I sat in the command room of a battleship; many soldiers worked the screens as they relayed orders and status among the fleet at my command. One soldier spoke up, “Lord Aurelian, the pirates are attempting a connection, it seems they wish to surrender.” I looked at the map projection, we were outnumbered, but the tech on these ships left even their numbers quaking. I shook my head, “Pirates deserve no mercy, wipe them out.” The soldiers replied, “Yes, my Lord!” They quickly began relaying my orders to the fleet, and within seconds, the first laser was fired, and the battle began. I stood up, my blood boiling having to deal with yet another incursion from pirates who believed they could kick us while we were down, “Ready my mech, I’m going out.” I noticed one of the newer soldiers turned to look at me, but with one look into my eyes, they understood and looked back at their console.

Walking through the ship, many people were scrambling to achieve their best work, some held rage in their eyes while others looked dead. There were three people in my jurisdiction, those who held regular eyes as they went about their day to day, those with a flame within them to show their rage against those that hurt them, and those like mine who were dead. We lost more than we could ever hope to get back that day, so we just went with the motions. When I got to hanger for mechs, I noticed someone was standing next to my mech, one that looked like a beaten and tattered knight. She wore a suit, one with a yellow color, as her gray hair flowed down her back a little. I said, “You know you don’t have to stay here, right? She’s no longer here to be watched over, you can return to your home at any time.” The woman shook her head, “I cannot do that my Lord. Lord Fredrick told me to follow my own path, and I chose to remain by your side.”

I looked to her with my own confusion, but I pushed it off since I wanted to crush this rage that was building within me, “Don’t stop me, I won’t let even one pirate take a single step into my domain.” She bowed, “I couldn’t stop you, even if I sought to do so. All I can say is return to your domain safely my Lord, your people await your valiant return.” I felt a new emotion rise from beneath the rage I felt, shame. Even after everything, I doubt my people would want me to return, because I failed them. I couldn’t even reply to her, I just boarded my mech and began the startup procedure. Once ready, I moved to the hanger exit, a voice spoke as soon as my comms powered on, “Lord Aurelian is joining the battle, all units put your all into eliminating these pirates!” A rally cry shot through the battlefield, and as I launched into the void of space, I wondered many things. Why did this happen to us? What did we do to deserve this? Why was I brought to this world? Even now, my questions remain answerless as I drew my weapon, my enemies lying before me.

~~~

I looked through the VR headset, my hands hard at work on what I wanted to be my masterpiece, the final mech I’d ever create in this world. As I connected wires, I coughed, blood beginning to fill the tissues I put to my mouth to ensure my blood didn’t get everywhere. I can’t tell what was wrong with me, most of the drugs I was being injected with either didn’t have enough pain relief to let me sleep or too much relief that I couldn’t feel pain. Currently, I was under such strong medication that I couldn’t feel pain, but that was likely a good thing, because I doubt I was going to survive what was coming next.

With each movement, I constructed a mech in a very lifelike game called “Space Guilds Online”, or SGO for short. Unlike other games, SGO had maximum freedom for everything, from exploration to battles, swords and magic, ships and mechs, everything was created in some fashion by the players of the game. For me, I realized it was something to keep my attention during my hospitalization, but in the end, I guess it became my every day since I couldn’t even leave my bed. I wanted to stay alive long enough to fight the endgame enemy that was supposed to appear in the coming month or so, but I guess it was never meant to be. After one last check, I nodded and began to weld the final piece into place, the armor for the cockpit was the last to go on, mostly as it required a load of wiring to be done and connected to the rest of the mech.

As I was wrapping it up, someone said, “Hey! Is this the one!?” When I looked back it was a player I knew rather well, one who stuck with me despite me eventually becoming mute due to the strain talking had on my body. Once it was on properly, I let the weightlessness of the area carry me down as I typed out a response, the robot I had floating near me speaking what I wanted to say, “Yes, this should be it, the first, and likely last, tier ten in existence.” I handed him the specialized key to the mech, one made to resemble a knife since I didn’t have to weaken the esthetic on my personal project, “It’s yours.” He looked to me with confusion in his eyes, his voice conveying his confusion, “But why? Weren’t you going to fight in it? You and me, side by side until the end of the game, right?” I typed out my next sentence, my hands mis-clicking several times due to how bad I felt to tell him this, “I’m coughing up blood… I’m dying.”

She shook his head, his eyes showing worry, but his voice conveying his desire, “No, you’ll make it, you’ll pilot that mech yourself, I swear you will!” I wanted to say something, but I began to lurch over and cough hard, looking at my tissue, it saw was drenched in blood this time. I passed him the knife, quickly transferring the ownership to him with the last of my available strength. I pushed a button on my computer, then I fell back onto the hospital bed as I began to cough nonstop, the blood not ending. I heard my voice for the first time since before I went mute, a message I made just for him, thanking him for everything as he shouted for me to fight on. As the doctors came and took the VR headset off, I noticed he was crying for real, and I can’t help but thank him for being there for me the whole way.

When I opened my eyes again, I realized I was in the place that I always went to when under some form of sleep induced by medication. It always felt like I was underwater, yet could breath, with the scenery always being something akin to floating in space. It was a good place, I could always think about things with clarity, unlike back when I was awake, but this time, I felt far too sharp, so I assume that my death was all but certain now. I said, “This is fine, I don’t have to worry about pain anymore, or when my parents will come visit next…” I fell silent after I said that, emotions beginning to well up inside me as I slowly began to process my age and the fact I was well and truly dying. I felt my fists tighten, my weak muscles doing the same, my voice let out a pained yell into the void around me.

“Why did I have to die!? What did I do to deserve this, huh!? Come on, anything, anyone, tell me why I had to die!” The only thing that responded in this void was the silence that it always gave me. I curled up into a ball as I recalled what happened in life, I got hospitalized since I got sick with something at a young age, but when it got cured, I came down with something else that was far worse than whatever my initial illness was. The reason for this confusion and alarm was simple, it was a new and unknown illness that no doctor had ever seen before. After a certain point in time, my parents just stopped coming, a reason I could easily infer from others in my situation. My life eventually became nothing but video games for a while until the illness was properly recorded, mostly to ensure it wasn’t transmittable, but since the first illness, I was stuck playing SGO.

It was a game I could spend hours playing, and it was where I met my only friend, someone who went by the name “Arthur”. I don’t know how he managed to get the name “Arthur” without any numbers and whatnot, but I assume he was one of the few beta testers… not like it matters now. Just playing with him made me begin to enjoy my life in the hospital, and it was enough I was able to call him a friend. I never needed to see his real face, I never needed to know him in real life, just meeting him and knowing him in that world was enough to keep me going for as long as it did… but I’d never see him again. He cried real tears for me when no one else would’ve, and now I’m dying where the only one who’ll come to my grave is the priest… if I’ll even have a burial.

I just waited for it all to go dark, because there was no way I was going to survive this. No thoughts, no talking, just me and the void… until I heard it. I heard something that sounded like two people talking, I couldn’t tell what was going on, and this was the first time something like this had happened. When I tried to understand who they were and what was being said, all I could infer was a woman and a man were arguing, but not the content of their arguing. All it did was remind me of the argument my parents had before the both stopped coming, leaving me alone for quite some time. I covered my ears, the sound of their arguing somehow remained, and it began to affect me. I didn’t want to hear this, I just wanted to finally die after all the pain of this life, no need to stick around, especially if I were to remain comatose or paralyzed. However, I heard something clear as day for a moment, the woman’s voice saying, “Remember, stay strong, I’ll always be with you.” With that, everything went black, something completely overcoming me.

~~~

When I woke up, I was certain about one thing, I wasn’t in the hospital I remember being in. There weren’t any needles in my arms, no pads checking my heartrate, no tubes connected to me in any way, I was just… way smaller than I remembered. I did notice I was covered in bandages, and when I went to observe myself, I realized I wasn’t thin like I used to be. I rubbed my eyes, and when I realized the scene wasn’t changing, I said, “I have to be dreaming.” Even my voice didn’t sound like my own, and I wasn’t in pain when I spoke, this confirmed my dream like state. When I moved, the lights in the room came on automatically, illuminating a room as big as a living room in a modest house, which seemed to be a bedroom. I took in this room, one way more lavish than anything I’ve ever seen, and said, “Yeah, this is too much, even for a dream.” When I got up, I felt sore all over, and I could confirm I was shorter than I recalled.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I felt hunger begin to well up within me for the first time in ages, so I looked around and noticed some nightwear and put it on, no way I was going near naked in my dreams. After I put the nightwear on, I went to the door and managed to reach the “handle”, the door opening like a sliding door into the wall. I said, “Woah, I didn’t expect that.” The “handle” I saw was more like a sensor, one that detected me and opened when my hand got close to it. I decided to look into it later, because my stomach wasn’t letting me forget that it wanted food. I stepped into the hall, and once the door closed, I realized even the hall was massive and extremely well decorated. I looked both ways, but even I couldn’t tell where these halls went, so I just took a right and began walking.

As I walked, I took any turns that I hoped could lead me towards at least the kitchen, but each hall led me to yet another hall, none of the directions leading me in any direction in particular. I reached yet another hall intersection, a four way this time, and realized I was incredibly lost. Looked down the expanses of rooms and hallways, I came to one conclusion, I was in hell. Infinite hallways, infinite rooms, and a never-ending hunger, that was the hell I found myself in. A moment after I thought that, some sort of intercom came to live, “The young master has awoken and left his room, he is within the mansion interior. If anyone finds him, please take him back to his room, as he’s likely lost.” With that, the hallways went silent once more, and it left me confused. “Young master? Mansion? Maybe I’m not in hell, maybe purgatory.” I commented as I decided to take one of the many paths, but before I could, I heard a man say, “I found the young master, he’s over here!”

A man in a well-kept dress suit approached me, his obsidian hair was short but combed nicely, his equally obsidian eyes looked at me with worry as he approached. Behind him were other men in similar clothing, as well as women in maid uniforms, and all of them were approaching me with haste. After looking around, I realized they were coming for me, as I was the only one in this entire stretch of hallway aside from them. I went to try and run, but pain shot through my legs as I collapsed to the ground, which I quickly gripped my legs in a hope to massage away the pain. The same man said, kneeling as he got to me, “Be careful, it seems the injures have yet to heal.” A maid carefully pulled my hands off my legs before they began to check me over, giving the man a nod. The man carefully lifted me off the ground, then he spoke to those with him, “You may return to your work, I’ll take the young master back to his room.” The others around us were quick to disperse before I even got my words of protest out, “Put me down! I’m not some young master!”

The man looked to me as he began walking, his voice carrying confusion, “Young master, don’t make such a scene, it’s unbecoming of a noble.” I tried to voice my objections again, “I’m not a noble! I know I’m not!” I put my hand to my head, “I’m dreaming, I just need to wake up, right?” I pinched my cheeks, but when I felt pain, I paused and tried again, then said, “Why am I not waking up!?” The man had moved pretty quickly through the halls, because he had already opened the door to my room and carefully sat me on the bed, “Young master, I’m not sure why you believe this is a dream.” He knelt down and began to look me over, “We didn’t detect any head injuries after the incident, maybe the machine was broken.” I went to say something, but an audible grumble came from my stomach, causing the man to chuckle, “Don’t worry, we’ll bring in some food for you in a moment young master.”

I said, “While I am hungry, I’m not some young master, I’m not a noble. If this is some prank the hospital staff decided to pull on me, this isn’t funny.” This caused the man more confusion, but this one broke the calm smile he had on his face, “What do you mean by that young master? Of course you’re a noble, you’re the son of William Stella Flameheart, Count of the Avalon Empire. Do you not remember?” I shook my head, “That isn’t my name, my name is Connor, and my last name certainly isn’t Flameheart.” I looked out to the room, my tone clearly stating my annoyance, “Really funny guys! I thought I died, but this prank takes the cake! Come on, show yourselves!” As silence returned my call of annoyance, I felt my blood slowly run cold, my voice beginning to leak out my fear, “C-come on guys… this isn’t funny…” As I looked around the room, I noticed a mirror, to which I leapt off the bed and quickly ran to it. When I looked into it, the eyes of an unfamiliar person looked back to me. Golden blond hair that was cut short, a haircut I preferred, but my eyes were strange, as the iris of my eyes were a golden color with crimson sparsely spread through it, and the body looked more akin to a child no older than five years of age.

I moved in the mirror; a ringing began to enter my ears as everything I did seemed reflected in this unfamiliar body. I fell to the ground, my legs giving out from, the person in the mirror copying me. I said, “This… this isn’t my body. This isn’t my voice. Who is that!?” A voice seemed to overcome me, “Calm down! Take a deep breath and focus!” As the voice said that, I managed to stop and take several breaths, slowly calming myself down. Whoever told me to calm down was right, I had to be calm, much like the doctors once told me. Once I did that, I stood up and turned around, and to my surprise, a man who embodied the colors of flame stood there, his hair was cut short like my own, and much like his eyes, was the color of a strong blaze. Of course, they overtook me in height, so I was a tad nervous to address them, “I’m sorry, but… might I ask who you are?”

The man seemed saddened by this, but he approached me and took a kneel, his mouth opened and closed, he seemed unable to determine what to say. He looked to the man who brought me to this room and asked, “Edward, in your observations, what would you believe this is?” Edward spoke, “My lord, I have reason to believe young Aurelian may be a reincarnation. He proclaimed he wasn’t a noble, nor a young master, not to leave out he proclaimed “hospital staff” were playing a prank on him. I have reason to believe he is, indeed, a reincarnation.” I felt some of the questions in my head begin to fall into place, I wasn’t in my body anymore, I had died proper. When the man looked to me, he said, “But he can’t be, he shown no aptitude for it.” I shook my head, “No, this makes sense.” Both the man and Edward looked to me, but I couldn’t read the many emotions in their eyes.

I spoke to both of them equally, since they seemed to be the only ones who knew right now, “My name is Connor, I came down with a harsh illness in my first life, I have valid reason to believe I had died, and somehow been reincarnated into… this body. I had no say in the matter, but I’m very sorry if this is someone you two once knew.” Edward seemed to understand, but the man was the one who spoke as he rubbed my head, “No need to worry your little head, I’m certain your memories are just a little off, but this is something a little… normal in this universe.” Now it was my turn to be confused, “I’m sorry, what?” The man chuckled, “First, let me introduce myself, my name is William Stella Flameheart, I’m… your father.” Hearing that said to me felt… weird. It was almost like I was someone who had amnesia, but I know I don’t… at least I think. William stood up, picking me up as he did and sitting me at the desk, he then went to the door and brough me some soup. He said, “Eat, your body needs something, you’ve been unconscious for two weeks.” As I ate, William continued to speak, “To make it easy on you, you’re six years old. You won’t have many responsibilities unless you seek them, but I should explain your situation overall.”

He took a moment, then said, “Reincarnations overall are rather rare, it’s a big universe out there. But many seem to, be it their wish or not, to wind up in the care of nobility as their children in some capacity. I assume you’re the type of reincarnation who had no idea what happened, yes?” I nodded, “Yes, I just ended up here after dying, I didn’t get a say to be here.” William nodded, “I see, but I should ease your concerns, you didn’t push any soul out of the body.” I nearly spit a spoonful of soup out of my mouth as he said that, this let him know to continue, “In a way, any reincarnation born into a body is to awaken their memories between birth and ten years old, never any later than that. One reincarnate said that the reincarnate’s soul doesn’t push out any preexisting soul, so the child that is born to them is still the child of the respective family. I don’t plan to out you, at least, if you don’t wish for it.”

I asked, considering the way he worded his statement, “What do you mean by “outing” me?” William replied, “Some reincarnations want to be known as reincarnations, the reasons vary, but there are always those who want to live a new, yet entirely normal life. Of course, later in life they may come out about it, there was one case where one reincarnation left the fact they were a reincarnation in their will, and he loved ever second of his new life. What I’m getting at is you have a choice, do you want to be known as a reincarnation, or do you just wish to live a new life? You don’t have to answer it now, you have plenty of time.” I shook my head, “I can answer it now, I want to live my new life without the reincarnation label on me. My first life wasn’t the best, considering I was hospitalized for most of it. I just want to be… me.” William smiled and rubbed my head, nearly causing me to spill some soup, “Then that’s just how it’ll be, Aurelian.”

I looked to him, confusion within me, he said, “That’s your name. As of this moment, your name is Aurelian Stella Flameheart, son to William Stella Flameheart. You’ll learn what this means in due time, but you need to recover for now.” I remembered all the injuries I had, so I asked, “What happened to me? I didn’t really feel it until I tried to run earlier.” William seemed… saddened when I asked, Edward also took a saddened look as well. William said, “You’ll… remember in due time. But there was an accident when the vehicle carrying you and your mother… crashed. Your mother protected you, but at the cost was heavy. She’s currently comatose and in critical condition, but survival is more likely than not.” Despite not knowing about her, my eyes began to break out into tears. I could tell, I really did care for her, even if my memories weren’t all here yet. William knelt once more and hugged me in my chair, and that was enough for me to break out crying, for a love that surpassed even lost memories.

When I finally stopped crying, William rubbed my head, “Alright, for the time being, I need to get back to work, I have a busy schedule ahead of me. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask Edward, he’s a trustworthy butler to the family.” Edward bowed, “I aim to please my lord.” With that, William left, and I asked, “Um, Edward. What time is it?” Edward pulled his sleeve back and looked at a watch, one that looked out of place in the weirdly high-tech mansion I found myself in, “It seems to be ten in the morning sir, but you have nothing to worry about time wise.” I shook my head, “Oh, no, I just didn’t know the time. I want to stay awake, but if it was night, I would return to bed to get a proper sleep schedule going.” Edward smiled, “Understandable young master, it’s always good to get proper sleep.” I felt weird being called that, so I decided to try and change it, “If possible, can I just be called “sir” please? Being called “young master” is a little weird to me.” Edward nodded, “As you wish sir.” I breathed a sigh of relief and finished my meal, this new life seemed like it was going to be a handful.