Looking at her, I question what I was supposed to do and settle with an idea. “Yes, I am fine. Though if I may ask, who are you?”
Following my words, a stunned silence follows. The woman then looks back to the doctor with a face of worry. The three of them take a moment to stare at me, most likely praying that they had heard me wrong.
Before long, the man finds his voice and speaks up, “Surely you’re joking, right Moravi?” he says, still holding a face of doubt and fear.
‘Do I try to play it as having amnesia, or do I tell them the truth?’ Still feeling rattled from being alive again, I take a gamble that could very well end extremely poorly. “My apologies, but I am not your son.” I say, while looking between the man and woman.
This time it was the women's turn to speak up, “I know that you liked to make jokes, but now is not the time.”
“I can assure you that I am not your child. For the most part,” I respond, now wondering how much I tell them. That feeling of insecurity and fear starts to creep its way into my head, making me question if I had made the correct decision.
Taking a deep breath and coming up with a few one-liners I could use to answer them, I decide that It would most likely be better for the two parents if the doctor wasn’t there.
Looking over to the doctor, I ask him to leave so that the two parents would feel more secure. Luckily, he was understanding and left, saying that he would be on standby if something were to happen.
With him now out of the room, I slid off of the bed and moved to one of the couches that were in the middle of the room around a low table. “I am aware that this will be… very unsettling, but for the sake of all of us, I would prefer if you were to take a seat.” I say, gesturing to the sofa opposite me.
The two glance at each other, most likely silently asking if they should do as I asked. After a moment, they move over to the sofa and sit down. “You said that you aren't our son… I don’t believe you. Someone doesn't just change into another person randomly!” the man says, slowly raising his voice as he speaks.
“Again, I am aware of how borderline insane this sounds…”
“Because it is!” he interjects as I was speaking.
“... but I need you to at least let me tell you what I know about the situation. Because as it is, I’m not sure if even I know what happened.”
Waiting a moment for them to calm down, I sat patiently. Still praying that I had made a good choice by telling them. Of course, on the inside I was probably even more shaken then they were given the fact that I didn’t know if I was lucky and got a second reincarnation, if I was cursed by the gods, or if it was something else entirely. Let alone where I even was.
Before long, the two seemed to have calmed down, with the mother of this body looking like she was on the verge of tears while the father was putting on a brave face but was most likely close to lashing out at me.
“I’ll assume you are ready to hear what I know. Feel free to ask questions afterwards, but I’d request that you don’t jump to conclusions before I am done.
… Look, I’ll be entirely honest because I don’t know if either me or you two can handle being evasive, I’m almost certain that your son is dead.”
Having most likely destroyed their mentality with four words, especially considering that the mother was outright crying now, and the father just looked lost and without words and not wanting to prolong my explanation any further, I explain to them a summarised story of my first life. Ending it there and making it seem like my time when I was in Reldrav never happened, nor that I had met the equivalent of the god of souls.
“My running theory is that your son died, and I -whether by random chance or because of something else- inhabited his body. I will completely understand if you want me to leave, and will hold no grudges if you do, but I can unfortunately promise you that I can’t give you your son back.”
Waiting for them to decide my fate with this life, I balance precariously on the edge of breaking down in fear, and losing my entire mind to confusion and thoughts of the revenge that I will never get if it was the gods who sent me here.
Seconds pass into minutes, with the more time the quiet of the mothers sobs and the father staring blankly trying to figure out what to do stretches on, the thinner the ice I was perched on became. To the luck of my sanity, the mother stands up and walks over to me.
Trying to hold a blank face, I mind races with what she could be about to do and how it would affect me going forward. Of course, you can only imagine my confusion when she sits down and pulls me into a tight hug while still crying.
Freezing up and with my mind going blank trying to decipher what it was that just happened, she starts to say words of reassurement. With my confusion hitting an all time high, the man lets out a long sight before looking to me with… kindness and comforting eyes?
Somehow tripling my active confusion, minutes pass as my mind buffers trying to figure out what was going on. After a fair while, the mother stoped her crying and pushed herself away from me while keeping her hands on my shoulders.
She looks at me and says probably the most understanding and kindest thing that I had ever heard, “Our son may have died, but no matter the case, you are here now. And I will consider you my son for as long as it takes for you to find comfort in this new world.”
…
What?
Sorry, say that again? Did I just hear you correctly?
Turning to the man, I look at him for confirmation. Silently asking if I had gone insane and had heard wrong. He just stands up and comes to sit on my otherside, joining the embrace that the woman had started.
The three of us ended up staying like that for a few minutes, before I break the embrace. “I’m touched by your kindness and honesty, but I can’t say that I'm not confused. That coupled by my complete lack of knowledge of this place leaves me in an unfavourable position.” I say, glancing between them.
“Right right, sorry. I’ll get myself together.” the woman says. Now feeling bad, I give her what I thought to be a reassuring smile. I had no real experience in these kinds of matters, so I didn’t entirely know what to do.
They then backed up a bit before introducing themselves, with the woman going first. “I am Lunhevar Kor Avilair, I took on your fathers last and middle name.”
“My name is Wernem Kor Avilair. I own a line of banks under the name of The Scaled Claw.” The man follows up with. Taking note of them, I'm pleased to find that I like both of their names quite a bit. Though now knowing theirs, I’m wondering what mine is.
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“May I ask what mine is? I doubt it would be practical to go around saying that your son was ‘possessed’ by someone else.” I ask, still trying to wrap my head around everything, though starting to accept what was this new reality of mine.
“Moravi Kor Avilair is what we named… our son.” Wernem says with a deep look of sadness on his face. Following his words came an awkward yet despondent silence only broken by Lunhevar a few moments later.
“Seeing as you don’t know about this place, I imagine it would be best to hire a number of tutors that could help you get accustomed to this place.” She says.
“Agreed, though I seem to be able to understand your language perfectly. Having said that, do you own a library of any sort? Until things are ready, I could most likely pick up enough to not seem too estranged from here.”
They then stood up to show me to one while Wernem went over several basic things I should know, such as my age, birthday, and other similar things. Now knowing that I was only at the age of 7, realising that I would have to switch my personality to that of someone befitting that age, my mood is significantly dampened.
After walking for a few minutes, we arrive in a library of absurd proportions. Standing in the doorway didn’t even let me see either of the back walls of the place. “We have been able to grow quite the collection overtime. We had somewhat of a head start as this manor has been passed down the family line for generations.” Lunhevar mentions.
Mesmerised by the place, I step forward and run my hand over the wood of a nearby shelf. Content with the place and knowing that I would be able to learn plenty from the place, I turn back to my… parents.
“Do you mind if I spend a while perusing this place?” I ask.
“Feel free, this is your home after all. The room you were in before is also yours, though do be mindful of the books. If you need anything you can look for one of the maids nearby, we’ll send one to you if anything comes up and when it's time for dinner.” Lunhevar says, gesturing to the entire area when she mentioned the maids.
Giving a polite bow to the two, I head off into the maze of literature to learn as much as I could about this place and how I should do things going forward. Not really knowing where to start, I wander around until I come to a section about etiquette and noble conduct.
Seeing it, I get flashbacks to before in Reldrav. Pushing the feeling to the side, I start there by grabbing several basic books and finding a spot to sit down at not too far away. Having trouble carrying the five hefty books I had picked due to my size, I set them down at a table and lifted myself up to the chair. Luckily, my understanding of the language here extended to writing.
Opening the first of the books, I begin to lose myself while reading, shutting out everything but what was written down in front of me. Giving me a moment of reprieve from my thoughts and the chaos that was the last few hours.
Not far away somewhere else in the building, a talk about what to do for the future was taking place.
“I don’t know if we should have accepted him that quickly.” Wernem says, walking over to a desk with a plethora of different pieces of paper. The feeling of confusion and unease was shared between the two of them, leaving them questioning their judgement.
“If we didn’t, what were we supposed to do? We couldn’t just throw him out, you heard what he said. He doesn't even know why or how he's here, and we can’t even begin to imagine how he must be feeling. He died! The fact that he was able to even speak to us is a miracle!” Lunhevar snaps back, though she herself was also wondering if she would regret her decision later down the line.
“I don’t know what we were supposed to do, but I do know that what we did could be detrimental to all three of us. As you said, he doesn't know what happened, but he also doesn’t know where he is. What if by keeping him here we are hurting him, what if he was so polite only because he didn’t want to upset us?” He responds.
A silence encompasses them as they sort out their thoughts. “Whatever the outcome may be, we made our decision. We can’t go back on it now, so we can only hope that things go well.” Wernem states.
Not having anything more to say without the chance of making things worse, Lunhevar walks out of the room to leave him in peace. Only time would tell if she had made the right choice, and she prayed that she did, for all three of their sakes.
Over the next few hours, I read through the most useful books first. While I could only learn so much from reading, I hoped that it would be enough for the time being that things wouldn’t go horribly wrong.
I seemingly retained my ability to lose track of time, as someone called my attention. Turning to see who it was, I’m greeted by a man in a grey suit and white gloves, supposedly a butler or someone similar.
“Young master, your parents have requested you to attend dinner.” The man says. Still with my mind on the books, I wave my hand in a dismissive motion and say, “I see, thank you. I will be there shortly.”
The butler stands there for a moment, seemingly confused. I turn to him and look into his eyes with a deadpan expression. “Is there something else?”
He catches himself, and brings himself back to attention. “No young master, that is all. My apologies.” He says before turning and leaving. The moment he had left, I realise that I made a mistake by acting as I normally would. I didn’t act in the same manner as someone befitting my body's age.
Mentally cursing to myself for being so blindsighted, I marked where I was in the book and walked out of the library. Upon leaving, I find one of the nearby maids that my mother had mentioned and ask her to lead me to the dinner hall.
“Excuse me, could you take me to my parents?” I say while tugging the side of her skirt in the same fashion a child would while giving her puppy eyes.
“Of course young master! Please, follow me.” She says, seemingly finding my performance adorable.
Nearly dying from acting the way I did, I try not to show it and gently skip my way along behind her with a light smile. To my relief, we arrive at the hall not long after, saving me from being as childish as I was.
Walking into the dinner hall, I check the entire room as I walked to my chair for people. Seeing a few different servants about, I sadly keep my acting up and greet my parents. “Mom, dad, hello!” I say while giving a slight bow.
The two of them freeze up upon my display, throwing each other a glance of confusion. Sitting down on my chair, a few of the servants then begin to pour drinks for us and bring in two carts of food.
Using the distraction of the servants setting up the table, I send a glance to Wernem asking for privacy. Quick to pick it up, he waits for the staff to finish up before asking them to leave. Once they had all left, I count to ten and then drop the act and went back to my more comfortable neutral face.
“Thank you.” I say to him in response to him clearing the room. He nods back to me before beginning to eat. Following the etiquette I had read up on so far, I wait for him to take a sip of his drink as per tradition for the head to start dinner first.
My actions garner me a raised eye and smile of approval from him and a giddy grin from Lunhevar.
“I’m glad you were able to learn so much so quickly from the library. Good for you.” Lunhevar says. Glad that I hadn’t messed up too incredibly so far, I thank her for the comment, continuing the rest of the dinner in silence.
After a bit, we finished eating and I had to put my act back on as the servants came back into the hall and cleared the place of empty dishes. Waiting for them to finish, I start to formulate the start of what I was going to do from here on out.
After the place was cleaned, I excused myself and headed back to my room for the night. As much as I wanted to continue studying, I had a feeling that I would need to be awake in the morning, meaning I needed to sleep tonight.
Entering my room, I drop the facade and look around, intending to familiarise myself with the room before going to bed. Aside from how fancy and expensive everything was, the place was fairly simple. A door off to the side leading to a bathroom, the sofas in the middle of the room with the low table, and another door that led to an expansive closet.
As I was about to go to bed, I make a last minute decision to have a shower and clean myself up.
Going into the bathroom, I step into the shower that looked surprisingly like a modern one, of course not exactly like one. That would have been my final breaking point. Cleaning myself up, I step over to the mirror over the sink to brush my teeth.
As I do, I'm caught off guard by my appearance before remembering that I was in a new body. A shiver runs down my spine at the thought, but not being able to do anything about it I push it to the side.
Having cleaned myself up, I slip into bed and hope that the coming day wouldn’t be as chaotic as this one. Or at least not kill me…