The night was dark.
In a slightly cramped room, the young man lying on the bed was sweating profusely. His eyes rolled under his closed eyelids, and even his face was a little distorted, but he could not wake up.
Obviously, his dream tonight was not wonderful, or it would be more appropriate to call it a nightmare.
"Hoo —!"
Suddenly sitting up from the bed, the young man who had just gotten rid of the nightmare looked terrible. His chest rose and fell like a bellows as he panted violently. Silently holding his head with both hands, it took a while for him to recover from the day after day of fear.
Not wanting to sleep anymore, Elvin got out of bed in his linen pajamas, poured himself a glass of water that had long since turned cold, and stood in front of the window with a gloomy look in his eyes.
"I had that nightmare again."
Elvin Garriott, the descendant of a declining aristocrat, or more accurately, the descendant of a declining aristocrat. Since the night of blood and fire three years ago, the former glory, wealth, and even family had left this young man.
As a traditional feudal aristocrat of the island country Ilia Kingdom, the Garriott family with the title of Baron was also prominent for a time.
The family's starting point was legendary. As one of the pioneers of the age of navigation, the civilian explorer Garriott sailed his own exploration ship, defeated reefs, storms, and ferocious sea beasts, crossed the Treasure Sea, and was the first to explore a new route to safely reach the southern continent in the shortest time.
The opening of the new route allowed the southern continent to be rich in precious metals, spices, agricultural products, and raw materials to enrich the kingdom. At that time, Ilia, which was at the bottom of the Tulip Alliance, gained a lot of benefits and became a regional power.
With this merit, the explorer Garriott was enfeoffed by the Ilia royal family as a baron. A commoner with no money became a feudal aristocrat, and a new member of the Ilia Kingdom's aristocratic pedigree called the "Garriott family" was added to the Ilia Kingdom's aristocratic pedigree.
Unfortunately, this great explorer and great navigator's ability to manage his territory was far from his ability to sail and explore. Under his leadership, the Garriott family not only failed to shine brighter in the Ilia Kingdom, but also went downhill.
And after him, the successive barons of Garriott were worthy of being his descendants. They were all adventurers, thinking all day long about grabbing benefits in the age of navigation, but no one wanted to manage their own territory well.
How could ordinary people afford to explore the ocean? Huge profits naturally came with huge risks. The family's wealth and even land were gradually being filled into the bottomless pit of ocean exploration!
Ocean exploration was not only about ideals and perseverance, but also about strength and luck. It was as if this family had used up all their luck in the battle that led to their rise. Since then, there had not been any exploration that could bring the family enough glory and wealth to make a comeback.
After only a hundred years or so, the eight generations of Baron Garriott, which was originally equivalent to at least forty Knight Dominions, only had a small remote town left — Blackstone Town. If it weren't for the fact that Ilya didn't have the restriction of having a fief and a noble title, he wouldn't have been able to keep his title as a baron.
In this generation, the entire Garriott family only had one father, a baron, living with the two siblings who had lost their mother when they were young. The only noble left was probably the old butler, Leo, who still took care of himself meticulously even though he was in dire straits.
Perhaps the gods in the heavens couldn't bear to watch any longer. Just as they were about to reach the end of their tether, things took a turn for the better.
A huge rich iron mine was discovered under Blackstone Town! One could imagine how ecstatic they were at that time.
However, it was too early to be happy.
Even if the king could not legally deny the Garriott family's ownership of the iron mine, the extremely weak Garriott family simply did not have enough force and help to protect the wealth that fell from the sky.
As long as one was willing to use their brains, there would always be loopholes in the rules set by humans, not to mention that the price paid was negligible.
At this time, in the Kingdom of Ilya, the emerging business aristocracy had risen strongly, and the movement for personal liberation was getting more and more intense. The power of the traditional feudal aristocracy and even the king was not as strong as before.
A new revolution was brewing. In this storm, even the most experienced politician could not tell who was an ally and who was an enemy.
A large group of hungry hyenas were already eyeing the lonely Garriott family. Among them were the emerging aristocrats, but there was also no lack of "old friends" of the previous family.
The ferocious predators were waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity that would not break the nerves of their opponents.
Thus, the head of the family, Ferman Garriott, suddenly fell ill due to old injuries and heavy pressure from his early explorations.
While Elvin and his sister were young, the title of nobility was temporarily vacant. Blackstone Town, which had lost the legal protection, was attacked by a group of well-equipped "bandits" like lightning.
The last foundation of the family was destroyed in an instant!
The changes that followed were so natural. The "bandits" who dared to attack the aristocracy's territory were wiped out by the enthusiastic aristocrats. After some kind of behind-the-scenes transaction, the iron mine fell into the hands of this "kind-hearted person" under the guise of being managed by the Garriott family.
As for the search for the two legal heirs of the Garriott family who had disappeared in this incident, Anita Garriott and Elvin Garriott, no one mentioned it again.
In fact, by this time, the overall situation had been decided, and no one cared about their lives anymore.
Elvin drank the water in the cup and suppressed the surging thoughts in his heart. In fact, even if the family's property was ten times more, it would not make Elvin feel troubled. What made him have nightmares was that he had escaped, but his sister, Anita, who was three years older than him, had disappeared in the turmoil.
The old butler did not dare to expose himself to look for the young lady. He took the only surviving Elvin to escape from Ilya and came to Leopold, a small coastal town in the Kingdom of Faletis, which was also part of the Tulip Alliance.
The old butler, Leo, threw away most of the items that could expose them, and used the last wealth he brought with him and the herbal knowledge he had when he was young to open a pharmacy. He settled down in the small town and lived an ordinary life until today.
But just the day before yesterday, the old butler, who was seriously injured due to the night of the escape, could not hold on any longer. He grabbed Elvin's hand and slowly closed his eyes.
His last family member had passed away. Elvin, who was too sad, was so sad that he cried until he fainted.
When he woke up again, the consciousness of a time traveler that had been dormant in the teenager's body for 13 years had awakened and merged with the surface personality of Elvin.
Unlike other time travelers who got on the train halfway and lacked a sense of immersion in the experience of their predecessor, Elvin was a time traveler, and a time traveler was Elvin. Elvin's experience was actually his own experience.
It was just that his body in the past was too weak to bear the huge soul and memory of an adult, so there was a difference between the surface personality of Elvin and the dormant consciousness of a time traveler.
Elvin, who had merged into one, would not be as weak as the former teenager. He would no longer be afraid of loneliness and confused about the future. With a strong enough heart and broad enough experience, he had a clear understanding of what he wanted and where his path was.
"I will live well!"
The handsome teenager with brown hair, black eyelids, and fair skin looked at his own shadow on the window and said softly to himself.
At this time, the night sky outside the window was still dotted with stars. The small seaside town named Leopold had woken up and gradually became busy.
Gothic buildings with mainly black colors stood in great numbers. Gas lamps along the street sprinkled warm yellow light, and steam curled up on the street. It was a prosperous scene of a port city in the Victorian era.
The age of great navigation had been open for 200 years, and navigation and marine trade had become an important part of the country's assets. The invention of the steam engine seemed to add a powerful engine to the world, and everything was speeding towards a better future.
Well, at least it seemed so on the surface, didn't it?
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