"...Where am I?" Leo asked himself as he looked around.
Just a few seconds ago, he was inside his apartment, and now he found himself in some abandoned city.
"Is this some kind of prank, perhaps?" he wondered.
Maybe he had become one of those poor victims of pranksters on social media.
"But everything looks and feels so real, though, so it's not that..."
The pain surrounding his body was only intensifying, becoming more and more unbearable with every second.
"Damn it, just what is wrong with me!"
He was getting frustrated with everything, but when he checked himself, he noticed something odd.
"Did I get taller?"
His body ached yet felt weird as well. He couldn't feel any blood on his back but instead noticed something else.
"Muscles? I don't remember working out..."
He was never a fan of going to the gym or doing any sort of sport.
The only real workout he did was after his family died, and he was forced to work almost seven hours a day.
As he thought, he caught his own reflection in an old abandoned and broken car in the middle of the empty street.
When he saw himself reflected in the broken mirror, he froze.
His reflection was that of a young boy with jet-black onyx hair, so dark it seemed to absorb all light that touched it, cascading over his shoulders in unruly waves.
His eyes were a striking shade of crimson, reminiscent of rubies glinting in the sun, captivating and intense.
His complexion was as pale as moonlight on freshly fallen snow, contrasting sharply with his dark hair and vivid eyes.
His features were finely sculpted—a straight nose, high cheekbones.
In short, he possessed an extraordinary handsomeness that bordered on mesmerizing—a quality that could effortlessly draw the gaze of anyone who crossed his path.
And by anyone, it meant anyone.
Leo felt like he was staring at the window for years before finally snapping out of his thoughts as he stumbled on his own feet and fell back.
"W-what the hell! How is that me!?"
He definitely knew that the person reflected wasn't him in the slightest.
He had brown hair and green eyes!
He definitely wasn't that handsome, as much as it pained him to admit it.
"Just what the hell is going on!?"
As he was starting to panic, his heartbeat was thumping loud against his chest again.
He didn't have time to calm down as suddenly a piercing sensation entered his head.
"A-ARGH!"
He cried out, rolling on the ground as it felt like a knife was stabbed into his brain and kept getting twisted.
The pain was unbearable as suddenly memories started flooding his mind.
Memories that weren't his.
A mature and beautiful woman with blonde hair and red eyes hugged a young boy that looked like her gently after the boy had a nightmare.
The young boy sparred on an open grass field with someone that looked like a younger version of the woman, but unlike her, the young girl had black hair like the boy and red eyes like the mother.
A handsome man with black hair and eyes taught him gently how to use the sword; no matter how many mistakes he made, the man would always be patient with him.
All kinds of memories kept flooding inside his mind, merging with his.
His heart felt warm from them.
Feelings that weren't his own started to become his.
People he didn't know started to become known.
Experiences he didn't have started to become his own.
The last of the memories and feelings that flooded his mind were... painful.
The handsome man and the boy, a little older now, visited the border of the European and Asian continents.
But when they arrived, multiple phase 3 void rifts appeared, sending everyone into chaos.
Humans were getting swarmed as the father of the boy was forced to fend off the void creatures with the help of the army stationed there.
The people there started to flee as they were getting killed and eaten alive.
The boy, though, never left as he watched everything unfold before him.
The last of his memories was that of the boy's father annihilating the creatures, covered in their blood with a crazy smile on his face, before everything went black.
After a while, the pain in his head finally started to subside as the memories and feelings became easier to digest.
"...I see," he muttered.
The blinding light that the book he was reading back at the apartment was emitting.
Suddenly finding himself in an abandoned city out of nowhere.
The person he saw in the reflection of the car window.
A bewildered sigh escaped his lips as he realized what exactly had happened.
"I am inside the book Path of Heroes..."
He found it hard to believe his own words.
"And the body that I am inhabiting... I am not Leo Karumi anymore. Instead—"
"I am Azriel Crimson."
*********
Azriel Crimson.
A character never mentioned in the book.
Nothing was known about him, and he had no relevance to the plot in the slightest.
A mere extra.
Or at least, not quite entirely.
The only reason for his existence was perhaps that the author had an excuse for the protagonist to get close to one of the main heroines: Jasmine Crimson, the next head of the Crimson clan and one of the most talented geniuses on Earth.
She was also the president of the student council in the hero academy and one of the main characters in Path of Heroes.
Yes, Azriel's elder sister who, in the book, at first seemed cold to everyone after becoming depressed and closing off her heart to anyone after someone extremely close to her died.
The protagonist, being kind-hearted in nature, tried to comfort her and help her get over the loss of her important someone, and in the end, succeeded in winning her heart after many attempts.
It looked like that important someone was her younger brother, Azriel Crimson, as it was never mentioned who the close person to her was by anyone, not even the Crimson clan.
The Crimson clan was one of the four great clans that ruled the Asian continent.
The Crimson clan's current head was Joaquin Crimson, his wife being Aeliana Crimson.
As Leo, or better said now Azriel, recalled how his elder sister, whom he now had, would get into the harem of the protagonist, his face changed to one of disgust.
He already hated people who had harems, as he believed those were the ones who couldn't stay loyal or love someone enough.
Besides, the protagonist was someone equally loved and hated by the gods, attracting danger wherever he went.
"Like hell I would let him get together with her," he vowed as he got up again, stretching his body.
No brother would want his sister to be in danger constantly
Inheriting the previous owner's feelings and memories, they were now essentially his own.
He had become that person.
"I am sorry for what happened to you ... I know this might sound like just some pathetic excuse to the both of us, but I promise I will protect our family," Azriel said, promising to the current him and the former him.
A tear leaked from his right eye that he hurriedly wiped away.
Everything and everyone he knew from his previous life was gone.
Forever.