“Huh” I exclaimed as I got up from my bed, and looked around. At first glance I could tell what this place was, and never in a million years had I imagined I would return here, it was my room at forester castle from when I was young.

“Heaven? Noooo there is no way I'm going to heaven with the number of people I have had slaughtered, so where is this? I am certain that I had died after I killed the dragon”.

I went to look in a mirror that was placed at the center of the well furbished room.

What I saw was much more unbelievable than I had imagined the situation to be, I saw a much, much younger version of myself, without the missing arm(I had noticed that earlier), and my skin still not covered in burns or scars.

“10 no maybe eleven years old” I said as I looked at my face in the mirror.

Knock knock knock

Someone knocked at my door and asked, “Young master may I come in?”

“Come in” I said instinctively.

The door opened and a young woman with beautiful auburn hair in a maid costume entered the room, with a tray that had a glass of water(?) on it.

“Meyline?” I called the girl with a slight sense of shock, as she handed me the glass of water she was carrying.

“Yes young mater can I help you with anything?” she said as she looked straight at me.

I waved my head and said, “No, no, it’s okay, I'm just having a slight headache from waking up.”

“Ah then do you want me to serve you some tea?” she said with an inquisitive gaze.

“I will trouble you with that then” I said with a nod

“Just a moment please.” she said as she moved towards the electric kettle that was placed by my bedside, along with a couple of cups that held tea leaves in them.

“Ah before I forget, the count has asked for you to have breakfast with him today” she said as she prepared me a nice cup of chamomile tea.

“Is that so,well okay then” I replied.

To most others in my situation, my reactions may have seemed rather unusual, and emotionless, but I had yet to gain an understanding of my situation, so I had no idea how to react to any of this. Throughout the entire conversation that I had with the mood only one thought was coming to mind ‘is this an illusion, and if so who would be cruel enough to put an old man destined to die under such a cruel spell’. If I had been younger I would have likely reacted much more energetically, but with age I had understood many things, and acting all energetic right now, would be utterly pointless.

“Here you go young master, your chamomile tea.” she said as she handed me the tea cup.

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“Thank you Meyline, could you prepare my clothes for me, I will be taking a shower before breakfast.” I said.

“Yes young master, I will have your clothes ready by the time you're done drinking tea.” she replied.

********

Once Meyline had left the room I sat beside a tea table on my balcony and looked at the outside, spinning my tea I said, “this is far too realistic and far too grand of a scenery to be an illusion”.

I said that as I knew that even the dragons that had met did not have the ability to cast illusions this detailed, and this large, for I could see with my own two eyes the majesty of the capital of the empire in its fullest,way before the wars had overtaken the continent.

‘Child’ a voice appeared in my head. And with the voice, I appeared in a dark cave, in the middle of the cave I saw a man, with gold hair, a chiseled body with porcelain white skin, that was chained to the mountain, with both his hand stretched apart, and his long hair covering his face.

“Who are you, and where is this?” I said as I walked forward.

‘Do not worry, this is just a place in your head, and as for who I am, you will find out that eventually, but now is not the time.’ he said.

“Hmm”

Trying to nod his head he said, ‘good, since you are not acting overly baffled, we can talk, though I do not have much time for that either?’

I spoke before he could begin speaking again, “You are the one who is doing this to me aren’t you.” I said with a somewhat agitated voice, clearly infuriated from being unaware of my current situation.

‘Yes and no, but before I answer your question let me tell you something.’ he replied to me.

“Hmmm please go ahead.”

‘You my dear dragon slayer, have been sent back in time, I can not explain to you how, for those are things you will understand with time, but for now know that you have been give a second chance at life.’ said the golden haired man.

“So it turns out my assumptions were correct. Well I do not assume that this is for free?” I said as I placed my hand on my chin and looked at him.

‘That my child is true, for this opportunity is not for free, but you need not know of that right now, all you need to know is that I require you to grow in strength, for without a suitable level of strength, knowing of the purpose of your return is pointless.’ he said.

“Huuuuh so you don't want to answer my questions properly, well okay, as long as you tell me later, it does not really matter.” I said with a frown between my eyes as I looked at him.

‘Worry not, you will have all your answers in due time.’ he said, annoying me more than I had already been at the situation, as everything he said meant that I would have to figure out things my myself, and he had no intention of letting me know of anything that he had involved me in.

Seeing that asking him those questions were going to lead only to a dead end I decided to ask a different question, “*sigh* whatever, but you said I need to grow stronger, but I have no idea how to do that, I am weak, utterly so, my talents are abhorrent, and my body is not really built for gaining strength.”

‘Child I believe you should know the answers to that by yourself. With that I am afraid I am out of time, until we meet again son’ he said as his voice started to fade, and the image stared to become blurry.

“Wait what? What do you mean that I already know the answer to that? Oye hold on I still have more questi…” I tried to ask, but before I could, I was kicked out of the vision leaving me greatly annoyed at having practically none of my questions answered.

“Aufff” I huffed as I rubbed my head from the annoyance, and gulped down the entire cup of tea that Meyline had brought me earlier.

“The fuck did he mean, when he said that I already know the answer?” I said in an agitated voice with a frown on my face.

Knock-knock-knock

“Young master it’s Meyline, may I come in?” cam Meyline’s voice taking me out of my thoughts, as I collected myself and let her in.

“Come in.” I said.

Entering the room with my clothes in her hand she said, “Young master I have prepared your clothes for you, if you are done with drinking tea, it would be best if you take a shower now, as any later, and you might end up missing the breakfast with the count.”

“Right, I will go get bathed then.” I replied with a smile on my face.

‘Let's think of this later, for now I let's deal with this.’