Chapter 2

I should've gone back to rummage through those garbage bags for some food, Noel thought as he felt his stomach grumble and his head dizzy from the lack of food. Judging by its severity, the body that Noel had occupied may have been starving for at least 5 days before dying earlier in the day, and Noel's soul may have occupied this body after the original's soul had left for reincarnation. It may sound absurd, the idea of possession, but Noel was sure that his speculation was correct as he had always had the feeling that this body was not his ever since he had woken up. But the reason as to why he would occupy this body in the first place? Only time could tell.

It was only with a significant amount of willpower and perseverance that Noel had not already fallen over from starvation and had been able to keep on running for the past two hours or so. He had initially ran for the main city gate which had took him about 45 minutes to be able to navigate through the alleyway and safely bypass the men in black military uniform for him to reach there, only to be disappointed by the closed gates and more men in black military uniform to be patrolling on the city walls. After that, Noel had ran towards the palace which had taken him about an hour to do so before witnessing the king standing behind the palace gates in front of the luxuriously clothed nobles declaring loudly to the 15 thousand bloodied soldiers standing at attention and one major general valiantly standing a few feet in front of the army, "This king shall surrender Kingdom Dimitri and all its citizens to Kingdom Alynthia for the safety and survival of the royal family. If this deal is not accepted, this king and his citizens shall fight to the death against you intruders." The major general had indifferently replied, "You have no right to demand anything from our kingdom. Kill them all."

As soon as the order was given, the black army brought forward a battering ram to destroy the metallic gates that stood imposingly in front of them. Even though the soldiers had superhuman-like strength, they didn't make use of it to barge through the flimsy-looking palace gates or the sturdy-looking palace walls. It seemed to Noel that the palace gates and walls were not made out of metal and cement as it was made to be at first glance, though it was not possible for Noel to discern what the materials were with his limited knowledge of this world at present.

The king behind the gates quickly turned and shouted to the nobles, "Make way for your king! I shall greatly compensate anyone brave enough to stand up against those intruders! For those who don't and try to escape, shall be executed where they stand!" After his declaration, the king walked through the pathway that the nobles had made for the king with his personal guards behind, leaving the mess behind for the nobles and the remaining palace guards to deal with, using them to stall the black army for him and the remaining royals to escape.

After witnessing the situation at the palace gates, Noel knew that there was no chance of escape through there. With so many greedy and selfish nobles, with an even greedier and selfish king, it was obvious that an unknown and filthy child would have no place in their mind and would even be sacrificed first in the battle. Though it was impossible to sneak past the black army to get into the palace gates in the first place.

After observing the situation and resting from the long run, Noel decided the safest bet was to run towards the East gate which led to a forest. It took him more than an hour to reach the gate even though he didn't need to hide as much due to the majority of the soldiers being at the palace gate.

When he reached the gate, there were no soldiers patrolling around the gate. Noel felt that it was weird, as if the soldiers were confident that nobody would dare to escape through this route and that it was useless to place even a few soldiers here as a lookout. Noel ignored the ominous feeling he got from the forest as he knew that this was his only escape route and ran towards the welcoming looking green forest that contrasted with his instincts that were screaming for him to turn back.