The first thing William noticed was that the carriage was too nice. The cushioned seats, the lacquered wood, the Croft crest embossed on the door in actual gold leaf, all of it was the kind of wealth that wanted to be seen. The kind that announced itself before you even opened your mouth.
He sat across from a window and watched the city pass by.
It was exactly like the game's early backgrounds. Cobblestone streets, market stalls, people in clothing that ranged from rough-spun wool to silk depending on which district the carriage rolled through. The sky was the specific shade of blue that the Crimson Hearts art team had clearly been proud of — that saturated, slightly-too-perfect fantasy blue that didn't exist in real skies.
---
There was one other person in the carriage.
He had noticed her immediately and spent five minutes pretending he hadn't.
She sat on the opposite bench with the posture of someone who had been taught to sit correctly before she had been taught to walk.
She had dark auburn hair which was styled precisely. A Sky Academy uniform already pressed and perfect with a book opened in her lap that she was very pointedly reading.
He knew her, she was Lyra.
Daughter of Duke Voss, one of the most politically significant noble families in the kingdom. In Crimson Hearts she was categorized as the Elegant Rival archetype, the kind of girl who appeared cold and antagonistic in the early chapters before her route revealed layers of loneliness and pressure so heavy it had reshaped her entire personality.
She was also, in the game's community, one of the most popular heroines.
Her yandere route had its own dedicated warning in the fan wiki.
---
She turned a page without looking up.
"You're staring," she said.
"I'm thinking," he said.
"Think more quietly."
He almost smiled. That was very Lyra. Even in the early game before her route opened up she had a very quick way of ending conversations.
In the original timeline, William Croft would have responded to this with something arrogant. Something that started their antagonistic dynamic and set up the public humiliation later. That was what was supposed to happen.
Adonis had no intention of following the script.
"Fair enough," he said, and looked back out the window.
Silence.
He counted to twelve before he heard the soft sound of a page that didn't turn.
He didn't look over. He already knew she was watching him now instead.
[Lyra Voss] Affection Level: INDIFFERENT → NOTICED
[The target expected confrontation. You did not provide it.]
[She finds this irritating.]
[The system notes: irritating and interesting are closer than people think.]
[Trait Unlocked: Unpredictable — Low chance to disrupt target's emotional composure in conversation.]
He kept his eyes on the window.
Good, he thought. That's two.
"What are you reading?" he asked.
She looked up with the expression of someone who had expected to be left alone and had opinions about not being left alone.
"Theoretical Arcana, Volume Four," she said. "It's dense. You wouldn't enjoy it."
"Probably not," he agreed easily. "I never had the patience for theory. I retained things better when I could practice them."
"That's surprisingly self-aware," she said, with the tone of someone who had meant to keep that observation internal.
"I have my moments," he said.
She looked at him for one more second and then she looked back at her book.
This time her eyes moved across the page properly.
He turned back to the window and allowed himself exactly one second of internal satisfaction.
[Lyra Voss] Affection Level: NOTICED → INTERESTED
[Elapsed time: 6 minutes.]
[The system is impressed]
[Passive Unlocked: Noble Bearing — Posture and presence now carry quiet authority in social situations.]
Six minutes, he thought. That's either very good or very bad.
Knowing Lyra's route, probably both.
---
Sky Academy announced itself before it came into view.
They both saw the iron and old academy gates with the crest which looked like it had taken someone months to make them.
Then the road changed, the cobblestones giving way to smooth pale stone that the carriage wheels rolled over almost silently. Then the trees on either side, old growth, the kind that had been there long before the Academy and would be there long after, their canopies forming a corridor of filtered light.
Then the building itself came into view.
He had seen it in the game and had seen the artwork, background illustrations, cutscenes where the protagonist arrived for the first time with a particular expression of determined optimism that all visual novel protagonists seemed to share.
It was a lot massive now that he looked at it in person. The main building alone was seven stories of pale stone with towers at each corner, windows that caught the morning light and scattered it, banners hanging from the upper parapets in Academy blue and gold. Around it, connected by covered walkways and open courtyards, were the secondary buildings like dormitories, training halls and the library wing that he knew from the game was larger on the inside than was architecturally reasonable.
Magic school, he reminded himself. The laws of physics here were more like suggestions.
"First time seeing it properly?" Lyra said.
He glanced over and noticed that she had closed her book.
"Something like that," he said.
"It's different than you expect," she said, and there was something underneath the words that wasn't quite wistful but was adjacent to it. "I visited once as a child. I thought I remembered it but it turned out I didn't."
He looked at her silently for a moment.
She seemed to realize she had offered something voluntary and unprompted, and the composure came back down like a curtain.
"We'll be late if the carriage doesn't move faster," she said, and opened her book again.
He smiled slightly and said nothing.
The system stayed quiet this time.
Even it seemed to understand that some moments didn't need a notification.
---