"The Confusion"

"Ahm... Ahem! Your Excellency?"

A strange voice rustled from behind me, startling my nerves. Surprisingly, I recognized the words and realized they were in Chinese. I turned slowly, my mind racing to gulp down the strange reality my senses were taking in. For a moment, My eyes betrayed me, unable to believe the scene before me.

It took me no less than a moment to tell that the room where I stood was as vast as a hall. At a distance, I could see a lavish bed draped in rich silks reminiscent of ancient times. Beside the large windows where I stood, I saw a sword hung on the wall, its blade still carrying a stench of blood.

For a moment, I freaked out. But as my attention shifted to the well-furnished and ornately decorated furniture, starkly similar to what I had seen in historical dramas, I fell into such dire confusion, that I momentarily forgot the voice I had heard earlier.

As I turned my eyes slightly, I saw a person with jet-black hair standing by the door. He had a certain emotionless face, and he wore a black and red ancient Chinese warrior clothing, with a golden clasp tucked into his hair. This man, seemed to me to be coming straight out of a Chinese drama. I was nearly convinced that my brain was showing me illusions of some Chinese drama that my subconscious had captured very 'seriously.'

Suddenly, I realised that this man had bowed and saluted me, catching me completely by surprise. Having no chance to think properly of a proper response, I instinctively mimicked his response—I bowed just as he did.

A fleeting wind of laughter happened to blow on the stranger's face for a second, which he promptly buried beneath his serene face. "Your Highness! Why are you bowing? I am your butler, you are my lord! Don't make fun of me by doing this!", He responded.

I was in total shock at his response. I was taken aback! Highness? Me?

That's nonsense!

Trying to keep calm, I hid my thoughts and attempted to start a conversation.

"Ni jiao shenme?" I asked, hoping my pronunciation was correct. But I immediately regretted it as I realised being asked his name might not have been the usual response Butler expected.

And I was not wrong. Soon his eyes moved towards my face, and his expression started giving off a whiff of worry, "Lord Yun! Don't say that you forgot your butler, Shen Dai Fu! We have been together since childhood. Are you not feeling well? Let me call the royal doctor."

"What? Why? How? Who?" My face burned with embarrassment at my silliness. "Dai-Fu? Who-Who am I then?"

"Your Excellency Yun! You are the Second Prince!"

The words hit me like a ton of bricks. Highness? Second Prince? Me? The reality of the situation now seemed overwhelming. It felt as if time had stopped. The realization crashed over me like a tidal wave. I, who just moments ago was an ordinary person in the modern world, was now being addressed as royalty in what seemed to be ancient China. My heart pounded in my chest, each beat echoing the disbelief and confusion swirling in my mind.

On the other hand, I could tell that the butler, Dai Fu, was serious about what he was saying. He was not lying. His eyes and movements had no signs of a person who could be a liar. The things which I thought to be my brain's imagination, now seemed to be the reality, slowly.

"...I think Your Highness has enjoyed himself well last night." Dai Fu replied, breaking my budding chain of thoughts from between. At the next moment, before I could conjure up any of my replies, The man handed me a bowl of soup, the aroma of its bitter herbs wafting towards me. "Here, drink this soup.", he urged gently, "...It will sober you up well."

The liquid was a deep, murky colour, its scent both medicinal and strangely comforting. As I took the bowl from his hands, the warmth of the soup seeped into my fingers, offering a strange comfort against the confusion swirling in my mind. I hesitated, staring into the depths of the bowl as if it might contain answers to questions I hadn't yet formulated.

Dai Fu watched me with a patient expression, his presence both grounding and slightly unnerving. I raised the bowl to my lips and took a cautious sip. The taste was as bitter as its scent, sharp against my tongue, but it carried an unexpected undertone of sweetness that lingered as I swallowed.

As the liquid warmed my insides, I felt a subtle clarity in my senses. The previous night's events were still a blur, but the sharp edges of my confusion started to soften.

Trying to unwind from Dai Fu's strings of confusion, I diverted his attention with a question, keeping a curious expression on my face.

"Dai Fu! What is the date today?"

He looked at me with his sharp and questioning eyes, well indicating that I had confused him more rather than stabilizing him- "Your Excellency!", He replied slowly, choosing his words with care, "It's the 3rd day of the Spring, the 115th year of the reign of Emperor Taizu... But why do you ask?"

I paused and considered how to navigate his scrutiny without revealing my uncertainty. As the room felt heavier with the weight of his question I tried to take some weight off of it.

"Just ensuring today is the day I think it is. You can rest assured that it isn't anything serious. " I said lightly, hoping to deflect any further questions. I offered him a reassuring smile, though inside I wrestled with the disorientation that still lingered like a shadow in my mind.

Dai Fu nodded, though the lines on his forehead suggested he wasn't entirely convinced.

"You can go now.", Trying to avoid a difficult conversation, I asked him to leave me alone for the moment as I wanted to give myself a proper space to at least stabilize my own nerves before I could stabilize someone else.

As he moved out with that certain confused face, I again moved near the large windows of my room where the sun was purging its shine with a strange redness. Putting my head straight, I started thinking about what Dai Fu said.

"115th year from the reign of Emperor Taizu." I had read this name somewhere when I was studying Chinese history. Emperor Taizu, the founder of the Jin Dynasty, who was known for his military prowess and reforms, had been a pivotal figure. But 115 years from his reign? That placed me in a different era entirely, a time of change and turbulence, where whispers of Mongol invasions were growing louder. Suddenly, a chill went through my spine as I realised something grave.

"Hell no! This is 1230 AD," I muttered, the shock settling in as I looked out the window.

"Why the hell am I in a place that is gonna be sacked by those Mongols just two years later?"