Chapter 4

Zeik stared at the unfamiliar ceiling in shock. It was decorated with a fancy mosaic depicting a story of demons and gods, locked in battle. At the center of it all, directly above the bed on which Zeik laid, was a glowing figure holding a cross-shaped sword, the hero.

The entire story seemed blatantly clear to Zeik's mind, despite him having never seen or heard it before. He sat up and turned to look at a mirror built into the wall. Sitting on the large, fancy bed and in a colorful nightrobe was a 15 year old boy with short, sky-blue hair and large blue eyes that seemed to contain the sky itself. His build was similar to what Zeik was used to, thin but balanced, and he was probably an inch or two shorter. Zeik lifted his hand, and the boy in the mirror did the same. Zeik raised an eyebrow, and the boy raised his. After a minute or two of this, Zeik realized that he was looking at his own reflection.

"What the hell..." Zeik's hands flew to his mouth, as an unfamiliar language had come out of it. He had spoken without thinking, but it seemed that he had done so in a language that he'd never heard before, yet still somehow understood it perfectly.

"What happened?" Zeik thought aloud, in English this time. "J was telling me to go back, and..."

A sudden pain, like being hit in the back of the head with a mallet, abruptly cut off the memory. Zeik cried out in surprise.

Zeik realized what this probably meant. "Oh, I died, didn't I?"

But if he had died, then where was he, and why did he look different?

Zeik chose not to think up any conclusions just yet. He wasn't really the type to read into anything. Instead, he climbed out of bed and searched his memories to see if any clues could be found there. To his surprise, he found not only the memories of himself, the ones of going to school with J and everyone, but also memories of being homeschooled by a private tutor, being isolated from the other kids, and sneaking out of the house at night to commit various actions that were undoubtedly against the law. Those were not the memories of the Zeik that he himself was familiar with, but of the original owner of the body he now inhabited. Zeik searched for a name, and one came to him: Prince Vincent II. Prince was not his title, but his first name. Zeik chuckled at the strange combination.

"Wait, the Second?" Zeik thought. "TWO people were dumb enough to name their kid like that?"

Zeik checked for more clues of what kind of a person this Prince was. He dug up memories of calling his maids abusive names, doing perverse things to them, and of playing extremely uncool pranks on them. Zeik shook these memories out of his mind and shuttered. "Damn, this Prince guy was a real shithead."

"No wonder he was isolated." Zeik laughed.

The fact that Zeik had these thoughts showed that his consciousness had completely replaced that of Prince's, but the memories of the latter still remained. Since he had no friends to play with, Prince had gotten used to amusing himself by messing with his maids, some of which actually enjoyed the young noble taking advantage of them. Zeik was so disgusted, he felt like washing his mind out with a combination of bleach and ammonia, a mixture that would make a deadly gas.

"Master Prince?" A maid burst through the door to Zeik's room. "We heard a shout. Is everything alright?"

Zeik stumbled in surprise. Of course, there were no locks on these doors. That would explain how Prince got into the maids' rooms so late at night, and vice versa.

The maid took a look at Zeik, realized that she had entered without knocking, and fell to her knees with her forehead to the floor. "I-I apologize for my rudeness!"

Zeik steadied himself and walked over to the maid, who was quaking out of fear. "No, it's fine. I'm happy that you'd felt such concern for me."

The maid looked up with her hazel eyes wide in surprise. She was fully expecting Zeik to assault her, right there and then.

Zeik realized that he had switched languages without even thinking about it, and was able to speak quite fluently. The maid had noticed that his tone was gentler and less commanding than that of Prince's, and she felt uneasy. She wondered if this was a new trick by the young noble to get her guard down.

"I'd like you to take me to Father." Zeik said. "Something weird just happened, and I feel it necessary to tell him about it."

Of course, Zeik considered the possibility of telling anyone about his situation being extremely risky and possibly even dangerous, but he still felt a strong connection to his father through the memories of Prince, though not a good connection, per say, and felt compelled to at least tell his family.

The maid stood up, dusted herself off, and led Zeik through the maze-like complex that was the inside of the Vincent Mansion. Prince's father, Duke Vincent, Duke being both his title and first name, sat having breakfast with his wife, Chelsea. As soon as Zeik was in the room, the maid excused herself and closed the doors behind her.

"You're up awfully early today, Prince." Duke said, not even sparing Zeik a sideways glance.

"About that." Zeik felt awkward talking to a man of such high stature so casually, but since he was hopeless with honorifics, he got straight to the point. "Do you have some time to spare? I'm in a bit of a situation."

The Duke was a busy man, but even he sensed that this was something important. He motioned for Zeik to take a seat.

"How do I say this..." Zeik thought for a moment. "Well, I'm not Prince, let's start with that."

Duke put his fork down and reached into his coat pocket, where he kept a knife for emergencies.

Zeik put his hands up and scooted away from the man. "Wait! Hear me out here."

Duke's hand did not leave the inside of his coat, but that was fine. Zeik explained awkwardly that he was, indeed, not Prince. But he had inherited Prince's body and memories, and just had to talk to someone about it.

"You said your name was Zeik?" Chelsea asked. "If you've got a name, you have a past too, no?"

Zeik cringed at the memory of his final moments resurfacing. "Y-yeah. I don't think this is the same world that I came from, though."

"I've never heard of such a thing before." Duke looked at Zeik skeptically. "You're not trying to play a prank on me, are you?"

"I swear I'm not." Zeik said. "I'm afraid that the Prince you know might be gone forever, and I apologize, I feel like I've caused you a huge loss."

Zeik hoped that the couple did not notice his irregular breathing, as the stress was tiring him out. Worst case scenario, he was probably going to get killed again.

To his surprise, however, Duke's expression softened and he laughed. A hearty laugh that reminded Zeik of all the times he's seen Santa Claus deliver presents to the good children on TV. "Don't apologize. If anything, we're glad that Prince won't grow up to be an oppressive individual."

Zeik stared at the man with wide eyes. How could he be glad that his only son was gone? Chelsea seemed to read Zeik's expression, and laughed a little, too.

"Please forgive us, Zeik." She said. "It's just that we're glad someone like you took over our son's life, instead of him growing up to be hated by all those around him."

Zeik blinked. "Someone... Like me?"

Duke's originally serious and intimidating aura had broken down, and he gave off more of a dad vibe. "I'm sure you know why we tried to isolate our son from the rest of the children, if you have his memories."

Zeik did know. Prince had been an abusive, obnoxious, and almost evil individual, taking pranks way too far and feeling no remorse for anything that he had done. Even Zeik could see what would have happened if Prince became the next Duke, given that his actions weren't exactly on a path of changing for the better. This feeling of understanding conflicted with his sense of family, as it felt like Duke and Chelsea were happy that their son was gone, and to Zeik, that was inherently more wrong than anything else.

"But, he was your-"

Chelsea stopped Zeik. "Was? Our son is standing right here, isn't he?"

It took a moment for that to sink in. Finally, Zeik understood what she meant. Since he had Prince's memories, looks, and blood, to them, Zeik was still the same Prince that the two knew. This didn't feel right to him, as it felt like the two were using him as a replacement, or rather, an upgrade, but he had no choice to accept it.

"hm." Zeik nodded.

"So, what are you planning to do now?" Duke asked.

'huh?"

"Surely, you want to live differently from how he did, right?"

Zeik thought about it for a moment. He didn't want to live the same, isolated life that Prince had, for sure. However, he had no clue what he actually wanted to do in place of that. There were many options. He could go to school, get a part-time job, or prepare to take on the title of Duke after his father.

"let me think on that for a bit, uhh..." Zeik didn't know how to address the two in front of him.

"Father is fine, Zeik." Duke gave a bright smile.

"Right. I'll come up with something by tomorrow, father, mother." Zeik said awkwardly, and turned to leave. The maid that had brought him to the room stood outside the door, her face bright red.

Zeik closed the door behind him and turned to her. "You listened in?"

"I- I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize." Zeik smiled. "It takes the trouble of explaining off me."

Zeik felt bad for the girl. Out of his memories, she was the one the Prince had abused the most. The youngest of the maids, just a year or two older than Prince himself, who found herself constantly targeted by the young noble's lust and anger. Prince hadn't even bothered to remember her name, and just referred to her as "Hey, you!"

"That reminds me." Zeik said. "Can you tell me your name?"

"My... Name?" The maid looked up in surprise. "But I'm just a maid, I can't act as my master's equal!"

That confused Zeik. Was there something about their culture that he didn't understand?

"Then from now on, I pronounce you my equal." Zeik said. "And so, you can just call me 'Zeik.'"

The girl gave Zeik a conflicted look, and hesitated for at least ten seconds.

"-abel." The maid's voice had gone very quiet.

"I didn't catch that, what?"

"Annabel." She seemed to have used all of her mental strength to say it.

Zeik felt another sharp pain in the back of his head. Annabel, a name that hit way too close to home. He stumbled and steadied himself against the wall.

"Master Zeik?!"

"Drop the 'Master,' Annabel." Zeik said. "We're equals now, are we not?"

"Y-yes." Annabel struggled to speak through her surprise. "Then, Zeik?"

Zeik nodded, and smiled to himself. He wasn't going to waste this second chance at life.

Whatever he chooses to do now, he knew that it was going to result in something the he never would have accomplished in his past life.