For several seconds after the knock, Caelus simply stood there staring at the door.
His mind was still struggling to catch up with everything that had happened. And now, someone was calling for him on the other side of that door.
He ran his hand slowly across his face and exhaled.
"Panicking isn't going to help," he thought to himself "For now I'll just have to play along till I figure out what's going on"
So he forced himself to calm down by taking a deep breath and exhaling before he finally reached for the handle, turned it and pulled the door open.
Standing outside was a young maid who seemed to be in her early twenties, dressed neatly in the palace's black-and-white uniform, brown hair neatly arranged, and her posture was straight in the. The moment the door opened, she lowered her head slightly in greeting.
"Good morning Young Prince."
Her voice was calm, though there was a hint of concern in her expression.
"I heard a loud crash earlier and wanted to check if everything was alright."
He recalled the glass vase he had knocked over earlier when he first woke up
"I'm fine," he replied quickly, forcing his voice to remain calm. "I stumbled and knocked over a vase. Nothing serious."
The maid nodded in understanding.
"You're not hurt are you." The maid said in a panicked voice while checking his whole body "I'll have someone come clean it up immediately."
"It's fine," he said, shaking his head slightly.
She hesitated for a moment before accepting the answer.
"Very well."
Then she straightened slightly.
"His Majesty and your younger brother are already in the dining hall. Breakfast has been prepared and probably shouldn't keep them waiting."
"I understand." He gave a small nod. "I'll head there shortly."
The maid bowed once before turning and walking down the hallway.
Once she disappeared from sight, he slowly shut the door.
"…Seems like I managed to hold a conversation without raising much suspicion." He let out a loud sigh. "Better head to the dining hall."
He quickly changed into the clothes laid out on the nearby chair, far more fancier than anything he had ever worn back on Earth and clearly meant for someone of high status.
Once dressed, he stepped out into the corridor.
The palace hallways were enormous; Tall stone pillars stretched toward the high ceilings while crimson carpets ran across the polished floors. The royal gardens could be seen from the massive windows which let the sunlight spill into the passageways.
As he walked, his mind couldn't help but wander.
The maid said my father and younger brother are waiting…
What kind of people are they?
Are they the type who ask a lot of questions?
He couldn't help feeling a little tense. After all, he had just woken up in another person's body. If they started asking about things he didn't know, the situation could get awkward very quickly.
Still thinking about it, he continued walking through the corridors until he eventually arrived at a pair of massive double doors guarded by two armored knights.
The moment they saw him approach, both men straightened.
"Good morning, Young Prince."
Caelus gave them a small smile and waved lightly in acknowledgment.
But just as he was about to step forward, something suddenly clicked in his mind.
"Hold up…How did I even get here without getting lost?" He paused slightly "Could it be…that I still possess Caelus's memories?"
The thought lingered in his mind as he stepped past the guards and entered the dining hall.
The dining hall beyond the doors was vast.
A long polished table stretched across the center of the chamber, completely covered with breakfast dishes of different varieties.
The man sitting at the head of the table barely lifted his gaze when Caelus entered, yet the identity surfaced in his mind immediately.
King Aldric Solaris, the ruler of the kingdom as well as the father of the original owner of the body.
Even while seated, the king carried an imposing presence. His posture was straight, his expression calm, but even then the entire room still felt heavy.
Caelus lowered his head slightly in greeting before walking toward his seat.
Then his eyes shifted to the second figure sitting at the table.
A young man clearly older than him. The moment Caelus looked at him, a sudden stabbing pain flashed through his head.
"…!"
It lasted barely a second.
Caelus forced his expression to remain calm as he sat down.
Across the table, the older prince had also looked up.
His name surfaced a moment later. Prince Kaelen, the king's firstborn and his older brother.
For a brief moment, Kaelen simply stared at him. It wasn't the casual glance of someone acknowledging a sibling entering the room. His eyes lingered slightly longer, studying Caelus in a way that felt strangely tense, as if he were trying to confirm something before quickly looking back down at his plate.
For several seconds the only sound in the hall was the quiet clinking of utensils against porcelain plates.
Then the king spoke. "You're late, what happened?" The words were simple, yet carried authority.
"My apologies, Father," Caelus replied. "I felt a bit sick this morning"
His father didn't comment further. Instead, he continued eating as if the matter wasn't important enough to pursue.
"How is your magical training progressing?" the king asked after a moment.
"Smoothly," Caelus answered.
"And sword practice?"
"I've been keeping up with it."
The questions continued like that for several minutes. They weren't aggressive or confrontational, just inquiries about training, studies, and daily routines.
Even so, the atmosphere around the table felt stiff. Every now and then Caelus could feel Kaelen glancing in his direction. Each time their eyes almost met, the older prince seemed to grow slightly more unsettled.
Eventually their father finished his meal, wiped his hands with a cloth before standing. "I have matters to attend to." That was all he said before leaving the dining hall.
The moment the heavy doors closed behind him, the room felt even more quieter. Leaving only both brothers all by themselves.
"Maybe I should try talking to him." Caelus thought to himself as the silence had stretched on for several minutes now, and it was starting to feel awkward.
He cleared his throat slightly.
"So… um—"
"I have training soon." Kaelen cut in before he could finish his statement, he pushed his chair back and stood. "Excuse me" he added before walking out of the dining hall
And just like that, Caelus found himself sitting alone at the massive dining table.
——
When Caelus returned to his room, he closed the door behind him, finally allowing the tension in his shoulders to drop.
Afterwards a long sigh left his lips as he walked further into the room.
"…Seriously," he muttered quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Who does something like that to their own sibling?"
The moment he said it, the faint headache from earlier returned.
It wasn't painful this time, just a dull pressure. Along with it came fragments of memory that didn't belong to him but were clearly tied to the body he now occupied.
He sat down slowly as the pieces began to fall into place.
The story of the two princes wasn't difficult to understand.
Prince Kaelen, the elder brother, had never been particularly remarkable. He wasn't incompetent by any means, but compared to the expectations placed upon a royal heir, he was… average. Unfortunately for him, their father was not the type of man who valued effort over results.
To him, talent and strength mattered above everything else and Caelus had been born with loads of it.
From a young age it became obvious that the younger prince possessed extraordinary magical talent. While most children struggled to sense mana, Caelus had displayed natural control over it. Tutors praised him, court mages took interest in him, and before long the king's attention slowly shifted toward the younger son.
The difference between the brothers became impossible to ignore.
No matter how hard Kaelen trained, he was always compared to Caelus and he always fell short.
The king didn't openly insult him, but disappointment had a way of showing itself in smaller ways. Praise that once belonged to the elder prince gradually disappeared, replaced by expectations placed upon the younger one.
Eventually it became clear to everyone in the palace what the king intended and that was that Caelus would inherit the throne.
Not because he was the eldest, But because he was the most talented and for Kaelen, that realization slowly turned into resentment.
Kaelen never tried to attack his brother directly. That would have been too obvious. Instead, he waited for the right opportunity and took advantage of Caelus's own ambition.
The younger prince had always wanted to impress their father even more. Power, talent and recognition, were things he chased relentlessly.
So Kaelen offered him a suggestion which was Dark magic. He presented it as an ancient and dangerous art capable of granting incredible power that could easily elevate Caelus beyond even the royal court mages.
What Kaelen deliberately failed to mention was the most important detail which was that Dark magic required a human sacrifice,
And when Caelus attempted the ritual alone, without knowing that requirement, the magic claimed the only life available which was his own.
The memory ended there
"…So that's how the original Caelus died," he murmured quietly.
Now the expression on Kaelen's face during breakfast finally made sense. From his perspective, the younger brother he had manipulated into performing that ritual should have been dead. Yet somehow he was still here, sitting across the table and casually eating breakfast.
Caelus leaned back slightly in his chair and stared at the ceiling. For a moment, neither anger nor sympathy felt strong enough to describe what he was feeling especially since he had a similar classmate back on earth.
But slowly another thought crept into his mind, which was the fact that he had to accept that he truly was dead and had somehow transmigrated to this world.