Opening his eyes, Adam came face to face with a man who had long black hair and large, grey eyes. Despite being relatively young, he had a hard, weathered face. The man appeared tall, although that may have been because of Adam's body.
'Hmm? Who is he?'
He was wearing a suit of golden and silver armor, with a blue crest portraying a river on the breastplate. Alongside that, there was a regal crown resting on his head.
"Your Majesty, congratulations on having a son. I'm aware that you wish to raise him as a prince, however, time is running short," Looking a little to the side, Adam was able to see another man wearing similar, but much simpler, armor. He looked much older than the previous man, with a few grey locks mixed in with blonde ones. His face had slight wrinkles but also showed vigor that only the youth had.
Turning his small head back to the man from before, Adam realized with wide eyes, 'Holy father of mutts, I got fucking reincarnated! Is this man my father then? And the old...young...the other guy called him Majesty, so I take it he is a king?' Internally grinning, he thought about how lucky he was to be born as a prince. 'But wait, what did that other guy say? Something about running out of time, I think.'
Unable to say anything, Adam looked up at his presumed father, waiting patiently for him to reply to his...guard?
Finally, after a minute of thinking, the king responded, "I take it you're talking about the invaders? Inform me of the situation, Leroy."
"Very well, your Majesty. An intelligent soul beast race, the elves, have sent a large squad of assassins to kill the newborn heir. My bond has relayed to me that they are nearing the castle as we speak, and there are far too many for the guards to stop them." Bowing towards the king, Leroy told him the circumstances.
Turning around, the king gazed out of a window, down towards his kingdom. It was late at night, so most of the streets had torches lit, making orange dots appear below. A minute later, he sighed and spoke.
"Call Sebastian, have him take my son through the underground passages to safety. I cannot let my heir die, even if I must sacrifice my life to buy time for him to escape."
Leroy looked across the room to a bed situated in the corner, where his queen lay sleeping. "Alright, my liege. Where shall they go though? Nobody knows who he is, so should I have Sebastian to bring him to-"
"No, my friend, tell him to bring my son across the continent. He will leave Soren at the Nightsway Orphanage, where nobody will be able to trace him back to our family. When the time comes, he will learn about his heritage and who he is."
The guard's eyes opened wide from shock and his mouth hung agape. "Soren? As in...my son? You named your son...after my fallen child? Thank you, my king, it is a great honor to have my prince's name be my own son's."
Adam...no, Soren's father gave Leroy a small smile while saying:
"Of course. I owe that much to you, old comrade. I pity you, having lost your son in a miscarriage."
Despite being completely invested in the conversation, Soren's body was beginning to shut down. He knew that a baby could only stay awake for so long, but he had hoped that his burning desire to gain knowledge would let him stay awake for a little longer. His hopes were crushed as he felt himself drift to sleep.
'Dammit!'
************
Five hours later
Tap, tap, tap.
Soren awoke to the sound of hurried footsteps and felt himself bouncing slightly up and down. Opening his eyes, the first thing he noticed was a ceiling made of stone, with old cracks running across its surface. A second later, he realized the ceiling...no, he was moving at a fast pace.
Looking to the right, he saw the face of a young guard, roughly 20 years old. The man was sweating, with a fierce and determined gaze etched on his features.
'This must be Sebastian, and I guess that means that this tunnel is the underground one that my father was talking about. Damn, less than a day old and my father already disowned me and sent me to some orphanage.'
Wanting to sigh, he couldn't help but feel somewhat mad at his situation. He was killed in an odd accident, reincarnated as the prince of a kingdom, then given a new name and sent away to the far reaches of his new continent. To top it all off, he was in the form of a newborn, so he couldn't even speak to the guard carrying him away.
While he knew that his new father just wanted his son to live, he felt a bit hateful towards the man. During the whole conversation he rarely called him his son and instead his 'heir', as if he was just some pawn he wanted to raise to take his place as king. Also, Soren never even got the chance to meet his mother, the king had sent him away too fast...or maybe he just fell asleep and didn't remember meeting her.
'I know I met him less than a day ago, but I feel like he didn't see me as his son and just as a replacement.' Thinking about the man's eyes, Soren's small body shuddered, 'His stare held only the ruthless, calculative rationality you would see from a trained killer and not affection towards me. Not even a little...'
Not having anything to do, Soren started thinking about what awaited him. All he had seen so far in his new world was a single room in the castle, the underground tunnel, and the vague outline of a massive kingdom when he was entering his body.
Based on the style of the city, being composed of small houses surrounded by tall, impregnable walls as opposed to the modern cities of Earth, he assumed that he had been reborn on a planet much less technologically advanced. Soren knew that he had not been reincarnated back on Earth due to the size difference between the two planets, which he saw while being dragged across space by the crimson thread.
Suddenly, his living rocking chair came to a halt, and he heard the sound of keys being moved.
Tuning his head once again, he saw that in front of him and Sebastian was a large metal door, with three different locks. After fumbling with the keys for a moment, the tense guard found the ones he was looking for and scrambled to unlock the door. Half a minute later, the opened locks were on the ground and Sebastian was pushing the heavy door open.
During the process, Soren could hear the sounds of footsteps and voices echoing on the tunnel walls. Being incapable of turning his head far enough to look behind him, he could only pray that the elven assassins did not reach them before their escape.
'They've already made it this far? I thought my father and the castle guards were supposed to keep them busy?! Unless...'
Sebastian sprinted out of the door, not even turning around to close it behind them. The sun had yet to rise, causing darkness to consume the land. Due to the way he was being held, Soren could vaguely see the outline of the grand wall surrounding the kingdom, and above the wall, the sky was tinted red. Smoke was billowing high, as if trying to reach the gods long forgotten. The castle of Cordelia had fallen.
Before he could stop it, Soren felt his body start to enter the state of slumber once again.
'Really, but I just slept?! How often do I need to sleep, dammit! Curse this infantile vessel!
Not wanting to enter the land of dreams, he tried to bite himself in the cheek, only to realize that his newborn body had not yet developed teeth.
************
Inside of Cordelia Castle
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my dear old friend Isaac. Tell me, your Majesty, where did your heir scurry off to? Maybe you sent him to escape with one of your loyal pets, or perhaps...no, you wouldn't, right?"
Sitting on the throne in the main hall of the Cordelia Royal Castle, a tall creature with light grey skin, long ears, and pure white eyes was gazing with an amused expression at the king of Lindrift, Isaac Cordelia.
The castle's main hall was littered with the corpses of dead guards, with flames dancing across the lavish room.
The king was barely in a better state than his castle. Both of his arms had been forcefully torn from their sockets, leaving behind trails of stretched skin painted with blood. One of his eyes was currently impaled on the creature's long fingernail after being gouged out. As for his lower body, the same fate of his arms happened to the foot of his right leg, with the rest of it being twisted to the point where only a thread of tissue was keeping it from detaching.
After Isaac had sent Soren away with Sebastian, the elves reached the castle. They hadn't even tried to sneak in, instead blasting apart the front gates and mercilessly killing everybody they saw, no matter who they were. The guards didn't even stand a chance.
Lindrift was a merchant city, focusing on the production and distribution of various goods to other kingdoms. As such, their military power was not that great, whereas the elves were a soul beast species that took pride in their strength and battle prowess.
The elves, despite being outnumbered, were easily able to murder any of the humans besides Leroy and the king himself.
"Why...why would you do-" Coughing violently, Isaac asked the question that had been on his mind since the very beginning of the massacre. "Why would you...do this? Tell me, please."
"Oh? The pathetic human wishes to know our reason for wiping out your kingdom?" Grinning madly, the elf seated on the throne replied. "Very well, after all, a measly peasant like myself could never dare disobey the king, right?" Standing up, he walked up to Isaac, who was lying on his back facing his throne.
"It's simple, really. You see, the higher ups assigned me the mission to kill your heir, no matter what it takes. So, since they pretty much gave me free reign to act how I please, I thought 'oh! What better way to ensure somebody dies than to just kill everyone?"
Spinning around as if dancing, the insane elf started laughing, "And before you ask why your heir had to die, it is because our priestess saw a vision. A vision of a man with crimson wings leading armies, sending rivers of blood to slaughter my kind, and disobeying the Strings of Fate."
He stopped spinning, his expression turning serious. "Your son invoked fear in my leaders, and to ensure their safety, I was tasked with killing the problem before it even started."
"I...I see. Thank you for telling me. At least now I know that my son...would have one day been great. If you don't mind...could I...could I know the name of my killer?"
The creature's face morphed into one of confusion, "You don't remember me? Think back, around seven years ago."
After a few moments, the king's eyes widened before losing all light. The king of Lindrift had died, just like all his subjects.
Sighing, the elf turned towards the gate. "Gather everyone from the city, it's time to head back. Our mission...was a success."
With that, the invaders of Soren's home returned to where they came, and the city grew quiet, the peace only being disturbed by the crackling of fire and corpses of the deceased.