Morning dew slid down the palace windows.
Mirroring it, sweat fell from the Prince's temples, stinging his eyes.
He barely noticed it. His focus stayed on the woman standing before him. She was beautiful beyond reason, yet she looked fragile. Her blue eyes were red from fear. Her black hair hung loose over her shoulders.
Was she a familiar person?
A stranger?
His head throbbed.
One strange detail struck the Prince—he could see clearly. He didn't need glasses anymore. Suddenly, the room seemed to close in around him.Cold stone walls. Tall windows. The unfamiliar weight of fine clothes on his body.
Where was he? Who was he?
A Prince?
The woman, Mirin, said worriedly, "Sol, are you okay?"
The Prince stared at his hand.
No, my name is not Sol Hailsworth. What is going on?
New memories surfaced in the lake of his mind without warning, settling in as if they had always belonged there. Names. Faces. Rules. Expectations. Identity. They were his memories now. And he was no longer a man from Earth. He was now Sol Hailsworth.
Shock. Rejection.
That was what he felt.
Hailsworth?
The Hailsworth family was the rulers of the Hail Kingdom.
The family's head, the Emperor, was said to be a demigod—an unstoppable conqueror pushing into lands beyond the known world. His children were called heaven-chosen, each blessed with powerful abilities known as Sculptic Gifts, their beauty beyond that of ordinary humans.
And Sol Hailsworth was one of them.
NO! NO! I AM NOT SOL!
I AM FRANZ.
He was inhabiting the body of Sol.
The seventh son of the Hailsworth family. A prince, but not one treated kindly by others. His mother had been imprisoned long ago, then banished. Her crime was said to be a fight against the Emperor himself, though the details remained hazy.
All he knew was that, because of her, Sol had grown up isolated from the other princes—kept at a distance, spoken to coldly, watched closely.
In fact, it often seemed as if he were not a part of them at all.
Franz was smarter than Sol, so he knew his mother remained a fugitive outside the kingdom—he was just a hostage pretending to be a prince. Ignored by the King to be used against the fugitive when the time comes.
Mirin called again, "Sol…"
Ah.
And today, the woman before him, Mirin, had brought a report.
A REPORT.
His head throbbed.
What report? And who is Mirin?
Mirin belonged to him. She was gifted to him when he turned ten. Every royal child was given one person like her—someone to manage their daily affairs.
Mirin...
They grew up together, learned together. She was his, and she had served him faithfully ever since. And he loved her dearly.
I am not Sol. She is not the one I love. I have a family back on Earth!
Sol held his head, his eyes were almost splitting.
And then the report.
Thinking about it made a shock of terror run through him.
Mirin had already given it to him.
The report itself was short.
It was a death sentence.
Because of his mother's treason on the Volcan Plains, Sol Hailsworth was to be stripped of his royal status and executed upon the Emperor's return.
As mercy, Sol would be allowed to live freely within the palace until that day. As long as he did not attempt to leave, he was not to be imprisoned.
This was the Emperor's final kindness. And also an announcement to the masses: Only the Emperor was allowed to punish his princes.
From deep within him, an unwitting echo of sadness bloomed.
Sol felt his heart ache.
Mother, oh mother, you truly became the death of me! First, you caused the Empire to watch me like I am a spy, then you made them castrate me, and now—hahaha, you've killed me!
Her treasons had destroyed his life among royalty.
NO. I am not SOL!
All these thoughts flickered through him, then, the existential truth settled in. He had transmigrated to the body of Sol, moving from Earth to this new, unknown planet. He was now the legitimate Sol Hailsworth—the Reclusive Prince.
No, I can still feel myself. Franz. I am Franz, I can feel that body waking up. It's not dead! I am not dead!
What is going on?
He could in fact feel a second, sleeping perspective. Almost like a mind connected clone, a second body of his. It was there.
Sol. Sol is me too. This is..
Ah…
He had taken over this body?
While still alive back on Earth?
And... even his memories had fused, both his earthly self and Sol Hailsworth becoming one.
Who am I? Sol? Franz?
Sol's face warped with a complex set of emotions. He didn't feel like himself from Earth, nor did he feel as if he were Sol.
He felt as if his identity had fractured, then been fixed forcefully.
Transmigration. Prince. Execution. Shitty parents. Two bodies.
And Sol was castrated, without even a working member down there!
FUCK! REALLY!
Too much information.
Sol was overwhelmed.
***
Sol didn't know how much time had passed when he woke up. He had fallen unconscious, and Mirin had taken him to his bed. Looking out the windows, the sun was already high up, heat radiating from it. He had slept for at least a few hours. And Mirin was nowhere to be seen.
Humph, she didn't even wait to console me when I woke up. He felt moody. I bet she is crying somewhere alone, she is always been like that.
His heart mumbled:
My death is soon. Execution awaits.
Just as Sol was falling into a mire of nostalgia and self pity—
DING!
[The Life Simulator has been successfully activated]
[SIMULATE IN THE MIND, ACHIEVE IN REALITY.]
A ringing sound halted his thoughts.
Sol no longer paid attention to his nostalgia or brewing mental crisis and looked at the flickering screen of light in front of him. It was gray in color, seemingly blending in with reality. An introduction of functions flickered, written in the language of the Hailsworth empire.
Am I seeing things?
He touched the screen with a weird feeling, it did not respond.
——
[Life Simulator]
(1). You can perform simulations of reality based on your plans to see how well they would fare.
(2). To initiate a simulation, you need Simulation Shards. Such shards can be collected from some people and from some places. Be on the lookout.
Above some people's heads, a golden mark would flicker. To obtain the Shard, a corresponding task must be completed. The higher the difficulty of the task, the higher the quality of the Life Shard. Location Shards, on the other hand, can be collected by visiting certain locations and completing the Reality Map of the system.You can gain more control of the simulation with higher quality Shards.
(3) You can choose to keep one of the things from the simulation in reality: A skill you possessed in the simulation, an object you owned, or an abstract thing described by you that you owned. Or you can discard all the above choices and generate an Innate Talent based on the simulation.
(4) You will not have the Life Simulator in the simulations.
(5) If you find an Event Shard, you can collect an extra reward from the simulation. You can acquire Event Shards upon completing hidden obsessions of your own psyche.
—
Indeed, one who fucks pussies cannot be without a dick! Of course, as a transmigrator, he got a cheat!
Sol did not yet know what the hell was going on. But one thing was clear: He was in the midst of some very big shit.
And it was not even normal big.
It was big.
As Sol was reeling in thought, pondering about the possibilities, a brilliant map of the palace manifested before him. It spanned nearly 10 kilometers in size, filled with underground passages and segmented inner palaces.
Even this map that appeared in front of him, having covered every place Sol had ever been to in the palace, was full of holes with uncharted territory.
Those places were dark—places he had yet to enter even once.
He blinked.
Life Shards and Location Shards? Simulation? Was this his cheat for transmigration?
Even for a cheat, wasn't this a bit too ridiculous?
Damn, then were all those transmigration novels actually not mere fantasy? He looked out the window, the sun looking further and further as time went on.
What have I got myself into?
With such a cheat, can't he escape execution?
Yes he could.
Not to mention this cheat alone, he also had his own Sculptic Gift.
The Sculptic Gift of a Prince was strong. Not to mention he had an especially powerful Sculptic Gift. With both combined, wasn't his future limitless?
With that thought, the knots in his heart slowly untied. And with that, a thought that had been buried in Sol—the previous Sol's—heart echoed in his mind.
I am you. You are me. We were always one.
That thought shook him, making him think deeply.
Sol, as a person, had a strikingly similar personality to Frank. It was almost as if they were the same person since the day Sol was born.
But I only woke up in this body earlier, right?
A knock came from his room's far end, breaking his fantasy.
Sol whirled around, somewhat panicked.
Has the Emperor returned already?
No, it must be Mirin.
Then, he composed himself and walked to the door.
I am Sol. I have always been Sol. I don't know how, but it seems I am missing some memories.
He opened the door.
Unexpectedly, it was not Mirin.
And in another world, Franz opened his eyes.