Chapter 140: First Entry Writ

Walking across it did not feel as dramatic as he expected.

He wasn’t thrown into another dimension. Nothing pulled his body apart. There was no floating sensation or strange pressure crushing him from every direction.

He was just walking.

The weird part was that he had no idea how far.

After several minutes, Earth was still visible behind them, yet judging the actual distance had become almost impossible. At some point, Marek stopped trying.

Rhovan told him that was normal. However, to someone like Marek, who had never traveled between Worlds before, there was nothing normal about it.

Eventually, structures appeared ahead.

At first, Marek thought they were simply buildings located near the end of the Road, but the closer they got, the more people he began seeing. Some wore clothes that looked completely unfamiliar, while others appeared surprisingly normal compared to what he had imagined people in the Prime Continuum would wear.

Then, someone near the entry area spoke.

Marek did not understand a single word. The language sounded unfamiliar, although there was something about the way the man spoke that made him think it wasn’t particularly difficult to pronounce. The problem was that he couldn’t recognize a single word, much less figure out what the man was asking him.

He glanced at Rhovan, who apparently understood everything.

Rhovan looked back at him.

"..."

"You could’ve told us we wouldn’t understand anyone here. I just assumed, like fantasy novels and stuff, languages are automatically understood for some reason," Marek complained.

"I told you there were different languages, Ophiarch."

"Then how are we supposed to communicate with anyone?" Marek asked, his lips twitching.

"There’s something called a Tongue Script. It’ll allow you to understand and speak the language once it’s installed in you."

"Explain them when it’s the right time, but not right now. I suppose you know how to communicate with them?"

"As you command, Ophi—"

"Stop calling me that when we’re in public. Apart from it sounds embarrassing, what if someone recognizes the words and misinterprets it how? It would never hurt to be careful."

Rhovan understood his point and nodded his head.

Then, Rhovan turned to the person and talked to him.

Rhovan seemed to be also familiar of the place himself. He only talked to the person who approached them because it was Marek’s order. He was quite a devoted follower of Marek at this point, a worshipper perhaps.

Rhovan listened to the official for a while before turning toward the others. Apparently, they had arrived on Metrava Prime, the capital World of the House of Libra. The facility they were standing in was one of its many Meridian entry points, where travelers arriving through recognized Roads were processed before being allowed farther into House Territory.

Marek hadn’t expected to arrive on to the House of Libra’s capital World immediately. However, Rhovan explained that this was only their initial entry processing. Their permanent registration would take place elsewhere, once the necessary documents had been issued.

Since none of them understood Prime Language yet, Rhovan handled the translations while the officials began processing them individually.

Dario went first, followed by Kellan. Nadia, Silas, Eren, and Rafe went next.

The process was surprisingly simple. Their names, origins, and Astral Signs were recorded, while Rhovan served as their entry witness because none of them had any previous Prime Continuum registration.

Marek watched as the others completed their entry checks without much difficulty. He had expected at least one of them to encounter a problem, but apparently, everything was going smoothly so far. That didn’t necessarily mean his own registration would be just as easy, especially considering that he was an Ophiuchus.

When his turn finally came, he approached the counter. The woman behind it greeted him in Prime Language before asking something he couldn’t understand. Marek turned toward Rhovan, who had been handling their translations the entire time, and waited for him to explain what she wanted.

Rhovan sighed from the side. "She asked for your name."

"Oh."

Marek looked at the woman again and said, "Newton Machiavelli."

Rhovan translated.

The woman typed his name into a registration terminal built into the counter. A flat screen stood beside her, displaying several lines of unfamiliar writing that Marek assumed contained his personal information. He leaned forward slightly, curious about what she was recording, although he couldn’t read a single word.

Marek didn’t know what he expected. Perhaps some kind of system would immediately detect that he had used another name, although that would be ridiculous when the name didn’t exist in any Prime Continuum record yet, considering only him and the others knew about it.

Rhovan had already explained this.

Marek Vale existed in Earth’s records. Newton Machiavelli was the identity he was using beyond Earth.

With Rhovan translating, the woman continued asking Marek for his information while entering his answers into the registration terminal. She recorded Earth as his World of origin, followed by his age—nineteen. When she asked whether he had any previous registration in the Prime Continuum, Marek answered that he had none, which was apparently quite normal for someone arriving from a Newborn World.

Everything had gone rather smoothly so far. However, when the woman asked for his Astral Sign, Marek already had a feeling that things were about to become considerably more complicated.

"Ophiuchus," he answered.

Rhovan translated his response.

The woman’s fingers stopped moving over the terminal. She glanced at Marek, then at Rhovan, before asking another question.

"House affiliation," Rhovan translated.

"I just arrived, of course, none..."

Rhovan relayed his answer, but the clerk seemed even more confused. She checked something on her screen and asked several more questions, which Rhovan answered without much difficulty. Meanwhile, Marek was beginning to get annoyed. They were having an entire conversation about him, and he couldn’t understand a single word.

"What’s taking so long?" he finally asked.

"She’s checking which procedure applies to you. Apparently, they don’t receive many Ophiuchus visitors from Newborn Worlds."

"There’s an Unhoused option, isn’t there?"

"Of course. But having an option and knowing how to process someone under it are two different things."

Marek sighed as the clerk returned to her screen. He had expected his Sign to cause problems eventually, although he hadn’t imagined it would happen before he could even leave the entry facility.

Another official was called over, followed by a short discussion that Marek could not understand. They kept pointing at the information on the registration terminal, then toward him, before checking something else on the screen.

Behind him, Kellan leaned toward Silas, although he didn’t bother lowering his voice enough for Marek not to hear him. "He hasn’t even gotten past registration, and he’s already holding everyone up."

Marek looked over his shoulder. "I’m standing here doing absolutely nothing, by the way."

"That’s the impressive part."

"Fuck off."

Silas turned away, but Marek could clearly see him trying not to laugh. He guessed this was the only time Silas and Kellan got along, which was a miracle in itself.

Several minutes passed before the issue was finally resolved.

Rhovan explained that the facility was called a Meridian Gate, a controlled entry point where travelers arriving through the Roads underwent inspection and registration. It was apparently the Prime Continuum’s equivalent of an airport’s immigration checkpoint, although Marek suspected the procedures here were considerably more complicated.

For now, the officials only needed to verify his identity and record his arrival. His permanent civil registration would be handled elsewhere, which meant the clerk wasn’t being asked to decide his entire legal status just yet.

Later, they would need to go through the actual civil registration process.

For now, Marek was given what Rhovan called a First Entry Writ.

Marek stared at the document when it was handed to him. It had a logo on it—it looked like an emblem of the House of Libra, which was fascinating no matter how Marek thought of it.

Meanwhile, most of the writing meant nothing to him because he still couldn’t understand the language, but Rhovan translated the important parts.

Name: Newton Machiavelli

World of Origin: Earth

Age: Nineteen

Sign: Ophiuchus

Entry Witness: Rhovan Ezore

Remarks: No House affiliation. No previous Prime registration.

Marek looked at the document for several seconds longer. Then, he folded the document and placed it inside his backpack.

He had now an official document from the Prime Continuum carrying the name Newton Machiavelli.

Behind him, Nadia was already asking Rhovan when they could finally learn the language, while Kellan complained that he didn’t want to spend the next several weeks relying on Rhovan every time he needed to buy food. Dario was barely listening to any of them because he had been staring at the unfamiliar structures outside the facility for the past several minutes.

Marek eventually looked there as well.

They had finally arrived.

Somewhere farther inside this world was probably the House of Libra, and if everything he knew so far was correct, his father’s trail had led here.

Whether Tomas Vale was still alive or not, Marek intended to find out.