Something hot stung my face. Frowning, I opened my eyes. It turned out the sting came from the sunlight from the east.
It's morning already?
Then last night's memories came sequentially. Headache, paralyzed body, and the beautiful woman who kissed me.
I just realized, I was automatically raising my hand to block the sunlight that stung my eyes.
'I can move?'
I flipped my hand back and forth in disbelief.
Not wanting to lose the opportunity, I immediately jerked my body as hard as I could. I sat up. Then, I checked all parts of my body.
"Thank goodness… I thought I lost my limbs."
I hugged myself affectionately.
Even though I just woke up, my breath was ragged as if I had just been running.
Being able to move after experiencing paralysis last night was a great achievement. Coupled with my headache subsiding by about [90%], this made it the most relieving feeling I had ever felt in my life.
Eh what's this? I touched something covering one of my eyes. It turned out to be a bandage. The bandage covered almost the entire upper part of my head.
"I… I just had an accident?"
And at that moment, I felt my hand wasn't like my own. It had very pale skin and looked thin – unlike the hand of a child who always received money from his parents every Sunday.
I looked around.
The room that served as my shelter was very large. The walls were made of piles of blackish-grey stone and the decorations were like medieval times. Landscape paintings, a bench full of stacked books, and an ink container with a pen still made of feather.
Why am I here?
It didn't take long, I connected this to the system notification I had received earlier:
[Welcome to Chronicle Of The Cursed Blood!]
To confirm that, I intended to get off this white bed. But my intention halted when I saw the indent of the mattress beside me which was still warm and had several strands of silver hair on it.
"It seems this is the woman's hair from last night."
The memory of last night's kiss was clearly etched back into my mind. Honestly, even though the kiss came from a very beautiful woman, I didn't enjoy it at all because the situation was inappropriate, it was just painful and scary. Besides, that kiss wasn't a kiss of affection, but rather an outlet. Even though I had never kissed before, I could tell the difference, moreover the woman seemed to be experiencing something heavy, hence she was drunk. Was it the forced engagement she mentioned?
Hmm… maybe if I hadn't had a headache and paralysis, the story would be a little different.
I put that thought aside for now and headed straight for the mirror not far from where I was.
My thin feet touched the cold floor. Then, I stepped unsteadily and trembling like a baby just learning to walk. Because of that, I held onto whatever I passed to keep my body from falling.
Upon reaching the mirror, what I saw in the reflection was not me, but a pale white-skinned child with a very thin body; clearly visible beneath his shirt. The child's head was wrapped in a bandage stained with blood spots, but some jet-black hair peeked out. His eyes had a strange color, it was glowing silver.
Who?
I briefly thought it was someone else, so I turned around to look for them. But it turned out, the reflection followed all my movements perfectly. That person was me.
"I really transmigrated...?"
Coming closer, I touched the cold glass.
The notion was indeed strange, but this was indeed what happened to me. Even when I pulled my skin, that face didn't come off. Calling this a dream after going through so much with this body was clearly impossible.
Suddenly something foreign entered my brain. It was a memory of this body–
A young man who lived in a slum district called Rusty with his mother and father. Julian Arclaine. 16 years old.
Barren and dry land. Black clouds. Homeless people and corpses strewn on the roadside. That was the scenery of Rusty district.
Sold by his father, Enzo, to human traffickers who would then send him to the empire to be sacrificed.
Before that, Enzo confessed to killing his mother by poisoning her because he considered her a burden. Julian tried to kill him, but as he was about to stab him, something solid hit the back of his head. After that his body was dragged by someone and thrown into some kind of prison cart.
The most vivid memory in his mind was when Enzo received the money from selling him...
"Enzo..."
Suddenly that name just came out of my mouth with a trembling voice. I just realized that tears had welled up in the corners of my eyes.
"Huahhhh!!"
Reflexively I recoiled from the mirror until I fell sitting.
"No, no, I am Kim Dae-ho. Those memories belong to Julian. Not mine, no."
I patted my face.
Even though I said that, it couldn't be denied that his traumatic experience, his mother's affection, and his grudge against his father, were now mine.
This is terrible. I could lose who I am before I can go home.
I need a distraction. A distraction that can show who 'I' really am and the only thing referring to that is the fact that I have meta-knowledge that this is the world of a Novel. So, I cling strongly to that.
A few moments later, my mood began to calm down again. With that mindset, I managed to win this identity struggle or at least that's what I felt. Fortunately Julian's head had just suffered a hard impact – it made most of his memories disappear so the impact wasn't too great in my opinion. If I had received his full memory, I would have definitely lost myself.
"Julian Arclaine."
I repeated that name while stroking my chin – trying to dig into memories with my [Level 1] capacity.
I think I know who he is. No, I only know his surname. As I recall, 'Arclaine' is the surname of one of the seven Demon Hunter clans in this novel. And they...
My eyes widened and my heart pounded fast instantly.
"I'm in danger..."
The seven Demon Hunter clans are currently being hunted by the Veridia Empire, even other empires. They want to genocide the clans even though they were once very devoted to the empire. The reason is that 'they' who now occupy the imperial throne are demons wearing beautiful human forms. The demons who hold a grudge against the Demon Hunter clans, using that power to frame them.
That genocide, even when I had just read the first page, was said to have been going on for eleven years.
That explains why Enzo sold me... I mean Julian to the empire through human trafficking agents as intermediaries. He needed money to survive.
So now...
I looked around again.
...Why am I in this luxurious room? And why did that noblewoman kiss me? Is that their new way of treating fugitives? Providing comfort first so the impact of torture is felt more. But still, it's too excessive, especially since they are demons.
Whatever it is, I have to get out of this place before that woman comes in. From her physical appearance she is a noble – meaning most likely she is also a demon.
I approached the door, but as I was about to pull it I imagined the demon nobles behind it. There must be many of them behind this door.
I can't get out through here.
Then I went to the window, looking for a gap. But my courage shrank when I saw what was beyond the window.
As far as I could see, I didn't spot a single human civilization. There were only trees with mountains at the edge of the horizon.
Looking down, I was apparently on the top floor of this building. If I forced my way out, I would fall and die.
In short, there was no way out. I'm isolated here.
Suddenly the door creaked softly.
Someone was about to enter.
In that short time, I straightened the curtains and the books that were scattered because of me. At least I shouldn't mess up this room. As a final step, I positioned the mirror facing the door.
"What are you doing?"
I froze.