It was a damn long line.
Everyone standing in the line or moving forward in the line had an irritated expression. This was the checkpoint at the Arienne city gate where inspections were underway.
“Next.”
Following the instructions of the guard, the line moved forward slightly, and the man who was approaching stood in front of the guard.
The guard had a tired face, but he was diligent in carrying out the inspection.
The inconvenience of the job was manageable, but the inconvenience of having to take responsibility if the person he let in caused trouble in Arienne was too much to bear.
He had to filter out the troublemakers who looked like they would cause problems in the city, so that he would not have to hear complaints like “why did you let in soone who clearly looks like they’re going to cause trouble in the city!?”
“Huh?”
The guard checked the face of the man standing in front of him.
And saw a man with a carefree impression and sleepy eyes. It was hard to imagine that soone like him could cause trouble in the city.
At most, he could be a pickpocket or thief. There was nothing to inspect about him.
He went straight into a formal questioning to quickly move on to the next topic.
“What brings you to Arienne?”
“Ah~ I ca here to Arienne to participate in the academy entrance exam.”
He replied in a light, impressionable voice. It sounded like soone tickling him.
“Academy entrance exam? That one?”
The security guard looked him up and down.
“Hahaha, yes. Doesn’t everyone dream of a life-changing opportunity?”
Arienne’s Ain Academy is the place where talented people from all over the continent gather.
It was hard to believe that such a carefree person was participating in the exam.
But now, he didn’t even bother mocking him. He spoke to him like he was dealing with his unemployed and aimless nephew.
“Well, I guess anyone can take the entrance exam. Don’t get your hopes up too high. There’s a reason why Ain Academy allows anyone to take the test. Maybe as soon as you take the test, you’ll laugh like a madman and give up, heading straight to the bar, just like everyone else. So, it’s better to just stop by here as if you’re here for sightseeing. It’s better for your ntal health.”
“Hmm? Wow, what a kind word of concern from soone I just t. My heart felt warm as soon as I arrived in Arienne. I’ll keep it in mind!”
At the senseless laugh, the security guard smirked and tilted his head.
“Anyway, what. Good luck. You will need a lot of luck.”
Like that, the guard let the narrow-eyed man into Arienne without even a simple inspection of his belongings.
I can bet.
It is unlikely that he will cause a commotion in Arienne.
It was unfortunate for him, but getting accepted to the academy was also just as unlikely.
At least he thought so.
*****
“Is this Arienne…?”
Arienne.
One of the largest cities on the continent.
And, one of the main stages where the story of “Tose” unfolds.
As I arrived in Arienne and looked at the cityscape, I felt a renewed sense of reality as the scenery overlapped with what I had seen in the ga.
Ah.
I really have been reincarnated into another world.
I have beco the narrow-eyes that I created.
I tried to sum up that complex and subtle emotion with a magical word.
“This is really… When I think about it again, it’s really sothing, isn’t it?”
But instead of the magic words, I muttered my own words that were entirely mundane.
It wasn’t because of my latent talent in thod acting that ultimately flourished thanks to possessing a narrow-eyed character.
It was just one of the effects of being possessed by a narrow-eyed character. It was due to the countless attributes I had assigned when creating this him.
Those attributes had interacted in complex ways, resulting in my speech and actions being perfectly aligned with the narrow-eyed character.
While it was technically possible for to act in my usual way, it felt awkward and uncomfortable, like wearing ill-fitting clothes.
At first, I resisted, thinking that I was being controlled by sothing else, but eventually, I accepted it as it was.
My body and this situation, too.
And so, I arrived at Arienne in this state.
“Haa…“
I had created a narrow-eyed character with the sole purpose of getting a cheap high from being imrsed in a ga, but sohow, I ended up being possessed by the narrow-eyed character itself.
How was I supposed to accept this?
“Well, what can you do?”
After so thought, I decided to take it as ‘aweso and sweet.’ It seed like a good way to maintain my sanity and adapt to the current situation.
And I was worried about what to do next after deciding to adapt to the current situation. I had no experience clearing Tose.
So, all I knew about Tose was so information I obtained from when I briefly tried it out in the beginning and so fragnted information I got from videos or articles outside of the ga.
With that information, I made plans for the future.
I ca to the conclusion that I should first enter the Academy.
[Main Quest: First Step Towards the World]
As the quest in my field of vision suggests, the ga starts with entering the Academy.
Moreover, the Academy is consistently treated as one of the main stages in the ga. Since I am living in the ga, wouldn’t it be best to imrse myself in the ga flow as much as possible? In that sense, the Academy was a great place to start my in-ga life.
Above all, graduates of the Academy are treated better than most nobles in this world.
As soone like , who could be described as fundantally worthless, the Academy graduation was one of the few things better than anything else for to establish a foothold.
That’s why.
The black-haired outsider from another world who arrived at Arienne was on his way to take the Academy entrance exam with dreams of moving up the hierarchy.
‘It was over there, I think.’
According to my mory, there were two places to register for the entrance exam in Arienne.
One was in the first district, the wealthiest area in the city, and the other was in the fifth district, where the most ordinary citizens lived. In the ga, they were labeled as options 1 and 2, respectively.
‘Should I try option 1 this ti?’
I rembered getting into a fight at the registration center in the 5th district and decided to choose the registration center in the 1st district this ti.
I was a newcor to the city, but I didn’t hesitate in his steps. I had visited the place several tis in the ga, so getting lost on the way was impossible
“Hmm?”
What.
“…hmm?”
Co on.
“Hmm… “
Uh, what a ss. Isn’t it?
Or is it sothing that could happen? By now, I should have reached the vicinity of the wealthiest area, the 1st district, in this city. As proof, the cleanliness and sophistication of the surrounding area should have gone up.
“A rat…”
However, I was walking through a dirty alley where the sun barely shone. Instead of going up, the cleanliness and sophistication level had plumted, while the dirtiness and obsoleteness level had skyrocketed. There was a simple phrase to describe the situation.
I’m lost.
‘Damn it, am I really lost? Who am I to call myself a possessor?’
A belatedly realized fact.
Reality and gas were naturally different. Bringing the sense of playing gas directly to reality was bound to cause problems.
As a wise man once said, that life is a real battle. And I was just an idiot who forgot that fact.
After a brief mont of contemplation, I decided to do the difficult but necessary thing. To admit my own inferiority as a possessed person who couldn’t even find a single proper way.
I had to go back the right path and make the wasted ti worthwhile.
‘It’s not easy though.’
Walking with heavy footsteps, I went back the way I ca.
Please, no matter how inferior I am, I hope that I will not forget even the road I have traveled once.
‘By the way, how deep did I crawl in that I can’t even see people around here?’
The road. Can soone show the way? Sobody, help find the way.
How long have I been walking around, looking for the road and people?
“Oh.”
Finally, I t soone face to face as I entered this back alley for the first ti. The pedestrian, wearing a dark robe draped over, rushed around looking back and forth after popping out of the alley.
“…!”
In the process, your eyes et.
“Oh-…”
The man’s mouth was about to open to give a perfectly composed greeting, but it closed again as soon as he saw my face.
Heavy breathing.
A face drenched in sweat.
And eyes filled with intense determination.
The man’s aura was very unsettling.
His dark robe fit perfectly in this dim and dirty back alley.
He didn’t seem like he would kindly offer directions, and there was nothing to gain by engaging with him.
“Oh, the weather’s really nice, isn’t it? Hm~”
I tried to walk past him as casually as possible.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
And just as I was about to take my fourth step forward.
“Hey!”
I deliberately stumbled forward.
-Swoosh!
A dagger flew past my head and narrowly missed its mark, embedding itself into the wall behind .
‘What the hell! How did the knife just stick into the wall like tofu? Did that guy want to kill ?’
“Oops, what kind of road is this? Huh…? Heh, heh!”
Then I hurriedly turned around and faced the guy who threw the dagger at and backed away.
“What, what’s going on all of a sudden!?”
Finally, with a scared and bewildered look, I confronted the guy. It was a series of actions that were reflexive and natural due to my characteristics.
What I intended to do was to confidently curse at him after perfectly avoiding the surprise attack, but instead, I stumbled forward and luckily managed to dodge the attack, acting terrified.
The guy’s expression, who had tried to kill outright and was now looking at with a puzzled look, was very subtle.
It seed like he was wondering how to interpret my actions, so I decided to help him make a judgnt. I intended to curse him out as a rightful act against the guy who had tried to kill outright.
“Of course, I should avoid it! You suddenly threw sothing like that. Are you trying to kill !?”
But as luck would have it, an unexpected reaction ca out instead. Whether it helped or not, the guy stopped being cautious and approached without hesitation.
Translators note:
Are sick already of reading narrow-eyed? Well I sure am with typing it myself cause no translator can tl it correctly… duck.
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