As the reality of being an extra character was settling in, Damien looked at the glass vial given to him by that mysterious lady.
"Well, not mysterious anymore, is she?"
She was his half-sister, Seraphina Draven.
The glass vial contained a shimmering blue liquid. It looked magical—well, it was. Created with the help of magic, it was a healing potion made through alchemy.
Damien immediately gulped the potion down. He felt a cold sensation spread throughout his body, and in response, his body started to heal at a visible rate.
Bruises vanished as if they had never been there to begin with, and his bones mended. His body was healed instantly.
Damien sat on his bed, staring absentmindedly into the distance. He just couldn't comprehend all this.
As he thought about his current situation, he started to realize that Alden or the real Alden , is gone. He didn't exist anymore. Only his memories and emotions remained.
Most people I read about in novels seemed to jump with joy or something like that after transmigrating into their favorite novel.
'But me… I can't say the same about myself, can I?'
'I'm dead too,' Damien thought in self-deprecation.
He tried to distract himself, but he felt his anger rising. 'Who the fuck killed me?' His fist clenched tightly as he thought,
'Was it just a robbery gone wrong? Or was it a planned murder?' His thoughts couldn't help but turn dark. 'I could name a few people who wanted me dead... no... no... but they didn't have the guts to do anything.'
As he thought back to the moment he was stabbed, his thoughts couldn't help but wander.
'How will they react when they see my body?... my parents.'
'They will be devastated.' He could see his mom crying, and his father trying to be strong but couldn't resist the sorrow.
'I was their only son. Who will take care of them when they get older?'
His eyes hollowed as he couldn't help but remember his parents' faces.
He could vividly see his mom's warm smile and his dad's calm but caring gaze whenever they returned from work. Even when he was a disappointment and failure, they never gave up.
Their words of encouragement, "Damien, you can do it. We believe in you," all seemed so distant now, resonating inside his head.
His jaw tightened, and his hands clenched.
"Why?… Why?… Why do I have to die?"
"Fuck… fuck… fuck!" Damien couldn't help but curse as tears started streaming down his face.
"Why did I have to be a disappointment? Why hadn't I told them how much I loved them? …Why?… Why… why?"
His tears were unstoppable, and his face scrunched in agony.
Hours passed, but his grief didn't decrease. Instead, it was increasing every second that passed. He was just staring at the ceiling,his eyes hollow.
'I'm dead. I'm not Damien anymore.' The thought felt wrong, yet undeniable. He was Alden now, in this strange, unfamiliar body, with a past that wasn't his. ' I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye.'
But then, a thought pierced through his mind. He was still here. He was still alive well, not exactly. But he was breathing. In this body. In this life.
The pain in his chest growing again, but now it wasn't just sadness. There was something else too anger, determination.
He wasn't going to let his parents' grief be for nothing. He wasn't going to let this body, this life, end up like the old one nothing but a disappointment.
He sat up slowly, the pain from his body still fresh and sharp. It was nothing compared to the weight in his chest, but even so, the feeling of living really living started to take hold of him.
A voice, echoed through his mind. You can't change the past. But you can make the future yours.
For the first time in hours, he smiled bitterly.
'Yeah... I can. I will.'
He stood up, shaking at first, but more sure with each passing second. His reflection in the mirror caught his eye a stranger's face, with familiar crimson eyes. Alden. The name tasted foreign in his mouth, but he didn't fight it.
"I'm not Damien anymore," he whispered, the words tasting like a promise. "From now on... I am Alden. And I will live.....I will live a life without regret"
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A Day passed like blur, the grief was still there but it was manageable now.
He had spent most of the time in his room,just eating and sleeping , trying to silence the noise in his head, organizing his thoughts, giving himself the space to accept his situation.
His emotions slowly sorted, and a small sense of control began to return.
He got up from his bed and dragged his body to take a cold shower.
As the cold water poured over him.
He tried to push aside the discomfort and focus, he decided to distract his mind by recalling details about the novel.
This world was Eryndor, the world in the setting of his favorite novel, Chronicles of the Unworthy Prince. It was a world filled with magic and mysteries.
He recalled there were five continents in this world,each ruled by a different species,
Humans ,elves ,dwarves,beastman and demons,all hung by delicate balance threatened by demons.
The main antagonists of the story were obviously the demons, against whom the other species had formed an alliance.
The demons wanted to connect Eryndor with Umbra, a dark world where the Demon King and his generals had been sealed long ago.
The story began in the Vallorian Empire, a unified human empire ruled by the Celestrian Family, where the third prince, declared unworthy due to his potential, enrolled in the academy after awakening.
It was just a cliche novel where the main character awakened a special system different from others and became the strongest person in Eryndor.
Still, he had liked the novel for one reason: the author seemed to enjoy making the main character suffer.
Every time the protagonist found a sliver of hope, it was cruelly taken away. It was as if the main character didn't have plot armor.
He had been waiting for the moment when the protagonist would finally stop suffering, but... that moment never came as the author killed the main character in the final fight with the Demon King.
'just like that'
'If everything happens the same as the novel, then this world is going to be destroyed by the Demon King,' he thought. "Well, there's still a lot of time before that happens... I'll think about it later."
His first and foremost goal was to survive his death in the academy arc.
For that, he needed to be powerful enough to ensure he wouldn't die.
"I am going to survive…....no matter what."
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading! I'm all for feedback, so drop a comment or review if you feel like it. Would love to hear your thoughts!