Chapter 223: The Registration
The girl shook her head slowly.
"I cannot remember my name."
Hearing this, William slapped a hand against his forehead with a resounding
thwack.
"Look at my brain! You literally just told me you have amnesia, and my old bones
went and forgot it five seconds later. Truly, getting old is a curse worse than
a wraith's bite."
He clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing the small room, muttering
to himself as he worked through the logistics.
"Mmh... since you've forgotten, you'll need a new name. We can't have everyone
calling you 'hey you' or 'the patient' for the rest of your life. That simply
won't do."
His gaze wandered around the room, eventually settling on the corner where the
pots of blue orchids sat, exhaling their subtle perfume.
"Aha..." He rubbed the white stubble on his chin, looking as though he were
performing a complex alchemical calculation. "I've got it. Those orchids... in
the Ancient Elven tongue, the pronunciation is close to Uluria."
"It's a bit of a tongue-twister, but the meaning is profound: 'Tenacious
Vitality.' Why don't we shorten it? Let's call you... Lia."
Unit One—now Lia—offered a singular, sharp nod. "Acceptable."
William was already getting used to her reactions. Since she'd woken up, the
girl had been like a wooden marionette: she answered when spoken to, but never
offered a single extra syllable.
"Fine, then it's settled. How's the constitution? Can you manage to walk a bit?"
Lia didn't bother with a verbal reply. She gripped the edge of the bed, swung
her legs over, and stood up with a measured, steady grace. Her body was still
weak, the Od within her flickering like a dying lantern, but her basic motor
functions were operational.
The effects of the Emerald's Respite were indeed miraculous. The catastrophic
internal damage had mostly knitted shut; only her Mana remained in a state of
total depletion.
"I can," she said.
William nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Then follow me. I'm taking you into
town to get your Resident Permit sorted. In this Evernight Empire, you can't
take a single step without identification. Why, they'll interrogate you for
twenty minutes just for trying to buy a loaf of rye bread without a seal."
They stepped out of the room, one after the other. As William pushed open the
front door, the midday sun struck Lia full in the face. She instinctively raised
a hand to shield her eyes, squinting against the brilliance.
Genuine sunlight. The warmth of a living world. These were concepts that did not
exist in the grey, stagnant Necrotic Realm.
The streets were a hive of activity. A market aunt was haggling over the price
of cabbage; the rhythmic clink-clink of the forge echoed from the blacksmith's;
a group of children chased one another through the alleyways.
Everything seemed... normal. It looked like any of the common human settlements
she had infiltrated in other planes.
But Lia soon noticed the anomalies.
At the end of the street, a trio of Skeleton Berserkers were on patrol. They
wore heavy obsidian armor and carried colossal greatswords, the soulfire in
their sockets burning with a cold, silent discipline. Their movements were
perfectly synchronized, a clockwork display of military precision.
Lia's pupils contracted. Tier 3 Undead.
Her body instinctively shifted into a defensive stance, ready to evade an
incoming strike.
Just then, a small boy burst out of a nearby bakery, clutching a steaming loaf
of fresh bread. He was running too fast, his eyes on his prize rather than his
feet. He tripped on an uneven cobblestone, his momentum carrying him headlong
toward the marching Skeleton Berserkers.
Lia already visualized the outcome: the child would be cleaved by a greatsword
or have his skull crushed by a gauntlet for daring to obstruct the military.
But what happened next froze her in place.
The lead Skeleton Berserker reached out, catching the falling child with uncanny
steadiness. He set the boy upright and even took a moment to pat the dust from
the child's clothes.
"Watch your step. Maintain safety," the skeleton vibrated—a hollow, metallic
sound.
The child didn't look terrified at all. Instead, he beamed a wide, gap-toothed
smile at the undead. "Thanks, Mr. Bones!"
With that, the boy gripped his bread and sprinted off. The Skeleton Berserker
didn't attack; it simply turned back to its unit and continued the patrol.
Lia stood rooted to the spot, a thousand tactical contradictions racing through
her mind. Undead... protecting humans? It defied every law of the Multiverse she
knew. In her experience, the dead and the living were natural predators and
prey. A "harmonious coexistence" was a logical fallacy.
"Lia?" William's voice snapped the thread of her thoughts. "Something wrong? Is
the pain returning?"
Lia shook her head. "I am fine."
She withdrew her gaze and followed William, but her focus was now absolute. She
analyzed everything.
The shops lining the street were a mix: some human-owned, some managed by the
dead. A Lich stood before an alchemy shop, meticulously arranging vials of
glowing liquid while a human customer leaned over the counter to haggle over the
price. A Vampire sat in an outdoor cafe, elegantly flipping through a novel from
the Literature Department, seated opposite an Elf as they discussed the plot in
low tones. A Ghoul pushed a cart of fresh vegetables, spitting as it argued with
a market aunt over the wholesale cost.
It was all so... natural. As if the dead and the living sharing a community was
an ancient, unquestioned tradition.
Lia's brow furrowed deeper. What has happened to the laws of this world?
They crossed several streets, eventually arriving at a stately grey-and-white
building. It was only two stories high but occupied a massive footprint. A
wooden sign hung over the entrance, inscribed with clean, sharp lettering:
LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT OFFICE.
William pushed open the doors and led her inside. The hall was spacious and
flooded with magical light. The walls were covered in notices, and the floor was
divided into distinct zones, each with its own queue.
The crowd was a melting pot: Humans, Elves, Orcs, and even a few Succubi. An old
man was filling out a form at a window, guided patiently by a Ghoul clerk. A
Succubus stood in line with a stack of documents, appearing to be handling a
property transfer.
Lia felt that intense sense of wrongness—the "dissonance"—again.
William guided her to a specific window. Behind the counter sat a Vampire. He
wore a crisp, tailored uniform and gold-rimmed spectacles, his head bowed as he
processed a mountain of paperwork. Hearing their approach, the Vampire looked
up. He was handsome in a cold, sterile way, his skin like polished marble and
his eyes a deep, crimson red.
Seeing William, a polite, professional smile touched his lips. "Doctor William.
Good afternoon."
William nodded. "Greetings. This child needs to be registered for a Resident
Permit."
The Vampire turned his gaze to Lia. When he saw the web of jagged scars covering
her face, a flicker of genuine pity passed through his red eyes.
"Understood," he said. He pulled a form from a drawer and slid it across the
marble counter. "Please complete the registry: name, age, race, profession, and
the reason for arrival in Orlando."
Lia took the form. She scanned it for a few seconds. The layout was
standardized, with clear instructions for each section. At the top, printed in
bold, was a header: EVERNIGHT EMPIRE RESIDENCY REGISTRATION.
She picked up the quill and began to write.
- Name: Lia.
- Age: 17.
- Race: Human.
- Profession: None.
- Reason for Arrival: Amnesia. Recovered and assisted by Doctor William.
Her handwriting was precise and clinical. The Vampire took the form and
scrutinized it.
"Amnesia?" He looked at William.
The old doctor nodded. "I found her in the forest. She was near death and
comatose. Since waking, she has no recollection of her origins. The Punishment
Legion has a record of the incident; you can verify the logs."
The Vampire hummed thoughtfully. "An amnesia case requires secondary
verification. I must report this to the Punishment Legion Centurion on duty."
He rang a small brass bell. A moment later, a Ghoul clerk scurried from a rear
office. "Notify the Centurion. We have an unidentified subject with memory loss
requiring identity verification."
The Ghoul nodded silently and vanished into the back.
Lia stood perfectly still. Her expression remained a mask of scarred
indifference, but internally, her mind was running at Tier 5 processing speeds.
Secondary verification? This indicated a highly sophisticated administrative
structure. Any anomaly was logged and tracked. This was both a hurdle and an
opportunity. If she cleared this hurdle, her false identity would be baked into
the Empire's very archives. She would be a "legal ghost."
Shortly after, a skeleton in heavy black plate armor marched into the hall. The
Centurion walked to the window, the soulfire in his sockets sweeping over Lia
with a cold, scanning intensity.
"Is this the subject?"
The Vampire nodded. "Yes. Recovered personally by Doctor William."
The Centurion was silent for several heartbeats. Then, he unlatched a crystal
orb from his belt.
"Extend your hand."
Lia obeyed.
The Centurion placed the crystal ball in her palm. It began to hum with a soft,
internal radiance, scanning her biological and spiritual signatures.
Lia's heart skipped a single beat. Detection magic.
If there were any lingering traces of the Necrotic Realm's unique Mana signature
within her, she was finished. But she forced herself into a state of absolute
calm. Her Od was depleted; she was an empty vessel. Furthermore, during her
violent transit through the space-time tunnel, every item she possessed that
bore the Necrotic Realm's mark had been shredded and lost.
In theory, she was currently indistinguishable from a mundane human girl.
The light of the crystal persisted for ten seconds before slowly fading to grey.
The Centurion reclaimed the orb.
"No anomalous Mana fluctuations detected. No traces of curses or external mental
control," the skeleton reported. "She meets the screening criteria recently
established by Deputy Commander Avarice."
"Proceed with standard protocol."
The Vampire nodded, his polite smile returning. "Understood."
The Centurion turned to leave. Just before reaching the door, he paused and
glanced back at Lia.
"Welcome to the Evernight Empire."
☆☆☆
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