"Young Master?"
A girl's voice, unfamiliar, wavered at my side.
"Lord Darian, wake up sir"
My eyes flung open.
I shot upright, a soft mattress shifting beneath me.
The sudden movement startled a young girl beside me. She flinched back, her breath catching, clutching her apron like a shield.
She seemed to be a girl of perhaps seventeen at most, her expression caught between worry and fear.
She had soft chestnut brown colored hair tied neatly at the back, a few loose strands framing her round face.
Her eyes, wide with worry, were a gentle shade of hazel that reflected innocence and fatigue. The crisp uniform she wore was simple, yet clean, the white apron pressed neatly over her dark dress.
She looked at me with familiarity.
Did she know me ? Wait. Do I even know her?
I don't recall ever seeing someone like her before.
"Lord Darian, you scared me"
She murmured with a low frightened voice.
Her eyes fixated on me.
"Lord Darian?" I questioned her.
My voice sounded different. It sounded younger but not mine.
"Who is Lord Dar...
I was cut off mid sentence when floods of memories pierced my mind like a blade through armor. Foreign memories. Memories that weren't mine. Most were vague but a few things stood out.
Faces i have never seen before. A grand mansion draped in banners of red. Whispers of scorn. Mocking laughter. Memories of a childhood not mine yet somehow it felt familiar. It was as if a whole life story had been injected into my brain. Overloading it.
I staggered, clutching my head as the torrent poured in. The feeling was obnoxious causing slight migraines.
'Darian Redmond', the name echoed in my mind.
These memories were his.
But why? Why do I posses them?
I sat still for a bit, breath uneven as the last fragments of foreign memories settled in my mind. Slowly, I lowered my gaze to my hands.
They were slender, pale, unscarred. Not the hands that had gripped a sword for decades. Not the hands calloused by years of battle.
What is this?
My eyes swept down to my arms, my chest. My frame was smaller, weaker, almost fragile. A chill slid down my spine.
I pushed myself off the bed, my legs unsteady beneath unfamiliar weight. The bed was incredibly high. Normally beds would be flat on the floor. Yet this one had layers that increased it height.
I stumbled toward a mirror in the corner. The mirror itself was enormous. Framed by patterns of sliver and gold.
The reflection staring back at me was not the samurai I had trained decades to become, but a stranger –pale and sickly, as though the life had been drained from him.
Dark red hair spilled loosely over a face too young, no more than eighteen, yet the skin was bloodless, lips nearly colorless.
Dark rings bruised the space beneath hollow eyes, and frame though lean, looked fragile, as if a harsh wind might topple him.
I leaned closer, heart tightening. This was no hardened samurai. This was a fragile boy dressed in silk too fine for the strength his body clearly lacked.
The face in the glass looked as though it hadn't seen sunlight in months. And yet… those same tired eyes were now mine.
"Young Master, is something wrong?"
The young girl asked.
"Umm...nothing is wrong, Elaina."
I shot back with a reply.
I startled myself with the ease in which her name slipped from my mouth.
I should not have known it, yet I did. Is it because of him?
Darian Redmond. His memories that I possess and his body I now inherited.
How? What's going on?
The last thing I remember is dying on the battlefield. Then darkness.
I do not know why or how im here but one thing is clear. I died and woke up as Darian Redmond.
...
"I have made you breakfast, young master"
Elaina stated, snapping me back to reality.
She grabbed a tray that lay on the table side bed.
Steam curled from a bowl of rich broth, its surface sprinkled with herbs, beside neatly sliced roast fowl, soft bread still warm from the oven and a small cup of fruit juice.
Beside it, desert. Pieces of freshly baked cake lay on a plate.
Cake? How do I even know what cake is? I have never eaten or seen it before. Yet somehow I knew what it was.
To see so much food, prepared solely for one man, felt almost indulgent. Back in my clan, even as clan heir, meals were simple, shared, and earned with sweat. Here, abundance was laid before me without effort needed from my side.
A smile tugged on my face. I wasn't overwhelmed, but the thought struck me all the same,...'this was the life of a noble'.
The fact that she called me young master is a sign that I must be of noble blood.
Even the chamber itself was a display of nobility. The size of the room was as big as my home in my past life.
Thick curtains hung over the tall windows.
Huge chandeliers from the ceiling. Shelves of stacked books.
Though it looked like it hadnt been touched in so long. The ceiling itself was so high. The whole chamber was carvenously spacious. The walls and furniture were carved with fancy designs. Red, gold and white, were the colors that covered mostly everything.
On the wall, a symbol or insignia. Two blades crossing each other and in the midst was a sheild that had a design of seemed to be a red dragon.
"I've placed the food on your dining table, young master"
Elaina spoke softly.
"Oh... uh, thank you" I replied.
I might as well keep up the act. Who knows what might happen if people find out that a total stranger now possesed Darian's body.
This new life is a second chance. One that I will not waste.