Ouch!
My head! Too painful!
Kai awoke inside a corpse, seated upon a throne with a perfect circular hole in his bleeding forehead.
At this moment, he was effectively deceased.
Then, as if the flesh on his temple had started stitching itself together, all his pierced brain matter began to gather where it should be.
F*** — IT HURTS!
Miraculously, the corpse drew breath.
But the soul inside… was never the same.
Did I die?
Kai tried to touch his temple, but his senses were hypersensitive.
Sight, sound, touch, everything was overwhelming.
He might as well be a newborn cosplaying as an adult.
The first sense to return was sight.
The blinding lights gradually dimmed, revealing a throne room, and his eyes fell on his right pale hand: each finger adorned with an expensive ring.
I don't remember being this rich.
Kai's fingers felt more of his face; he felt his dead skin reversing its own death.
Though he must say, he felt taller! And he could tell the contours of an impeccable jawline.
He couldn't find a mirror to gauge his appearance, but looking down, he was wearing a dark decorated royal uniform.
He curiously tried to poke his temple with his finger.
To Kai's surprise, the fatal hole had disappeared, only the trail of dried blood down to his nose remained.
Am I dreaming? This isn't my room!
Shaking his head and squinting his eyes, Kai took in the opulent throne room, with intricate chandeliers, and vast grey marble flooring, which was eerily muted.
But that wasn't all.
The stench of rot was palpable in the air.
What is this smell?! Disgusting!
The locked entrance door was just a few paces in front of the throne, and a red carpet stretched between them.
Beneath it, blood was pooling across the marble floor, black and slick against the gold and grey.
Kai jolted upright in a fight-or-flight response, but his unknown location made it hard to even find a place to flee.
There were two more doors on the right and left sides of the throne room, but he didn't know where they led, or worse, what might be lurking behind them.
He desperately tried to remember his past through his throbbing migraine, but to his dismay, it seems like two fragmented beings were clashing within his temple.
One from a troubled college student mingling with the instincts of a young king…
I remember reading a novel in my room. It was about a kingdom being ravaged by the undead! And this place looks oddly familiar… wait… don't tell me I'm in the same novel?
There were gold chains hanging on his right shoulder, and yet if he was a king, where was his crown?
The name, the name of the king is Vladimir Leousi. But how on earth am I inside his body?!
I'm inside another man's body!
Then he realized that on his left hand, he was holding something instinctively for dear life.
It was a crumpled old letter, and the original owner of this body appeared to have no will to let it go.
Kai opened the letter and read its contents:
"Upon her arrival… commit to and affirm your conviction to the miracle born of slavery."
"Fail, and everyone you love will die."
Kai scowled at the letter, madness and confusion were his reactions. "Commit to? Conviction? Miracle born of slavery?!" He ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
"I don't even know who she is… or what this is supposed to mean!" Finally, he shoved the letter into his deep pocket, as a result the paper crumpled further under his intense grip.
However, the letter made it clear that It foretold the arrival of a woman, though, in his delusion, Kai hoped she would at least be exceptionally beautiful.
So the king knew I'd transmigrate into his body? How could he even have predicted something like that?!
The weight of it all slowly began to sink in as memories of his real life flashed before him:
I haven't made my parents proud yet!
I was going to confess to my crush… it's Valentine's Day!
I was a piece of sh*t!
I haven't fixed the wrongs I've done!
I was going to change… to become better!
Then a loud banging on the entrance door rattled his ears.
What is that?!
It was violent in sequence, and with each pound of the door, Kai's fear of the unknown worsened.
I had a hole in my head when I woke up; are the people behind that door the culprits?
Who killed the king?!
As he murmured, he saw a golden long sword displayed on the wall of the throne room.
Kai thought that these kinds of ceremonial swords weren't meant for combat.
Nonetheless, he hastily equipped it, holding it with a shake in his right hand.
It was at least something to defend himself with.
The banging on the door was reaching a crescendo.
Kai then checked the door to his right, it was locked.
He went to the other door on the left; it too was locked.
With no other choice, he had to confront whatever was coming head-on.
That's when he realized that there's also a trail of blood leading on both left and right doors!
What the hell happened here?!
Just in case, he stood near a vase, ready to throw it at the first sign of danger.
Yet somehow, he was afraid and at the same time not, as if the body was torn between experiences of two different men.
My limbs aren't moving fluidly; it's like my nerves are just starting to wake up.
The right thing to do was perform a couple of small stretches to get his blood flowing.
Then he heard a growl that was accompanied by thunderous blows to the entrance door; the wood caved in further, and whatever was behind it was adamant on tearing through.
Why do I feel this profound sense of sadness and longing…
Kai murmured to himself, then the next impact on the entrance door ripped through the frame in a violent manner.
Then Kai's eyes widened in terror.
"This isn't real…"
He saw three people come inside the throne room's entrance.
The one in the middle wore a white chef's uniform stained with dried blood, holding a fresh cleaver clenched in his right hand.
The two beside him were castle guards, dressed in formal black-and-red uniforms.
All of them had gaping mouths and decaying blackened flesh that's oozing out dark residue.
They saw Kai and immediately rushed at him in a frenzy, hunger blazing in their white-maggot-infested eyes.
Yet Kai without thinking, uttered:
"Kneel."
The three undead twitched, and they found themselves following his command as if the former people behind their eyes still heard their king's voice.
However, their instinct to devour overrode any form of compliance.
Then Kai found his mouth moving on its own:
"You should have stayed away."
It wasn't directed at the three undead.
Chapter End.