The dawn pierced the pitch-black night, dispelling the darkness and allowing the sun's rays to shine upon the earth, slowly illuminating the city-state that sat like a majestic beast.
It was a city surrounded by sturdy and massive walls, with many tall buildings on the outer perimeter, but the buildings became shorter as you got closer to the center, and at the very center stood a towering white chalk tower that reached into the clouds.
The city is predominantly circular, radiating outwards in eight directions from the central chalk tower. Eight neat main streets divide it into eight zones, demonstrating a highly orderly planning.
At the northernmost tip of this city, on a roadside somewhat remote from the main street, stands a mansion that is much taller and longer than the surrounding buildings.
The main body of the mansion consists of several towers stacked one on top of another like a forest of guns, complementing each other so much that the roofs form sword-like mountains. Although the height of the towers is not as great as the chalk towers in the city center, looking up at them will still make your neck ache. The tallest of them is the Central Tower, whose blackened top is tinged with the colors of dusk, as if it were carved by flames. A clown flag stands on it, waving in the wind as if mocking something, full of irony.
However, the people passing by looked at this strangely shaped mansion with eyes full of awe or longing.
Anyone living in this city—no, anyone living in this world—basically knows what that clown flag means.
That was the banner of the Loki Familia, one of the most powerful factions in the world, and one of the adventurer groups known as the Twin Kings of Orario.
And this is the Twilight Manor, the headquarters of the Loki Familia in the Labyrinth City of Orario.
Just like its alternate name " Long Mansion ", Twilight Manor is a building composed of many high-rise towers. In addition to the Central Tower, which is the thickest and largest, there are seven spires around it.
The lower parts of these spires, which vary in height and shape, are all connected, except for the Central Tower, which stands alone surrounded by a circular atrium. The upper part of the central tower is connected to the other towers by skywalks made of stone, allowing people to move between the towers.
Within the Twilight Manor, three of the seven towers are for the male members of the Loki Familia, while the remaining four are for the female members. Public facilities such as the library and the main dining hall are not located in one place but are scattered throughout the towers, making it quite disorganized.
As night fell and the morning sun shone down, illuminating the tops of these spires, a young man slowly awoke in a simply furnished room in one of the spires reserved for male members.
He was a handsome young man with black hair and black eyes, deep gaze, wearing black pants and a black shirt that fit his slender figure, exuding a sunny disposition, and with a slightly childlike face.
The boy was roughly fifteen or sixteen years old, but his slowly opening eyes held a depth that belied his age, adding a touch of serenity to his still-childish appearance.
"Is it morning yet?"
The boy glanced out the window and realized that although it was already daylight, the sunlight had not yet reached the area where he was in the room.
This means it's still early. In Orario, many places are probably still dark, and many households haven't opened yet. It's the perfect time to go back to sleep.
Unfortunately, the boy had forgotten how long it had been since he had taken a nap.
"Time to get up."
After muttering this to himself, the boy patted his face to clear his head a little, then got out of bed.
He took his toiletries and left the room, going outside.
Outside is a long corridor, and a series of sky corridors extending to other towers. It's a complex network, and one wrong step could lead you astray to places you shouldn't be, such as the female members' dormitories.
In the past, the boy had made a mistake, and the commotion it caused is still occasionally mentioned even now, causing him countless deaths.
As the saying goes, "a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit," from then on the boy diligently memorized all the routes in the Twilight Manor and carefully observed his surroundings to avoid going the wrong way again.
"Yo, Leo, good morning."
Good morning, Leo.
"Are you already up? You're so diligent!"
"Good morning!"
Along the way, the male members of the group, who also came out of the room, greeted the boy familiarly. Some of them were humans like Leo, while others had animal ears and tails. Some were dressed provocatively, some were as short as children, and some even had pointed ears and long hair. Although they were basically humanoid, they were clearly not the same race as humans.
Good morning to you all.
Leo greeted the passersby, seemingly oblivious to the scene that had initially surprised him but which he had now grown accustomed to.
After arriving at the washing area, Leo chatted with the male members of the clan while quickly cleaning himself up.
Those around him noticed that Leo's washing up was unusually fast, as if he was in a particular hurry.
Are you getting ready to go out?
A young man who had appeared beside Leo at some unknown time asked in confusion.
Like Leo, the young man was human, with an ordinary appearance and no particularly outstanding qualities. He was like any other passerby you could see anywhere, the kind of person who would go unnoticed if thrown onto the street.
However, this seemingly ordinary young man is one of the core members of the Loki Familia, below the leaders and officers. He is highly valued by the captain and is being groomed as the next leader of the Loki Familia. He is a Level 4, second-class adventurer.
"Mr. Raul."
Leo addressed the other party as that for now.
"Didn't I already tell you to just call me Raul?" The young man scratched his head and said helplessly, "I'm not some big shot, you don't need to use honorifics with me."
Upon hearing this, Leo did not quite agree with Raul's statement.
"You're five years older than me, and a senior member of the familia, the future Heir the captain values. It's only right and proper that I address you as 'sir'," Leo shrugged. "Besides, you're a Level 2 adventurer, Lv.4, far superior to me, a trainee member who hasn't even officially joined the familia and hasn't received any Falna yet."
"Don't say that. Our clan doesn't have that kind of hierarchical system. Don't try to imitate other clans with all that nonsense." Raul patted Leo on the shoulder, a harmless smile on his face, and said in a somewhat silly tone, "If you hadn't said it yourself, I almost forgot you haven't officially joined the clan yet. After all, you've been here for a year already."
After Raul said that, Leo also became dazed.
"Yes, it's been a year already."
Leo sighed slightly.
A year ago, he inexplicably transmigrated to this world. Not only was his physical age reduced to fifteen, but he also performed a high-altitude fall, crashing into a pool of water and nearly drowning.
That wouldn't have been so bad, but the problem was that there were other people in the pool of water besides him when he fell in.
If the other party hadn't pulled him out of the water and brought him ashore, he might have really drowned in that pool and never seen the sun outside.
Afterwards, Leo learned that the pool of water he had fallen into was not on the ground, but underground.
That was a corner of a safe floor located on the 18th Floor of the Dungeon, known as " Under Resort ".
Yes, Leo traveled directly to the Dungeon, specifically to the 18th Floor of the middle layer.
An alien from another world who has never received Blessing of the Gods, has no ability points, and has never even experienced any combat, appeared on the 18th Floor Dungeon with his physical age reduced to only fifteen years old. Even if that was a so-called safe floor where no monsters would be born, it still gave Leo the feeling that the sky was falling from the beginning.
To put it bluntly, Leo at that time even wanted to die.
Fortunately, what he encountered wasn't a deadly monster, but an angel who saved his second life—
"----Is there nowhere else to go?"
That voice, devoid of any ups and downs, devoid of any emotion, like that of a puppet, yet more beautiful than any celestial music, still seems to echo clearly in Leo's ears to this day.
"Then... would you like to come back with me?"
That one sentence saved Leo at the time, giving him a second life in this world.
Having reached a dead end, Leo didn't hesitate to grab the hand that was being extended to him and followed the other person out of the Dungeon, arriving at the Twilight Manor.
After that, Leo moved into the Twilight Manor, the headquarters of the Loki Familia, where he served as an apprentice member for a year.
As a wild man brought back from outside by the Familia's undisputed "goddess," "idol," and "object of admiration," whose origins were completely unknown, Leo's existence unsurprisingly caused a huge uproar and even turmoil within the Loki Familia. Finally, on the advice of the Familia's Chief God and higher-ups, he was temporarily kept there to do some logistical work. Only after his identity was confirmed to be without any problems could he be accepted as a formal member.
Leo felt some regret, but not disappointment.
He knew very well that it was highly suspicious in every respect that someone of unknown origin suddenly claimed to want to Orario one of Orario's most powerful familias.
Even if their identities are not suspicious, Loki Familia is not a place one can simply enter.
In the original story, after the protagonist arrived in Orario, he was repeatedly rejected not only when he tried to Loki Familia, but also when he tried to join ordinary Families. The reason given was that they were too ordinary and were just humans without any outstanding qualities.
Compared to the protagonist of the original story, Leo's situation isn't much better. Apart from being reasonably good-looking, he doesn't seem to have any special talents. If someone like that came to Loki Familia, they would definitely be turned away. How could they possibly let him join so easily?
The fact that he was allowed to stay at the Twilight Manor as a trainee member was only because of the person who brought him back.
Therefore, Leo was not dissatisfied with his situation and honestly became a trainee member, responsible for logistics in the Spring Familia's base camp, and stayed at the Twilight Manor.
Now, a year has passed, and although Leo is still a trainee member, the members of the Familia have gradually accepted him.
and----
"After today, you won't be a trainee member anymore, right?"
Raul smiled happily, as if he were happy for Leo.
"Hmm." Leo smiled as well, saying with a hint of anticipation, "Yesterday, the captain sent someone to tell me that I've passed my probation period."
"Today, I can go to the Divine Room to find the Chief God and have him describe Blessing of the Gods to me."
That's why Leo seemed a bit anxious today.
He could finally officially Loki Familia, receive Blessing of the Gods, and become an adventurer.
"Then let's go quickly."
Raul finally realized that Leo wasn't going out today because he had something to do, but because he was eager to receive Blessing of the Gods.
So he urged Leo to say this.
"If we go too late, our Chief God might have gone off to drink somewhere."
This is also what Leo is worried about.
He knew all too well how unreliable and frivolous the Chief God of the Loki Familia was.
If the other person drank heavily last night, they're probably still fast asleep and haven't gotten out of bed yet.
If the other person hadn't been drinking last night, they'd probably be thinking about where to go for a big drinking session right now, and wouldn't care at all whether I, a trainee member, live or die.
"Then I'll go!"
Thinking of this, Leo stopped chatting with Raul, picked up his toiletries and ran out. After returning to his room and putting his things away, he ran down the stairs to the courtyard.
The Chief God's Divine Room is located on the top floor of the Central Tower Central Tower, which is the only one not connected to the other towers. To get there, one must first pass through the circular courtyard before entering the Central Tower.
But when Leo arrived in the courtyard, he suddenly stopped.
Simply because there is one person here.
"Whoosh!"
The sound of the blade slicing through the air echoed clearly in the morning, as clear as rolling beads.
Under the empty shade of a tree, the young girl held a gleaming silver slender sword and was intently practicing.
Like a conductor manipulating a baton, as if slaying an unseen enemy, the girl played a solo game of sword flash, turning the rapier into silver light, constantly slicing through the air and cutting through the cold wind, focused and earnest.
Vertical slashes, horizontal slashes, diagonal cuts, upward thrusts, and forward thrusts—simple yet effective moves unfold in his hands.
Leo stood there quietly, as if he had forgotten how eager he had been, gazing at the girl's sword-wielding figure, motionless for a long time.
After a long while, the girl stopped and, as if sensing Leo's gaze, turned around and looked at him.
In that instant, their eyes met, and time seemed to stand still, frozen in that moment.