Note: Moving forward, the story will be on Third Person's POV. 

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'I... I can't breathe...' Lucien thought as he felt as if he was submerged in deep waters. He could not move his arms nor could he speak any words. The only thing he could focus his eyes on were the faint rays of light piercing through the waters and reaching his face. 

He tried to move a limb once more but to his despair, he could not.

'What's happening?' He asked. He was slowly losing consciousness and every second that passed felt like an eternity. 

Where was he before waking up to this dream?

'Any last words?' 

The man's eyes widened when the voice echoed in his head. Like a thundering roar, it alerted his system. He wanted to move, but yet again...

And that's when he started feeling it. 

The cold depths that the sun couldn't reach. 

Lucien, with all his might, tried to move again. This time, he focused on the faint glimmer of sunlight piercing through the waters. The more he sank, the colder it got. He did not like the feeling at all. 

Even when he was drowning, he prioritized chasing warmth just to eradicate the coldness wrapping around his body. 

'I... I don't want to be cold...' bubbles of air escaped from his lips. 'Please... Izek...'

Lucien's eyes opened and right away. His body shivered as cold sweat ran down from his forehead to his neck. He turned his head on the side and he paused when he saw the opened window of his room. 

All of a sudden, a familiar place registered in his mind. This was the room he had forgotten what looked like after twelve years of living in the palace. 

The sound of crickets wafted through the air and entered the open balcony window. Lucien could see the moon casting down its light upon the dark world. 

"Haah..." He took a deep breath and sighed. He kept repeating the process over and over again until the coldness slowly vanished from his body like a fading memory of yesterday. The blanket covering his body must have started to work as once the coldness disappeared, he felt warmth. 

Even just from the blanket alone, Lucien found comfort in them. But something inside him wasn't contented with the warmth it gave. Instead, Lucien slowly got up until his feet landed on the soft carpet lined on the floor. 

He rubbed the soles of his feet on the warm carpet too, a few more times than what he intended to do. The slightly ticklish feeling of the fuzzy material scratching against his body was quite an unfamiliar experience.

His concentration on the carpet was only broken when the curtains swayed along with the winds and the window slightly creaked as the cold gust blew inside his room. 

Except for the occasional sound of crickets in the garden, it was so silent that Lucien thought he could hear even the faintest sound made by anyone around the house despite the building being a literal mansion.

The silence called for him.

And just like that, he took a step towards the open balcony. Lucien's heart pounded in his ears. Blood rushed through his veins. Every beat made his entire body shiver.

However, once he reached the open window, Lucien stopped. His hands clutched his pounding chest while his eyes scanned the view below. Words were not enough to tell what he was feeling right now.

The brick path that led to many other buildings in the vicinity, the lanterns hanged on trees that flickered whenever the flow of magic fluctuates, and most importantly...

"W-Wow..." he breathed as he looked at the enormous garden right in front of the mansion.

A chilly zephyr ran by him again and for the first time, Lucien wasn't afraid of the cold.

"Am... Am I dreaming?" He asked himself as he leaned on the window frame and hugged his body. Lucien felt weak. His strength had vanished completely upon the dawn of realization that this might be all a dream. 

There was a certain belief amongst religious practitioners around the empire that those who died in the present receive flashbacks of the lives they lived before coming to the moment of death.

Was this what Lucien was experiencing? Because one thing's for sure, all the memories in his mind had happened. They were real life events.

The sacrifice and betrayal that all revolved around Emperor Ezekiel. 

However, he wasn't so sure of what was in front of him. Was it reality or some sort of delusion he had upon dying by the hands of the emperor? All the memories he had of his teenage years leading up to early adulthood seemed like a blur so he wasn't so sure about the validity of this claim.

'There's only one thing to verify this...' He thought as he took a step closer the balcony. 

Just like earlier, each time his heart pummeled his chest, he took a closer step towards the railing. 

Isn't there a better way of verifying if something is real or not? 

Upon reaching the edge of the balcony, Lucien paused. His eyes wandered around and looked down. It was a steep fall, enough to kill him if he were to jump off right now. But regardless of the outcome, it would confirm whether this was a game being played by the entities of the afterlife with him, right? 

Making up his mind, the young man gathered enough courage to push himself up. One foot went over the edge followed by the second until he was sitting on the cemented railings. 

But then, a thought crossed Lucien's mind. 

What if this was a nightmare only? What if this was a dream he had to escape in order to go back to reality-

"..." Lucien's face looked sullen all of a sudden.

"You're insane, Lucien..." he mocked as he lowered his head and closed his eyes.

Even if that were the case, why would anyone want to return to reality? Why would he, of all people, want to go back to the hell where he suffered for many years? 

Can't he just die without having to relieve anything? He didn't want to remember all of those. Even the emperor he adored. 

'Still... If I jump off and die, whether this is reality or not, either way I won't have to remember things, right?' Lucien's thoughts were all over the place. 

At first, he came to enjoy waking up in his warm and cozy bed. With the moonlight shining upon him and the cold evening winds caressing his body. He thought enjoying those little moments meant he was also remembering his memories when he was the naive little Lucien who eventually upturned the empire with his bloodied hands. 

He thought the gods watching over him were simply giving him one warm memory before he suffer an eternity in hell. 

But why? Why does it look like everything's real?

'Stand your ground. Ever since you lived in the palace, the Lucien I knew did not exist anymore. All that's left is a coward who fails to achieve anything.' 

A pang of painful memories pierced his heart to which Lucien bit his lower lip at. 

"I'm not... a coward..." He whispered. But after a few seconds, the young man let go of his now bleeding lip and sighed. 

Maybe he was. Maybe he was a coward who failed to achieve anything after living in the palace with Izek. 

"So?" Lucien laughed lightly as his feet swayed. Just a few more inches and his body would fall from his room's balcony down to the ground. "This coward saved you... from death and from misery, I saved you..." 

Frustrated with the never-ending recall of memories, Lucien made up his mind once more. He had already died by Ezekiel's sword. He was sure of it.

This was all a memory he had long forgotten and was awakened by his death.

"I'm tired-" he was about to jump off the balcony when all of a sudden, the door of his room opened abruptly.

"Lucien!" The young master paused. His head quickly turning to the source of the voice. "Young Master Lucien! Oh, great heavens! Please get off the railings this instant! It's dangerous!"

There, Lucien saw something his memory never failed to blur out. 

His body froze as he watched the black-haired young man run towards him at full speed with a panicked face, followed by an older woman who looked like she was about to faint any time soon if he made one more move.

"E-Emilio...?" He stuttered.

It was his older brother Emilio whom he framed to death fifteen years ago.