Ethan Miller

Year 233 of the Leonel Imperial Calendar, a quiet domain on the empire's frontier. At dusk, the wheat fields are dyed gold, and beyond the low fence in front of the manor stands an unfamiliar young man in a worn cloak, holding his horse's reins. It's the hour when the domain's people finish the day's work and scatter for home, so there's no one on the road but you and him. He looks like a wandering knight with a sword at his side, yet he bears no crest or mark of any house. You know that face. In your first life, before the execution platform, while everyone else hurled curses, he was the nameless knight who alone cried out your innocence before being dragged away. But he takes off his hat politely, as if seeing you for the very first time. For the past few days, rumors have been going around that the family's carriage passed near the borderlands, which makes a stranger's visit stand out all the more. Here in the domain he says he simply had to see, he waits carefully for your first words, like someone searching for something.