'City of Dawn'.]
Stepping outside, a new environment greeted me.
Beautiful shiny houses with numerous castles all around. A faint sweet smell lingering in the atmosphere.
A somewhat buzzing place, with people filling up the streets, numerous stalls placed on every corner.
But before it, there was a black car ahead of me. A familiar presence inside it.
Without thinking much, I opened it and made myself comfortable.
"You came just on time, Count. I've already prepared for everything you ordered." Evelyn's voice came just as soon as I entered.
"Hmm…" I just nodded.
Soon, the car started to move, gliding through the air.
After a couple of hours, the car stopped.
Getting out of it, I started staring at the huge castle ahead of me.
A silvery white castle, with beautiful marbling all over it. From where I stood, it looked like an otherworldly ethereal vision.
But more than that, it shone so brightly. I wondered if at night it would be as bright as it was now.
"Let's go, Count."
Without saying much, I just walked beside Evelyn.
We soon entered the castle. It was as beautiful as I thought it would be.
Wherever I looked, there were luxurious contents all around me. Numerous rare tapestries hang in every corner.
But again, it all had this similar gleam to it. And above all, it was all related to the God of Sun.
Well, this was the church of the God of Sun after all.
Asking me to wait for a moment, Evelyn went somewhere, leaving me inside a room.
A few hours had passed, but she still wasn't here. So, I started looking outside from the tall glass windows.
'The whole 'City of Dawn' looks so small from here.'
It was a nice view, considering I was fairly high up. Glancing at the magnificent view for a few more seconds, I gazed at the entrance of the castle.
The car I was previously in was parked outside the castle's large gate.
Again feeling bored, I looked elsewhere.
After a while, Evelyn called out to me. Sitting inside the car again, we went somewhere else.
"Where had you gone earlier, Evelyn?"
"To get a permit, like you requested."
Ah, just thinking about the place we're going… It gives me goosebumps but I had no choice.
The academy is about to start and as a count I at least have to graduate from the academy to showcase my worth.
I won't be there like everyone else for the whole three years but will graduate in one year as a special privilege.
Being in a position of status does have its merit after all.
"How long is it going to take?" I asked Evelyn.
"We will have already reached our destination by the time you wake up from a quick nap."
***
Suddenly, I recalled the conversation I had with Evelyn yesterday.
What was it, again?
"We... We're going to the Lost Lands."
Ah, fuck.
I really hate it.