Chapter 4 The Open Ledger

The cold wind blew hard from the dark hills, carrying the smell of wet mud and old stone. Jack stood in the center of the village path, his boots sinking into the soft dirt. Behind him, the small wooden doors of the houses remained shut tight. The commoners were still peeping through the cracks, their faces white with fear.

Lyra leaned heavily against a broken wooden fence. Her fingers were pressed hard against her left arm, trying to stop the dark red blood from soaking through her torn sleeve. She didn't look at her wound. Her silver hair fell over her sharp face as she kept her gray eyes locked entirely on Jack.

"You are shaking," Lyra said. Her voice was thin from the pain, but it didn't tremble. "But you did not run."

Jack looked down at his long, thin fingers. They were vibrating with a strange, internal heat. It wasn't the shaking of a man who was afraid; it was the leftover energy from the blue screen still humming beneath his skin. He felt like a ledger that had suddenly been filled with massive, uncalculated numbers.

"I wanted to run," Jack said, keeping his voice low so the people in the houses would not hear. "My legs just didn't get the memo in time."

"An E-Rank prince does not stand before three shadow wolves and live," Lyra said, stepping away from the fence. She stumbled slightly, but her eyes never left him. "He does not reach into the air and pull their life apart. I saw you, Killian."

Jack turned his back to her. He did not want her looking into his eyes. In this world, knowing too much seemed like a quick way to get put back into a coffin. He narrowed his eyes, calling up the blue screen in his mind, keeping it small so it stayed hidden in the corner of his vision.

[Host Status: D-Rank]

[Skill Unlocked: Mana Dissection (Level 1)]

[Current EXP: 0/100]

He looked back at the grass where the wolves had been. There were no bodies left. There was only a thin layer of gray dust that the wind was already sweeping away. He had taken their energy, broken it down into raw data, and added it to his own balance. He felt heavier now. Stronger.

"If you tell the King I did something brave, he will send me to a bigger monster," Jack said, his voice flat and dry. "Let the people think you killed them. You are the knight with the sword. I am just the family stain they sent out here to get erased. Let me be a coward in peace. It keeps the math simple."

Lyra stared at his back for a long, silent moment. "Why would a prince want the world to think he is nothing?"

"Because when people think you are zero, they stop looking at your account," Jack said.

He left her by the fence and walked toward a small, half-collapsed barn at the edge of the village. The wooden roof had fallen in on one side, and the air inside smelled of old hay and dry rot. He sat down on a pile of rough grass and let his head drop back against the wooden wall.

He was completely alone now. In the quiet of the dark barn, his mind drifted back to the cold palace hall. He thought about Mila. Her warm arms around his neck was the only thing from this day that didn't feel like a nightmare. On Earth, he was thirty-five and nobody looked twice at him. But Mila had cried for him. She had stood up to the King for him.

I have to survive this, Jack thought, his chest tightening with a strange, borrowed emotion. She is the only reason this life might be worth living.

Suddenly, the temperature inside the barn dropped. The air grew so cold his breath turned to white mist. The blue screen flared in front of his face, its calm borders turning into a violent, blinking red.

[WARNING: HOSTILE SQUAD PROXIMITY DETECTED.]

[DISTANCE: 300 METERS.]

[IDENTIFICATION: ROYAL ASSASSINS.]

[HIDDEN QUEST ENFORCED: SURVIVE THE PURGE.]

[FAILURE: FORCE RESET BY BEING X.]

Jack stood up quickly, his heart hammering against his ribs. He gripped the hilt of the rusty sword the palace guards had thrown at him. His D-Rank body felt lighter, more alert, but he didn't know how to swing a blade. He was an accountant, not a soldier.

He crept to the broken door of the barn and looked out into the moonlit night.

Through the dark trees, five horses were moving slowly into the village. The riders did not wear the blue armor of the regular palace guard. They wore heavy black cloaks that hid their faces, but as the moonlight hit the shoulder of the lead rider, Jack caught the glint of a small gold crest.

It was a golden lion. The personal crest of his brother, Prince Caspian.

"He didn't even wait for the wolves to finish the job," Jack whispered.

The riders stopped their horses right in front of the path where Lyra was still trying to bind her arm with a strip of cloth. The leader did not get down. He sat high in his saddle, looking down at the bleeding knight with cold indifference.

"Where is the bastard?" the leader asked, his voice rough and low.

Lyra did not point to the barn. She slowly placed her right hand on the hilt of her sword, her posture stiffening despite the blood dripping from her sleeve. "The prince is resting. The shadow wolves have been dealt with. You can return to the capital."

The leader let out a short, mocking laugh. He pulled a long, black blade from his side. The metal was dull, designed not to catch the light of the moon.

"The King wants him dead, but the young prince wants to make sure he stays in the dirt," the man said, raising his blade. "Caspian does not like loose ends. Step aside, girl, or your blood will mix with his."

Jack stood in the dark shadow of the barn, his fingers white against the rusty hilt of his sword. The numbers were completely against him. Five trained men against an accountant with a broken blade and a bleeding knight.

The red screen blinked aggressively in his eyes, the timer counting down.

[QUEST TIMER: 05:00... 04:59...]

[BEING X VOICE STREAMING: "Pray, Jack. Call my name, and the darkness will leave you."]

Jack stared at the blinking words. A cold, familiar anger rose from his stomach, burning out the last remnants of his fear. He looked up through the broken roof of the barn at the empty gray sky.

"You really want to see me beg," Jack muttered, his voice dropping into a hard, stoic line. He pushed the heavy wooden door open and stepped out into the moonlight, his rusty sword scraping against the stones. "You are going to be waiting a very long time."