At the foot of the Haydin Mountains, which stretched across the western reaches of the Empire, stood an ancient castle.
It was so old that no one would hesitate to describe it as "quaint," however hollow the compliment might be.
Its weathered, grayish-white walls formed an oval around the castle, revealing that they had been built long before the invention of cannons.
Two towering spires, tall enough to reach the heavens, stood proudly as monuments to an age when architectural design and stoneworking techniques were still crude.
The banquet hall, constructed in an era when glass was still a luxury, boasted an assortment of brightly colored windows that assaulted the eyes, flaunting their splendor like the gaudy clothes of a wealthy upstart.
And within the banquet hall of this supposedly "quaint" castle, a feast was in full swing.
"Chomp, chomp... Son, is the food not to your liking?"
A middle-aged man who had just stuffed an entire piece of rare game bird into his mouth looked at me with concern.
"This banquet is meant to celebrate the coming-of-age ceremony of our proud family's eldest son and heir. It isn't proper for the guest of honor to look so gloomy, my boy."
This time, a noblewoman whose face was so heavily powdered that she could scarcely be distinguished from a corpse or a doll looked at me while slicing a sausage made from a suckling pig's intestines.
"There's no need to worry, Father, Mother. My dear elder brother is probably just full from eating all those expensive pastries he ordered from the Imperial Capital again. His tastes are so extravagant that he'll drive our family's finances into the ground. Really."
A young girl with brilliant blonde hair looked down at me with a mocking smile.
Feeling all three pairs of eyes upon me, I raised my lowered head.
A rugged middle-aged man who looked like a bandit, tearing meat apart with his teeth.
A middle-aged woman concealing her wrinkles beneath an excessive layer of face powder.
And a little brat whose insolent expression detracted from her otherwise pretty face.
These people were all my family.
More precisely, they were my second family, the one I had gained after reincarnation.
After all, I could still remember my previous life in the Republic of Korea as vividly as a photograph.
"...Father, Mother. And little sister."
"Yes, my son?"
"What is it, dear?"
"...Why are you suddenly speaking in such a deep voice?"
"I'm leaving the family."
Everything stopped.
The hands that had been moving so busily froze the instant those words left my mouth.
Of the three people who had gone still, my younger sister was the first to recover.
"...What exactly do you mean by that, Brother?"
"Exactly what I said. I'm an adult now, so I'm going to leave the territory and head to the Imperial Capital."
"Ah, haha. For someone's first attempt at a joke, especially someone with no sense of humor, that was surprisingly funny."
My sister chuckled as though she had heard something utterly ridiculous.
I simply stared at her.
After a few more awkward, hollow laughs, she fell silent.
She had probably realized that I was serious.
BANG!
"...What is the meaning of this?! You're leaving the family?!"
"Father."
"That's it! Has someone been bullying you? Have those servants of ours been running their mouths again?!"
"No. The servants have always been faithful and diligent."
"Then why?!"
"The biggest reason is that I want to see the wider world. I don't want to spend the rest of my life cooped up in this old castle."
"What did you say?"
Father wiped his greasy fingers on a piece of coarse rye bread beside him before turning his gaze back to me.
"What in the world is the problem, son? You know perfectly well that you're the only male heir of our family, don't you?"
"Of course I do."
"When I die, the vast farmlands, the dense forests, and even this magnificent old castle will all belong to you! And yet you're telling me you want to leave the family?"
"Yes."
"Good grief!"
Father stared at me, apparently unable to comprehend how I could say such a thing so calmly. But when he saw the determination in my eyes, he cleared his throat.
"Son."
"Mother."
"I'm rather worried about you. You've always been frail, and now you want to leave this place, surrounded by clean, unspoiled nature, for the Imperial Capital, where the air is filthy."
Mother lightly patted her cheeks, sending a faint cloud of white powder drifting into the air, and regarded me with concern.
"Life in the Imperial Capital is completely different from life here. There's an enormous clock tower there, and everyone lives according to the bells that ring from it. They enter their damp factories before they can receive the blessing of the rising sun, and they collapse into bed before the gentle moonlight can shine upon them. You mustn't expect the same kindness from those people that you receive from the people of our territory. They're already sick at heart."
"I know what life is like in the Imperial Capital, Mother. I've read about it in the newspapers."
"Oh, my son. There are far more coldhearted people there than you can imagine. Someone as warmhearted as you would never survive among them."
"That remains to be seen."
No matter how cold those people might be, could they really be any colder than the people of the modern world in my previous life?
I seriously doubted it.
But even if I told them that, they still wouldn't let me leave.
It seemed I had no choice but to reveal something I had kept secret because I knew it would only make them worry.
At this rate, I could argue for a hundred days and still get nowhere.
I let out a brief sigh to draw everyone's attention before speaking again.
"Phew... Father, Mother, and little sister. It's not as though I'm going to the Imperial Capital without a reason."
"Hmm?"
"Actually, about a month ago, I found something lying beside my pillow."
Rustle.
I placed the item I had prepared onto the table with an audible tap.
Everyone's gaze immediately shifted toward the black letter bearing silver lettering.
The unusually colored paper possessed the smooth sheen characteristic of expensive stationery.
"...What's this?"
"I asked our old butler about it, and he told me it was a summons from Academia."
"What?!"
Father reacted even more violently than when I had announced my intention to leave the family.
He hurriedly snatched up the letter and unfolded it.
However, after a moment, he cleared his throat and passed the letter to Mother, who had been fanning herself.
"Ahem! Ahem! What does it say, dear?"
When I first discovered that a member of the upper class who ruled over an enormous territory couldn't even read, it had struck me as extraordinarily strange, given my memories of modern life.
But after spending so many years with my second family, I had grown thoroughly accustomed to the sight.
Our family was a knightly house, with Father serving as its head, and we had a peculiar tradition of considering literacy something shameful.
In particular, because Father belonged to the higher ranks of the knightly class and possessed a hereditary territory, our family customs dictated that engaging in something as trivial as reading and writing would seriously damage the dignity of the family head.
Consequently, Father still couldn't read.
It was an outdated tradition that nobody would care about anymore, but our family's customs were every bit as antiquated as this old castle. Perhaps that was why they had survived for so long.
Mother, on the other hand, could read because she was the lady of the house.
Whenever I encountered these distinctions between what men and women were permitted to do, I was reminded of just how barbaric an age I had been born into.
"Hmm... Let's see. 'To Jin Frah, eldest son of House Frah, the valiant lion that serves as the spearhead of the Empire. You have been summoned to enroll as a student of Academia this year. Come to Academia, the cradle of history and tradition where your proud ancestor, who carried the blood of the fairies, once studied. A guide will be dispatched to you by the appointed date.'"
When Mother paused, my younger sister, who had been listening intently, asked with an uneasy expression.
"...Is that all, Mother?"
"'Postscript: Should you refuse this summons after reading this letter, you will be taken directly to the Imperial Supreme Inquisition as a suspect, without the benefit of a trial. We therefore advise you to avoid the unfortunate consequences of refusing. May glory be yours in the name of His Imperial Majesty. Den Brown, Headmaster of Academia.'"
A profound silence settled over the banquet hall as Mother finished reading.
I calmly nodded toward my family, who remained motionless, staring at the letter.
"And that's why I have to leave the family. Well, I suppose I'll take this opportunity to look around the Imperial Capital while I'm there."
Now that I had presented a legitimate reason, there was none of the fierce opposition I had encountered earlier.
Perhaps I should have offered them a proper justification from the beginning instead of telling them how I truly felt.
Although I had already lived a considerable number of years since my reincarnation, I could still feel how hopelessly awkward I was when dealing with other people.
My family was now looking at me with worried expressions, but I decided to press the matter one last time.
"That's all right, isn't it?"
"...Yes."
Now that Father, the head of the family, had given his permission, I was finally free to leave.
His voice had sounded far more dejected than I had expected, but thanks to the justification provided by the summons, I had secured permission to leave far more easily than I had imagined.
Surely that was a good thing.
I was fortunate to be leaving before I grew any more attached to these people.
They were far too good for me.
An outsider like me had no place among them.
And so, in the fifteenth year since I was born into this world, I was finally able to leave the ancient castle for the first time and set out into the wider world.