It was just as the Professor was talking to me that it happened.

'Uh....?'

The world froze, and my vision turned dark. All of a sudden I lost control of my body.

It was a sensation I was all too familiar with...

'Another vision?'

The scenery shifted, enveloping me in the opulent embrace of a grand hall. Its lavish decor was blinding with all sorts of individuals present.

Such grand hall was silent.

It was as if the sound had been sucked out of the room.

"....."

All eyes seemed to be focused on a certain spot. Or more specifically, towards two people.

".....We've found it."

A towering figure with slender facial contours, jet-black hair, a long nose, and bushy eyebrows peered down at his palm, where a small transparent orb, reminiscent in size of a glass pebble, rested.

'What's that...?'

There was something about the pebble that seemed intriguing. It had a strange allure to it. Almost as if it was beckoning me to take it.

But I had no time to dwell on it as the next set of events continued.

"Why did you steal it?"

The man's voice thundered down towards the other individual, a woman adorned with cascading violet locks and piercing blue eyes. She returned his gaze with a frozen look.

Her eyes trembled, and so did her body...

"I..."

He raised his hand to display a black purse.

"This is yours isn't it?"

Evelyn's expression remained locked in a state of disbelief, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly in a futile attempt to articulate her words.

"No, I..."

"There's no denying your crime."

He coldly cut her off.

"We've searched everyone and you were the only one that was found with this. Do you think you can talk your way out of this?"

He didn't seem interested in her ramblings. Coldly turning his gaze away from her, he looked toward the guard's station nearby.

"Take her in for questioning."

"No, wait...!"

The guards latched onto her arms from both sides.

"This is a mistake...!"

She tried to protest, but it was to no avail.

"That's not mine! I don't know where it came from! This is a...."

Under the scrutiny of all present, Evelyn was forcibly escorted by the guards out of the hall. Her eyes searched the entire hall, eventually falling on me.

Me...?

'Help me...'

Is what her gaze tried to imply.

I stood rooted to my spot, transfixed by her desperate expression, unable to tear my gaze away.

It sealed itself into my mind until the very end.

When her figure finally disappeared.

The vision ended there.

"....."

I stood in silence without saying a single word.

"Cadet?"

Only when I heard the sound of the Professor's voice did I finally raise my head. A screen appeared shortly after.

[ Side Quest Activated: Unmask the Fraud.]

: Character Progression + 5%

: Game Progression + 1%

Failure

: Calamity 3 + 5%

"Did you understand what I said?"

The Professor's voice started to sound irritated, and I quietly nodded my head. I couldn't focus on him at the moment.

The only thing that was in my mind was the vision.

'....So the quest is about exposing who the real thief is?'

Or was it to prevent Evelyn from finding herself in such a situation? Either way, I now knew who 'Calamity 3' was. It was Evelyn.

That only left me with Calamity 1 and Calamity 2.

Who they were... I was still unsure yet. However, given time, I knew I'd be able to piece it all together.

"Follow me in a single line. The train will be here shortly."

I once again looked up and saw that the other cadets were moving along. I picked up my pace and followed them from behind.

My gaze unconsciously trained toward a swaying set of purple hair not too far from me.

I thought back to the expression she made back in the vision. The one that was filled with shock, and desperation.

A thought ran down my mind at that moment.

'...Why did she look at me of all people for help in the vision?'

***

The Draft.

An Empire-wide event was broadcast and displayed all over. The Draft took place every end of the year, selecting the top 60 cadets from all the major Academies within the Empire.

There existed fifteen Guilds within the Empire. All associated with the Royal family, they were the only organizations besides the Academies that granted entrance to the Mirror Dimension.

If one became affiliated with a Guild, they could enter the Mirror Dimension whenever they wanted.

The competition among the Guilds was harsh, and each year, the cadets were intensively scrutinized to determine who would be the first pick of the draft.

The benefits of becoming the first-ranked pick were rather obvious for all. With sign-in bonuses that eclipsed those of the other picks, every cadet looked forward to becoming the number one pick.

"We have just passed Endson. We will be arriving at the station soon."

Professor Chambers informed all of us.

The City of 'Lens' was incredibly rich, with many different districts in place. Our current destination was 'Rudmon', the main commercial street of Lens.

It was the richest district and where the 'House of Picks' was located. An esteemed Auction House where the inauguration was going to take place.

Coming out of the train station, we strolled through the district, where magnificent streets lined with vendors on both sides greeted our eyes.

The House of Picks was located by the river that cut through the city. It therefore took us about ten minutes to get there from the train station.

A crowd had already formed at the entrance of the building. It was hard to see through the packed crowd, with reporters mingling among regular people. Thankfully, there was a separate area we could enter from.

"Welcome to the House of Picks."

It was a middle-aged man with refined clothing that greeted us.

"You must be the distinguished guests from Haven. We have already reserved a place for you."

He then proceeded to guide us toward a sizable room. I originally expected him to guide us toward the hall in the vision, but contrary to my expectations, we were guided toward a different place.

A private room of some sort.

'Wow.'

Coming into the room, I had to pause for a moment to admire the setting.

At the forefront of the room, a grand window greeted my sight, below which stretched a substantial stage adorned with hundreds of seats now filling with attendees. All of whom were wearing formal clothing, unlike the rest of us.

The scene below appeared chaotic unlike where we were.

"The announcement will be made shortly."

The butler proceeded to say from the entrance of the room.

"Please feel free to enjoy yourselves in this room for now. Once the announcement is over, we will invite you all to the main ceremony where you can interact with the other guests."

With a bow, he went on to talk with the Professor who had a few things to ask.

Only then did the other cadets finally start speaking again.

"Wow, this room looks awesome."

"Can we take this food?"

Despite most of the participants being sons of high nobles, they still seemed somewhat excited about the situation.

Well, all besides a select few. Aoife, Kiera, and Leon were the exception as they immediately found a seat and sat down.

I thought about finding a seat as well when...

".....Here."

Someone handed me a black book.

"This is?"

"It's the shop list."

Shop list?

I blinked my eyes and looked to my right where a person stood. I had grown a little familiar with him. I didn't remember at first, but I couldn't forget about him after meeting him during the forest incident.

Had it not been for him, I would've been unable to prevent the incident.

Anders Lewis Richmond.

Ever since that incident, his attitude toward me underwent a complete change.

He no longer seemed confrontational; in fact, he appeared to be making an effort to foster a friendlier relationship with me.

I was put off at first, but seeing how his intentions weren't malicious, I let him be.

"As you probably know, the House of Picks is actually a famous auction house. Although there is no auction today, the shop is still open. If you're interested in something, you can try buying it."

"Ah..."

I nodded slightly and opened the book.

'I wonder if there's anything I can buy...'

I was somewhat intrigued.

[Mana Association Green] 50,000 Rend.

[Essence Awakenening Green] 70, 000 Rend.

[Melton Mana Manual Green] 120, 000 Rend.

'Holy fuck.'

My heart almost jumped at the sight of the prices.

The currency within this world was called 'Rend'. If I had to make a conversion rate compared to my old world, then it'd probably be 1 Rend for one Dollar...? The purchasing power seemed to be about the same.

....And just looking at the prices of the Green Ranked book, I knew that I had no business here.

I may have been the son of a noble, but the amount of money that I had didn't even come close to letting me purchase a Green-ranked book.

What sort of corruption was this...?

I immediately skimmed past the first few pages, but...

'100,000 Rend.... 1,000,000 Rend.... 17,000,000 Rend...'

The deeper I went, the more absurd the prices became. It was to the point where I was just scrolling through the book for the sake of wasting time.

As if I could afford any of this stuff.

That was until I found myself pausing toward a certain section.

[Metryl Bone] 4, 320, 000 Rend.

A certain image captured my attention and my eyes widened.

'This is...'

It was only a picture, but the overlapped with the image in my mind. The one from the vision.

Ah

The more I looked at it, the more certain I felt...

'....It's the item that was found in the vision.'

The one that caused all of the commotion.

"....."

I blinked and took a seat.

"Huu.."

So it was a bone.

I swallowed my saliva and stared at the image once more.

'So the item that she was framed with was this bone...'

It looked nothing like a bone, but perhaps there was something that I was missing. Either way, I understood now.

The reason why the situation seemed so serious.

So then...

"Why?"

Why did my chest tingle at the sight of the item on the list?

It wasn't just that, my fingers... They were twitching.

Thoughts I wasn't supposed to have suddenly engulfed my mind. As I sat down on my seat seat, my foot started to tap against the ground.

As I continued to stare at the listing, I silently swallowed.

A thought crossed my mind.

One that I wasn't supposed to have.

"This orb..."

Can I take it for myself....?

***

There will be two more chapters later.