It was late at night.
A boy was lying on the bed in a cramped room. He was covered in sweat and his eyes were rolling furiously under his eyelids. There was an anguished look on him, but he could not wake up.
Obviously, he was not having a good dream. Rather, it was a nightmare.
"Wo…!"
Suddenly, he sat up in his bed. Having just gotten rid of the nightmare, the boy looked very pale. He was taking deep breaths and had his hands covering his head. It took him some time to recover from what he had just encountered.
Alvin did not want to go back to sleep again. He got himself a cup of cold water while still wearing his linen sleeping gown. He looked out of the window with a gloomy look.
"It's that nightmare again…"
Alvin Garriott was the descendant of a fallen noble family, or more accurately, he had once been one. After the night of blood and fire three years ago, all the honor, wealth, and loved ones had been parted from the boy.
As one of the traditional feudal noble families of the island nation known as the Kingdom of Ilia, the Garriott family had been a prominent existence when its members were titled barons.
The family had a legendary beginning. As one of the pioneers of the Great Voyage, Garriott, who was still a commoner adventurer, piloted his own expedition ship across the Sea of Treasures, conquering reefs, storms, and ferocious sea creatures. He was the first to discover a new route to reach the Southern Continent in the shortest possible time.
The discovery of a new shipping route allowed the abundance of precious metals, spices, agricultural products, and raw materials in the Southern Continent to enrich the kingdom endlessly. This allowed Ilia to reap massive benefits and rise from the bottom of the Tulip Alliance to become a regional powerhouse.
With this achievement, Garriott the explorer was made a baron by the royal family of Ilia. He had transformed from a penniless commoner to a feudal noble. He had thus added a new section in the Noble Genealogy in the Kingdom of Ilia: "House Garriott".
Unfortunately, this great explorer's ability to manage his territory was a far cry from his seafaring adventures. Under his leadership, House Garriott had done nothing but go on a downward spiral.
Moreover, the subsequent generations of House Garriott had inherited the adventurous spirit, and they were all thinking about seizing the profits of the newly opened era of the Great Voyage. None of them wanted to run or take care of their given land.
Sea voyages were an activity that ordinary people could not afford. The huge profits naturally came with enormous risks too. The family's wealth, and even lands, were depleted to back their exploration desire.
Those adventures were not only about ideals and persistence, but also strength and luck. It was as if the family had exhausted all their luck in the very first expedition, as they had never been able to bring enough honor and wealth to the family since then.
After just over a hundred years and eight generations of Lord Garriotts, the original land that was given to them, which was equivalent to at least 40 Knight's Fee, was left with only one remote town, Black Rock Town. If not for the fact that there was no link between one's title and the area of land conferred in Ilia, it would have been difficult for the Garriotts to even retain their noble status.
By this generation, there was only one father in the entire House Garriott who was still a baron. He lived with his two children who had lost their mother at an early age. The only aristocratic feature left was probably the old butler, Leo, who still took care of himself meticulously even though they were down and out.
Perhaps because even the gods could not bear to look at them anymore, an opportunity was finally bestowed on House Garriott.
A massive mine enriched with iron ore had been discovered under Black Rock Town! One could only imagine how ecstatic the family was at that time.
However, their happiness did not last long.
Although even the king did not have the lawful right to deny House Garriott's rightful ownership of the mine, the weak Garriotts did not have enough men or allies to protect this wealth that appeared out of the blue.
There were always loopholes in the rules, and some people would stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
By this time, in the Kingdom of Ilia, the new commercial nobles had risen strongly. The human rights movement was intensifying, and the traditional feudal aristocracies and even the king were much less powerful than before.
A revolution was brewing. Even the most senior politician could not be sure who was an ally or who was an enemy right now.
Many had been eying the isolated and vulnerable Garriotts like hounds, including the new nobles and some "old friends" of the house.
These ferocious hounds were waiting for an opportunity, one that would not attract the other competitors.
Then Freeman Garriott, the head of the house, suddenly died from illness due to the old wounds and heavy stress from his early expeditions.
At this time, Alvin and his sister were still very young and there was no one taking the lordship. Then a group of well-equipped "bandits" raided the unprotected Black Rock Town quickly.
The last hope of the family was destroyed!
What happened next was as expected. These "bandits" who dared to attack a noble territory were killed by the other zealous noble troops. After some behind-the-scenes deals, the iron ore mine fell into the hands of this "good man", who said that he was just safekeeping the mines for the Garriotts.
The search for the two rightful heirs of House Garriott, Alvin Garriott and his sister, Anita Garriott, was never mentioned again.
No one cared if they were still alive, as the tables could not be turned.
Alvin finished the glass of water and calmed himself down. As a matter of fact, Alvin was not concerned about the wealth of the family at all, not even if it were multiplied by ten times. His nightmare was all about him managing to escape the raid, but his sister, who was three years older than him, had been missing ever since.
The butler was afraid of exposing themselves, so he did not go back to search for Anita. In the end, he brought whatever he could grasp and fled from Ilia with Alvin. They arrived at the small seaside town of Leopold in the Kingdom of Phaletis, which was also part of the Tulip Alliance.
The old butler disposed of most of the items that could possibly reveal their identities and then started an apothecary with the money he managed to bring out and the knowledge he had from when he was young. They settled in a small town and lived an ordinary life until the present.
However, two days ago, the old butler had passed on too. He had suffered injuries during that fateful night and had not been able to recover. He held Alvin's hand while his eyes slowly shut.
Seeing his last family member die, Alvin was overwhelmed with grief and cried into unconsciousness.
When he woke up again, a transmigrated mind that had been dormant in the teenager's body for 13 years revived and coexisted with Alvin's consciousness.
Unlike the other transmigrators, who came from the far future, Alvin was his own transmigrator.
The adult Alvin had transmigrated back to his own body again. However, his physical body was too weak in the past, so it could not handle the enormous amount of data that adult Alvin was carrying. Thus, he only managed to awaken now.
Alvin decided he would not be his weak, lost, and lonely old self again. He had enough experience and perseverance to know what he would need in life and where he was heading.
The handsome boy had brown hair, black eyes, and fair skin. He looked at his own reflection in the window and said, "I'll live well!"
There were still stars in the sky, but Leopold was starting to get busy.
There were many gothic buildings in the black tone, and the gas lamps along the street shone with warm, mellow lights. Streams of steam wafted through the streets. These were common sights in a prosperous Victorian port city.
It had been 200 years since the beginning of the Great Voyage. Seafaring and maritime trade had become an important asset for the nation. The invention of the steam engine was like a powerful motor for the world, and everything was accelerating towards a brighter future.
At least that's how it appeared to be.