I woke up wearing luxurious nightwear. I could tell since the fabric was exquisite compared to the sack I wore when escaping the bandits.
'What's this?'
I noticed my arms were smaller. I could tell that I was still 'me' and that I was still in the same body, albeit a significantly younger one.
'Do I continue to regress as I die?'
That was the first thought I had but fortunately, I was wrong.
My body moved automatically as if it was not me who was moving it. I tried to speak but my mouth didn't move as well. It's like I was following a pre-destined movement and thanks to that, I figured out what's currently happening at this moment.
I didn't die back then.
Lavender eyes must have saved me.
'Right now, I'm just reliving a memory of the former owner of the body.'
The previous owner looked around his room, his eyes landing on a huge mirror. The room was full of elegant furniture however, he didn't seem to fit in with them.
I could see in the mirror that his cheeks were sunken and his eyes had dark circles underneath them.
'He looks like a panda that went fasting for a week.'
That was the kindest expression I can use to describe how badly thin he looked. It was easy to tell that he was being mistreated.
There was also a gold basin of water beside the bed. It was probably left by the maids to prepare him for the morning yet no attendants came in the room to help.
'Oh, shit.'
I shivered when he dipped his finger in the water.
It was as cold as ice, if not even colder. It's like the person who was assigned to bring this went to Antarctica and brought back the water from there. To make it worse, there was no towel next to the basin.
But the person I'm possessing seemed to be used to this treatment as expertly did everything by himself from washing up to dressing his malnourished body.
"Good enough."
He said, even though he had a different thought inside his head.
'Not enough.'
His inner voice kept telling him that it wasn't enough.
It was such a pitiful sight.
Even I could tell the effort in his actions as he tried his best to make his corpse-like figure appear even a little bit presentable before he left to go to the dining room.
On his way, numerous house attendants passed by him. Most of them looked away while the rest just downright ignored his existence. However, in all those cases they would whisper a lot of things about him as they were walking away and the term 'illegitimate' was often used.
'So, the body I have was a black stain in some prestigious family.'
Normally, a child like this would grow up to be a troublesome pest. He would hate his family or develop a personality with an inferiority complex.
'It really makes me wonder why he doesn't feel those repulsive emotions.'
Our souls and body were in unison. When he felt abused, I would feel the pain. Whenever something happened to him, I could tell what he was feeling and what he was thinking in those very moments.
It was a surreal experience that made my skin crawl.
"I'm here."
When he arrived at the dining room, I saw a family of three inside. They must've been the 'real' family of the head of this house.
The moment he took a step inside, the three of them glared at his direction. The man, his wife, and probably this body's older half-sister.
They didn't hide their contempt and disgust.
Since then, time flew fast.
There was no day where he wasn't threatened, poisoned, or beaten, and the mistreatment only got worse over time.
'Why doesn't he speak up?'
As we were currently one, I had to feel every single attempt together with him.
'Don't drag me in this hell with you!'
The pain and suffering nearly drove me insane.
My sense of time was long gone.
I didn't know when a day started and when it ended
However, one thing I found out was that this body never became angry to the people that did him harm nor did he feel sorry for himself.
He just kept on saying 'not good enough' like a broken record player and worked hard to improve himself.
"Why am I still not good enough?"
It was only until I heard him say those words that I realized something.
'...Is he talking to someone right now?'
It was almost as if a certain someone I can't see was watching him all the time and kept on making him feel like he will never be good enough.
'Is he crazy? No, that's not it either.'
His eyes were that of a sane person. I thought for sure that he was thinking 'I have to be good enough for this family to accept me!' but that doesn't seem to be the case.
He was repeating the words of someone.
'Who? Who's making him say the same annoying shit over and over again?'
I wanted to find out but the next day was the time when the mistreatment went overboard and he was sold to nefarious human traffickers.
After that, I woke up.
CRACKLE!
There was a smell of burning wood and a feeling of dampness on my forehead.
'What is it this time?'
I slowly opened my eyes and saw lavender eyes sitting across me. As usual, he had a carefree expression on his blank face.
'Am I finally out of that hell hole?'
My sense of reality slowly returned as lavender eyes filled me in with the details after we fell from the waterfall.
"You were out for three hours. It's around 9 PM."
"...I had a dream about the past. Turns out, I'm an illegitimate child."
I didn't know why I said that. I just felt like I needed to get it out of my mouth. I started to calm down after that, and a few more moments I returned to my original piece of a shit of a personality.
'I will deal with this body's issues later. For now, I need to focus on surviving.'
If I don't survive, I won't know what crap the former owner of this body has in store for me.
"I'm okay now. Damn, that was quite a fall."
"Mmm."
He didn't say anything for a few seconds but it was clear from his knitted eyebrows that he was confused at my quickly changing expressions.
I can't blame him. One moment, I was saying what a somber kid would say if he was left alone in a market and in the next, I was fine like in never happened.
I sighed and remembered the currents from earlier.
"How did we survive those swirling calamities?"
"I still remember how to swim in strong currents. I did it all the time in my hometown."
My mouth gaped open at his unbelievable answer.
"Remember... the hell? Did the memory potion even work on you?"
"Memory potion is a strong liquid that makes you forget the past. Seeing that you and I have parts of our memories intact then that means the quality is low. We got lucky."
Luck? I was almost afraid to say that we didn't 'get' it but 'earned' it through sacrifice.
Pushing that at the back of my mind, I forced my body to sit. Lavender eyes didn't try to stop me. He was just looking, waiting for whatever orders I had next.
I needed to get things straight with him.
"You probably figured it out by now that escaping this place is impossible. Heck, just surviving would be a miracle. Even so, are you really going to follow me? No matter what orders I have in mind?"
"I agreed to continue living but I didn't agree to be your dog."
"Dog? The dogs would feel insulted if they knew they were compared to you."
"Hey."
Lavender eyes glared at me. His eyes started to glow and a pressure started to build on my shoulder.
'Okay, enough jokes.'
'I'm kidding, geez. How could I even think of you like that? I want you as a subordinate."
"That sounds weird too."
"You don't want to be my subordinate? Then let's be friends!"
I gave him a gentle smile. As always, there was no change in his emotions. Not even minuscule facial muscles. However, the pressure was now gone.
'He didn't refuse it, and whenever he stays silent it always means agreement.'
It was a habit I noticed from him.
I stood up, dusted my body, and started walking away from the little mini-camp. Lavender eyes got rid of the fire and cleaned up our traces before following me. He was a surprisingly thorough guy.
"Now that we have that settled, what should I call you? Do you have a pseudo-name?"
"I don't. Do we even need that?"
"Of course, we do. I can't keep calling you Lavender eyes now, can I?"
"...Fair point."
In this world, an individual is nameless before the age of fourteen where they participate in a 'naming ceremony' held in a church. Often times a 'pseudo-name' is used to be identified.
'Official names' are extremely important in this world.
It's really complicated.
Soon, you'll understand why.
"Then, I'll call you..."
'What should I call him?'
I looked around for inspiration, my eyes landing on the river beside us. I wasn't good at giving names but it doesn't seem that bad.
"River. I'll call you River."
I looked at him and just like me, he was also looking around for ideas. His eyes suddenly stopped ahead which made me flinch.
There was a huge cave.
'He's not planning to... uh-oh.'
"Dark."
"Phew! For a moment I thought you were going to call me cave or something."
"If you want to, I can still change it."
"No way in hell."
River shook his head and followed me. I was walking towards the huge cave ahead without hesitation.
"Do you even know where we're going?"
He asked.
I gave him a slight nod.
"I know a little bit. There's a village up ahead, let's stop by there first and I'll tell you what I know."
My footsteps were heavy as I entered the darkness. He followed after me and the abyss swallowed us, guiding us to a place that was hard to enter and even harder to escape from.
The land connected to the main setting of my book...
Heru.