A New Beginning

The night was dark.

In the somewhat cramped room, the young man lying on the bed was drenched in sweat. His eyeballs rolled constantly beneath his tightly shut eyelids, and even his face was slightly twisted, yet he could not wake up.

Clearly, tonight's dream had not been pleasant. Nightmare would have been a more fitting word.

"Phew—!"

He suddenly sat up in bed. Having just escaped the nightmare, the young man looked terrible, his chest heaving as he panted like a bellows. He silently clutched his head in both hands, and only after a long while did he recover from the terror that haunted him day after day.

Not wanting to sleep anymore, Evan got out of bed in his linen nightclothes, poured himself a glass of water that had long since gone cold, and stood before the window with an unreadable darkness in his eyes.

"Had that nightmare again."

Evan Garratt was the descendant of a fallen noble—or, more precisely, the descendant of a former fallen noble. Ever since that night of blood and fire three years ago, the honor, wealth, and even family he had once possessed had all slipped away from him.

As a traditional landed noble family of the island nation of the Iliya Kingdom, the Garratt Family, which held the title of baron, had once been highly prominent.

The family's beginnings were practically legendary. As one of the pioneers who ushered in the Age of Exploration, the commoner explorer Garratt had sailed his expedition ship through the Treasure Sea, overcoming reefs, storms, and savage Sea Beasts, and was the first to discover a new route that safely reached the Southern Continent in the shortest possible time.

The opening of that new route allowed the Southern Continent's abundant Precious Metals, spices, agricultural goods, and raw materials to flow endlessly into the kingdom. It brought enormous profits to Iliya, which had once ranked near the bottom of the Tulip Alliance, allowing it to rise in a single leap into a regional power.

By virtue of this achievement, Explorer Garratt was granted the title of landed baron by the Iliya Royal Family. He went from a penniless commoner to a landed noble, adding a new member called the "Garratt Family" to the noble lineage of the Iliya Kingdom.

Unfortunately, this great explorer and navigator's ability to manage an estate was worlds apart from his skill at seafaring exploration. Under his leadership, the Garratt Family not only failed to shine more brightly in the Iliya Kingdom, but steadily declined instead.

And after him, every generation of Garratt Barons proved worthy of being his descendants. Every one of them was an adventurer to the bone, constantly thinking of how to profit from the newly begun Age of Exploration, while not a single one wished to properly manage the family estate.

How could ocean exploration possibly be an undertaking ordinary people could afford? Vast profits naturally came with vast risks. The family's wealth, and even its lands, were gradually fed into the bottomless pit of maritime exploration!

Ocean exploration depended not only on ideals and perseverance, but also on strength and luck. It was as though the family had exhausted all its luck in the expedition that brought about its rise. Never again did any expedition bring them enough glory and wealth to turn their fortunes around.

In just over a hundred years and eight generations of Garratt Barons, the estate that had originally been equivalent to at least forty knightly fiefs had dwindled to a single remote town—Black Rock Town. If Iliya had imposed restrictions linking titles to land, even their empty baronial title would have been difficult to retain.

By this generation, the entire Garratt Family consisted only of a father bearing the baron's title, living with his two children, who had lost their mother at a young age. Their sole remaining trace of noble splendor was probably Old Butler Leo, who kept himself impeccably groomed despite their downfall.

Perhaps the gods above could no longer bear to watch. Just as they were about to reach the end of their rope, a turning point arrived.

A massive, rich iron mine was discovered beneath Black Rock Town! One could imagine how ecstatic they had been.

But they had celebrated too soon.

Even though not even the king could legally deny the Garratt Family's ownership of the iron mine, the severely weakened family simply lacked the military strength and support needed to protect this fortune that had fallen from the sky.

As long as people were willing to use their brains, there would always be loopholes in rules made by humans—and the price to be paid could be negligible.

At that time, the newly risen Merchant Nobility of the Iliya Kingdom had already become a powerful force. The movement for personal liberation was growing ever fiercer, while the authority of traditional landed nobles and even the king had greatly waned.

A new transformation was brewing. In this storm, even the shrewdest politicians found it difficult to say who was an ally and who was an enemy.

A pack of starving hyenas had already fixed their greedy eyes on the isolated Garratt Family. Among them were rising nobles, but there were also no shortage of the family's former "old friends."

The savage predators were all waiting for an opportunity—one that would not snap the nerves of their other rivals.

Then, after Forman Garratt, the head of the family, suddenly died from old injuries sustained during his early expeditions and the crushing pressure he faced,

with Evan and his sister still young and the title temporarily vacant, Black Rock Town lost its legal protection and was swiftly overrun by a group of well-equipped "bandits."

The family's final foundation was destroyed in an instant!

What followed happened as naturally as could be expected. The "bandits" who had dared attack a noble estate were wiped out by troops dispatched by a helpful noble. After some unknown dealings behind the scenes, the iron mine conveniently fell into that "kindly person's" hands, supposedly to be held in trust for the Garratt Family.

As for finding the two Legal Heirs of the Garratt Family who had gone missing during the upheaval—Anita Garratt and Evan Garratt—everyone tacitly stopped mentioning it.

In truth, by then the overall situation had already been decided. No one cared whether they lived or died.

Evan drained the glass of water and suppressed the turbulent thoughts in his heart. In truth, even if the family's property had been ten times greater, it would not have haunted him so deeply. What brought him endless nightmares was that he had escaped alive, while Anita, his Sister three years his senior, had vanished amid that chaos.

Unable to reveal himself while searching for the Eldest Daughter, the old butler took the sole surviving Evan and fled Iliya. After many twists and turns, they arrived in Leopold, a coastal city of the Faletis Kingdom, which also belonged to the Tulip Alliance.

Old Butler Leo discarded most of the items on them that might reveal their identities. Using the last of the wealth they had brought out and his knowledge of herbs from his youth, he opened a potion shop and settled into an ordinary life in the small city until today.

But the day before yesterday, the old butler, who had been left with chronic illness after suffering grave injuries on the night of their escape, could hold on no longer. Clutching Evan's hand, he slowly closed his eyes.

With his last family member gone, Evan was so overcome with grief that he wept until he fainted.

When he woke again, the transmigrator's consciousness that had lain dormant in the boy's body for thirteen years had awakened. It merged completely with Evan, the surface personality, becoming whole once more.

Unlike other soul transmigrators who arrived midway through someone else's life and lacked any sense of connection to their predecessor's experiences, Evan was the transmigrator, and the transmigrator was Evan. Evan's experiences were, in truth, his own experiences.

It was only because his body had been too weak in the past to bear an adult's immense soul and memories that there had been a distinction between Evan, the surface personality, and the dormant consciousness of the transmigrator.

The Evan who had become whole would no longer be as weak as the boy he had once been. He no longer feared loneliness, nor was he lost about the future. A heart strong enough and experience broad enough gave him a clear understanding of what he wanted and where his path lay.

"I'll live well!"

The handsome young man with brown hair, black eyes, and fair skin looked at his reflection in the window and softly said this to himself.

At this moment, stars still dotted the night sky outside, while the coastal city called Leopold had already awakened and gradually grown busy.

Gothic Architecture in predominantly dark tones stood in rows. Oil Lamps along the streets cast warm yellow light, wisps of steam drifted through the streets, and the city presented the prosperous scene of a Victorian-era port.

The Age of Exploration had begun two hundred years ago, and shipping and maritime trade had become major components of the nation's wealth. The invention of the Steam Engine seemed to have given this world a powerful engine, and everything was racing toward a brighter future.

Well, at least that was how it looked on the surface, wasn't it?