I was thrown into an old-fashioned carriage, though it was decorated with gold and silver ornaments. I shifted my eyes toward the building I had been in—a massive structure in the middle of the city, yet built in a style unlike the modern age, which made me certain for the thousandth time that I had truly been reincarnated.
The ride in the carriage was not comfortable due to the constant shaking and the sound of horse hooves striking the stone pavement. But I quickly grew accustomed to it, for in my previous life, because of the unnatural crowding in Tokyo's streets, I was forced to take underground trains.
...
After a short trip, the carriage finally stopped. The door opened, and the guard extended his hand, bowing respectfully to help me down.
"Please, Your Highness, the Prince."
When I stepped down, I was taken aback by a breathtaking sight: a vast and magnificent palace stretching for several meters in all directions. An elegant fountain stood in the center of the courtyard leading up to the palace's ornate doors. Guards were stationed everywhere, and the side gardens looked like the Amazon jungle.
What luxury.
A servant in his twenties stepped forward and stood with dignity, then spoke in a deep voice: "Oh? It seems you've returned in one piece."
I raised my eyebrow in surprise. His tone carried arrogance and mockery. I may be ignorant in this world, but judging from the guards' behavior earlier, my status was higher than that of a servant.
A half-smile formed on my face, and I said with disdain:
"I don't think that's any of your concern, beetle-face."
The servant's expression shifted to displeasure and anger, but before I could speak again, a sharp headache overwhelmed me. I felt a warm liquid flowing from my nose, and then everything went dark. (◠‿◕)
POV R:
Aaron collapsed to the ground unconscious, blood streaming from his nose. The servant's face paled slightly, and he shouted at the guards. Edward stood watching what was happening, then sighed and entered the palace.
Aaron was moved to a room in the eastern wing. He was placed on a wide white bed, surrounded by doctors checking his pulse and diagnosing his condition. Meanwhile, Edward leaned against the door, his golden eyes glowing with something mysterious.
Beside him stood Alerion, worried for the boy's health, and he asked, "Doctor, how is he?"
The doctor replied in a flat tone: "I think he hit his head badly, which has caused some rebound side effects."
Alerion blinked. Honestly, he understood nothing, but it seemed Aaron's condition was not critical.
The man with white hair (his name not yet revealed) spoke as he recalled what happened at the auction: "Could he be suffering from memory loss?"
The doctor furrowed his brows in puzzlement.
"That… is natural if the blow was severe. But why do you ask?"
"He didn't recognize us just a moment ago."
The doctor nodded in understanding, then began collecting his medical tools carefully into a medium-sized wooden box.
"It may be temporary amnesia, so I recommend letting him rest. We can confirm once he wakes up."
The old man bowed respectfully, then left the room. Alerion spoke with relief: "Good, we won't have to bury a corpse."
Edward shot him a sharp glare that silenced him, and just as the doctor left, the others followed one after another, leaving only Aaron lying on the bed.
...
The First Nightmare:
An ancient graveyard shrouded in black fog. The clouds twisted above into a circular shape, and thousands of black eyes stared down from behind them. The fog moved closer to Aaron, thick and crawling over his skin.
Aaron swallowed hard, then screamed:
"What the hell is this—it's disgusting, it looks like snot!"
He tried to run, but couldn't move. The fog coiled around his legs and anchored him to the ground.
"Tok… tok… click… craaack."
Silence dominated the place, broken only by Aaron's faint breathing and the sound of bones breaking. Slowly, Aaron turned his head back, and horror struck his heart like a devastating bolt. Thousands of skeletal hands emerged from the graves, rotting, looking like rusted iron.
The boy swallowed with difficulty and tried to scream, but the fog wrapped around his mouth and covered his eyes. The bony hands grabbed his throat as a raspy voice echoed in the background:
"The seal… open the seal…"
...
Aaron gasped awake violently, his pupils dilated. He slowly reached up to touch his throat, then threw off the blanket from his legs, searching ◖⚆ᴥ⚆◗. He exhaled in relief, then lay back down, trying to calm himself.
...
My God, what was that? Damn it, was it just a dream?
I looked around the room. It was large and spacious, a sofa facing the bed, a balcony overlooking the garden. I sighed, then got up and walked toward the mirror.
"Damn, what is this beauty this body possesses?"
I touched my hair—it was silky in every sense of the word, its color a deep black like that man called Edward, but my eyes were crimson red.
"Wow, I look like a vampire."
Judging from my small build, I was about nine or ten years old.
⟦ System Opened ⟧
✦ Name: Aaron Vicedivedia
✦ Rank: F
✦ Level: 1
✦ Experience Points: 0 / 100
[ Basic Stats ]
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Strength: 6 ┃
┃ Agility: 5 ┃
┃ Mana: 5 ┃
┃ Endurance: 6 ┃
┃ Intelligence: 18 ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
[ Status ]
✧ Physical Condition: Unknown
✧ Mental Condition: Active
✧ Vital Energy: 100 / 20
[ Skills ]
☒ All skills sealed
└ Currently inaccessible…
[Unlock requirements: Unknown]
[ Inventory ]
☒ Bag tightly locked
└ Inventory system not yet activated
[ Notes ]
Minor disruption in mana structure detected
Intelligence level allows user to analyze supernatural information
Attempting to break the seals before activating "Lost Memory" is not advised
[ Active Quests ]
None at the moment
⟦ Warning: System in Silent Observation Mode ⟧
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the system interface appeared before me, displaying various details. But wait a second—
"What are these stats? They're literal trash."
There was nothing special at all—no skills, no items, even my physical condition was completely unknown. Wait—seals?
I remembered that in the dream, that voice had said I had to break the seal.
I pressed a pulsing red button in the corner of the screen, and a new interface called "Novel Information" appeared.
⟦ Novel Interface ⟧
✦ Main Role: Final Villain
✦ Name: Aaron Vicedivedia
✦ Age: 11
✦ Current Rank: F
✦ Location: Veghgyria Kingdom
✦ Status: Inactive | Under Observation
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ The destined future of the body's original owner: Demon King.
You will rebel against the royal system and cause the suffering of thousands of innocents. You will be regarded as a human threat and meet your end at the hands of the Seven Heroes. ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
[ Fate's Threat ]
✦ Seven heroes… seven annoying lights
✦ They will be the cause of his end… your end…
✦ ⚠︎ Information about them not available ⚠︎
✦ [Unlocks at Level 10]
[ System Notes ]
User identified as a "Temporal Disturbance Point"
System temporarily restricted to maintain world balance
Monitoring by the Higher Authority is ongoing
I blinked slowly, trying to process the overwhelming flood of information, my body stiffening with tension.
"My fate is to become the Demon King? And damn it, I'll die at the hands of the Seven Heroes?"
I tapped the screen frantically, trying to find additional information, but in vain. My abilities were all below average, my fate was cursed, and what was this Higher Authority anyway? What had I done in my past life to deserve such a fate? I was a lawyer who saved innocents, not a serial killer.
I sighed in annoyance, then closed the absurd screen in front of me. I began reviewing the key points: my age is 11, my physical condition is unknown, my vitality is complete trash, my abilities are sealed. I live in the Kingdom of Veghgyria. There are seven heroes I must avoid in the future, though I don't know who they are.
The only way forward is to level up in order to unlock more information. That leaves only the Higher Authority. Who are they? Is it the author of this world, or something else entirely?
In the middle of these complications, my room's door burst open, and Edward, Alerion, and the white-haired man entered with an old physician.
I blinked slowly, registering what was happening, then asked irritably, for they had interrupted my contemplation of my private life:
"What do you want exactly?"
Alerion stepped forward, gestured toward himself, and asked:
"Do you remember me?"
Really, this idiot was still asking the same question.
"No. And I don't want to, either."
I replied with the coldest tone I could muster. The poor guy was shocked and stepped back three paces, then shoved the old man toward me, shouting:
"Examine him now! He must have lost his memory. There's no way anyone in this kingdom wouldn't recognize me!"
' Looks like the old man is a doctor. Memory loss? That might be a good trick to save myself from this situation.'