The dream came without warning.
The scent was the first thing—smoke, incense, and roses left too long in their vases, their petals sagging with rot. Heavy curtains blocked out the sun, drowning the throne room in shadows, though I remembered how bright it once was.
Then came the sting. A sharp crack across my cheek, my head snapping to the side. Heat flooded my skin, the echo of her palm louder than her words.
"Why must you be like this?" my mother's voice quivered, yet the trembling wasn't fragility—it was anger. Rage born of fear. "Always so dark… so cold. Do you not see what you've done? It is because of you we are here. Because of you, we've been cast out."
Her words cut deeper than her slap. I turned back to face her, violet eyes locking with hers. There was no softness in them. Only desperation, sharpened into accusation.
I wanted to protest, to say something, anything. But behind her words, I heard the distant sound of laughter echoing down gilded halls. My brother's laughter. My stepbrother—wearing the crown that should have been mine, the courtiers kneeling as though he had always been destined to stand where I could not.
It should have been me.
No… That wasn't right. That wasn't the truth. I had spent years telling myself another story. That he was my twin brother. That I loved my twin brother. I was the only one driven out of that god damn castle.
The only truth that was twisted into the lies was that I was an outcast; no one ever liked me. I was just a villain.
But need I remind you?
Villains are never born; they are made, from the pain and sorrow they've been through.
I miss the days when my smile was real.
A smile can hide many things, but not pain.
The sting of her hand tore through that illusion like a blade through paper.
Her hand trembled as she drew it back to her side. For the briefest instant, I thought I saw regret flicker across her face. But then her eyes shifted away, to the tall doors behind me. Beyond them, I could almost feel the shadows of the King's second wife and her son, the whispers of their triumph slipping through the cracks like poison.
My chest hollowed, my breath thin and shallow. Shame clung to me, heavy as chains. My own mother had looked at me, not as her child, but as the cause of our ruin. And I—silent, powerless—could do nothing but stand there and bear the weight of her disappointment.
The darkness thickened. My throat tightened as if unseen hands were choking me. I tried to speak, to demand why she blamed me, to beg her to look at me the way she once had—but the words never came. Only silence. Only the void.
And then—
I woke with a jolt.
Cold sweat plastered my hair to my forehead, my breath ragged, uneven. My chest rose and fell too fast, as though I had run from something that had caught me all the same. The room around me was dim, the faint glow of starlight bleeding through the window. Reality pressed back in slowly, but the sting on my cheek lingered, as if her hand had followed me through time.
I pressed my palm against the burning ghost of the slap, trembling.
"…Was it really him?" My voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.
The lie I had built at the start of this new life—the belief that my twin was the one who became King, and I, a miserably useless villain, didn't let anyone else down except for myself—wavered like glass about to shatter. If the dream was true, then everything I had clung to was nothing but a desperate illusion.
And yet… I wanted to believe it. I needed to believe it.
But the echo of her hand told me otherwise.
Was there a need now to hide the fact that I was a villain?
That's right, I was your typical villain.
My revenge came slowly, each step carefully planned.
A "sorry" doesn't heal everything.
The gaps that the countless "sorrys" of the Royal Family, my mother, and even my father, The King himself, left gave me enough hatred and resentment to fuel my great plan.
The connections I had made as a Mafia Boss gave me just the right amount of information I needed to find where my mother lived.
The doom of the world came when I lived as an assassin. No one could stop me. I was an unstoppable monster devouring every drop of royal blood I could find.
I believed that my fate, as well as theirs, was bound by stars. My only friends guided me through every step. Staying up with me as I talked to them day and night.
But this is a new start now.
I do not need any bloodshed to satisfy my hunger for revenge.
This time, I am Hoshikawa.
The boy born in a world of stars.
___________________________________________________________________________
The magic classes proceeded smoothly.
I even got to learn how to do advanced celestial magic!
Which is, of course, voiceless incantation.
Which, of course, again, I scared the shit out of my parents and Lexi by doing voiceless incantation successfully on my first try.
They were like, " If Kawa-Kun can do voiceless incantation, then what if he goes through does super late terrible twos (which is by the way, 3 years late), and create those giant fireballs to burn down the house again? Oh my… we need to please him well,"
Although most of the different advanced rank magic, due the limited space, I can only perform 2 at most at one time.
Sorry, in my world, we just call it magic, but it's actually called Astramancy.
Let me break it down:
We use our astralis (essence) to open our astral core. As Celesians (mages), we wield astramancy (magic). But we don't use this term often. We would normally say, " Oh, I used my astralis and channeled it into my sword," or some sort.
Anyway, Lexi sensei, as the only mage, I mean, capable mage around other than me, she got a lot of requests from the farmers to summon rain for them. And of course, as the "very" kind sensei, she could never say no to these requests from meager farmers begging her for help. Ugh, why does she always need to act like a hero?
I heard this from my dad when I was staying at home reading.
I decided to tease her a bit when she got home.
" Lexi sensei, how kind of you to help those poor folks," I winked
"Help? No, I'm just earning some pocket money,"
" Huh? You're charging?"
" Of course! Everything comes with a price. See, for rain, it would cost about 2 silver coins, and for…"
I was shocked to the core. What a cheapskate! This is daylight robbery!!
Turns out, my sensei is a gold digger who is obsessed with money. Sigh..
However, since no one in the village of Starhaven knew how to summon rain, they all praised Lexi for being such a genius. They were even willing to pay such an outrageous price for rain.
Sigh, it's a give and a take, I guess.
Maybe it's just my mindset.
____________________________________________________________________________
I'm about 6 now.
Back at our small house, we hosted my small birthday party. The Avanguard came along too. It was pretty lively.