The first thing that I notice is that I no longer feel Loitsun Vera in my hand. While that's definitely worrying, my mind is a lot more preoccupied with my surroundings.
King Eventyr is gone. The walls and the floor are much more worn out, yet they somehow look cleaner than they were earlier. The throne is virtually the same, but the stairs leading up to it are fenced off by ropes.
I look around and see a couple of people dressed in very strange fashions, loitering around the throne room. They are all staring at me. I stand there frozen, not at all understanding what is going on.
After a moment of silence, the people start speaking among themselves in an unfamiliar accent.
"Who the hell is that guy?"
"Was he always there?"
"What's up with the chainmail? Is he cosplaying?"
Then it hit me. Was the five seconds of white light the state between life and death the king was talking about? If that's so, does that mean I have already reawakened? Am I in the future?
If that's so, the fact that the throne room is still standing means that the Eventyr Kingdom has survived, which gives me a feeling of relief.
But I have to escape the current situation. I am not exactly liking the stares I am receiving right now.
"N-Nice meeting you all." (Ferson)
After I say that, the people turn their heads away and carry on with their day.
"Weird guy."
"Probably a LARPer or something."
I have no idea what they are talking about, but it seems like I have been left alone.
I drop my empty hand back down and turn around to leave the throne room. After I enter the estate yard, I notice that there are people everywhere. It's not like the old Eventyr was underpopulated, but the current crowd is definitely not something I could see every day.
People are gathering around structures and pointing strange, small, rectangular devices at them. Some are glancing over at me briefly, but none are paying too much attention to me. From the way the people dress, I figure that a long time must have passed. Since I don't know what the current situation is regarding, well, the whole world, I decide to keep a low profile for now and blend in with the crowd.
I walk through the estate while not trying to stand out too much. Other than the occasional looks, I think I am doing a somewhat good job.
What surprises me is that not much has actually changed to the royal estate and castle. A couple of decorations are missing here and there, and there are some new ones, but overall, it doesn't look like the castle has been devastated by war.
There is one thing that is clearly different: the giant, 20 feet tall statue in the middle of the front yard. That definitely was not there before. I don't recognize the man from the statue. His face and pose are portrayed heroically. It's probably a king after the one that I served.
Soon, I reach the entrance to the estate. The iron gates are no longer there but replaced by a few booths made from materials unknown to me. There are men in each booth behind glass windows and retrieving pieces of paper from everyone entering.
Is this a fair? Has the estate been turned into a festival ground? Does that mean the kingdom has fallen after all, and now we are just being mocked by our enemies?
I walk through the new gate with no resistance. The guard-like people in the booths pay no mind to me.
On the other side of the gate is an open lot with strange-looking carriages lined up, covering the entire stone-like ground. The odd vehicles are made completely out of metal, and some are even moving by themselves without animals pulling them while emitting a loud noise.
The sight is so bizarre that I can't even begin to understand, so I simply give up trying. These must be some sort of self-powering carriages invented some time in the future, or the past, I guess.
I am overwhelmed by the sense of unfamiliarity that I no longer feel comfortable looking at such bizarre phenomena. Not long after I entered the lot, a couple of yellow carriages that are much larger and longer than the other ones pull in from another entrance.
The sight of those huge machines makes me shudder in a cold sweat. If you ram those into the city walls, it will take no time for the wall to collapse.
I turn around and start walking back to the royal estate, where I can feel just a little sense of familiarity. My plan is to gather some information before I leave.
The guards at the gate let me through once again without asking for a ticket. Probably because I have only left for a couple of seconds.
I was going to ask some pedestrians about, just, anything, but then I decide to wait and observe their conduct and manner of speech first, so I grab a seat on a bench beside the path between the throne room and the gate. The grassy yard of the estate surrounds me. That's one of the things that doesn't look to have changed too much.
I still don't intend on standing out, since if Eventyr has fallen, I might be regarded as an enemy if I expose myself as a knight of the Eventyr Kingdom, which I don't intend on doing.
When I am thinking about making myself the enemy, I am suddenly reminded of the fact that Loitsun Vera is gone.
After checking no one is looking my way, I call in the yellow summoning circle in my hand. The circle appears as always, but the ground shows no reaction. That's not good. I know that the blade hasn't been seized from me since the wielders who have their Immortal Blades seized die immediately afterward as a form of punishment.
Also, the summoning circle still appears. It means that my status as a wielder hasn't changed, which is reassuring. I assume it must be a temporary side effect from the Overføre ritual.
People walk by me in endless streams, chatting away using words I have never heard before. I also noticed that the world is much louder and noisier. It's not just the people talking, but the humming sounds coming from the strange carriages can be heard from here, and there is also a noise coming from the sky.
Coming from the sky? That's unusual. I look up to see the origin of the sound and find a small white dot with an equally white streak behind it in the clear blue sky. It's slowly moving and leaving more of the white line as it crosses the sky. A bird? Why is it making such a noise?
Then I realize that I should probably just get used to the novelty. Nothing makes sense to me, not that it should, seeing that I have essentially traveled to the future.
The chatter suddenly becomes a lot louder. I look back down from the sky at the entrance, and a group of young adults in their mid-tens wearing what looks to be academy uniforms walk through the gate.
The young 'uns are clearly much more judgemental than the older people since some are pointing their fingers at me and chuckling.
"Check that weirdo out."
"Yeah, what the hell is he doing?"
I do understand where they are coming from, however, as I seem to be the only one here in armor. Everyone else is wearing some sort of fabric clothes. Although I am still not completely sure why wearing armor invites such laughter.
As long as it doesn't cause an uproar, I can deal with the ostracization, but I am beginning to feel a little annoyed. Back in my time, I was mostly treated with the utmost respect as a wielder of the Immortal Blade. I have so rarely been ridiculed. Those who tried never got to see the next morning.
However, that's not to say I can't control myself. I sit through the students' pointing fingers with a smile.
Soon, the majority of the students pass by me and go on toward the throne room. The small group of girls at the very end of the line come into my view. They seem to be a pretty isolated group as they are quite far behind the main group, but they are most fairly good-looking young ladies.
I have never been involved in romantic relationships since all that I know is my service to the kingdom. There is a very large amount of responsibility on the shoulders of Immortal Blades since they are usually their kingdoms' strongest force.
These girls are all of marriageable age. In fact, if they are in my time, they should have all been married already, but something about them tells me that they don't have husbands.
Unlike the other students, these girls say nothing as they pass me, but they don't take their eyes off of me either. Even though they don't laugh, I can feel their judgemental stares.
After they pass me, one of the girls begins to speak to the others.
"You guys go on ahead, I wanna see what's up with him."
"Are you sure? Is he one of those LARPers?"
"Yeah, aren't they all weirdos?"
I don't know what those words mean, but from the context, I can tell that they aren't very complimentary.
"It's fine. I am just curious. I will catch up soon."
With a wave, the girl breaks off from the group and begins walking toward me. I realize that this might be a good opportunity for me to gather some information.
The girl's long, wavy brown hair flutters in the wind with her short skirt. The fashion sense is definitely from a different period, but regardless of the time I come from, I can tell that she is quite the beauty.
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