END OF PROLOGUE

“My memory is fragmented” I told June, another sour lie in my my book.

Siting here, goosebumps racking my nerves.

I remembered all their names,

Kawashima Haruto

Okabe Yumi

Fujimoto Rikuya

Hoshino Aika

Tanaka Kenta

Morikawa Sayuri

Arai Noyami

Rakudai yuki, my wife

People I've hurt, and people I've discarded, just to sit in this bland room time and time again.

Cursing cultists I fed with my own hands.

This fear, this anticipation of bad fate.

Is this what they all felt?

i wanna run

i wanna run

i wanna run

i wanna run

i wanna run

Why are my legs not moving, why is the judge taking all this time?

For what? just to chant my curse back at me and put me in an lifeless cell.

I'm simply a cultist

A slave to a contract

Nothing less than a coward

A foul smell of fumes disrupted my chain of insults, a wave of cold radiated from under my seat.

Still sitting, I shook my neck and curled down till my hair brushed the floor, my eyes glimpsing at the source of the commotion, no doubts indeed,

It was my gun, it shone with the light of a savior, my key to escape this unpleasant palace.

I curled my body back into position, and sat awaiting my trial.

For the first time I had ignored the awfully convenient gun.

Bring it on give me my verdict.

My body shook in fear but my mind felt calm

Two big black brick doors slide inside the wall as the potential judge walked in, he wore a pitch black cape, his eyes mirroring the same color.

His face featured unshaved scraps of hair and wrinkles indicating his old age.

Soon enough he sat, his eyes skimming through the papers on his enormous beautifully frightening desk, displaying what seems to be religious scriptures and obsidian spears.

The judge then begun his speech,

“Rise.” I stood.

“Rest.” I sat.

At the corner sat the familiar knight. his body exuding no visible emotions.

"Sir Lushen Frae. youngest noble of the Lushen family. Your debt to the crown has been settled by Lushen Christina. Consequently, your crimes against the Sacred Wall are hereby pardoned. Ich wünsche Ihnen einen schönen Tag."

Frae? christina? noble? pardoned??

I couldn't even collect my thoughts before the expressionless knight stood up, signaling my time to leave.

Following in his example I stood up and bowed.

Then marched towards the exit, step by step, beat by beat.

I genuinely smiled, relief strangled my fear dead and took his place.

The rest of the day just flew past then.

The sun caressed my skin, the carriage felt calm and comfortable, the knight’s short tactless words spoken kindly.

Temporary pleasure.

Respectively, an enigma plagued my conscience.

The carriage was headed towards my supposed 'sponsor' and 'family member', my 'savior' Christina Lushen. 

The judge either called me Frae, or that was some sort of obscure foreign language, similar to his closing statement, but I needn't question for long, I was about to meet the harborer of all the answers I need.

28 minutes or so passed,

The carriage had suddenly stopped, a mansion emerged into my peripheral.

The mansion loomed, a monolith of pale stone and dark glass windows that watched my approach like judging eyes.

It was nothing like the sterile, terrifying courtroom, This was the home of the person whom I replaced.

The expressionless knight handed me off to a similarly expressionless butler who didn't speak a word. 

I was then led through long halls, past tapestries depicting battles and lineages I didn't recognize.

Every face in every portrait seemed to be staring at me, accusing the imposter.

I was shown into a wood paneled room smelling of old books and anxiety.

The door clicked shut behind me. For a moment, there was only silence.

I could still feel the ghost of the gun's cold promise under that courtroom seat. 

The door of the room flew open.

Christina, my supposed older sister entered, dressed of green tailored silk and swift steps. Her slim face was flushed with a rage so potent it seemed to suck the air from the room. 

It seems this family took a liking to the the pale green color in their clothes.

She crossed the space in three swift strides, her hand sharp and sudden as she slapped across my face. 

The crack was unnaturally loud.

She proceeded to silently shout, 

“Where in Hell’s Cradle have you been?”

The sting on my cheek betrayed my expectations. 

The question was a trap. I reached for the simplest lie I could come up with.

"I hit my head on the wa—”

Her composure shattered.

“It’s been a WEEK!”

 A week? 

The judge’s pardon,

The rainy cemetery,

The provokingly long wall,

That was all in one, maybe 2 days.

The disorientation I felt since waking up in this body, in that cemetery, in that courtroom, crystallized into pure cold brain power, as I calculated every hassle, event and inconvenience, trying to tie a connection that I knew was there,

But just slightly out of reach.

I was deserted.

But I now possesses the only thing I need,

Confidence in myself,

“The ruler of Sylenthia!” she seethed, Grabbing the front of the fine green cotton vest someone had given me, 

“The man who came to mediate the tribal disputes on the northern border, he’s been killed! Assassinated! ON FAULDRIK SOIL!”

My mind, still clinging to the fragile idea that this was a personal misunderstanding, grasped at the simplest defense.

“How is that my fault?”  I replied, slightly frustrated.

The look she gave me was one of utter, horrified disbelief. 

Not that I cared.

Her voice dropped to a choked desperate whisper.

“You don’t understand it, do you? You truly don’t. Frae…” She said, treating my 'name' like a profanity.

 “You are the mediator he came to visit.”

My poorly constructed story about a head injury quickly evaporated into the irrelevance it was.

I had been hiding from the ghosts of one life while completely failing the duties of another.

All that was left was a single grin, an ultimate expression of all the possibilities my mind had just imagined.

the words:

“Oh, fuck.”

Excitedly left my mouth.

-END OF PROLOGUE.-