***

Since then, the Valley of Death has been considered as an extremely dangerous zone, completely unfit for living.

It is said that even now the souls of those who had perished that day roam throughout the valley and try to lure the travellers passing by towards the abyss where they are eventually turned into specters like the citizens of Dersana and the mercenaries.

I don't know whether all of this talk about ghosts or specters is genuine or not but, no matter what happens I am never going to enter this place. I have never been an adventurous type of person so unless and until a day comes when I have no choice but to come here, and I hope that day never comes, but until that day comes I won't ever try to get even closer to this creepy valley.

Well, coming back to the topic,

The valley was extremely dangerous and fraught with dangers like monsters, bandits, and worst of all, the risky terrain. But even then the carriage continued to move on as if this much was nothing, as if I was the only one who was making a big deal out of this.

To be honest, even I was confused as to how something like a carriage could even move in a dangerous place such as this. Throughout the entire journey, I don’t recall how many times the carriage almost ended up falling into the abyss.

But despite all this, despite the shadow of death hovering above the carriage, despite the terrified heart of a small child who doesn’t want to die, the environment inside the carriage couldn’t be any more different.

“Hahahaha, and then, and then my younger brother got slapped by his crush… hahahaha…”

The one who was just laughing and making fun of her little brother for getting slapped by his crush (what a painful thing to happen) was a beautiful woman with black hair, pale skin, and deep blue eyes, she was my mother, Kristen Griffith, a crazy person with a few loose screws.

“O-oh haha-ha, t-that’s good honey, w-watch out!!! Hahaha-ha t-that was a bad joke. You know we could h-have fell into the ab-abyss, h-hey take left, take left!!!! Whew...”

The one who was stuttering and laughing just now, the pathetic joke of a human who can't even step up to save his own life was a man with dirty blond hair and amethyst eyes, he was my father, Patrick Griffith, a wuss who couldn’t speak up against his crazy wife.

“Ha… haha… hahaha!!!! Huhuhuhihihihi!!!”

And the one who was laughing just now like a maniac was a child with pitch black hair, amethyst eyes, pale skin,

It looked like he had gone mental because of his mother,

Yep, he was laughing like crazy with his eyes wide open and lost and his breath rugged, the child definitely seemed to have gone mad, I wonder how many electric shocks in the head would he need to get back to normal, or would he even be able to get back to normal at all.

The child really was pitiful to have been born into a family of weirdos.

I was the child.

And dammit!!!!! What the hell kind of life am I living!? Has my life transformed into some kind of adventure sport or something? How am I going to live a glorious life if I end up dying in this gloomy and extremely terrifying place!? What if I become a specter or something if I die here!? Will my poor soul venture here for all eternity!?

Argh…! How the hell did I even end up here!?

Well, now that I think about it, it was all my fault! Why the hell did I have to try so hard in that stupid exam!!!?

Yesterday the three of us left that small town named Alenram where I had spent the first 4 years of my second life to go to the city of Santa Magnum, the capital of Magnolia.

The reason why we left that pathetic town was because that corrupted bigoted excuse of a headmaster of that trashy school threatened my father that he will report me, a 4-year-old kid, to the government as a ‘potentially dangerous element’ if my father forces him any further to take me in as a student and thus I would be sent to a concentration camp of some kind where I will be treated and persecuted as some kind of a criminal.

That’s why, in order to give me the best education possible, plus to prevent me from getting caught up in anything messy like that (mainly because of the 2nd reason), my parents decided to shift permanently to the capital city where my father, through some contacts of his managed to get a decent job.

My parents also decided that they will try to get me admitted to the Presidency Institute of Eminence (PIE), the most prestigious educational institution in the country where only the most brilliant students are trained, or at least that’s what is written on their brochure, but in reality, even at an institute like PIE, 80% of the seats have been already reserved for the Benighted Classes (BC) in short the commoners, and the chances of someone like me getting admission in that school is almost 0. But I don’t know how or why, my parents were completely convinced that I would be able to get admission there somehow.

I don’t know how I will face them if I end up failing the exam. I'm scared.

So just yesterday after packing our bags the three of us left the city,

My mother, I don’t know why but for some reason, expected a sad and tearful farewell from our neighbors and the other people she had gotten familiar with over the time but contrary to her thoughts or maybe expectations if I daresay, let alone saying any sad and tearful goodbyes, most of the people didn’t even come out of their houses. It was as if everyone was ignoring us.

I don’t get why these people were even acting this way, there was no reason for them to have ignored us, but I guess that’s fine, I was at least spared from all that fake sappy drama.

But it’s not like no one came out of their house though, that kid Brutus, the one who tried to bully me but got bullied instead, did come out of his house. I spotted him just after I boarded the carriage and told my mom and dad about him but just as my mother was about to call him, when we saw Brutus suddenly writing something on the grey wall of our house,

"Krr..."

"Krr..."

The sound of a stone scratching against a wall sounded in my ears and then after a while when Brutus got away from the wall I got to see the words he wrote there, they were:-

‘Death to the noble pigs!’

...

Wow… this guy who literally looked like a pig himself was calling someone like me a pig, what has become of this world I wonder, tsk tsk tsk.

Ignoring him and my mother who looked to be shocked out of her mind, my father drove the carriage away and Brutus's figure kept shrinking from my vision until it finally disappeared. I hope I never see him again, although I really wanted to pull out his pants, smear his face with cow dung, and make him run throughout the town naked once again, but whatever.

I still can’t believe that I would be born in such a bizarre world with such stupid laws, the useless government in power just wants to exterminate the nobles out of some grudge that they have been carrying for generations.

Ugh… now that I think about it, their actions don’t really feel that evil to me considering what my ancestors must have done to them in the past, but I still believe that children shouldn’t be blamed for their ancestors’ crimes.

To be honest, the government’s acts couldn’t be described as anything less than idiotic. Creating a divide between its own citizens just so that they could please the ones in the majority is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in my life.

If I were to be completely honest, I am a bit afraid of all these laws of this new world.

‘What would I do if the commoners decide to frame me for something that I didn’t even do? Would the government even listen to the pleas of someone like me? What would I do if someday the commoners decide to wipe out all the nobles?’

I was constantly haunted by thoughts such as these in my sleep, for a few days I wasn’t even able to sleep properly because whenever I tried to do it I ended up dreaming some bizarre dream about getting executed for being a noble by birth.

It was a hellish experience for me, I wasn’t this much depressed even when my crush who also happened to be a good friend of mine told me about her boyfriend. (Damnit! Why did I remember that now!?)

But even so, as ignorant and clueless as I am about this world, even I know full well that I won’t get any help or protection from this useless government that’s been ruling over me ever since I arrived in this world.

Expecting equality and justice from a government that creates a divide amongst its populace from the moment they are born is nothing short of suicidal. I have to become stronger, yes stronger; that's the only way I could ever live a happy and satisfying life.

Coming back to the present scenario,

After travelling for more than a day, the three of us finally reached the Karrow valley (we were now almost half way through it), and after crossing it we would reach the outpost town of Lamaria which is just a journey of around 3-4 hours away from the capital city.

I thought that our journey from here on out would be easy and fast but never in my wildest dreams had I ever expected the Karrow valley to be so dangerous. Just looking outside the carriage almost made me faint from fear but I somehow held myself.

And then somehow after surviving the deadly valley for around 3 hours, we finally found ourselves getting out of it.

I looked at my mother, her face looked sad. Was she really enjoying that!? What kind of crazy person is she?

I peeled my eyes off her and looked at my father, his entire face and clothes were drenched from sweat despite being in a hilly region where the temperature was very considerably low (around 10-12 degree Celsius... probably?). He had a big, almost relieved smile on his face.

It was then that our eyes met,

He looked at me and gave me a small nod,

I did the same and closed my eyes.

Just the look in his eyes was enough to tell me how much trouble he had to go through in order to impress my mother,

My mother, ignorant of this brief exchange between the two of us just said in a sad voice,

“Haa~ I wish I could’ve enjoyed the terrain some more. It’s been a long time since I last went on an adventure. Hey Patrick… how about we go back on that trail…”

I had a feeling that she was about to say something disastrous so before she could ever finish her lines, two voices that almost sounded like screams interrupted her,

“Nooooo!!!”

“Nooooo!!!”

It was me and my father.

I guess men do become true comrades in the times of hardship.

My mother, not satisfied with our 'unadventurous attitudes', was about to say something else to make up our mind, well now that I think about it maybe she was just going to threaten us, well whatever, the thing is before she could say anything else, a sleazy voice came from just before us,

“Woah~, would you look at that? A black-haired hottie, a cute black-haired brat, and a dashing young man. It seems like we won’t have to work for a few months, don’t you think so, boys?”

I looked at the source of the voice, it belonged to a man who stood before us with a lascivious expression on his scarred face and holding a shining saber in his rough-looking hands.