Alternative Reincarnation

Chapter 4 — Time To Give Up.

Victor sat in the secret library, asleep with his head against the book he had been reading. A figure loomed above him. He wasn't conscious enough to recognize the person at first, but it seemed to be his father. For a moment, Victor wondered if his father had finally come to help him and give him what he wanted. But it was too late. His father had already decided that Victor would have to be sacrificed because he believed he could not survive in such a cruel world.

Victor woke immediately.

"Father?"

His father didn't answer at first. The room fell completely silent. There was an awkward tension between them until Victor finally broke it.

"You're not really going to help me?"

His father told him to stop asking such questions and get out of the library. He had come too late, and Victor had been sleeping. He also realized that someone might discover the hidden library by accident because of his mistake.

Victor showed him that he wasn't going to expose him.

His father turned to leave.

"Sir."

His father stopped.

"What?"

"Perhaps you're worried about me. I can't understand you. You're my father too. Did you come here to check on me?" Victor asked in hope of being pitied.

His father was taken aback. His son was strangely calm, but different.

"Wake up and go sleep in your own room. In the morning, I'll explain why I came to see you."

Then his father left, and Victor was alone again.

Victor called out to King.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

King replied that he had been tired too. Victor had been reading nonsense, and neither of them could understand any of it.

Victor quickly realized that whatever he was doing wasn't working.

Reality hit him. Even though he was smart and considered himself a scholar, understanding things in a new world he wasn't familiar with wasn't easy. The body he was in didn't feel completely accommodated to him either, and he still couldn't access the memories that were supposed to belong to him.

Victor finally accepted it.

Then he asked King why his life was so miserable.

King answered without hesitation.

"Of course your life is miserable. You died, and then in the new world you were buried alive. I don't think there's a place for you in existence."

After realizing that he wasn't learning or understanding enough, Victor made his decision.

"We'll be ready tomorrow morning. We'll take the journey to the third castle of the Empire."

King was surprised. Maybe that really was the plan, because staying here would only get Victor killed sooner.

Victor had already understood that this world wasn't completely different from his original one.

Victor asked himself how he could become powerful, but he found no answer.

"I won't ask you," he told King. "I already know you're as useless as the useless box."

King immediately felt insulted.

"I'm not a servant. I can help people with dormant talent or magic."

He explained that he could help Victor learn magic, but Victor would need a spirit or some external source of energy to draw power from. He was so weak that even artifacts would not work for him.

Victor told him to shut up.

"Don't you see how hard magic is? It's similar to my own world. Magic can be used by those born with an innate talent and an internal source of energy. In rare cases, a lucky individual can use it after being chosen by a spirit or a high-level artifact. Some even receive talents and blessings from above."

There were also lunatics who used their own life force as magic. It was effective for elves and demons because they lived longer, but for humans it was practically impossible because their lives were too short.

Victor finally accepted his fate.

He would probably die soon in this world.

At least he could explore before that happened.

Then he remembered the powers that had been taken from him by his parents in his previous body. If a power could be part of DNA or an innate ability, perhaps his soul still possessed it.

King confirmed it.

Victor still had his teleportation power within him. He simply couldn't awaken it.

Such abilities required certain conditions.

King wondered if one of those conditions might be mortal danger or extreme fear.

"What if you jumped off a cliff? Or went into a high-level danger zone?"

Victor scolded him.

"Shut up, why don't you just tell me to kill myself."

He had three months to live, and tomorrow he would go and enjoy that time. If his power didn't return, he would abandon the idea and accept his fate.

They continued bickering and insulting each other, suggesting increasingly ridiculous plans.

Soon, morning arrived.

Victor was sitting in what seemed to be his office when he called for a servant.

"Go and call Richard."

Richard was training in the seventh area when the servant found him and told him that the young master wanted to see him.

Richard understood and immediately went to see Victor.

Richard walked through the backyard of the house, passing through what seemed like an endless circle before entering the building.

The place was beautiful.

The servant guided him up the stairs and through the corridor until they reached the young master's office.

Richard knocked.

"Enter," Victor said.

Richard went inside.

"What do you want?"

Victor looked at him.

"Don't you at least ask how my night was? Don't you want to ask how I am?" He teased.

Richard answered grinning his teeths in a tone that sounded humble and respectful, but clearly wasn't.

"Master, how are you? Why aren't you dead? Isn't your life supposed to be short?"

Victor looked at him.

"What will you do if I'm not?"

Richard said that he held no grudge, but he felt the need to crush Victor.

Victor immediately answered that it was a grudge.

Richard denied it.

"It isn't. I just want a parasite to disappear from this world."

Victor told him to shut up and prepare himself because he had changed his mind.

"In two hours, we're leaving for the Imperial House.

Richard asked why.

Victor told him that he had seen Richard and that Richard seemed to be accommodating himself very well.

He couldn't accept that.

Richard grinned.

"Is that really the reason?"

"No."

Victor looked at him.

"I just want you to die with me on the way."

Richard didn't seem alarmed.

"Oh, I know. after all we are old friends. You're hurting my emotions. Don't you remember what happened three years ago?"

Victor told him that he didn't remember.

Then he repeated himself.

"Prepare everything. In three hours, we're leaving."

Richard stared at him.

"Why don't you remember? That day was a turning point in my life.

Victor got up and walked toward the window. He stood there, looking out at the beautiful scenery as the wind moved through the trees.

"I couldn't care less but why then my old friend wants me dead?"

When he looked behind him, Richard was already gone.

King started laughing.

"Your speeches aren't working, you better start kneeling and beging for mercy."

"They'll work eventually," Victor replied.

He would become a person respected for his wise words.

Soon, he'd be known as a sage.

After all, he had already decided that this world was too dumb to live in.

After some time, Richard sent someone to look for Victor.

They found him ready.

Victor told them to go ahead, and they quickly led him toward the carriage.

There were more than three carriages waiting.

Victor looked at them.

"Am I some kind of prince?"

Richard answered yes.

Victor asked if he would get a carriage by himself.

Richard denied it.

"You've taken so much from the nobles that all they can do now is give you enough protection to get safely to the Imperial House so they can kill you themselves."

Victor understood.

"You're really smart sometimes."

They got into the carriage, ready to set out for the Imperial House in the capital, where the princess and several nobles awaited his arrival or rather his death.