1- Soul contract (1)

The man in the mirror’s reflection wasn’t him.

Facing the mirror was a tall, pale man with black threads sliding down the end of his back.

He doubted, but then he saw the same confusion covering the bluish-green eyes in the mirror and realized he was really wearing a stranger’s skin.

“…What is this supposed to mean?”

The moonlight lightened the room enough for him to watch his expression shift.

His brow twitched in disbelief while his pupils shook as he tried to trace his memories back to this point.

He touched his forehead, before his head started to ache and before he suddenly hit the floor. He remembered coming inside his room after buying a cup of instant noodles and a drink with the little money he had.

He turned his head and searched for an explanation in the dark room.

The dim light from the window came through torn curtains and stained the cold floor and the empty, small bed with light spots.

The floor didn’t have a carpet, so he was able to catch the dirt and mold spots on the wooden edges.

His eyes slowly switched and narrowed, the bed sheets were cut and crumbled, the walls seemed rotting; the room was wide even though it lacked furniture; and the materials of the bed seemed in good shape even though it had looked unused for a long time.

He eventually concluded two things: firstly, this was a foreign place that he had never set foot on before, the decor and the sense of air around him were bizarre and uncomfortable. Secondly, whoever lived here lived like an abandoned ghost.

The question is: how did he end up here?

His eyes returned to the mirror, and he faced the stranger again.

“Who the hell are you?”

As if it were an answer, a paper showed up and fell into his hands.

Letters appeared in bloody red ink.

{The soul contract between the Thirteenth Goblin and Raihle Latarseil has been made.}

{The switch has been completed.}

“Switch?”

Raihle Latarseil is the name of the man who made the contract and swapped their places with the help of a creature called “Thirteenth Goblin.” That’s what the paper in his hand said.

He looked up at the mirror, at the man he had never seen in his life before—the person who switched bodies.

Raihle made a contract; he is the one responsible for this.

But what he, Hyun Wa, of all people, has to do with this?

“…Who gave you permission to steal someone’s body?”

His knuckles turned white as he squeezed on the paper, but then it turned into ashes and fell through his fingers.

He blinked a couple of times before trying to realize what had happened, but then he noticed a small leather journal next to his feet. He picked it up and opened it, then instantly frowned.

{To the person who is now possessing my body…}

{I will let you know that this contract is everlasting and unbreakable.}

{From now on, you will live as Raihle Latarseil, and I will live as you in your own world.}

{No one other than you, me, and the Thirteenth Goblin knows about this contract, and you will find it rather impossible to inform any outsiders.}

{This is a secret you will have to keep for the rest of your life, and this is the new life you will have to live.}

{Further useful information will appear in this journal when the right time comes.}

His hands holding the journal started to shake, and his eyebrow twitched. He furrowed harder.

Other than those blunt, cold words, all the other pages were blank.

“Are you kidding me?” Did your parents teach you no manners? You can’t just go on and steal someone’s body, you little bastard.”

He didn’t know whether this man was a lunatic or had inner motives, but he was sure of one thing: whatever excuse this man had, he wanted nothing more than to give him a hard punch in the guts.

“This is garbage.” He scuffed in a sharp voice and tossed the journal on the ground.

At that moment, another sentence showed up after the flop.

“Hm?”

He picked it up again.

{In case you try something useless, I will let you know that this journal is indestructible.}

That was the last straw.

In the cold, soulless room, his voice rang with a vengeful echo.

“This man…”

Whoever is currently playing games and occupying his body…

“I will kill him.”

He wouldn’t mind punching his own face if he had to, this ‘Raihle’ crossed a line he shouldn’t have crossed.

“He said there is no way to breach this contract? We will see.”

His new-colored eyes narrowed, and he fastened his grip on the particles left behind by the contract paper.

The Thirteenth Goblin and Raihle Latarseil

These two parties went ahead and made a scheme involving him and maybe other motives, while he hadn’t the slightest clue about anything. Ignorance is the deadliest thing, Hyun Wa had always thought, so in order to get a hold of anything, he needed to get his hands on everything he could get.

Whoever Raihle Latarseil is and why he ended up taking his body, he needed to know that in order to go back.

His focus was so drained by the situation that he flinched when the door burst open.

“Your highness! We have to head to safety at once! The enemy is about to infiltrate the territory’s borders, there isn’t much time before they reach the city!”

Hyun Wa blinked three times: once to process the strangely dressed man with a sword on his waist and a hamlet on his head, another to get the familiar yet foreign language that he somehow understood, and lastly, to understand who was addressed by the man’s speech.

“…What?”

He failed in all three of them.

‘Is this kind of clothing normal here?’

The man wore layers of dark robes and a waistband with hair reaching to his shoulder, the band on his forehead had a symbol of a golden dragon. Hyun Wa felt like he was watching something out of a TV show.

He was truly hoping that he wasn’t in a place where all his common sense would be useless, but now he wasn’t sure his wish had been granted.

“Your highness!” The man urged him.

“Your highness…” he muttered quietly, touching his lips as he spoke in a different language. Was understanding and talking this language part of the contract, or did he naturally understand because he was possessing Raihle’s body?

“Are you addressing me by that?”

“…Of course?”

Hyun Wa spoke carefully: “Why am I ‘Your highness’?”

The man’s face was shifting, as if he were saying, ‘What kind of illogical question was that?’

“Because… you are the prince? Am I not supposed to call you ‘Your highness’?”

“Ah, I see.” Hyun Wa nodded in understanding while he swallowed up his curses.

‘A prince? Why in hell would a prince steal my body?

He thought he would probably feel a little better if he was fooled by a poor, miserable man, he might even pity him if so, but it turns out he was horribly wrong.

He turned his gaze at him and said, “And you are?”

“Maize, your highness, we are running out of time.”

“Yes, you said there are enemies infiltrating; who are they?”

Maize shook his head. His face was covered with sweat and paleness, while Hyun Wa faced him with an uncaring expression, making his patience constantly draining.

“Please,” he pleaded, “we have to leave now.”

Hyun Wa took a glimpse around the room where he had stepped on it for the first time a few minutes ago, it was the place where things got wrong, where Real Raihle left, and where he placed Hyun Wa in his shoes. He needed to put things back together, so he walked out, no longer as Hyun Wa but as Raihle.

Raihle thought he would get some questions answered as soon as he left the gloomy room, however, his head was dazed with more confusion as he caught the looks and stares from people around him.

Similarly, they wore long-sleeved robes and waistbands. He saw women with dull colored clothes and simple looks, he concluded they were the maids, and there were others wearing clothes like Maize, whom he thought was someone close to a guard or a swordsman.

This place is odd and unique, Raihle began to accept that, but something is off.

He walked right behind Maize’s swift steps, yet he managed to see how they were looking bizarrely at him.

A gleam of spite, a curve of disgust, the heat of anger—all eyes gave him a little bit of each.

“Please hurry this way, your highness.” Maize said without turning back. “The carriage is waiting for you.”

Raihle slowly removed his eyes from the back gazes and turned ahead, he was already standing outside.

The grass was dry and dead, and the greenness was sucked out of the bent trees. The outside wasn’t much more alive than the inside.

“Your highness!” A shout rattled through the iron fence. Raihle paused in place and noticed the pile of humans gathered over each other in front of the gate’s rusted bars.

His lips parted slightly, their faces were dirty and covered with desperation, their clothes were ripped apart and barely touching their slim bodies; and all their hands were reaching out to him.

“What’s up with them?” He asked Maize, but his voice was a whisper between the cries and shouts.

“Your highness! Save us! Save us!”

“Don’t leave us behind!”

“Help us! Your highness! Help the children!”

He couldn’t get an answer before the pleas turned into screams.

“You coward scumbag! You will run and use us as bait!”

“Shame on the Imperial family!”

“You are trash!”

His brow started to furrow, but his elbow was pulled by Maize. “There is no time.” He said it again. Raihle lost count of how many times he had mumbled that.

“Are we leaving them behind?” Raihle asked in a calm tone and guessed the answer from the change in Maize’s face.

“We…” Maize lowered his voice, knowing that it wouldn’t reach the angry people’s ears. “We need as much distraction and time as possible to get you to safety.”

He understood that, but he still couldn’t understand why. Was the enemy too powerful to overcome? or were they too weak to defend?

Also, was running the only option for him? How come he is in the middle of this mess?

To begin to understand, he had to take the first step now.

“I want to see them.”

Maize’s troubled face twisted in confusion.

Raihle clarified, “Take me to see the enemy.”

“Excuse me!? Why would you want to go there?” His disbelief was so overwhelming that he shouted louder than all the other noise. The people closed their mouths for a second before turning it into cheering.

“Thank you! Thank you!”

“Please don’t let them enter the city!”

Raihle’s expression remained cold and uncaring as they placed their hopes on his shoulder just after stabbing him with harsh words a few seconds earlier.

“We…we…I can’t do that!” Maize shook his head and hands. “How can I take you to the most dangerous place? I’m here to protect you!”

Raihle’s face didn’t change as he listened to Maize raise his voice.

“Does that mean those people don’t deserve as much protection as me?”

“That’s…”

Maize shut his mouth tightly and clenched his fist; he couldn’t speak a word, knowing that people’s ears were listening.

He obviously didn’t wish them harm; it was clear on his face, and if Raihle read his mind correctly, he would rather leave him here to fight the enemies and defend the territory.

Raihle spoke again in a plain tone.

“Is running away and hiding all I can do?”

What the real Raihle can do and what Hyun Wa can do right now are two different things.

His body might have been stolen, but his will was still his, he has control over his own actions, and what he wanted to do now was learn, explore, and understand how he ended up here.

“If the enemy wants me, then I will go to them.” Raihle said in solid words.

Maize looked at him as if he were seeing a strange creature; his mouth hung open for a couple of minutes. He had never met the prince personally before, but his brain made an image of a shivering and abandoned kid curling around himself helplessly—at least that was what he thought from the whispers and rumors that traveled to his ears.

He thought escorting him away from the territory was the easiest task he had ever been given.

However, he felt a massive weight on his chest under those unsettlingly cold eyes. He suddenly realized that he had no words to pursue him any further, so he closed his mouth and told the carriage driver to change directions.

Raihle refused to let him sit outside with the driver and made him sit inside the carriage, and then he began questioning him.

He first asked him to describe the current situation in detail.

He told him that there is an invasion attempt at Count Elimos’ territory borders, and the responsible kingdom is a blood-shedding kingdom named Lumier.

They have targeted more than six countries in the last seven years and succeeded in bringing destruction to every place their army has stepped foot. And this time they have set eyes on a new target.

The oldest empire, “Azaila,” also known as the Dragon Empire, is named after the greatest creature that has ever risen from the Abyss. Their greed reached the point of wanting to swallow up this legendary place whole.

They had failed twice before, Maize said, and this is the third attempt. Instead of choosing the weakest point of entering or using the underground streets, this time they want to crumble the empire from the inside, starting with taking down the only future heir and causing a ruckus.

It’s the perfect timing; the emperor had recently fallen sick, and they have located the prince’s whereabouts.

“That’s why heading right into their hands is a very bad idea.” He tried to convince him.

Raihle was at a loss for words. He tried to arrange the information neatly in his brain, but for now he had a small idea about what was happening.

However, there was something bugging him. He raised his sharp eyes at him and asked, “Why are you talking to me like that?”

“Sorry?”

“You have been explaining very slowly and simply, as if you are talking to a child.”

He saw himself in the mirror; he definitely didn’t look like a kid.

Maize’s face awkwardly flushed, and he stuttered as he spoke, “I…heard that your highness…has a little trouble…” He raised his finger weakly and pointed at his own head, saying, “Here.”

Raihle almost scoffed in disbelief, his eyes widening more as Maize added on while looking away.

“I heard that’s also the reason why you were banished as a child from the Imperial Palace and spent most of your life in the Count’s territory.”

He wasn’t done yet, he continued with a lower voice. “You have a hard time learning easy things, that’s what everyone says, among other rumors.”

Raihle brushed his face with his hand and sighed inside his palm.

Is that what Real Raihle was? An idiot? A loser? Did he take his body to escape his misery?

No, he shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

He had much to learn before knowing what made Real Raihle do what he did.