"Here!" The silver-haired threw something at Lucien, which he caught and took a look at.
Another high-grade healing potion.
He opened the cap and took a whiff, just to be sure.
Lucien couldn't even dare to go against this newly arrived monster, so he just gulped it right down.
He fell into a momentary trance yet again, and his wounds healed in seconds.
"Now that all the filth is gone and you are safe, allow me to introduce myself, your highness." The silver-haired man bowed slightly and introduced himself.
"My name is Arthur Albrecht, appointed as a permanent envoy of the Republic of Solstice to the Kingdom of Cythos, and the vice-dean of the Lumen Academy."
'Lumen Academy?' Lucien's mind instantly clicked with abundant information from the original Lucien's memories.
Lumen Academy, the best Academy in Solstice and Cythos, and an academy available to two nations and recognized as the best in both.
It trained the best of the best talents of the nations and raised them to be capable and powerful Exalts.
Everything in the academy was state-of-the-art, and to be the vice-dean there, Arthur must be a very capable person.
It made sense for an envoy to be in the academy, since the Academy was situated in the heart of the Cythos Kingdom, and students from Solstice needed a representative.
If he remembered clearly, being the Prince of the Cythos, he was also expected to join the academy after his 18th birthday.
It was currently July 4, 1513; his birthday was on July 9th, and the new academic year would start in August.
So, he didn't have much time for anything.
Lucien nodded at Arthur as he spoke, "My name is Luc-"
"Ah! Wait!" Arthur suddenly interrupted Lucien and vanished from there, only to return a few seconds later.
'Rude!' Lucien was clearly displeased, but was in awe at the same time, witnessing the speed of Arthur.
On the other hand, Arthur returned with a large, oval object in his hand, covered with a white piece of cloth.
Arthur carefully removed the cloth and revealed an object that Lucien was weirdly familiar with.
An ornate, obsidian mirror that was no bigger than a dinner plate, rimmed with etched gold and polished to such an extent that it almost looked like a pool of black mercury.
It felt eerily familiar, but he just couldn't put a finger on what he found familiar.
Was it some blurry memory of Lucien?
Or was it something from his past life?
Arthur brought it closer to Lucien and said, "Try touching it."
Lucien raised an eyebrow, a bit hesitant from the eerie feeling he was getting from it.
"Just try!" Arthur pushed further, and Lucien caved in.
He reached forward hesitantly, slowly getting closer to the surface.
A ripple.
The glass rippled strangely, and then, like oil drawn to a flame, black, viscous tendrils slowly emerged from the mirror and towards his fingers.
They reached for him.
They… yearned for him.
Like metal shavings to a magnet, the obsidian-black sludge pulled towards his hand, wrapping around his fingers like a hungry slime.
Lucien froze, a strange chill ran down his spine, as he pulled back his fingers, breaking off the sludge from his hands.
But on the other hand, Arthur's eyes shone in satisfaction.
"This confirms it," Arthur put the mirror away, covering it back with the cloth, and spoke, "You are indeed the master of Arenox."
'Arenox!' Lucien's instincts were alarmed, warning him that something bad was about to happen.
And something bad did happen.
"So, this finally confirms it." A rare grin crept up on Arthur's face, his tone excited, "So it is true, you are not just Lucien Callastre."
He leaned forward, his voice soft and amused, "You are Remiel St. Clair, reborn in the body of the second prince."
Boom!
As if a lightning bolt had struck him, Lucien was frozen solid.
A chill ran down his entire body, and the hairs on his arms stood on end.
His heart nearly stopped, and instantly, a heavy bloodlust surged.
"How did you know? Who else knows about it? Tell me everything."
In response, Arthur just raised his hands in surrender and spoke, "Geez, calm down. How much have you killed that even I'm feeling uncomfortable in that?"
"That doesn't concern you," Lucien growled, his voice laced with underlying threat, even though he knew that he wouldn't last a second in front of Arthur. "Now talk."
Lucien was genuinely unable to control himself at this point because of how vulnerable he was in front of this man.
"You need to calm down first, your highness." Even now, Arthur was in the mood for joking around, which irritated Lucien quite a lot.
'Tch!' Lucien clicked his tongue and drew in slow breaths.
Arthur was clearly doing this to provoke him, and he succeeded too.
Seeing that the prince caught his motives and calmed down this fast, Arthur was disappointed.
"Your return is more important to this world than you realize, Your Highness. I am not stupid enough to disclose this information to others. And as for how, let me tell you.
"Do you remember the spirit general you slayed on the day of your death?" Arthur asked.
A frown crept up Lucien's face as he got sour just thinking about it.
For him, it was just yesterday that this happened, so it was a rather fresh event for him.
"Which one?" He asked, his tone had a clear hint of displeasure.
"The one who poisoned you to death, the one with 3 obsidian horns," Arthur recalled his limited knowledge about the event that he had read.
"The spirit that poisoned me to death?" Lucien scoffed, rolling his eyes, "Yeah, right!"
He realized that the information about his death was heavily falsified.
He wasn't surprised in the least, since this was what anyone would have done there, too.
He bit his tongue. There was no point correcting him now; better to let Arthur stay uninformed.
"Yeah, so this mirror, Arenox, was formed from the spirit general." Arthur continued after making sure Lucien remembered, "The spirit general you slayed was morphed into this artifact.
"For centuries, Arenox was in the Royal treasury, before my house got its hands on it after the fall of the Solstice Empire."
Just hearing the words 'Fall of the Solstice Empire' left a bad taste in his mouth, but he listened calmly.
"The mirror had been dormant for 900 years, until the last night."