Jule thought of the purpose of his existence from time to time, wondering about the reason he was born and how life was the way it was. Nevertheless, Jule never tried to ask questions that even geniuses cannot answer.
The feeling of death wasn’t what Jule had imagined. He thought of dying as a painful but quick thing, accompanied by a deep, dreamless sleep that would last forever.
In the dark, suffocating abyss, a dim light passed through. He felt softer than a feather as if he was a speck of an atom drifting in the atmosphere. Then suddenly everything became heavy and there was a weight holding him down.
The weight was heavy on Jule’s arm, but not enough to tire him out. It reminded him of the small, yet heavy and lethal gym lifting equipment that you should never drop on your feet.
Jule opened his eyes slowly, his fingers twitching in an attempt to shake off the heavy object. As he turned around in the direction of the noise, his eyes fell on a young girl with beautiful red hair that reminded him of autumn trees and deep blue eyes comparable to the sea. She stood next to him, her feet stomping, her pale, delicate hands held into a fist.
His eyes darted around the strange room, panicking as to what happened while he was dead. After a few seconds of contemplation, Jule decided that perhaps this was a fantasy his mind had conjured before his death. And so he waited for his doom on the soft fantasy bed, lying down on his back and breathing normally like an alive person with a working heart.
1, 2, 3, 4…
And until the count of 30, his heart remained beating. The young girl he thought his mind had envisioned as a form of comfort was still screaming, her voice very much audible.
So out of boredom, he decided to take a good look around the area and inspect his surroundings.
Upon looking up and seeing the sparkling crystal chandelier on the ceiling, Jule’s eyes began to fully open. He glanced at the bed he lay on and immediately gasped, raising his eyebrow at the soft silk bed sheets, engraved wooden bed posts, and the pale white canopy that made his surroundings seem misty. The people around him wore
“My dear lady, please lower your voice,” A woman dressed as a maid on the left side of the room sighed. “I’m sure the physician did not mean to lie. Perhaps you should-
“HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHEN BROTHER WILL WAKE UP?” The young girl screeched at a man on the opposite side of her, ignoring the maid’s chiding. “ARE YOU NOT A PHYSICIAN?”
She continued her tantrum, not yet noticing that Jule had woken up. The girl growled and pouted, unintentionally clawing at his hand harshly. If not for her short fingernails, Jule was sure his wrist would be a bloody mess.
“Young lady Evelyn!” The physician cried, practically kowtowing on the floor. “The young master should wake up today, I’m sure of it! I swear, my lady, this will be the last time the young master ever collapses. After this, he won’t ever-”
“You said that yesterday, you imbecile! Brother has been asleep for two days now, how long must I wait?” The girl curled her lip, finally letting go of her heavy clutch on Jule’s hand as her visible anger became directed toward the physician. Jule shrunk back, fumbling to pull his blankets over his head.
“My lady! My lovely young lady!” A younger maid pleaded. “Please do not yell! What would the others think when they see the lady of the mansion reacting so strongly tothe words of a mere servant such as us?”
“You liar, you conman!” She continued to point at the physician accusingly despite the maid’s pleas. “How dare you lie to a Valenti! How dare you!”
Valenti? As in the Valenti duchy? As in…
Then, the physician’s eyes lit up, his gaze now directed towards the bed Jule was lying on.
“Young master Jule!” He exclaimed and hastily scrambled to kneel beside Evelyn, his grip on her dress. “T-the young master! Young lady Evelyn, I would never lie to you. Young master has woken up!”
The maid also gasped, her hands brought up to cover her mouth in surprise and delight. “Young master!”
Young master? Valenti?
The name tickled his mind.
Something was terribly wrong and though he had his suspicions then, Jule was not one to admit it without evidence.
…Jule Valenti?
“Brother?” The young girl raised her head immediately, her deep blue eyes glittering. She threw her arms around him and slammed her head against his chest. “Brother! I missed you dearly!”
He awkwardly patted her back, sending worried glances toward the physician who was still kneeling on the floor. “Yes, I, uh, I miss you too,”
Jule’s voice had gone up three pitches higher.
“I guess the physician wasn’t lying completely!” Evelyn giggled, bouncing and fidgeting like any child would, seemingly excited. “How are you feeling now? You’re not sick anymore, right?”
She turned back to the silent, trembling physician, her doe eyes suddenly narrowing into slits as she spoke. “The physician promised me that you’d be healthy after this.”
“I am, Evelyn,” Jule nodded. “It feels like I’ve never been sick,”
The girl smiled. “Evelyn is happy, then!”
The physician stood up carefully, his eyes warily dodging Evelyn’s piercing gaze as he began to approach Jule. He didn’t start checking him right away, instead asking questions.
“How are you feeling, young master?”
“Does the young master have any discomfort anywhere?”
“When did the young master wake up?”
Jule stuttered while answering, his mind still hazy from the events that just happened. He became even more fidgety and awkward once the physician began examining him, twitching every now and then.
At last, the examination was over and the physician began conversing with the maid, handing her a jar of pills and instructing her on “when to feed the young master”.
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“Young master Valenti has never been better. Perhaps the myth was true: the new age of thirteen truly is a change in both body and mind.” The physician smiled. “His mana veins may still be clogged, but his health is no longer unstable. If he continues to use medication on a daily basis, he might never have seizures again,”
“How wonderful, brother!” Evelyn remained delighted, grinning from ear to ear until her eyes were wrinkled, but Jule remained silent with thousands of thoughts and emotions flooding his mind. Valenti? Second young master? New age of 13?
As if knowing full well the questions Jule wanted to ask, the physician continued to speak.
“Now that the young master has recovered, there is no need for him to rest any longer. A healthy person should not stay in a sickly area for long. Young master, I advise you to temporarily move before the maids fully clean your bed chamber,”
“I will get that arranged immediately,” The maid bowed quicker than Jule could answer before leaving the room hurriedly.
“Thank you,” Jule turned back to the physician who was expecting another one of his replies.
“Thank you, doctor,” He softly smiled, earning a gasp from the physician.
“Y-young master…” The physician’s eyes began to water. “I was just doing what I should. There is no need for you to thank me. Your well-being is all I need, young master,”
“Well, doctor, I wouldn’t want to take much of your time,” He laughed. “Thank you for your care, but I feel much better than before,”
“If young master Valenti insists, then I will go. I hope the young master will still be healthy the next time we meet. You too, Lady Evelyn,” The physician nodded, his head positioned in a low bow.
“Thank god you were somewhat useful,” Evelyn muttered under her breath.
Nevertheless, the physician’s eyes and lips maintained a face of satisfaction as he exited the room, arms swinging his toolbag happily, contrasting his quivering demeanor earlier.
Jule gulped, his arms shaking as he hid it behind his back. “Well then...Evelyn, dear?”
“Yes, brother?”
Jule swallowed as he tried to force whole sentences out of his mouth. “May I have a mirror?”
The first thing he saw was the reflection of a teenage boy. The second thing he noticed was the presence of delicate, soft silver hair on the boy’s head, long and thin, covering his forehead messily. The third was the boy’s light golden pupils, comparable to the yellow shades of the winter sunset. Below the pair of eyes were gray, tired eye bags.
The fourth thing Jule comprehended was that he was the boy and that the silver hair was probably real.
And so Jule could no longer ignore the suspicions his mind had denied vehemently. From his circumstances alone, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out he had transmigrated.
But why and how? His question had not yet been answered.
If Evelyn was his younger sister and he was the second young master of the Valenti household, then the body he was in could only be “Jule Valenti”.
Jule Valenti, the second young master of the Valenti duchy, the one responsible for many of the protagonist Borealis’ many misfortunes. The cold and salty minor villain of COAIS.
Valenti, yes, I am Jule Valenti, He almost said out loud but stopped himself before anything could go wrong.
The story of COAIS followed Borealis Caskut, a hero unknowingly chosen by the deities from the Divine realm to revive his kingdom, Qelia after its downfall by the Tonucan Empire.
Borealis was the child of a defected aristocrat and a commoner man. His father was a low-wage, poor worker at the port, while his mother was of the high aristocracy. Touched by his honesty and chained by her family, the aristocrat eloped with the peasant. Not long after, though, they were caught and his father was executed, his mother taking her own life. Borealis was soon taken in by Count Edmond, a noble who proclaimed himself a distant relative who resided in the northern territories.
Once he turned 15, Borealis was invited into a knight tournament of the Valenti duchy, which operated one of the strongest knight forces in Qelia. Nevertheless, because he caught the attention and admiration of the young lady Evelyn Valenti, her older brother, the second young master Jule Valenti sabotaged Borealis’ invitation by swapping it with a failed applicant. As Borealis had already left the County to pursue the knight order, he could not return and thus became a wanderer.
Three years later, the war between Qelia and the Tonucan empire broke out, forcing him to flee entirely. Soon after, Qelia was conquered and Borealis could only disguise himself, changing his designated destination every few days to avoid slavery. However, halfway through the road leading to Tonucan’s capital, Borealis came across a slave owner abusing his slaves and, amid anger, killed the man and freed them. Thus, a bounty was put on Borealis’ head, rousing the suspicions of everyone in Tonucan, and making his journey harder than it was before. The latest chapter recounted the execution of Jule Valenti and the encounter between Borealis and the main antagonist, Michael Aldos - the newly ascended Emperor of Tonucan who used his control over a new re-discovered dark energy called Nether to cause the downfall of Qelia.
After Qelia was conquered, Jule Valenti was one of the few nobles who escaped the kingdom unscathed while his older brother died and his younger sister married off to a subordinate of the antagonist. He then ran into Borealis and joined the wanderer with the ill purpose of turning Borealis into the bounty under the guise of them both being from Qelia. After Jule Valenti successfully betrayed Borealis in exchange for his sister’s return. Nevertheless, Jule Valenti was tricked and executed after making the request as the Tonucans never thought of letting a Qelia noble live.
But, if he was in Jule Valenti’s body…then where was the original Jule Valenti?
Jule’s entire body ached as he tried to fully stand up and pull away from the warmth of the blankets. His arms and legs were a sickly pale tone, his feet wobbly as he attempted to walk towards the door.
“Brother! You just woke up!” Evelyn rushed over to support him with her small hands. “Be careful,”
“Young master, the chamberlain and I have completed the arrangement,” The maid entered with a strange man. From an angle, his face was sharp and cold, particularly handsome. In many light novels, the chamberlain or butler would be described as an old, middle-aged man with white hair and a beard. However, the person standing in front of him had the appearance of a college graduate - young, tall, and tired.
The chamberlain bowed slightly. “Would you like to move now, young master? You won’t be staying for long. I’m sure the servants will clean the quickest they can,”
Jule nodded, picking Evelyn up before following the chamberlain across the gray marble hallways. On the way to his new room, people froze the moment they noticed his presence. But the awkwardness lasted for only a second before yelps and cheers broke the silence.
“YOUNG MASTER!”
“Young master! How are you feeling?”
“YOUNG MASTER, IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO FOR YOU?”
The head maid shook her head and sighed. “Apologies, young master, they must have forgotten how much you dislike loud noises,”
“No, it’s alright,” Jule managed to smile despite how overwhelmed he felt.
“Brother, I wonder if your chamber will be far from mine?” Evelyn pouted. “Evelyn doesn’t want to walk for too long…”
“Evelyn, I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Jule comforted himself mostly. The heavy, warm weight in his arms was an indicator that Evelyn existed. A plot-filler character that only existed in words was in front of his eyes. A place from the past, a place that had been gone.
It felt like a trance, really, because moments ago, Jule’s heart had skipped a beat as the doors of the train opened behind him, his body falling hard on the rocky, broken railway track.
Moments after, he was somewhere entirely different; a world that could only be accessed in dreams. Except this wasn’t a dream and the people around him were alive and very real, as of current.
A small punch against his chest followed by a small tap on his shoulder woke his mind up.
“Young master, we’ve arrived,” The chamberlain spoke. He thrust open the door to reveal a wide, spacious room with minimum decoration.
Evelyn frowned. “Why is it so empty?”
“We did not have enough time to make preparations, but we could if the young master prefers,” The chamberlain said, his voice devoid of any emotion. His face held a look of contempt as if serving them was a nuisance.
“I’m alright, Evelyn,” Jule chided Evelyn. “I’ll probably rest now, you should go play,”
“But I thought the physician said you’re fine now…”
“There, there, young lady,” The head maid smiled. “The young master had just woken up, it’s normal to feel drowsy. Young master, if I may,”
Soon after she left, a group of servants came in. A few of them scurried to relit the fireplace, while a couple of others began to prepare his bath. The servants did their work efficiently and left the room quickly after all preparations were completed, leaving Jule alone with the stoic chamberlain.
They stood in awkward silence for a long while. Many times, Jule had tried to head towards the bed, only to stop in his tracks when he noticed how the chamberlain’s gaze followed his every movement.
At last, he couldn’t bear the stillness any longer. “You…what’s your name,”
“Young master?” The chamberlain’s eyes widened slightly.
Jule pretended to scoff. “I said what I said. What should I call you?”
“Young master can call me anything he wants. As for my name…” The chamberlain inhaled deeply, his head turned away as if ashamed. “I have forgotten, but the duke often calls me by my last name, Kastel,”
“I-I see,” Jule blinked. “Well then, Kastel, when can I meet the Duke?”
“Anytime, young master, I’m sure the Duke would enjoy your company,”
“Anytime?” Jule blurted out. Anytime he wanted? Wasn’t the Duke supposed to be super busy, with no time to spare? Moreover, wasn’t it mentioned multiple times in the novel how he had a strained relationship with both of his half-siblings?
“Of course.” Kastel affirmed.
“…I was surprised that Duke Valenti would even care to give you this room, let alone order for it to be comfortably arranged,”
Jule did not know whether to feel offended or weirdly amused by the chamberlain’s words. “Excuse me?”
“Apologies, that was a bit blunt of me,” Kastel bowed again, “What I meant was, the Duke cares for you dearly.”
“I…see,”
Kastel moved a little closer, practically towering over Jule’s current body.
“Young master, are you alright? You look a bit pale,” He moved his hand upwards, placing it on Jule’s forward. Jule immediately tensed, his body frozen, unsure whether to move away.
“…I’m alright,”
“I’ll excuse myself then. Rest well, young master.”
And with that, Jule was all alone again.