Eveline Green sat in her carriage and gave a deep sigh of relief. She had just left the tea party of Princess Malorie Avildor. It was a fun event, though she did not come to the party to see her exactly. It was more so to be able to catch a glance of one of the handsome Avildor Princes.

She did manage to spot Reynard Avildor, the fourth prince, and her age. Unfortunately, she was unable to talk to him, but the tea party itself was still fun. Now she enjoyed a relaxing trip back home in her custom-built carriage.

It was the birthday gift that she had been begging for since she read her first fairy tale story a decade ago. Sure her family had cars, but there was something special about a horse-drawn carriage. Stellar, her favourite horse carried her wherever she wanted and the kind driver and knight Stephanie made sure to keep her safe.

The carriage was well maintained as well; it was coated with multiple enchantments to offer plenty of quality-of-life improvements. Temperature control, lights, music, among a few others including heavy reinforcement of the entire carriage for her safety. Plus the stallion that was her purebred horse.

Eveline’s family was a relatively well-off noble family, being decently affluent viscounts. But even then something like this wasn’t easy to get. But for her thirteenth birthday earlier this year, she finally got it. It easily was her favourite thing in the entire world.

“Are we ready to go Lady Eveline?” Stephanie asked opening a small sliding peephole to peer into the carriage.

“Yes, let’s head home.” Eveline said with a nod as she turned on the music player.

With a nod, Stephanie closed the peephole so that Eveline could have some alone time and had the horse begin moving. Eveline simply listened to her music while taking out her Communicator and began to surf the Aether. A few minutes later she heard a voice.

“Well this is nice.”

Looking up from her Communicator she was confused to see a man with glowing white eyes sitting across from her in a gaudy-looking suit with snowflakes printed all across it. Eveline opened her mouth to make noise only to find that she couldn’t. She couldn’t even move. The man in front of her simply smiled.

“You know I’m quite excited.” He said with a grin as he turned the music up louder, “This is the first time I’m going to kill someone in this world. So consider yourself lucky.”

Before Eveline could process what happened she felt the carriage shake, and then she was thrown around and then darkness engulfed her.

When she opened her eyes again her vision was fuzzy. Groaning she blinked a few times to clear her vision. She realized that she was staring outside on the road. Confused she tried to turn her head, though it took great effort to do so.

Once she was able to tilt her head in the other direction she saw that near a tree her carriage had crashed and been toppled over. One of the wheels was still rolling aimlessly down the road. Next to the tipped-over carriage was Stephanie laying prone and unresponsive.

“What?” Eveline managed to croak out as she heard footsteps approach. Too weak to turn her head anymore she simply tried to track the movement with her eyes. There he was, the man with the glowing eyes.

“Don’t worry, it will all be over soon and everyone who cared about you won’t even know you’re gone.” He said with a grin as he bent down, “Don’t blame me, this is simply destiny.” He said as he tapped her head and nothingness consumed her again.

It wasn’t long before people spotted the wrecked carriage and help to arrive. Miraculously despite the injuries both the driver and the daughter of the viscount survived, though both with head injuries. The horse however did not make it.

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In fact the cause of the accident was a curious case, there was no reason for it to occur and Viscount Green immediately had people investigate. Though nothing of note could be found and eventually it was chalked up to an unfortunate mishap and they were just unlucky.

Besides, the Viscount’s daughter survived and that was what was important. Though this incident did change her personality severely. Once recovered she acted differently than she used to. Not severely, but notable enough to be noticed, this was simply chalked up to head trauma. She did take a nasty blow to the head, besides what else could it be?

***

“Anthony don’t go into the forest; it’s too dangerous!” Isabella, the daughter of a simple leather worker in a small town called out to the boy rushing ahead of her.

Anthony Fields with his spiky, fiery red hair, turned to her with a confident grin on his face, “I know that’s why I’m going. Somebody has to take the ogre down!” He said as he had his broadsword at his side.

It was a magical weapon given to him by his late adventuring father. He had lost his mother at birth and by the time he turned six, his father had passed away. Thankfully his childhood friend Isabella’s family took him in and he has lived at the leather store since and had recently turned thirteen.

Life in town was good, relatively quiet but near enough contaminated zones and dangerous areas where monsters and beasts resided that it never got dull. Anothony Fields had made good with that sword his father gifted him, training with ex-soldiers and adventurers while going out to deal with small monsters.

Ogres were another matter however. They were big, scary, and smart. Anthony may have been a prodigy and dealt with similar beasts, but still it was dangerous to fight one alone.

“Can’t you at least wait for the adult hunters to return first?” Isabella begged.

“They’re still at the market selling things; it’ll take hours for them to return; by then we’ll lose the ogre!” Anthony argued, “Don’t worry I’ll be fine. I’ll be back soon.” He shouted back at her as he ran into the forest after the ogre.

“Just stay safe.” Isabella said squeezing her hands together in worry as she watched him disappear into the woods.

***

It didn’t take long for Anthony to find the ogre. He had already been told where it was last seen by the farmers earlier. The difficult part was fighting it. It had spotted his when he tried to sneak up on it and even spoke to him as it threatened to kill him.

It was all honestly unnerving for Anthony. Still in the end he was able to outwit the monster and slay it, without it even being able to land a single blow on him. He did suffer a few superficial scratches from having to dive around the place, but honestly, Anthony impressed himself with how well he faired against the beast.

“What a perfect excuse for why they’ll find you unconscious.” A voice from behind him said as he was standing over the fallen ogre.

“Huh?’ Anthony turned around to see a strange man in a weird-looking suit and glowing pure white eyes.

“Hi there.” The stranger said with a grin, “My name is Hallow and I’m the last face you’ll ever see.”

Anthony immediately sensed danger emitting from this person named Hallow and drew his blade at him, “Stay back.” Anthony shouted.

“Oh that’s adorable.” Hallow said giggling, “But good on you for sensing danger. Smart boy, too bad your done. Don’t worry, your replacement will make good use of your body.”

Anthony still glaring at Hallow felt blood trickle down his nose and his vision turned red. He opened his mouth to cry out in pain but only blood flowed out of it. Seconds later his lifeless corpse crumpled to the floor, eyes now missing from their sockets.

Hallow looked down and pulled out Anthony Michael’s soul from his pocket and stared at it. With a shrug, he placed it into the body of Anthony Fields before vanishing.

Hours later Isabella managed to lead a group of hunters over to where the ogre was believed to be. She had gone increasingly worried as the hours had past. This never happened before. As much as Isabella fretted, whenever Anthony ran off he would always return in a few hours.

Yet as the sun had nearly set he still wasn’t back yet. She was scared something happened to him and once the hunters returned from the market she quickly told them what had happened and a search party set out to find him and the ogre. Upon the discovering both the fallen ogre and the bloody Anthony Fields, Isabella ran up to him.

“Anthony? Are you alright? Anthony! Please wake up!” She cried out holding him.

“Huh?” Anthony groaned out groggily opening his eyes, “What?” Anthony Michaels, no the new Anthony Fields looked up in both confusion and astonishment as Isabella Alouest was in person and cradling him.

I’m here. He thought as he closed his eyes again.