[Stop.]
[It Hurts.]
[Why?]
[Why are you doing this? I-I did nothing wrong!]
'Whose speaking?' He opened his eyes to darkness. It was pitch black as far as he could see. Only his figure itself was visible. He stared at his hands, they were glowing a bright white like the rest of his body. A small movement caught his attention below him. He could barley make out the small ripples underneath his feet as if he were standing on water, but he had no reflection.
[I-I don't want this anymore.]
The voice whispered all around him. It sounded so broken.
[I can't take this anymore.]
He looked around the darkness. The voice sounded like a young boy crying. The words the boy spoke were overwhelming him with emotions and he found himself unconsciously placing his hand over his heart. It hurt. It shouldn't hurt. That wasn't his voice. It wasn't him that was saying this. He gripped his chest and let out a strangled gasp. The emotions were becoming too much for him to handle.
[I-I curse you! I curse all of you!]
He flinched at the sudden cry. The ripples underneath him began to shift. The water morphing into hands that latched onto him, dragging him down into the abyss.
'No! Stop! I don't want this! Stop!' He cried out. Mortified to find that his voice sounded too much like the voice he had heard.
[I curse everyone.]
The voice, his voice, whispered into his ear.
"Ahh!" Aether sprung up in his bed. His heart was racing and his hands were shaking. Despite being covered in blankets he still felt a chill that reached down to his bones. He wrapped his arms around himself and took deep breaths.
"Young Master! Are you alright?" Mina came running over, a worried look on her face. She grabbed a cloth from the side table and dipped it into some water before gently dabbing at his forehead. "Don't worry Young Master, that man can not hurt you anymore." She reassured him. Aether numbly nodded.
The servants in his house believed he was having nightmares due to the attempted kidnapping. At first he had disagreed with them, but after his father brought in a new family healer he had to reluctantly talk about the nightmares. Of course, he didn't give away too much information. He told the healer that since arriving back at the Frenzel mansion he had been having the same nightmare non-stop. A voice that sounded familiar calls out to him before dragging him into a black lake.
The healer, worried, had asked him about the voice. Aether hesitated at this. The voice, although distorted, had become clearer with every passing nightmare.
Thankfully his silence convinced the healer that this was an after effect from the kidnappers unique ability and would eventually wear off. Aether was thankful that the healer was able to deter his families prodding to the Kidnapping attempt. It kept him from being too suspicious while also giving him time to reflect on what was happening.
Aether bit his finger, 'That voice sounded too much like my new voice. Could it be the previous Aether?' He bit his finger a little harder, drawing some blood. 'It would make sense if it was.' Aether hadn't received any memories from the previous Aether. Instead he would get random glimpses of scenes or feelings at random times. If this was the previous Aether's memories resurfacing in his mind then it would be beneficial to keep the nightmares coming. After all, he needed as much information as he could get and using the previous Aether's memories would only aid him in his endeavors.
Yet there was still one thing that was bugging him. 'Why was he in so much pain? Who did he put a curse on?'
"Young Master." Mina chided, "You know you are not supposed to be bitting your finger." She slapped his hand lightly and inspected the finger. "Gosh, your going to get scars if you continue." She took out some bandages and wrapped the end of his finger.
He glanced at Mina. Although she came off aggressive to others, she was very kind and caring towards Aether. 'Would she know what had happened to the previous Aether?' He shook his head. 'There is no point in asking, it would only cause her more worry is he asked.'
"Thank you Mina, I'll try not to cause you any more worry." He replied with a smile.
Mina gave him a skeptical look. "Young Master," she groaned, "It's not about you causing me worry, but about you stopping your bad habits." She lifted his hand inspecting it even more, "You used to never bit your fingers, what happened?" She mumbled the last part.
Aether's heart stopped at her words.
She sighed, "Perhaps its from stress? Maybe you need a break from such…" she waved her hands in the air, "events. How about a nice walk in the garden? Or a quick trip to the library? You know, to help keep your mind off off things." She smiled brightly.
Aether's heart calmed down after she spoke up again. For a moment he was afraid that she had figured out something.
Aether thought about the two options Mina had suggested. A stroll in the garden was practically useless. Although the Frenzels had gardeners to keep the garden in tip top shape, the garden was also home to the training grounds and that was a place he did not want to visit right now.
Not only would his sister and brother most likely be there, but they would probably be training with the knights.
He had to admit though, it sounded appealing to go and watch the secret knights his father groomed, but he was in no mood to watch the garden be destroyed by their carelessness. Knowing his luck he would accidentally be hit in one of the crossfires of a spar. So that left only one option, the library.
There were multiple libraries in the Frenzel household, so he wasn't too sure on which library she was referring to. Although he had no desire to read, it would give him the perfect opportunity to get a grasp of the situation of this world.
"Perhaps we could head to the library?"
Mina's eyes lit up at his words. "Perfect! Neal! Neal!" She called out.
Neal stammered through the door and rushed to Mina's side, confusion and worry etched on his face. "What-" he took a deep breath, "What's wrong? Did something happen?" He held his chest as he spoke.
"We need to get the young Master ready for a small outing to the library. Now hurry up!" She clapped her hands and ushered him to get to work.
Neal's face dropped when he processed Mina's words. "Are you serious? I thought something major had happened." He groaned out as he made his way to the closet. Aether didn't miss the way Neal's eyes gleamed when he saw a giant gem on one of the shirts nor did he miss when said gem went missing.
Mina, who seemed oblivious to the thievery happening right next to her, made her way to the bathroom, most likely going to prepare a quick bath for him. "If something did happen I wouldn't have called you over. I'm perfectly capable of protecting the Young Master and myself without any help." She smiled at Neal who was glaring daggers at her, "Now, get to work."
After a quick bath and change of clothes, Aether found himself escorted to the library with Mina, Neal. This time though, there were a few other servants he had never seen before trailing a little ways behind him.
Mina caught his curious glance and reassured him, "Don't worry Young Master, they are just a precaution. They will not get too close."
That did little to ease Aether's worry, but he let it slide knowing full well this was probably set up by his father to make sure nothing else would happen to him.
The library Mina chose was spacious, with two stories and two spiral staircases leading to the second story on each side of the room. The room was decorated in deep reds and neutral golds giving a warm and comfortable feel to it while also subtly showcasing that they were wealthy.
In the center of the room was a desk surrounded by two red couches.
The desk was obviously set up for studying. There were multiple writing utensils and papers on the right side. Aether briefly glanced at the writing utensils. He discovered early on that not all the utensils in this world were operable by hand. Most required the use of abilities in some way or shape. The ones on the desk were prime examples of that.
On the left hand side of the desk was a small stack of books. The topic of these books were on swordsmanship, fighting strategies, and war tactics.
'Leon must have been the last one here.'
He closed the books and went over to the couches. He lightly traced a pillow on the cushion and found them to be rather soft. Nodding to himself he left the small study area and made his way to the bookshelves.
It wasn't a surprise that there were countless books in the library, but it did pose a small problem. Although these books were well placed and organized there were no plaques or words to indicate which genre of books were in each section.
"Mina."
"Yes Young Master?"
"Do you know where I can find books on the history of the Kingdoms?"
Mina thought for a moment, "Well, although we do have a history section, it mainly focuses on the Soline Kingdom. Is there something particular you are looking for?"
Aether frowned. He had wanted to gather intel on the neighboring Kingdoms, but it seems that would be impossible here. "No. Can you lead me to that section?"
"Of course young Master!"
The section he was led to was surprisingly large. At least two bookshelves were dedicated to the history of the Soline Kingdom, with another bookshelf focusing solely on the history of the Frenzel family.
Aether wanted to keep looking, but Mina gestured towards the history of the Frenzel family. "Now Young Master, since you have officially been recognized as a Frenzel, it's very important for you to learn everything you can about the Frenzel household." Mina spoke sternly as she grabbed book after book handing it to another servant who dutifully took it back to the study desk.
Aether watched this scene with growing apprehension. 'Is she going to make me read the entire Frenzel household history?' Aether groaned at the thought.
He looked behind him at the growing pile of books on the desk, 'Is it too late to escape?' Seeing the countless servants roaming about he let out a sigh and chucked that idea out of his mind.
'It's alright. This is fine. Maybe I'll find something useful about the other Kingdoms in these books.' The thought of finding something about the other Kingdoms made him energized and he no longer looked at the giant pile of books with dread.
Although the novel only ever mentioned two of the Kingdoms by name, there were actually five in this world. Because the story mainly took place in the Soline Kingdom, the other Kingdoms were never mentioned unless of course there was a war or kidnapping, but even then they were just barely mentioned. It was as if the author was avoiding mentioning them on purpose.
'Was it a plot hole? An unfinished storyline? Was there something more to the succession battle than what was stated? Were the other Kingdoms also dragged into this mess? If that's the case, this will become a lot more complicated.' Aether thought.
"Young Master? Is everything okay?" Mina asked, she was carrying even more books, slowly passing them to another servant. "Is something wrong? Do you hurt? Do you need to rest? Food? Or maybe a warm drink." She quickly shoved the rest of the books into the servant's arms and ran over, putting her palm to his head.
"I'm fine." Aether grabbed her hand and gave it a firm squeeze and gave her a lame excuse to divert her attention. "I was just wondering if perhaps there was anything on the current Frenzel family rather than its ancestors?"
Mina gave him a quizzical look, "Well, there is, but it's not really complete." She gave a forced smile that dropped as quickly as it came, "Young Master, are you sure you want to look at the book?"
"Yes." Aether had a feeling why she was so against showing him this book and her reluctance made him even more interested in the book.
'It probably doesn't have anything regarding Aether in it.' He thought to himself as he followed her back to the study area. He waited to the side as Mina placed a rather large book in his hands. Aether grimaced at such a sight. 'Why does the history of the current Frenzel family need to be this big? It's kind of embarrassing.'
Aether took the book with a soft smile and got comfortable in one of the couches and opened the book. As expected the first page was a family tree. Each family member's portrait was painted into a small oval with flowers as the borders, a rectangular white patch was on the bottom where each of their names were written. His father and mother stood on the top followed by Leon and Aria then- his hand paused over the spot that was designed as if a child had been born, but no portrait or name was in it.
A sharp pang in his head made him flinch. He reached up to touch his head. He closed his eyes for a moment and an image flashed before him.
Father? When will I be put in the family tree?
When you prove yourself as a true Frenzel.
Aether curled into himself. Holding his head even tighter as memories that weren't his flooded his head.
Father?
You are not my son! Never call me that again!
Fa-
Get him out of my sight!
The chairs screeched.
"Young Master! Are you alright?"
[I hate this.]
[Why can't I be part of this family?]
"You—Ma—r!"
Aether doubled over, the pain in his head was too intense. The scenes flashing before him were mixing together, until all he could see was the figure of a small child frowning before him.
[Would it be better to die?]
Aether watched in slight fear as the figure walked towards him. A hand reached out towards him.
[If I die, would they care?]
"They-" Aether stopped mid-sentence. He knew that this figure was just a piece of scattered memory from the previous Aether's soul, but it felt too real. When he lifted his head to gaze at the boy's face he couldn't find it in himself to lie.
"They wouldn't care." He whispered out in a choked sob. His head hit the ground with a soft thud as tears poured from his eyes.
The small figure gazed down at him, [I know.]