"What?!"
The fat man slammed his hand on the table when he heard my request. He shook his head in disbelief and asked again,
"You want to go to prison? Is there a problem with Jinlus Village?"
I shielded the sleeping child in my arms from the spray of spit flying toward us. After wiping my face, I responded with a nod.
"What?! I'm sorry, but I don't understand why you would want to report yourself for a crime!"
"Calm down, please, Officer. I'm simply fulfilling my duty as a citizen."
"…You? Ron Irus? So you plan to wear shackles in prison?"
"No. Youth is too precious to waste in there. And I still need to protect this 'home,' even if I'm no longer here."
"Excuse me? Then what you mean is…"
I slowly produced a sheet of paper, as if pulling it from a book. The man in front of me sighed in resignation and forced himself to read the two densely written pages.
"…So you intend to rely on the Euni Act for sentence reduction? But the conditions require being part of a royal academy, a royal organization, or meeting special Level Two criteria. And you…"
He fell silent when he saw the letter placed on the table. It bore the seal of one of the empire's top three academies.
Blue Light.
"…I truly don't understand why you need to do this."
"It's simple. The enrollment period has already passed, but I want to enter now. So I need to…"
The police officer rubbed his temples, clearly understanding what I was implying, and changed the subject.
"So what charge would you like to be convicted of, Ron?"
Hearing that, I smiled faintly. I shaped my fingers into a gun and pressed them against the forehead of the child in my arms.
"Charge: Kidnapping, extortion, and threatening a public official. Specifically, this child I've abducted and am preparing to ransom."
The officer burst into loud laughter, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
"Oh, Sir. Do you know what the people of this village think of you? A true lord. Unlike that noble parasite feeding off this land, you're the only leader they acknowledge in this remote place. You've never even hit a child, and now you claim kidnapping?"
"Hmph. Enough talk. Are you doing it or not, you old chatterbox?"
"Fine, fine. So what ransom are you demanding? I'll write it in the report." The fat officer pulled out the incident form. Just then, the child in my arms opened his eyes, stared at my finger, and bit it.
"…I suppose I'll demand quite a lot of candy in exchange for releasing the hostage."
…
"The Euni Act is a law created by the royal family to protect someone named Euni.
If a person under twenty commits a crime, depending on its severity, and belongs to a public organization or a royal affiliated body ranked A, or is enrolled in one of the ten academies and ranked within the top one hundred of that institution, they may receive a reduced sentence or avoid imprisonment altogether. However, they must still provide compensation and pay fines exceeding the original penalty.
In other words, either you have a powerful backer, or you are exceptionally talented. Then you can legally buy your freedom."
I explained this to Lunas, who was lying on the snow covered grass glowing in silver white light.
"So you took the entrance exam earlier? And made it into the top one hundred? Seriously?"
Lunas asked with visible irritation, as if displeased that I handled everything alone.
I shook my head.
"No. I connected with the principal of Blue Light from the beginning. It's a recent development."
I sat down, took out several slices of fresh bread from my pocket, and walked toward a gravestone.
Behind it stood dozens of others, all erected upon the remains of a house that had burned to ashes.
I dug small holes in front of each gravestone, buried a slice of bread, then covered them with soil.
After a final glance, I lit a cigarette.
Three years. It had been three years since I transmigrated into Ron Irus.
And on that very day, this house had burned down with twenty seven other people inside.
"What are you brooding about now?"
Lunas rolled a snowball and threw it at me. It struck my head and extinguished the cigarette I had just lit.
I shot him an annoyed glance and spoke quietly,
"Whenever I look at this house, it feels like my body is coming back to life."