One day, I was born. And I did not live happily ever after. Was that fifteen years ago? Or far, far more?

The Patriarch had ordered me to be thrown into a hut on the dark side of the estate, beside a swathe of massive gardens. It was only slightly bigger than a closet, and it could barely keep steady as the faint summer breeze brushed over it. Glimpses of sunlight peeked through the broken chunks of the hut’s wooden wall, and the door looked like it would shatter at a breeze.

As Eman guided me into my new abode, my mind was swimming through a fog, each thought traversing a quagmire of new memories. They were the memories of my future. And my past.

“You’ll live here from now on,” Eman said. “We’ll bring you food for the week, but make sure you store it well, and don’t eat it too quickly or else you’ll starve.”

His words were harsh, but I saw remorse in his gaze. He wasn't the one to decide my fate, and I knew he wanted to object.

“I'll send Tonie here to bring you rations,” the Eman motioned at a nearby staff member. I hadn't noticed him following us, but the man gave me a friendly wave and I waved back. “You’ll receive more than just these rations, but it'll take me time,” Eman said. “I apologize, I have to return. But Tonie will fill you in.”

“Thanks Eman, and you too Tonie,” I replied. “You're doing what you can.”

His eyes lit up with surprise. “You remembered my name?”

“I guess I have a good memory,” I smiled faintly.

Slowly, every so slowly, I was putting a picture together of the life I had lived. He gave me a steady look, then took one last look at my new home and slammed the door behind him.

He'd left me alone with the man named Tonie.

“Sorry,” the man named Tonie shuffled uncomfortably. He was rugged, with a simple look about him, and I could see a faint apology on his face that suggested he wasn’t as ruthless as his Patriarch had been.

“No problem,” I replied. “Go back, I’ll figure things out on my own.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Tonie held up his hands in a panic. “You don’t know nothing, yeah? No memories?”

“None,” I lied. “But I’ve got this. Go, you’ve helped enough with your kindness. Eman too.”

Tonie’s lips drooped with sorrow, and he shook his head in dismay. “Fine, fine. I’ll be back though. With extra rations. I promise.”

The creaking of the door was all I heard as he left, followed by the hurried rush of a sprinting man as he tried to get back to the main household as soon as possible.

When enough time had passed, I put my hands over my mouth…

…and let out a scream.

“THIS HURTS.” I shouted into my palms, my flesh barely muffling my voice.

I pushed myself off the ground and threw the door open, looking out across the fields before me. Three hundred feet away lay the main estate, a gargantuan mansion of brick and marble. Its paint was chipped, and its exterior cracked, but it still held a regal bearing despite its weathered condition.

According to my memories, the Alchemist’s children should have already told Patriarch Mou all of their skills. Then, they’d go for a tour of the household, and participate in a grand feast. Each of them would be assigned rooms, and their rags would be replaced with wondrous silken uniforms.

All of that had changed thanks to my actions. Before, I'd been with them for all of it. Now, I was free.

Two different sets of reality were imposing themselves on me. One reality was the one I was in, where I was breathing in fresh air and looking over a garden. The other was born from my memories, and I was eating finely roasted meats, delicious desserts, and a scattering of recently plucked vegetables.

Except those memories were from a different life.

I’d separated from the path I’d traveled in my past life, and the dissonance between my memories and my past life were excruciating.

Being in the hut and not being inside that mansion was causing my mind to explode.

“Sleep, I need sleep,” I said, half-hoping that the skill would agree.

It didn’t reply.

The pain grew deeper, and as I reached the mat on the floor, a steady darkness fell over me. In seconds, the world grew dark, and my thoughts vanished into—

****

“My children are dead! No, no no! It wasn’t meant to be like this Alchemist. You promised you would help them!”

Patriarch Simo Mou’s frustration and fury reverberated across the mansion, and I shivered with fear. We’d been in the Mou household a month now, without a sign of anything going wrong, and yet now we’d seen his true face.

He hated life. He hated the world. He hated us.

And the cause of it all was the Death March. The System had taken his children, and now he would take that out on us. All because a man we hadn’t known had promised him the impossible.

He turned to us, his eyes blazing with fury.

“If only one of you hadn’t been a failure. If only one of you had been able to learn [Potion Creation] in time!”

That day was the end of the Patriarch’s kindness, and the beginning of our nightmare.

****

[A clue has been given for the first trial: The Patriarch.]

[The Patriarch: The Patriarch’s wrath will fall upon you in a month if his children are not saved. He believes that [Potion Creation] is the key to their survival.]

[Tier 1: Rank up requirements have not been met. Trials completed: 0/2.]

A faint whimper crossed my lips as my sleep was disturbed by incoming blue boxes. I was remembering so much, but it was passing by like a dream. An extremely painful dream. Maybe it would be okay to stop now.

No.

I had to force myself to keep going.

This time, I wouldn't live the same life I had before.

****

[I Want To Go Back has fully activated. Your old life is returning to you, though it may take several days for the information to settle. Welcome back, Aldwyn. May you find a new peace on this journey.]

I woke up with tears in my eyes and two blue boxes floating above me. Nobody else could see them, just as I couldn’t see those belonging to others. But I could swear they were sad. I stared at the message for what had to be hours.

‘May you find a new peace on this journey.’

What did those words mean?

“System, are you talking to me directly?” I asked.

There was no reply.

A flash of memories accompanied my waking, and I pushed them down. Five years worth of images was impossible to memorize in a single night, so I was still only catching glimpses of them, but I knew more than I had yesterday. A lot more.

A groan escaped my lips. “Can't you give me something to work with?”

I shut my mouth as a blue box appeared.

First trial: The Patriarch. Incomplete.

“A trial…” my voice trailed off. “Right. My skill has four of these.”

I didn't know what a trial was, but I knew this one was related to. It was a memory that was as vivid in my mind as the day I'd experienced it.

The death of Patriarch Mou’s youngest children.

That was the first trial I had faced in my past life. After that event, everything had changed in the Mou household, and the Alchemist’s Children had never been safe in there again.

They had died because of…

“Why did they die?” I grasped my head. The answer was wriggling at the tip of my tongue. It had been there in my dream.

Then it came to me.

“The Death March,” I whispered.

I’d been so certain in my dream that the cause of my issues was the Death March, but now that I was awake I didn’t know what it was. No memories flashed in my mind to explain it, except for a brief feeling of terror and pain. All I knew was that one month from now the Patriarch’s children would be dead.

“No, that wasn’t all I learnt,” I dismissed my pessimistic thoughts.

The Patriarch’s shout echoed in my mind. He’d blamed us because we hadn’t learned [Potion Creation].

This time, my memories reacted, and one in particular forced its way into my head, replaying vividly in my mind.

“[Potion Creation] is a skill of the utmost importance. In theory, all you have to do to obtain it is create a tonic or potion. But in practice it takes years and thousands of ingredients to unlock the skill. But you are the Alchemist’s Children. You are special.” Patriarch Mou’s voice echoed across the learning room. “Unlocking [Potion Creation] will be the focus of your next few weeks and I have hope that you will be able to learn it in that time.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Why?” Someone asked. It was Rain, asking questions as she always did. “And if it's so important, why hasn’t anyone else here learnt it? It sounds simple enough.”

“Others cannot,” the Patriarch frowned. “But you can. That is what’s important. No, I cannot explain why. Not now. So please be silent. I need to teach, and we have little time.”

I shook my head to fade away the memory, but it refused to leave. The reason was my own mind still questioning its existence. My head couldn't decide whether the memory was something intrinsic to me, or something I was sometimes viewing like a bystander would observe a fight.

Was I Aldwyn, the boy with no memories, or was I Aldwyn, the boy who had already lived his life and whose memories were now mine?

The answer, I realized, was neither.

This Aldwyn is his own soul. His own person.

“That's my decision,” I whispered. “From here on out, this new life is mine to live, and nobody will dictate my actions. Not even myself.”

The moment the words escaped my lips, I knew them to be true.

It was the kind of resolve I'd never had in my past life.

“Oi, kid? Is you dead?” A voice interrupted my thoughts.

I shook my head, dismissing the memory with ease, and looked up at the entrance of my hut. A rough hand gripped the doorframe, ignoring the splinters jutting out of it, and its owner looked down at me with concern riddling his soft brown eyes.

“Tonie, hi,” I lifted my head up and then groaned.

The pain of yesterday had subsided, but my skull felt like it had been struck by an anvil. I glimpsed the sky behind Tonie and realized that the sun had shifted.

“Did I sleep right through the afternoon and into the next morning?” I asked.

Tonie pursed his lips and shook his head, “two days it’s been. I was awful worried. You didn’t touch the rations I left you.”

He gestured to my side and I spotted a small bag filled with dried food.

“Two days?!” I shot up. “Was I drugged?”

The Patriarch’s servant took a startled step back, and then tripped as the entrance of the hut gave way to a half-step fall onto the ground. Tonie let out a startled shout as he fell backwards, and I instinctively shot forward to pull him forward.

Unfortunately, I was weak as a stick, and as I grabbed him, Tonie righted himself by using his ankle to swerve and avoid hitting the ground. The sudden shift meant that I tumbled forward right past where he’d been and fell in his place, smacking into the dirt with a firm thwack.

“Ow,” I rubbed my nose, which smeared a layer of dirt over it. “I need a shower.”

“You tried to help me,” Tonie’s surprised voice flickered into my ears.

I flipped myself onto my back and found myself being stared at by the startled servant.

“Of course I did,” I replied. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Nobody does,” Tonie said. “They says my strength stat is enough to take the fall.”

Given his sudden pivot and rebalancing, I was certain his dexterity stat wasn’t low either. Those kinds of acrobatics weren’t possible for an ordinary person. Only someone who had leveled up was capable of them.

Which meant that this man already had a [class].

“Interesting,” I murmured.

“I do appreciate it,” Tonie babbled, holding out his hand and helping me to my feet. He had a smile on his lips. “It hurts to fall, but it hurts to not be helped too. I’ll bring you something better than rations. I know the cook.”

“That’d be great.” I stared at Tonie, trying to remember if the man had known me in my past life, but I had no memories of him. Whoever he was, he wasn’t one of the servants allowed near the Alchemist’s Children on a day to day basis. “And I’d love to meet this cook too.”

“Oh, Roy? He’s a good man, gives me a lot of leftovers,” Tonie grinned. “Okay, okay, come on. I have to show you around. Eman said it's important.”

A smile touched my lips. I knew Roy too, or at least, I had known him. Meeting him again was definitely on my list of things to do. I quickly shut the door to my hut, and looked around at the place I would be calling home.

Gardens filled my vision.

Big ones. Small ones. Flowery ones. Decrepit ones.

I remembered this too. Patriarch Mou’s greatest accomplishment in life was cultivating gardens so large and plentiful that they choked every inch of his estate. No matter where one walked, the scent of flowers and herbs followed them, and I scratched my nose as conflicting scents touched my nostrils.

“Alright Tonie,” I said. “Where do we begin?”

Tonie grinned, and we began walking through the estate. In my previous life, I had remained in the mansion for the first few months, save for the rare trip outside into the gardens. We were isolated, and intentionally kept in the dark about the wider world.

Today, I was exploring all of the estate I hadn’t been able to in my past life and more.

“This is where I live. Others do too,” Tonie waved his hand at a massive building. It housed all of the servants of the Mou family, and there was even a stone courtyard outside for the servants to rest and relax.

Most of them ignored Tonie as he passed by, and a few of the servants even threw him looks of amusement. A frown crossed my features as I spotted a few of the servants passing coins to each other. Clearly, Eman hadn’t ordered Tonie to show me around. The servants had likely lied to him as a prank, and were betting on whether or not he’d notice.

“Tonie, don’t you have other things to do?” I asked.

The man paused, then nodded. “I gotta clean the latrines. And then I gotta pick up food. But since I’ve got to show you around, that means I don’t have to do them today. Someone else will.”

I had a feeling that nobody else would be doing those tasks, and that Tonie would be facing the consequences for that sooner rather than later.

“This here is the way to the Velvetine forest,” Tonie walked through the gardens of the estate, following the path past the servant quarters and leading behind the main mansion. “Oh, look, those are the Mou family members.”

He waved excitedly at several well-dressed figures in the distance, and they scrunched their noses in disdain. When they spotted me in my rags they gripped their embroidered suits and skirts and turned away as though I were a pungent cloud of dust.

These were the Patriarch’s family, the mice that scuttled among his coattails.

In my past life, they’d always been separate from us.

That made them easy to ignore, which only made them angrier. As they puffed their chests and straightened their posture to gain my attention, I focused on an expanse of trees behind them. There was a forest on the edges of the estate, and a clutter of memories assaulted my mind as I examined it.

I’d spent a lot of time in that forest during my past life, but I wasn’t sure why. Not because I didn't know, but because there were too many memories trying to jam themselves into my head at the same time.

“How many Mou household members are there?” I asked. Apparently, I hadn’t cared enough in my past life to note the number.

Tonie’s face scrunched up as he fell deep in thought. “Thirty-four says Roy. He told me, ‘Ayad, each is a right bastard to cook for’.”

I coughed and almost tripped as I heard Tonie’s words. Judging from what little memories I’d absorbed, that sounded exactly like something Roy would say.

“Listen, Tonie,” I held back my laughter and raised a hand to stop the servant. “I think you’re being tricked.”

“Tricked?” Tonie asked, blinking in surprise.

I shrugged and spread my hands out in a gesture of helplessness. “I saw some of the others passing coins as they looked at you. Which isn’t a good sign.”

“Bettin’” Tonie’s expression darkened. “They’s always doing this to me.” His arms tightened as he flexed subconsciously, and I stepped back as rippling muscles pushed against the fabric of his uniform. They looked angry. “I’ll make them help me clean today.”

“Great idea,” I replied, my tone subdued.

I hadn’t realized just how strong the staff member was until his muscles tried to break apart his shirt.

“Thanks, um, fella,” Tonie said. He turned to the servant’s quarters, then looked back at me quizzically.

“Aldwyn,” I said. “That’s my name.”

“Aldy,” Tonie beamed. “Good one.”

Before I could correct him, the servant pushed off against the ground, flinging dirt up into the air as he flew forward with a momentum that could put a carriage to shame. I gaped at the hole that was left in his place, and saw that it was a crater.

My memories tried to fill in the gaps, letting me know that high strength and dexterity stats were the cause, but I shook them away.

Something else was drawing my attention.

“Velvetine forest,” I repeated the name Tonie had spoken.

Speaking the words brought a flood of nostalgia, and I froze in surprise as the emotion coursed through me. It was the first time since I’d arrived that a memory had given me a good feeling rather than fear or anger.

Why was this place so special to me?

I stepped forward, intent on figuring out the answer. A scan of the area revealed that the staff and household members were out of sight, with the exception of two gardeners, a stout man in his forties or fifties, and a girl who was slightly older than I was.

Feli and Millie.

The two names chimed in my mind, but I ignored them. The forest was far more interesting than the people right now, and both gardeners disappeared from sight as I stepped up to the forest.

Glimmering vibrant green leaves lovingly greeted my eyes, and I gazed in wonder as I viewed the forest in person for the first time in my life. It was ancient and carried an air of superiority. Nature was all around me, sullied only by crumbling metal pieces aged with rust, remnants of a bygone era. Branches caressed my clothes and sides, pushing me forward, and I quickly found myself falling into a gentle rhythm as I explored its exterior.

“A quick turn here, and a swerve there,” I murmured to myself. My memories were cramped, and some were only half-remembered, but the instructions for reaching the forest were ingrained into my mind like it was second nature.

I didn't enter immediately. Instead, I made my way across the frontline of thickets and trees, looking for entry. There were plenty of easy ways into the forest, and the Patriarch had also ordered two paved roads created, and they ran through it and into the nearest town beyond. But I ignored those passageways.

The path I was searching for wasn’t so obvious.

“Where are you?” I murmured.

Minutes passed until I reached a garden filled with tall grass. Behind it I spotted a small trail leading into the forest.

“This is the one.” A smile lit my face. “I don’t know why, but this is the one.”

I stepped forward without hesitation. The path was barely a trail, and more of a slight discoloration in the ground caused by footsteps, but it was barely wide enough to let me through.

Half an hour of twists and turns later, and I was well off the beaten path.

“Ow!” I cried out as I accidentally took a wrong turn.

Blue light sparkled from one of the trees, a warning to anyone who tried to push past them.

When the light dissipated, I saw the remains of a glowing rune carved into the bark.

“Oh heck, I forgot about you guys,” I growled, shaking my hand to dismiss the pain. “Wards.”

The word echoed out, and the light blinked as though mocking me. It was an enchantment woven into the fabric of reality and given life by magic. This enchantment protected the trees from anyone who tried to touch them, but it wasn’t formed naturally. It could only have been carved by a person.

The System called them wards.

“A pain ward,” I stepped back. “Okay, I remember you now.”

Normally, people would run after encountering wards in a forest. This area was too far from the estate to get help, and anyone capable of creating wards in Velvetine forest either had permission or was strong enough to ignore the need for it.

But I knew better than them. The wards were only carved into certain trees, and it was pure luck that I’d avoided running into one until now.

Now, I remembered how to dodge their painful zaps.

I pushed through another tree, and found the path opening up to me once again. After a few more twists and turns, I walked straight into a copse of trees whose branches had twisted to block off any intruders. Thorns and vines were draped around the branches, each warning away intruders, but I pushed through them carefully until the final branch parted.

A small stone cottage sat in the distance.

“Hello there,” I breathed in deeply, absorbing the scent of herbs in the surroundings. “It's been a while.”

The building was spherical in shape, with a smooth outer shell that looked like a boulder that had been carved from the inside out. Surrounded by weeds and covered in vines, and it had been built far off from the trail on purpose.

A whiff of smoke filled my nostrils, coming from a chimney atop the cottage, and more memories struck me.

“Pigs tail and oxen hide,” I smacked my lips and realized they were covered in drool. “Delicious.”

As though hearing my words, a squeal of indignation hit the air and I jolted.

“Who was that?!” I shouted.

“Oink,” a gruff, animalistic grunt filled the air.

My eyes fell on the source of the cry, and I paused.

Four muscular legs greeted me first, and as my eyes roamed up I saw a rotund stomach the size of a carriage, a large pink snout, and fifteen swirling tails filling the air.

It was a pig.

A monstrous specimen of pork and flesh stood behind a small wooden fence, rickety and worn. The giant pink mass was the size of a small building, making the small stabling look almost comical.

“Telula,” I beamed at the sight of the monster pig. “Good to see you again. I think. My memories are still kind of hazy.”

“Oink?” Telula stepped forward curiously, and the ground shook underneath me as she moved.

“Woah, woah,” I held my hands up placatingly. “You’ll destroy the forest if you're not careful.”

Telula paused, then preened happily. She'd taken my words as a compliment. Warmth filled my voice, and I couldn't keep the smile off my lips. Now, I was beginning to remember why I'd come here.

And if Telula was here then…

“Blasted pot doesn’t know how to boil!” A shout filled the air. “And these damned herbs don’t know how to grow!”

My breath caught in my throat. On the left side of the cottage there was a person complaining to herself as she bent over to pick something off the ground. She was old, and raggety, and her head was a tangle of gray strands that was more beast than hair.

More prominently, her skin was gray and rough, identical in color and toughness to the cottage beside her. She wasn’t human. She was stonekin, part of a race whose skin and bone were made of stone.

“I see you there, youngling,” she said.

The stonekin straightened her back and placed her hands on her hips as she drew her gaze to me, and I saw that where her eyes should be, she instead had two opal stones, each dark and glimmering with the twinkling lights of a rainbow of colors.

“A human intruder got past my wards,” her voice was shrill but devoid of panic, and she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Or someone told you the path to my house. Not many left who know that path. Who are you?”

The moment I heard her voice I fell to my knees, and my forehead touched the floor lightly as I bowed deep and low. Now, I remembered why I had come to this forest, and why I’d cultivated such deep feelings within it.

All of it was because of this woman.

“Disciple greets his master.”