Chapter 3: Morning in a Stranger’s Home

​The silence dragged on. Painfully. Unnaturally.

​The dining hall was enormous. Not just big—overwhelming. Towering marble pillars rose toward the ceiling like ancient monuments, and crystal chandeliers glittered coldly overhead while the polished floors reflected the morning light like pristine mirrors. The entire place felt less like a dining hall and more like the courtroom of some ancient royal family.

​A long table stretched across the center of the room. At least fifteen seats. Maybe twenty. And almost every chair was occupied.

​Elders. Adults. A few younger people around his age. Some were quietly eating breakfast, while others were staring directly at him.

​The moment he stepped into the room—everything stopped.

​Forks froze midair. Conversations died instantly. Every single head slowly turned toward him in perfect unison, their movements mechanical and heavy.

​The silence became deafening. The sheer psychological pressure radiating from the room nearly made him take a step backward out of the entrance.

​…Why is everyone staring at me like that?

​His eyes slowly scanned the people sitting around the massive table. None of them looked familiar. Not even slightly. Some looked elegant, some looked terrifying, and one old man near the end of the table looked like he personally hunted demons during his free time.

​Who are these people? Family? Mafia? Secret cult members? Why does everybody here look rich enough to own private islands?!

​His thoughts spiraled faster and faster, completely unmoored.

​Should I say good morning? Is that normal rich-person behavior? What if they bow back and I accidentally become a corporate president or something?

​Then, another terrifying realization hit him. His body stiffened slightly under his smooth silk pajamas.

​Wait… that lady at the door earlier didn't call me by MY name…

​Silence.

​She called me… Reiji.

​The realization slowly crawled into his mind like the opening scene of a horror movie.

​…Am I Reiji now?

​His heartbeat began pounding violently against his ribs.

​If I am… then what the hell happened to the real me?

​The room suddenly felt several degrees colder. A heavy, suffocating atmosphere pressed against the entire table. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Everyone simply stared at him.

​Then—a young man sitting near the center slowly leaned forward. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with sharp features, tired eyes, and an impeccably tailored black suit. But unlike the icy glares of the others, his expression wasn't cold.

​It looked completely shaken.

​"Reiji…?" The young man's voice carried a profound sense of disbelief. "…What happened?"

​The sudden question snapped him clean out of his internal panic. He instinctively pointed a thumb back at his own chest.

​"Me…?"

​The effect of that single word was immediate. The entire dining hall froze. Completely. Utterly.

​One elder slowly lowered his teacup with trembling hands, the porcelain rattling against the saucer. Another woman's eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop out of her skull. Even the servants standing quietly like statues near the walls looked visibly horrified, their professional masks slipping.

​Nobody breathed. Nobody blinked.

​The young man's face slowly drained of all color. "You…" his voice came out as an incredibly faint whisper. "…You just spoke."

​More agonizing silence followed. Then—

​"It's been over a year since you said anything at this table."

​His brain immediately stopped functioning.

​…Oh.

​Pause.

​Oh no.

​Another pause.

​Oh, I'm SUPER cooked.

​Internally, red alert alarms began screaming inside his head at maximum volume.

​WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT—

​He forced himself not to panic outwardly, clamping down on his facial muscles to maintain some semblance of control. Barely.

​Okay. Stay calm. Think. Think.

​Unfortunately, thinking was not working. At all.

​Do I look like an absolute alien to them right now?!

​His soul practically left his body from the sheer weight of the secondhand embarrassment. But panicking here would only make things worse. Way worse. He needed to act normal, even though he had absolutely no concept of what "normal" looked like in this terrifying family.

​He forced a painfully awkward smile onto his face, his cheek muscles twitching. Then, he slowly raised one hand in a tiny, pathetic wave.

​"Um…" His voice almost cracked on the vowel. "…Morning, everyone?"

​For two full seconds, nobody moved.

​Then—absolute chaos.

​CLANG!

​One elder dropped his silver spoon directly onto his porcelain plate. Another nearly choked on his morning tea, coughing into a napkin. A woman near the far side of the table covered her mouth in absolute shock. The elegant woman sitting beside the young man visibly trembled, her eyes instantly beginning to water as she clutched her chest. Even the servants in the background exchanged stunned, frantic looks.

​Meanwhile, he just stood there, wondering if he had accidentally activated a hidden, high-level boss fight on day one.

​WHY IS SAYING GOOD MORNING ILLEGAL IN THIS HOUSE?!

​The elegant woman stared at him with trembling, tear-filled eyes. "Reiji…" her voice shook softly with a wave of intense emotion. "…You're actually talking?"

​The profound emotional weight behind her words hit him differently. It wasn't fear, and it wasn't suspicion.

​It was relief. Pure, unadulterated relief.

​For a split second, looking at her face, he almost felt a pang of guilt. Almost.

​Then, another voice cut through the rising murmurs of the room. Cold. Deep. Authoritative.

​"Sit down."

​His eyes shifted instantly toward the head of the table. A middle-aged man sat there silently holding a silver knife and fork. He possessed razor-sharp eyes, perfect military posture, and a suffocating, dominant presence. Even while sitting, the man somehow felt larger than the entire room itself.

​And although his facial features barely changed, his tightened, white-knuckled grip on the handle of his knife revealed everything. Even HE was severely shaken.

​…Yep. That's definitely the final boss of this household.

​Not wanting to accidentally get executed before breakfast, he immediately obeyed. He walked toward the only empty seat at the table and sat down with extreme care, making sure his chair didn't scrape too loudly against the floorboards.

​Every single person at the table was still staring at him. Nobody returned to eating their food. Nobody looked away. It genuinely felt like he was a specimen being analyzed by a room full of scientists after escaping from a top-secret laboratory.

​Everyone is looking at me like I grew a second head…

​He carefully picked up a silver spoon, lifting a small portion of food while pretending he totally belonged there.

​Inside his mind? Absolute, unmitigated chaos.

​Okay. I need information. Fast.

​His eyes subtly darted around the perimeter of the table again. Different ages, different expressions, but they were all fundamentally connected somehow. This was definitely a family. A very rich family. A very intimidating family. And somehow, he was sitting right in the crosshairs of it, pretending to be one of them.

​The breakfast continued in a painful, suffocating silence. The elegant woman kept stealing emotional glances at him, her expression caught somewhere between deep worry and immense relief. The young man in the suit quietly watched his every micro-movement.

​And the middle-aged man at the head of the table—clearly the father—hadn't taken his piercing eyes off him once. Even the old man near the end of the table still looked like he was trying to determine whether he needed to perform an exorcism.

​Meanwhile, he kept a tiny, rigid, awkward smile on his face, looking exactly like a hostage trying to survive tense international negotiations. Because honestly, that's exactly what this felt like.

​It was his first morning in a stranger's body. A luxurious dining table, a family he had never met, and a voice they hadn't heard in over a year.

​Beneath the table, out of sight, his fingers tightened with a white-knuckled grip around the silver spoon.

​…This is going to be WAY harder than I thought.

​End of Chapter 3

To Be Continued...