The pressure was suffocating.
I'd thought I understood what real power felt like. I'd faced four Novice-ranked beasts and barely survived. I'd intimidated knights with nothing but attitude and the residual energy from my soul-bound weapon.
But this? This was something else entirely.
Duke Eamon's presence filled the room like a physical force, pressing down on me from all sides. It wasn't mana, not exactly. It was something more fundamental. The accumulated weight of decades spent perfecting the art of violence. The aura of a man who'd climbed to the pinnacle of mortal strength and looked down on everyone below.
A Grandmaster.
One of the few in the world.
And he was waiting for my answer.
My throat felt dry. My heart hammered against my ribs. Every instinct I had screamed at me to drop to my knees and beg for mercy, to confess everything and hope for a quick death.
But I couldn't. Confession meant execution. And despite everything, despite the guilt and the horror and the wrongness of it all, I wanted to live.
'So lie. Lie convincingly. Lie like your life depends on it, because it does.'
I met Duke Eamon's golden eyes, forcing myself not to look away even though it felt like staring into the sun.
"We were separated," I said, keeping my voice level despite the pressure crushing down on me. "On the second day. We'd been tracking what we thought was the path to the golden fruit tree when we were ambushed."
I paused, letting the memory of the real fight bleed into my words. The fear. The desperation. The blood.
"Crimson Maws. A whole pack of them. Maybe seven or eight, I couldn't count properly. They came from multiple directions at once."
This was the lie. The critical fabrication that would either save me or condemn me. I kept my expression neutral, channeling every ounce of Kaine's arrogant indifference.
"Abel told me to run. To draw some of them away while he handled the others." A pause. "He was the hero candidate. The stronger one. It made tactical sense."
Duke Eamon's expression remained unchanged, but I felt the pressure intensify slightly. A warning. A test.
I continued. "I ran. Fought when I had to, mostly just survived. The beasts were relentless. I lost track of how long I was running, how far I'd gone. When I finally managed to kill the ones chasing me and double back to where we'd been separated, Abel was gone."
The words came easier now, building on each other with a momentum of their own.
"I searched. Called out for him. Looked for signs of battle or blood trails. Nothing. The forest was empty, like he'd just vanished."
I let a hint of frustration creep into my voice. Not grief. Not sorrow. Kaine wouldn't have shown those emotions openly.
"I kept searching, but I was injured. Exhausted. I knew I needed to complete the trial, to at least recover the golden fruit, so I continued toward where we thought the tree was located."
I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the golden fruit. It still glowed softly, pulsing with contained mana. I held it up so Duke Eamon could see it clearly.
"I found the tree. The fruit was there, exactly as you'd described. I thought..." I paused, as though choosing my words carefully. "I thought Abel had already retrieved one and gone back. That he'd succeeded first and returned to the estate while I was still wandering the forest."
Duke Eamon's eyes flicked to the fruit, then back to my face. Still unreadable.
"But as I was preparing to leave, the Saber Garden reacted."
This part was true, at least. The memory of the tree splitting open, of the blade rising from the earth, was still vivid in my mind.
"The ground shook. The tree split apart. And from beneath it, this emerged."
I touched the hilt of the Einsworth Family Saber with my free hand, drawing Duke Eamon's attention to it.
For the first time since I'd entered the room, his expression cracked.
It was subtle. A slight widening of the eyes. A barely perceptible intake of breath. But on a face as controlled as Duke Eamon's, it might as well have been a shout of shock.
His gaze fixed on the saber with an intensity that made his previous stare seem casual. I watched emotions flicker across his features too quickly to fully identify. Disbelief. Recognition. Something that might have been awe.
"The Einsworth Family Saber," he said, and for the first time, his voice wasn't thunder. It was quiet. Almost reverent.
He took a step forward, then another, until he stood directly in front of me. His hand reached out, hovering near the blade but not quite touching it.
"Generations," he murmured, more to himself than to me. "Over a century since anyone last laid eyes on it. A weapon forged in an age of legends, imbued with power that defies conventional limits. Power that can elevate a warrior beyond even the Legendary rank threshold."
His eyes lifted from the blade to my face, and I saw the conflict there. Disbelief warring with the evidence before him. Disappointment that his favored son hadn't been the one chosen, mixed with wonder that the choice had been made at all.
"And it chose you."
The words hung in the air between us, laden with implications I couldn't fully parse.
I said nothing. There was nothing I could say that wouldn't sound defensive or boastful. So I simply stood there, the saber at my hip, the golden fruit in my hand, and waited.
Duke Eamon's expression hardened again, the momentary crack sealing over like ice reforming on a frozen lake. He stepped back, his posture shifting into something more formal.
"Abel," he said. Just the name. A question and a command all at once.
"I haven't seen him since we were separated," I replied, which was technically true. I hadn't seen Abel. I'd seen his corpse, but that was different.
Duke Eamon's jaw clenched. For a moment, I thought he might press further, might demand more details or call out the inconsistencies in my story.
Instead, he turned away, walking back to the window. The killing intent that had been pressing down on me eased slightly, enough that I could breathe properly again.
"Show me the fruit," he said.
I stepped forward and placed the golden fruit on his desk. Up close, its glow was even more pronounced, casting warm light across the maps and documents.
Duke Eamon picked it up, turning it over in his hands with surprising gentleness. He examined it for a long moment, then set it back down and nodded.
"Genuine. One of the Saber Garden's treasures." He looked at me, and while his expression remained stern, I detected something else beneath it. Resignation, perhaps. "You completed the trial. Against all expectations, you succeeded where your brother has apparently failed."
He picked up the fruit again and held it out to me.
"You will attend the academy. Preparations will begin immediately. You leave in one month."
I took the fruit, tucking it back into my coat pocket.
"Use the next month wisely," Duke Eamon continued. "I'll arrange for Jack, the captain of my personal guard, to train you in proper combat technique. Your form is sloppy and your foundation is weak. That will be corrected."
He paused, his golden eyes boring into mine.
"Eat the fruit before training begins. It will expand your mana capacity significantly and should push your mana circulation to intermediate proficiency at minimum. You'll need every advantage you can get."
"Yes, Father," I said, the words feeling strange in my mouth.
"A search party will be assembled at first light," Duke Eamon said, turning back to the window. "They'll comb through the Saber Garden until they find Abel or evidence of his fate."
His shoulders tensed slightly, the only visible sign of the emotion he was suppressing.
"You are dismissed."
I turned to leave, then hesitated. "Father, I—"
"Dismissed," he repeated, his voice hard as iron.
I left without another word, pulling the study doors closed behind me.
---
The walk back to my room felt surreal. Servants I passed in the hallways stared openly now, their whispers following me like shadows. Word had spread about the saber. About Abel's absence. About everything.
I climbed another set of stairs to the fourth floor, where the family's private chambers were located. Kaine's room was at the end of a hallway, a space I recognized from memories but had never physically occupied.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it behind me and finally, finally allowing myself to relax.
The room was spacious but messy. Clothes were strewn across the floor and furniture. Empty bottles cluttered the desk and nightstand. The bed was unmade, sheets tangled like someone had left in a hurry.
'This is what Kaine's life looked like. Chaos and self-destruction.'
I walked to the window and looked out over the estate grounds. The sun was setting now, painting the sky in shades of orange and purple. Somewhere out there in that forest, Abel's body had been swallowed by the earth, consumed by the Saber Garden as payment for a bargain I hadn't known existed.
I'd lied to Duke Eamon. Lied convincingly enough that he'd believed me, or at least hadn't challenged the lie openly. I'd secured my place at the academy, earned a month of training from a captain of the guard, and walked away with the legendary weapon that should have been Abel's prize.
I should have felt victorious. Relieved. Something positive.
Instead, I felt hollow.
'Twenty-four hours. I've been in this world for twenty-four hours.'
In that time, I'd inherited the memories and body of a murderer. I'd been cursed by fate itself. I'd killed four ranked beasts while Unranked. I'd bonded with a legendary weapon. I'd lied to one of the most powerful men in the world.
And somewhere beneath all of that, buried under the survival instinct and the desperate scramble to stay alive, I'd lost something fundamental.
I wasn't the person I'd been before. Whoever I was in my previous life, whatever memories and experiences had defined me, they were gone. Fragmentary at best. I couldn't remember my name, my family, my friends. Couldn't remember dying or how I'd ended up here.
All I had was Kaine's life. Kaine's memories. Kaine's sins.
'And now I have to live with them. Have to become strong enough to survive the consequences.'
I pulled the golden fruit from my pocket and held it up to the fading light. Duke Eamon had said it would expand my mana capacity, push my circulation to intermediate level. It was supposed to be consumed, to be eaten like any other fruit.
'Should I do it now? Or wait?'
The system had been silent since I'd left the forest. No notifications. No guidance. Just the ever-present awareness of its existence lurking at the edge of my consciousness.
'I'll do it tomorrow. After I've rested. After I've had time to think.'
I set the fruit on the nightstand and collapsed onto the bed, not bothering to remove my ruined clothes. Every muscle in my body ached. The wounds on my back and shoulders throbbed with dull pain.
But I was alive.
I'd survived my first day in this strange, violent world.
'One month until the academy. One month to get stronger. One month to figure out how to live with what I've done.'
Through the window, I watched the last rays of sunlight disappear below the horizon. Darkness crept across the estate grounds like a living thing, swallowing the manicured gardens and training yards.
And somewhere in that darkness, search parties were preparing to comb through the Saber Garden, looking for a body they would never find.
I closed my eyes and tried not to think about Abel's face. About the confusion and hurt in his eyes as Kaine's blade had pierced his back. About the way his hand had reached for the wound, as though he couldn't believe what was happening.
'I didn't kill him. Kaine did. I'm just the one stuck with the consequences.'
But even as I thought it, I knew the distinction was meaningless.
I was Kaine now. For better or worse, his past was my present, and his sins were mine to carry.
The weight of that realization pressed down on me like Duke Eamon's killing intent, and I wondered if I would ever truly escape from under it.
Or if I even deserved to.