Alternative Reincarnation

Chapter 3 — So Victor is Scary? PartOne

In the training ground, everyone marveled. The guards, the knights, everyone who was there turned to look at the man speaking so casually about life when he already knew his death was supposed to be inevitable. Richard started laughing maniacally.

"Victor is a man full of surprises. I shouldn't underestimate you. Every time you say something, it's either funny or something I can't completely understand."

He looked at Victor.

"If you're not really dumb, then I think you're actually very smart. At a level where I think you're already at the point of being a sage who is somehow still so stupid and dumb."

Victor didn't respond. He simply kept looking at him. Then he bumped Richard's shoulder provocatively.

"Oh, is that so? I really couldn't notice. By the way, you really have a brain. You really have a brain. I couldn't figure that out myself." He repeated.

Richard wanted to kill him immediately. His hand went to his sword. The knights were watching, but they avoided looking directly at Victor. They moved their eyes away and dared not make eye contact with him.

Richard thought that maybe he could kill Victor and claim that it had happened by accident. Everyone hated Victor anyway. But another thought stopped him.

He wasn't so different from Victor. Richard had allowed people to use him before, but those situations had always been part of the table he had already prepared. By allowing people to use him, he had placed himself in situations he had planned for, and those people had played their parts exactly as he needed.

He had even made some of them obsessed with him to the point where they couldn't simply discard him. But he knew that if he had made even one mistake, he would have enemies. And he already had enemies.

It had taken him time to rebuild himself after being lowered from an illegitimate son of the second branch of the family to the third because of what Victor had done to him. King's voice suddenly appeared in Victor's mind.

"Why does it feel like the Victor of this body was so confident? And why does the part of him that's inside you seem just as confident?"

Victor answered without moving.

"Isn't that supposed to be your job? You're supposed to answer me."

King scoffed.

"Do you think I'm all-knowing? Do you think I'm almighty? Do you think I even want to be here with you?"

Victor looked straight ahead as everyone around him continued seeing him standing completely still.

"I know. You seem useless. So far, the only thing you've helped me with is reducing my hope and faith. I think I'm going to die because even being here with you is taking me off focus. I can't even play my games right."

He paused.

"By the way, let me ask you something. What's so special about Victor? He's not strong. I don't feel any overwhelming power inside him. I don't feel anything special about him. He's just normal. Apart from that, I did notice that his senses are sharpened. I can see very well. I can hear very well. I can even sense things right now. I feel like this world is different from mine, but not so different. It also has energies and forces that I can't comprehend."

King answered, already knowing where the conversation was going.

"I know where you're going with this. You're asking for power. But are you sure you want to proceed that way?"

"Of course I want to proceed that way. I need power. It would be great if I had the power that was taken from me by my parents when I was still young."

King immediately answered.

"No. Why would you want such power? It's useless. There is the power of running."

Victor frowned.

"No, it's not merely running. It's teleportation, you know. If I had it, I could just teleport somewhere else. Do you think they'd be able to catch me? Before King could answer, someone interrupted Victor's thoughts.

"Young master, your father wants to see you again."

Victor turned toward the servant.

"Tell my father that I won't be seeing him. If he calls for me again, it should be for something that benefits me. If not, he should consider our relationship over like before. And during these three months, he shouldn't even dare look me in the eyes."

Though screaming inside, Victor wanted to go and kneel and beg for his father to help him.

Everyone was shocked. A son who wasn't loved by the main family, a son who had at some point been considered illegitimate and whose origin they had tried to hide, was speaking to the master of the house like that. The servant looked terrified.

"I-I can't say that, young master."

But Victor had already turned away. The patron of the house stood by the window, feeling the wind pass through the room as he looked out at the knights and the castle standing tall before him. He had thought the problem was finally going to die.

Then he heard Victor's words. His senses had become sharper, and he could hear much farther than before. He wondered whether that son was really his.

He wondered how his own child had been cursed with such an absolute monstrosity. And yet, somewhere inside himself, he knew that Victor was strong. He admired Victor's strength. Even when he had tried to love his son, he couldn't.

The only person who had truly been able to love Victor was his mother. And even that love had resulted in her death. The thought made something inside him snap.

For a moment, he felt that he didn't need anything else. Then he regained his composure. His son was taking this role too far now. He wasn't even hiding it anymore. He looked like a completely different person.

And yet, in another sense, he seemed even more foolish than before. The old Victor had been smart, calculating, and manipulative. This Victor looked like a man who was simply fed up with life.

As if he wanted to die. The strongest knight of the castle stepped forward.

"Victor! How dare you insult my lord? Your own father? How dare you insult my lord? I'm going to sever your head right now!"

Victor slowly turned toward him. Then he started walking in his direction. King's voice immediately exploded inside his mind.

"What the f**k are you doing? What the f**k are you doing? You're not even powerful! Even a stone can kill you. Remember, you died because a house fell on you. Most people who were superhuman would have survived that, but are you really going to face this thing? Don't you see that he's strong? He's most likely something like the head of the family!"

Victor ignored him, he continued and told himself this was a test.

"Shut up and observe."

King went silent for a moment. Then he realized it. Victor was actually crazy.

And when two crazy people met, they somehow became even crazier. The knight's confidence began to disappear. He took a step back.

Sweat rolled down his face. Had this kid gone insane? The knight had only wanted to scare him. Now he was the one feeling scared.

Victor kept walking toward him until he was looming over the knight. He was taller than him, and his expression remained completely calm.

"Did you say you want to sever my head?"

He took another step.

"Did you say you want to kill me?"

Richard stood to the side, watching. He analyzed the situation and thought to himself, Oh my God. This knight is in trouble. He doesn't know that this thing is a monster.

The knight quickly tried to explain himself, then stepped back into a battle stance and drew his sword. Victor looked at him.

"What is your name?"

The knight couldn't even bring himself to answer. Victor thought that these people were truly pathetic. How could they think they could kill him?

The reason he could act like this was simple. The people who had ordered his execution were nobles who wanted him dead, along with people in the imperial capital. But an ordinary knight couldn't simply kill him or hurt him without consequences.

In some sense, Victor had protection for these three months. He needed to find out how to get his powers back and then teleport out of here. But there was something else he needed to understand.

Victor's life felt empty. He couldn't see the memories of Victor manipulating people, lying to them, or scamming them. He couldn't even see many of the people who had supposedly been part of Victor's life.

The only thing he had been able to see was the dark side of him. The buried side. The victim side.

King spoke again.

"It seems Victor isn't normal either. It's impossible to explore deeper into his mind. It's like there's some kind of interference."

Victor didn't answer immediately. There were too many things he still didn't understand. Richard suddenly intervened.

"The carriage is arriving this evening. We have to be ready by tomorrow morning. We're going to the imperial capital, and there's a special place prepared for you."

Victor looked at him.

"What about that special place?"

Richard studied him. He knew Victor was arrogant, but he also knew that Victor was extremely important right now. Some nobles didn't even want him dead because he still owed them.

Richard decided to play his mind games and let Victor feel as though he was in control.

"It's the third castle of the imperial capital."

Victor frowned.

"Why not the main castle?"

Richard answered thinking that Victor's arrogance had no boundaries, "Do you think you're a prince?" King immediately added in Victor's mind, "Yeah, what do you think you are? You're not a prince. You're just a lowly person who died because a stone fell on him."

Victor became angry, but his face wouldn't show it. And for once, he thought that this body was perfect. No matter what he felt, he looked completely calm.