Urgh!
Remiel groaned, sluggishly blinking in a dimly illuminated and dusty place, feeling a very sharp pain in the back of his head.
He instinctively tried to stroke the area gently to ease the pain, but he found his hands tied behind his back.
Remiel suddenly remembered what had just entered his mind as he was unconscious.
Memories.
To be precise, it was the memory of his new body.
The body which belonged to Lucien Callastre, the second prince of Cythos Kingdom, which was ironically the descendants of his very own bloodline.
Remiel learnt that after Cyrus' untimely and mysterious death, the Solstice Empire was plunged into a bloody, decade-long civil war, and later collapsed into three nations.
The empire was divided between 2 of Cyrus' heirs and his general.
The treacherous general got the biggest chunk in the east, which was now called the Sultanate of Zahari.
While the second prince took the western peninsular part of the empire bordering the Cochver Sea and retained a good chunk of land, the capital city, as well as the glorious name of Solstice.
Finally, Cyrus' oldest son took over the southern part of the kingdom, developing it into what is now called the Kingdom of Cythos.
During this entire remembrance, Remiel couldn't help but feel severely distressed.
He found it quite hard to digest the new reality of the once-greatest empire in the world.
He had bled for the Empire. Killed for it and buried his comrades for it.
And now? It was just another name in the history books?
'What in the tarnation just happened after my death?'
He got a bit lightheaded just thinking about it.
The whole reincarnation thing was already a hard pill to swallow, and now this.
Lucien Callastre, the original owner of this body, was still unawakened, which explained why his body was this weak.
The people of this era awakened at their coming-of-age, which was at the age of 18, and Lucien was still 17 years old.
Remiel himself awakened at the age of 13, and he nearly died because of this, which was why he didn't dislike this method.
Lucien was here in the Republic of Solstice for diplomatic reasons, representing the royal family of Callastre, but then something mysterious happened, and Remiel ended up in his body.
There were so many things that Remiel couldn't decipher.
What happened to Lucien Callastre?
Why did he end up in this body?
How did he end up in this body?
Did Lucien die?
Why did he possess Lucien's body in his own grave?
What happened last night?
How did no one notice anything, even with such advanced and bizarre future technology?
And if he is in Lucien's body, then where is his own body, since the grave was empty the last time he saw it?
His mind was bombarded with loads of questions he had no answers for.
He still couldn't shake off this alien feeling of possessing others' bodies.
He still couldn't believe that his own self was just a mere historical chapter now.
He couldn't even be called the strongest anymore, as there were beings 3 entire realms above Titan now.
He wanted to explore this new world, get stronger, and uncover all the secrets he wanted answers to.
His heart was in turmoil.
But looking at his current situation, he had bigger problems to handle.
By the gist of it, it seems that he was kidnapped by someone, and it wasn't really hard to guess why.
A weak, demented prince of a literal kingdom, roaming the streets unguarded.
It couldn't get any better than this for a criminal who knew him somehow.
He had to escape this damned dark room as soon as possible, but his restraints didn't allow him to.
He was trying to devise some plans when he suddenly heard something.
"Lucien Callastre?" A low voice entered his ears as he perked up his ears overhearing a familiar name.
"You mean that Callastre?" The voice sounded like he was in disbelief, and rightfully so.
It wasn't every day that one kidnaps a literal prince of a kingdom.
"Are you sure it really is the second prince of Cythos?" The voice questioned again, his voice rising in volume with each passing second.
"Are you seriously doubting me, Musa? Do you not know who my brother is?" The second voice spoke, feeling a bit familiar to him.
"It's not that, bossman. It's just that the royal family never really publicizes the heirs before their coming-of-age, so there is a chance you might be… mistaken." On the flip side, Musa's voice just got meeker and meeker, clearly indicating who was in power here.
"Ugh! Let's just go inside, and you can see for yourself." The second voice spoke, his tone frustrated.
Two sets of heavy footsteps approached, getting louder with each step.
Lucien's heartbeat increased as he closed his eyes, not wanting to deal with them at the moment.
Creak!
The door slowly opened with a creak, as rays of blinding light almost made him flinch, but he held on.
He felt two people approaching him by their footsteps, which stopped just a meter away from him.
A hand approached him and grabbed him by his hair to raise it upwards.
"Long blond hair, lifeless gray eyes, and this disgustingly handsome face. No doubt, this is the same face I saw on that dark web bounty thread." Musa mumbled, letting go of the prince so as not to damage the goods.
"Bounty?" The second man spoke, his voice laced with confusion. "I didn't hear anything about this. I thought we were going to ask the royal family for ransom."
"Huh? Do you even hear yourself, bossman?" Musa's words nearly made Lucien chuckle, and rightfully so. The other guy's words were just that dumb.
"..."
"Sigh! Bossman, do you really think we can extort money from a royal family?" Musa continued, "Even the lowest level guard of theirs can just slaughter us all and take the Prince away."
Not liking this sarcastic and berating tone of Musa, the guy spoke with a clear threat, "Watch your tone, Musa, my brother don't pay you to make snarky comments like this. Now that we have confirmed his identity, we should leave.."
"..."
"I said, we should leave." Roland's voice wasn't casual anymore.
"...Sure thing, Bossman." Musa complied in a meeker tone, standing up together with Roland.
Meanwhile, Lucien peeked through and identified one of them. 'That guy…'