2025-02-06 03:21:18The birds were chirping, there was the sound of bustling people, a faint smell of the sea accompanied by the warmth and smell that could only belong to a cozy place— no, that was impossible.
There was no way he was alive, that he was breathing and if by some weird unfortunate luck that he was, the smell that was supposed to welcome him was something along the line of grim dirt, dried blood, rotten flesh and stale food. That was the only smell allowed to exist at the most menacing cells of Visteria prison house.
He moved a bit and furrowed his brows when he noticed that there were no sounds of jingling chains, this made him try to peel his eyes open but he quickly shut it again when bright light obscured his views.
What the hell was going on?!
He swiftly sat up and looked down at his clothes in disbelief, contrary to his expectations, he wasn’t dressed in the normal tattered clothes that are forced down on prisoners of the Blood Dungeon of Visteria—the only place that they would have found suitable to keep him chained down.
Instead, he was in worn-out cloth made from thin cotton that he was sure he had seen before, he wasn’t sure where but now was not the time to think about clothing materials.
There were more important things, like how on earth he managed to end up here?
In a room that looked like it belonged to someone who would rather die than tidy up his place, with a lot of pictures featuring people holding money and girls dressed scantily.
It was obviously a teenager’s room.
Did someone save him from Kadel at the brink of death? Or someone brought him out of prison?
He was processing his thoughts when the door was slammed open, it made a loud bang as it hit the wall that he wondered for a moment if the person at the door was having deep issues.
“Get your ass up, Zaden! How long are you going to play dead?!” He yelled as he entered. “I am having none of it today, you are going to attend the academy and-“
He stopped when he saw him sitting up, they both stared at each other speechlessly before the angry man hurried over to him and seized him by the arms.
“Zaden!”
“Who?”
“What?”
“Yeah, who’s Zaden?” The other man gaped at him speechlessly. “And who are you?!”
“I am Caden and you are my younger brother, Zaden!”
The question sounded so authoritative that the military instincts in Caden’s mind forced him to give a prompt answer. He furrowed his brow after and moved even closer to his brother.
“Don’t give me any of your shits!” His voice was menacing.
“I am being serious right here and you have the nerve to perform one of your acts in front of me?
You are supposed to take the first batch of the Academy’s registration exam but you ran off to act in a play in front of a lot of people, you didn’t win the competition and beat up the one who did instead, before you went ahead and razed the whole place!
And you are even doing your shameless performance in front of me?”
“I think you might have got something wrong Caden, my name is Elaris.” Elaris adjusted his position as he regarded Caden, not moved by the man’s anger at all. “I am sure that someone from this house rescued me, maybe that brother of yours.”
Caden removed his hand that was holding his brother’s arms and rested it on his temple but Elaris used two fingers to push his hand away.
“Are you having a fever or doing this to escape punishment? Let me do the honors of informing you that that won’t work!” He narrowed his eyes at him again, he pulled him out of bed, “Now come with me! Father and Mother want to see you, maybe you would have an explanation for the madness you did at the performance house.”
This time, even though Elaris tried his best not to move, the man still managed to drag him out of bed which made him stare at Caden in surprise. This average man was not supposed to possess the strength to drag him, ten men usually crossed swords with him at the same time but he still won’t move an inch under their weight.
“What is going on? Did all my strength vanish because of my last fight?” He pondered out loud. “And where the hell are my abilities?” The last part was muttered.
“Since when have you ever had strength, fight or not?” Caden jabbed behind him and he raised his head to glare at him, but he stopped dead when he saw the reflection of his own face in the mirror that was in front of him. He moved closer and reexamined his own face.
“What is this?!” He asked in total shock.
There were few things that were able to take him by surprise because he had experienced all sorts of things while at war but nothing beat the one that his own face provided at the moment.
In fact, this wasn’t his own face at all.
He had black straight long hair that he always packed, with bright blue eyes, smooth skin and pale lips, nothing like the shock of thick curly brown hair and blue-green eyes, rough skin and pink lips that greeted him.
This was absolutely abnormal, it was impossible, in fact, it was madness!
He turned swiftly and tackled Caden down, pinning him down with a death hold as he glared at him intimidatingly, sending chills down the other man’s spine.
“What the hell did you do to me? What did you do to my face?!” He asked.
“Your f-face?” Caden stuttered. “What could I possibly do to it? You have always had this face and refused to take care of it so that you could look more badass even though I yell at you about it a lot of the time.”
His grip loosened when he saw that the man wasn’t lying, but he still didn’t move.
“Tell me all about yourself and me, who am I?”
“What kind of question is that? Have you really lost all your memories like the doctor said that you might?” Caden covered his mouth with his hand.
“Tell me.”
“You are Zaden Blackwell and I am your brother. Father is the third Lord of this city, our mother is dead and you are twenty years old, we have a step mother and three step brothers with a step sister too. I just finished my first service at the military and wasn’t selected while you have been lazing around.” Caden nodded. “Yeah, that about sums it up.”
“Wh…what year is it?” He stuttered, not sure if he wanted to hear.
“We are two months into Gold Era,” Caden was confused at the questions.
Elaris’ head reeled in shock. “King Drakell just ascended the throne?!”
He wasn't just thrown into this confusing loop, he was thrown into it, six years back into the past, King Drakell was the tyrant king– both Kadel and Malek's father, and it was close to the end of his sixth year reign that he ordered him to go and raze the other cities.
“How long was I unconscious and why?” Elaris mustered.
“You have been causing trouble a lot and many people have eyes on you but after you razed down the performance house, the owner was at her last and sent some men after you. They chased you to the road and you were almost knocked over, you got to the lake and fell in head first in an attempt to swim even though you can’t swim for shit.” Caden sighed. “You hit your head and was unconscious for a week, and by the looks of it, it might have affected your brain.”
“So… he was a good-for-nothing?” Elaris asked.
He woke up back in six years and in the body of an idiot? He lost all his abilities on top of it all? Say something about a worse fate.
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Everybody froze with complicated expressions on their faces, there was no saying if they should advance forward and bash the two men standing with their back against each other or withdraw to their master who was already bleeding from the thin slice on his neck.There was a dead silence as everyone continued to stare at each other, Elaris and his partner continued to advance backward and near the houses, it was easier to find an escape route around their than at the front.“Boo,” Radai said, and Eadai glared hard ahead since he couldn’t turn his head or he would risk detaching his head from the body.“What the hell are you doing?” Eadai asked, his lips trembling as he clenched his hand tightly.“What does it look like, brother? I think it is self explanatory,” Radai replied.Elaris and his partner had walked a considerable distance from them all but then all the soldiers standing at the rare gate also came forward and stopped behind them.“Your time is up, you have pranced around for
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