Chapter 252: All In The Past
The first thing Lukas noticed when he made himself comfortable in the seat was the absence of a seatbelt.
He glanced quickly around the car. There was nothing across the chest, and nothing at the hip.
Back on earth, getting into a car without a seatbelt felt wrong on instinct, with years of habit making the absence feel like a missing step.
But thinking about it for a second, it made sense here.
The weakest people licensed to drive these vehicles were Adepts. Even at the bottom of that ranking, an Adept had reflexes and physical capability far beyond any ordinary person.
The reaction time alone would be enough to handle most situations before they became dangerous.
And if a crash did happen somehow, an Adept had more than enough ability to walk away from it without needing a strip of fabric to hold them in place.
A seatbelt might even slow them down when it mattered most, keeping them locked to a seat when every instinct told them to move.
He shifted his attention to the controls.
There were no pedals either. The floor in front of him was completely flat.
Luckily, he’d already seen this when he read through that section of the driving handbook. His eyes went to the steering wheel, finding exactly what the book had described.
On the right side of the wheel was the acceleration button, a smooth raised surface that responded to pressure rather than simple pressing.
One would use light pressure for low speed, and more force for higher speed, with the output scaling directly with how hard he pushed.
On the left side of the steering wheel was the button for the brake, following the same principle as the first button.
And right below the acceleration button was the reverse toggle, small and recessed slightly so it couldn’t be hit by accident.
The handbrake sat exactly where it would in a car back on earth, a lever between the seats at the same height and angle his hand would naturally fall. That, at least, felt familiar.
The whole setup felt less like driving and more like playing a video game with a controller built into the wheel itself.
"You may begin whenever you’re ready, Mr. Valentine," the official said from the passenger seat, a small notepad open on his knee.
Lukas reached for the handbrake and disengaged it. He placed both hands on the wheel and pushed a thread of mana through his palms and into the vehicle.
The car responded immediately, a vibration running through the frame as the systems came alive beneath him.
He pressed the acceleration button with light pressure, and the car moved forward smoothly.
The first few meters felt odd. The car’s sensitivity was higher than he’d expected, with the car reacting to changes he hadn’t fully intended, but he quickly adjusted.
He eased off, found the middle ground, and let himself get a feel for it.
By the time he reached the first turn, it was already starting to click.
He guided it through the bends, moving more like a veteran than a new driver.
’I guess all those racing games finally paid off.’ He smiled to himself.
The roundabout appeared midway through the first lap, and he completed it without a single error.
He grinned at that, before increasing his speed slightly as he grew more confident.
Before long, he’d completed the two laps. It was time to reverse.
Lukas checked both side mirrors before doing anything else, making sure he could see clearly behind him. Then he pressed the reverse button with a measured amount of pressure.
The car eased backwards.
He kept his hands on the wheel and his eyes on the mirrors, adjusting with small corrections as he went.
Reversing felt different from moving forward, with the feedback from the pressure buttons requiring a lighter touch to avoid overcorrecting. He found the balance quickly, letting the car settle into a smooth pace.
The bends came one by one and he took each of them with care. When the roundabout finally appeared, he moved through it smoothly like it was second nature.
The official sat in silence, watching as Lukas drove through the track, and before long, the marked parking rectangle came into view.
He guided the car into it with a series of small adjustments, checking both mirrors in turn, before bringing the vehicle back to almost exactly the position it had started in.
When he was satisfied, he eased off the reverse button entirely and let it come to a full stop.
He pulled the mana back from the car, feeling the vibration in the frame die down and then disappear. Then he reached across and pulled the handbrake up until it locked.
The official made a note on his pad.
"Very well done, Mr. Valentine," he said with a few nods. "That was a great performance across all three laps. No corrections needed."
"Thank you," Lukas said.
They made their way back up through the building to the lobby. Melody and Akira both looked up the moment he walked in.
"Well?" Melody asked.
"Of course I passed," Lukas said.
Melody stared at him, then she looked down at the handbook in her hands, flipping through it slowly with a deep frown. "Is it actually that easy? Because looking at this, I wouldn’t have thought—"
"The driving itself is easy," Lukas said, dropping into the seat beside her. "You’ll both pick it up quickly once you’re behind the wheel. The harder part is memorizing all the rules before you even get there."
Akira had been quiet, watching him with narrowed eyes. "How did you memorize the rules so fast? You didn’t even take the book with you."
Lukas leaned back. "I’d seen a rulebook like that before. Back in Havenhart."
He kept his tone light. "My parents had one when I was young, before they died. I thought it was nonsense at the time, but I read through it anyway. A lot of it stuck."
He gave them both a small smile. "I guess I’m just that lucky."
It was the best lie he could come up with to cover his life back on earth. He wasn’t ready to reveal it. And he wasn’t sure if he would ever be ready.
But for now, it was best to keep it where it belonged. In the past.
Melody and Akira exchanged a glance.
"We thought you’d somehow found a way to cheat in there," Melody admitted.
Lukas laughed. "In a room alone with an examiner?"
"We weren’t ruling it out," Akira said.
Before he could respond, the official returned from the back corridor, an ID card held out to Lukas between two fingers.
"Your driving certification, Mr. Valentine. Congratulations."
Lukas took it, turning it over once in his hand before sliding it into his spatial ring beside his other cards.
"Thank you," he said, standing.
They filed out of the testing center and back onto the street, the afternoon sun blazing down on them as they stepped outside.
Melody was already walking faster than the rest of them, a wide grin on her face.
"Now," she said, "can we please go buy the car."
