I felt something warm on my face. Frowning, I slowly opened my eyes. Turns out it was the morning sunlight from the east.
It's already morning, huh?
Instantly, I remembered what happened to me last night. The headache, the paralyzed body, and a beautiful woman who kissed me for no clear reason.
I just realized that I was raising my hand to block the glaring light on my face.
I turned my hand over.
'I can move?'
Not wanting to miss this chance, I immediately jerked my body as fast as I could. I sat up. Then my hands roamed over my body to check if everything was normal?
All safe. No missing body parts. So last night, I really just experienced paralysis.
I let out a relieved sigh. "What a relief... I thought I'd lost my limbs. Thank goodness..."
After experiencing paralysis, being able to move is the most relieving sensation I've ever felt in my entire life. My head also doesn't hurt as much as last night. It's milder.
Then I realized that my hands didn't feel like mine. Their skin color was pale like a corpse, and they were too thin for someone who always gets care packages from their parents every Sunday.
One of my eyes was covered by something. Turns out it was a bandage covering almost the entire upper part of my head.
I looked around.
The room I was sheltering in was enormous. The walls were made of stacked blackish-gray stones, and the decorations were medieval. Landscape paintings. A desk covered in piles of books and quills still made from feathers.
It didn't take long for me to connect this to the Hologram Screen I saw earlier. [Welcome to Chronicle Of The Cursed Blood!]
To confirm my guess, I intended to get off the bed. But before that, I noticed an indentation in the mattress beside me. It was still warm. A few strands of silver hair were there...
...This must be that woman's hair.
The memory of last night's kiss suddenly imprinted itself back into my mind. Honestly, even though that kiss came from a very beautiful woman, it wasn't pleasant at all because of the situation—I was experiencing confusion and a maddeningly painful headache. That aside, that kiss felt more like an outlet than a kiss of affection. Even though I've never kissed anyone, I could still tell the difference, especially since she showed such a miserable face and was heavily drunk.
I swear I will not forget this first kiss.
Alright, since she's not here, I need to quickly find out where I am.
But first, I want to see...
I got off the bed. My thin legs stepped unsteadily and trembling like a baby just learning to walk. So I held onto anything that could support my body.
When I arrived in front of the mirror, I flinched back. In the reflection was not me, but a man with a very thin build, clearly visible beneath his clothes. The man's head was wrapped in bandages with quite a few bloodstains on them, though jet-black hair could be seen there. His eyes were silver, like a blind person's.
To confirm, I moved my hand. The reflection followed all my movements. He was me.
"I really transmigrated?"
I touched the mirror...
Then something foreign entered my brain. It was a memory of this body—
A young man who lived in a slum district called Rusty with his mother and father. Julian Arclaine. 16 years old.
Barren and dry land. Black clouds. Homeless people sprawled along the roadside. That was the view of Rusty district.
Sold by his father, Enzo, into human slavery, where he would later be sent to the empire to be sacrificed. Before that, Enzo confessed to having killed his mother by poisoning her. Julian tried to kill him, but when he was about to stab him—
Something solid struck the back of his head. After that, his body was dragged by someone and thrown into prison.
The most vivid memory in his mind was when Enzo received the money from selling him...
"Enzo..."
Suddenly that name slipped out of my mouth with a trembling voice. I only then realized that tears had welled up in my eyes.
"Huahhhh!!"
Reflexively, I moved away from the mirror.
"No, no, I am Kim Dae-ho. That memory belongs to Julian Arclaine. Not mine, no."
I patted my face.
Even though I said that, I couldn't deny that his traumatic experiences, his mother's affection, and his grudge against his father were mine.
This is terrifying. I could lose who I am before I can go back.
I need a distraction. A distraction that can show who 'I' really am, and the only thing that refers to that is the fact that I have knowledge that this is a novel world. So, I held onto that tightly.
A while later, my mood began to calm down. With that mindset, I managed to win that identity struggle, or at least that's what I felt. Moreover, it seemed Julian's brain had suffered severe damage—it made his memories feel like fragments.
"Julian Arclaine." I repeated that name while stroking my chin.
I think I know who he is. No, I only recognize his family name. As far as I remember, 'Arclaine' is the family name of one of the seven Demon Hunter clans of the empire. And they...
My eyes widened and my heart pounded.
"I'm in danger..."
The seven Demon Hunter clans are currently being hunted by the Veridia Empire, even other empires. They want to genocide those clans even though they were once very devoted to the empire. The reason is because 'they' who now sit on the imperial throne are demons wearing beautiful human forms. Those demons, holding a grudge against the Demon Hunter clans, used that power to frame them.
That genocide, even when I had just read the first page, was said to have been ongoing for thirty years.
That explains why Enzo sold me... I mean Julian, to the empire through a human slavery agent as an intermediary. He needed money to eat.
So now...
I looked around again.
...Why am I in this luxurious room? Didn't Enzo sell me? Or maybe I've already arrived at some noble's house and will be killed soon?
That silver-haired woman...
I need to get out of this place immediately!
I approached the door, but it was locked when I pulled it.
Then I approached the window, looking for an opening. But my courage shrank when I saw what was outside.
As far as I could see, I didn't see a single trace of human civilization. I only saw trees all the way to the horizon.
Looking down, I was actually on the top floor of this building. If I went out, I would fall and die.
Basically, there was no way out.
Suddenly, the sound of a key turning was heard, then the door began to creak, signaling that it was being opened.
In that short time, I straightened the curtains and the books that had been scattered because of me. At the very least, I shouldn't mess up this room. One last step, I positioned the mirror facing the door.
"What are you doing?"
I froze.