Kevin felt only a moment had passed since his death before he woke up to a torturous headache assaulting his brain.
He held his throbbing temples and groaned, "This headache is killing me."
Suddenly, he froze.
He had died. So how could he be feeling anything, much less pain?
He had no idea of what happened after he self destructed to deal a devastating blow to the group of backstabbers who had betrayed him.
His ignorance only deepened his confusion.
'Could it be... I am alive?"
It did feel like that.
Now another question arose.
If he was alive, where was he?
With some difficulty, he opened his eyes, and an elegant but regal ceiling came into his view.
A sense of deja vu struck him.
He found it eerily familiar.
Where have he seen it before?
As if coming to a shocking realization, Kevin immediately sat up and looked around, taking in his surroundings.
He was in a room that exuded luxury, featuring intricately carved wooden furniture, velvet drapes that flowed like liquid gold, and a polished, high-quality mahogany floor.
A lavish ash-black rug with intricate embroidery spread beneath the bed he was sitting atop, and a crystal chandelier with a dark gold finish hung from the ceiling overhead.
The chandelier sparkled faintly in the gentle morning sunlight that poured into the room through a floor-to-ceiling window,
which served as a gateway to a private garden lush with blooming flowers and meticulously trimmed hedges.
Kevin's examination of the room ended as he came to a startling conclusion.
'This is, unmistakably, my place of residence when I first crossed over to the human realm.'
'How could I wake up here after death?'
His headache was still there but it had decreased in intensity.
His mind cleared up a little and he was able to think more clearly.
'Maybe checking the system log might help.'
The system log recorded everything he experienced.
Even things he experienced while unconscious or dead were recorded in it.
After going through the most recent entries in the log, he understood what had transpired.
The Heavenly Pearl, which he had previously dismissed as a product useless for a Domain Lord, was, in fact, a powerful artifact capable of defying logic and going against the flow of time.
It had activated at the moment of his death and brought him 500 years back into the past.
He had returned to the time when he was still a youth enjoying the protection and resources of the Ashford family, one of the three most powerful families of Valemont City.
A knock, followed by a question snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Young master, are you awake? I have come to deliver your daily portion of body-strengthening broth."
Kevin recalled a crucial memory.
As the only son of the head of the Ashford family, he enjoyed special privileges, such as starting his mornings by drinking an elixir that strengthened his body and helped him develop a stronger resistance towards a variety of illnesses.
"The door's not locked. Come in," Kevin said.
The door to his room opened, and in came a neatly dressed young man, who was 5 feet 11 inches tall.
With blonde hair, blue eyes, and a handsome face, he had an above-average appearance.
He was holding a tray, upon which a bowl of steaming hot broth was placed.
His name tag read "Oliver Flinch."
He was a servant of the Ashford family tasked with looking after Kevin.
Kevin's eyes lit up in recognition.
Even though he had just returned from 500 years in the future and didn't have time to sort out his memories, he remembered this person called Oliver at first glance.
The reason behind it was quite simple.
In his previous life, after crossing over to the human realm, he had experienced his first betrayal at Oliver's hands!
On a very special day, Oliver poisoned him by secretly mixing Glory Crippling Poison into his daily dose of body-strengthening broth.
Ignorant of the fact that it had been tampered with, he drank it all. As a result, he lost all his talent overnight and became the waste of the Ashford family. If not for his golden finger, he would've never managed to make a comeback or regress to the back!
Remembering the untold hardship and humiliation he had suffered in the early stages of his past life due to Oliver's betrayal, Kevin's mind filled with thoughts of revenge, and a glint of cruelty flashed in his eyes.
'I want him to experience hell,' Kevin thought.
Clueless to the danger he was in, Oliver walked up to the side of Kevin's bed briskly and offered the broth to him.
Kevin picked up the bowl from the tray but didn't bring it anywhere near his mouth, just firming holding it in his hands as if waiting for something.
The greatest benefit from the body-tempering broth could be obtained by drinking it while it was hot. Using this as an excuse, Oliver urged him to drink it all in one gulp right away.
If Kevin hadn't known that Oliver's reputation as a gentleman was just a facade, he would have praised him for being knowledgeable and thoughtful.
But since he knew Oliver was a white-eyed wolf, he couldn't help but feel there was something ill-intended behind his timely reminder.
'Why does he want me to drink it so badly? Did I return to the day he poisoned me?'
Feeling that his suspicions might not be unfounded, he decided to act cautiously.
Instead of giving in to Oliver's reminder, he asked a simple yet crucial question,
"Is the awakening ceremony going to be held today?"
This question was crucial because it would help him determine whether Oliver had already taken action to poison him. If he recalled correctly, Oliver had chosen the morning of the day the awakening ceremony was held to poison him in his previous life.
"Yes. It will begin in the evening. There are six hours left until then," Oliver replied, confirming Kevin's suspicions.
'The attempt to poison me is in play. And the evidence is in my hand. Hehe, Oliver, you are done for.'
He placed the bowl on the bedside table, then silently stared at Oliver, wondering how he should be dealt with.
Should I just strike him dead?
It was wholly possible for Kevin, even though he was biologically 14 at present, and Oliver was twice his age.
This was because Kevin was not only a novice mage but also a body-tempering expert. Oliver, on the other hand, was just an average individual with nothing special about him besides his status. Serving the Ashford family was a privilege many dreamt of but only a few obtained.
Kevin continued thinking.
'Killing him right off the bat would be would be too stupid.'
He believed that someone had manipulated Oliver into poisoning him. Beyond that, he couldn't fathom any other reason why Oliver would want to harm him.
In his previous life, he had failed to uncover the identity of that person. They were simply too meticulous. By the time he gathered enough evidence to prove Oliver's betrayal without revealing the existence of his system, it was already too late. That person had wiped away all traces of their involvement, and even Oliver had been silenced by them.
In this life, Kevin refused to let them escape after committing a crime. He would hunt them down, no matter what it took.
He was even willing to spare Oliver's life for the time being for that purpose.
But of course it didn't mean Oliver was safe from the severe punishment he was about to dish out.
The expression on Kevin's face was unreadable, so Oliver couldn't tell what he was thinking.
However, his plan was not going as he had envisioned.
It made him feel anxious, and his heartbeat became erratic.
'My acting is flawless. I haven't slipped up. He shouldn't have any way of knowing I've tampered with his elixir. I should stop worrying.'
He reassured himself that everything was fine and urged Kevin again,
"Young Master, what are you doing? Why have you set it aside? You should be drinking it while it's still hot."
Kevin stood up from the bed and faced Oliver directly.
Unease crept into Oliver's heart as he watched Kevin's odd behavior.
'Why is he staring at me like that?'
Pah!
Before Oliver could realize something was wrong, Kevin slapped him across the face with a might Oliver had never experienced before.
Half his teeth fell out and he was knocked to the ground like a damsel in distress.
One side of his face swelled up to look like a ripe tomato as he spewed mouthfuls of blood.
From the looks of it, it seemed his head might have exploded if Kevin had hit any harder.
With tears streaming out of his eyes and snort running down his nose, Oliver looked up at Kevin in horror and cried out, "Y-Young, even though I'm just a servant, you can't harm me without a reason. You are breaking the family law by doing! What do you think the Reformists will do if this news reaches their ears?"
The Ashford family was divided into three factions: the Neutralists, the Loyalists, and the Reformists.
The Neutralists refrained from involving themselves in internal family disputes, preferring to act only when the family's interests were threatened by external forces.
The Loyalists were fiercely loyal to the family head, willing to lay down their lives in his service.
The Reformists were a faction of various Ashford family relatives who sought to curb the growing influence of the family head and increase their own authority within the family.
They would never miss an opportunity to undermine the family head.
Many of them were in charge of enforcing the family rules. Servants of the Ashfords couldn't be harmed without justification, or it would be a violation of family law.
The Reformists would send representatives to hold Kevin accountable as soon as news of him injuring a family servant without a reason spread. He would not be able to escape punishment then!
Oliver expected Kevin to feel deterred, but Kevin acted nonchalant as if he wasn't the one who had just been threatened.
Seeing this, Oliver felt unsettled, blurting out the question haunting his mind, "Why are you not worried?"
Kevin rolled his eyes, "What? Am I supposed to feel threatened? I know you tried to poison me, and I've already secured the evidence to prove it. According to the family's laws, any servant who dares to plot against their master deserves to die. Even if I kill you today, no one will blame me, not even the Reformists. They, too, would have to look the other way like obedient little dogs this time around."
Oliver's heart sank.
'He knows.'
If he had previously clung to the illusion that Kevin was unaware of his plans to harm him, that illusion was now shattered, and he couldn't help but feel concerned for his life.
'I can still turn this situation around.'
There was only one way to save his life.
He had to get rid of the evidence.
Once that was done, it would be nothing but Kevin's word against his, and as a grown man with a silver tongue, Oliver was confident he could outsmart and overwhelm a 14-year-old child in a battle of wits and words!
As for how to get rid of the poison...
He had no talent for magic or martial arts. Drinking the Glory Crippling Poison wouldn't change his fate in the slightest!
Pah!
Before Oliver could follow through with his plan, another slap landed on his face.