NOVEL NEXT Chapter 351: The First Nudge
"V-Vance!"
Aurelia shouted, and she was 'answered' quickly.
"KEKEKE!"
"GRRR..."
It was a loud, menacing laughter, coarse and cruel, and along it was a guttural, chittering growl that was unmistakably monstrous.
Dup-! Dup-!
Aurelia froze in her spot. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She clenched the fabric of her simple traveling robes in white-knuckled fists, her earlier resolve crumbling into sheer, cold fear. She couldn't see anything through the frosted window. She could only listen.
The laughter was followed by the sharp ring of steel being drawn - Vance's sword, she was sure of it. A voice, slurred and aggressive, shouted something she couldn't quite make out, but the taunting tone was clear.
"Vance…" she whispered, her prayer a breathless plea in the confined space. She squeezed her eyes shut. 'Please, please let him be safe.'
Outside, the laughter had suddenly stopped, replaced by a sudden, tense silence that was somehow more terrifying than the noise.
'Please...'
"..."
A few agonizing minutes passed.
"..."
The noise outside changed from the sounds of struggle to lower, muffled voices, then finally died down completely. The sudden quiet was somehow more unnerving than the conflict.
Then, the carriage door creaked open.
"!"
Aurelia's heart leaped into her throat. She shrank back against the seat, her eyes wide with fear.
Standing in the doorway was a figure with striking blue hair, a mask covering the lower half of his face. He reached up and lowered the cloth, revealing the familiar, handsome features of the healer from the Eclipse Keep.
"Hi, Princess."
"S-Sir Lumin?" Aurelia stammered, confusion warring with her relief.
"In the flesh." Lumin offered a faint smile. "Are you ok?"
She shook her head quickly. "Y-Yes." Her voice grew firmer, laced with urgent worry. "W-What about Vance? Is he okay?"
Lumin smiled faintly and stepped aside, revealing the crimson-eyed boy standing just behind him.
Aurelia's shoulders slumped in immediate relief. She quickly gestured to Vance, her hands moving in a flurry. <What happened? Are you hurt?>
Vance shook his head. He then gestured back at the lying bodies. <We were ambushed by local bandits. But the drivers helped me.> He pointed to Lumin, then gestured vaguely toward the front of the carriage where another figure was barely visible.
"Drivers?" Aurelia muttered, confusion replacing her fear.
"Yeah, it was me and the vice-captain disguised as drivers," Lumin explained, leaning against the carriage doorframe. "It was Baron Nusayel himself who sent us. He must have foreseen something like this would happen. And don't worry, since you haven't officially reached the town yet, this won't count as breaking the trial's rules."
Aurelia shook her head, a genuine, grateful smile finally touching her lips. "I don't care about the rules right now. I'm just glad you're both safe. And thank you for helping us."
Lumin's smile widened slightly. "No worries. Alright, here's the new plan. Vance and I will keep riding up front as your drivers. The vice-captain will join you inside the carriage for the rest of the trip."
Aurelia nodded, accepting the change easily. Then a concerned frown appeared. "But... what about the bandits?"
Lumin's smile turned utterly innocent. "Well, they had a sudden change of heart about their life choices. So, they'll be following us on foot for a while. A long while."
Somehow, after seeing that smile and hearing what he said, the princess felt a little bad for the bandits. Only a little.
"Excuse the intrusion," The Vice Captain Elria got into the carriage.
"Alright, let's keep going then."
With that, he gave a casual salute and closed the carriage door. A moment later, Aurelia felt the carriage lurch forward again, resuming its journey toward Oakhaven, now with a silent, armored vice-captain as her companion and two very capable "drivers" at the reins.
________ ___ _
I settled into the driver's seat beside Vance, taking the reins. As we rolled forward, a familiar screen popped up in my vision.
━━━━━━━━◇◆◇━━━━━━━━
SCENARIO: "THE FIRST TRIAL"
STATUS: COMPLETED
OBJECTIVES:
✓ Ensure the trial participants arrive safely at Oakhaven's outskirts.
✓ Intervene in the bandit ambush without violating the trial's rules.
REWARDS:
- +50 Scenario Points
- +5,000,000 Aura Coins
━━━━━━━━◇◆◇━━━━━━━━
'So few rewards?' I thought, a bit disappointed. But I guess it was reasonable. For me, it was just a quick disguise and knocking out a few thugs. For them, it was the difference between failure and a fighting chance.
Thankfully, I'd used [Narrative Glimpse] the moment I saw them return with the baron. The original info was a mess: bandits, a dead driver, Vance critically wounded, and their trial over before it started. Just another day of getting screwed over by the plot.
And so, just like usual, I decided to change things. A small nudge. Playing driver was an easy fix. So was persuading the baron.
It also confirmed a few of my suspicions. The fact that the vision showed only Vance, Aurelia, and me, with no other external support, making it to the Hollowlands… it was pretty clear.
They had no powerful backers, no team of elite Resonators. They were on their own from the start. This first "accident" was probably meant to cripple them early, to make sure they were easy pickings later.
I glanced at Vance, who was focused on the road ahead. This intervention wasn't just about saving them from a single ambush. It was a test, to probe into the mechanics of this world's narrative. I was poking the system, seeing how much I could bend the "intended" story before it pushed back. So far, rewarding me with points and coins felt like a quiet 'approval' of my methods.
But my reasons went deeper than just testing limits.
I genuinely wanted to see what these two were made of. How would they handle a real challenge without being sabotaged from the start? What kind of changes would their success or failure ripple out into the world?
And lurking behind it all was the ever-present question: who was pulling the strings? This ambush felt too convenient, too perfectly timed to be a mere coincidence. And...
It all fed into one crazy guess I had about this whole mess, a hunch that was forming in the back of my mind. But I had too few pieces of the puzzle to confirm anything.
For now, I'd just have to keep collecting clues, holding onto that idea until the picture became clear.
'...But... I hope I'm wrong.'