In the vast green field, I had been walking for hours.
I had underestimated the distance to the town I saw.
Luckily, there were no monsters around.
Maybe they ran away?
I wasn't sure.
Either way, it was a smooth trip.
I was almost there, and I was ready.
My head was covered, I had my blanket with me, and I had adjusted my [Magical Aura] and voice to the minimum.
No one should be scared of my appearance, especially because of my horn, which I had covered.
Well, I had tried taking it off, but it seemed to be literally connected to my skull.
Unless I unlocked the inventory system, I couldn't take this accessory off even if I wanted to.
I didn't want to anyway, so it wasn't really a problem.
"Okay..."
I could see it, the town.
It was bigger than I had thought.
It had huge stone gates, and someone was guarding the entrance.
Two guards, armored, each holding a spear.
Let's go.
Act like myself.
I'm a noble person.
When I walked up to the gate, the guards immediately pointed their spears at me.
Wow, how dare they?
"Identify yourself!"
One of the guards shouted at me.
How rude can they get?
Isn't it usually just asking for an ID or something?
Why were they pointing weapons at me out of nowhere?
Oh shoot, I don't have any identification...
Think of an excuse.
Hmm...
"...I lost it."
***
I was Ben, a guard at the capital's southern gate, and I had stood on this post for eleven years.
In that time, I had learned to read travelers before they reached the gate.
Merchants walked openly.
Adventurers walked tired.
Men with something to hide walked too carefully.
The man in front of me did none of those things.
He had come out of the Vast Green Field alone, in the hours after the blue mana had passed over the capital, and he walked as though nothing in the world had a reason to stop him.
That was why Rudy and I had leveled our spears the moment he came into range.
It was not rudeness.
The captain's order had been clear: anyone arriving from the Vast Green Field was to be identified, held at the gate, and reported.
I had been on my knees at this very gate when that pressure crossed the capital.
I had not lost consciousness, but I had not been able to stand, either.
For the first time in eleven years, I had feared the sky itself.
"Lost it?"
I asked.
I kept my voice level.
A guard whose voice shook gave every traveler a reason to test him.
"Remove your hood and show your face."
Rudy said from my left.
"No."
It was a quiet word.
He did not raise his voice, and he did not sound angry.
But the moment it left his mouth, pressure settled over me the way deep water settles over a diver.
It was not a spell.
I had stood beside mages in the middle of battle magic, and this was nothing like that.
There was no direction to it, no intent behind it, no one it was aimed at.
It simply existed around him, as natural to him as breathing, and my body reacted before my mind could.
Sweat ran down my spine.
My grip tightened on the spear until the shaft creaked.
Every instinct I had told me to step back.
I knew the instinct was correct, and I did not follow it.
If I stepped back, Rudy would step back.
If both of us left the line, the gate would be open to whatever this was.
And if he meant to kill us, stepping back would not save us.
Standing still at least gave us a chance to do our duty: identify him, and report.
Rudy's breathing was uneven beside me, but his spear did not move.
He was a good guard.
"Refusing a guard's order is a serious matter, sir."
I said.
"Anyone without identification must be tested at the Judgment Orb. Rudy, bring it."
"Understood."
Rudy walked to the guardhouse.
He did not run.
Running would have shown the man exactly how afraid we were.
The hooded man waited without a word.
He did not look at the spears, and he did not look at us.
He stood there as if the weapons pointed at him were fence posts.
When Rudy returned, he set the orb on its stand.
It was a clear crystal the size of a man's head, with silver light drifting inside.
"This shows your name, your origin, and any crimes on record."
I explained.
"Place your hand on it."
He did so without hesitation.
The silver light swirled, brightened, and faded.
Nothing appeared.
I asked him to try again.
He did.
Still nothing.
I had seen the orb reveal a murderer's record, a deserter's, even a duke's illegitimate son.
In eleven years, I had never seen it show nothing.
"I will confirm the orb."
Rudy said quietly.
He placed his own palm on it, and his name and hometown appeared at once.
The orb was working.
We stepped a few paces away.
Rudy lowered his voice.
"An orb returns something even for the unregistered. 'Unknown origin.' 'No record.' It does not return a blank."
"Then he is outside of whatever it records."
"Outside the empire's records?"
"Possibly beyond them. A settlement no one has mapped. A place that keeps no registers."
I did not finish the thought.
Neither of us wanted to say the other possibility aloud: that he might be something no register had ever needed a line for.
I returned to the man and straightened my back.
"The orb returned no record, sir. It shows no crimes, and I have no legal ground to detain you."
It was the truth.
It was also a convenient truth, because I knew that detaining him was not something I could have enforced.
"By regulation, a traveler without identification may enter as a temporary visitor. The fee is five silver coins. You will be required to register at the Adventurer's Guild."
The man took a heavy pouch from his robe, counted out five silver coins, and placed them in my palm.
His hand was steady.
"Is this enough?"
"It is."
My own voice sounded steady, and I was grateful for it.
"You may proceed."
We moved aside and opened the gate.
He walked through it without looking back.
Only after he turned the corner did I lower my spear.
My fingers had cramped around the shaft, and it took effort to loosen them.
"Ben."
Rudy said.
His voice was low and controlled.
"The captain needs to know. Now."
"Agreed. We report it exactly as it happened. Male, hooded, came from the field, no data on the orb, no hostility. And his mana..."
I stopped.
"I do not have the words for his mana."
"Then write that. Exactly that."
"And write the time. He arrived hours after the mana passed over the capital."
Rudy was silent for a moment.
"I know what I think it is. I will not say it."
"Neither will I. Not without proof, and not before someone with the authority to say it first."
I looked at the silver in my palm.
Five coins, a fair price for something I did not understand.
He would go to the guild.
Everyone without papers did.
Whatever he was, the captain had to hear it before the guild did.