Who Are You Really?

[A/N : I apologize for making this chapter short. The exam was cancelled last Friday, and it had been moved today. I didn't have much time to create new chapters on time.

As an apology, I'll make the next chapter more longer. Also, if any of you want R18 scene, just comment it]

"Ugh..."

Groaning, the child finally opened his eyes. Slowly, he sat up. "Where... Where am I?" He asked himself as he started looking around to see where he was.

"Trees?"

He then noticed that he was in a middle of nowhere on a forest. He was alone... Or so he thought he was.

"Ahh!!?"

In front of him, was a man with headless body. It was dead, and laying around on the ground with it's limb torn apart.

"Wha-what..." He backed away until his back hit the tree behind. Soon after, while he was still shocked, he suddenly heard a scream.

"Monster!"

He slowly turned his head towards the direction of the voice. There, he saw a woman pointing her fingers towards him with a fearful expression.

"I-I..." Before the child could even say something to her, a knife flew over from the woman's back and missed him on hairbreadth.

"That's him! Catch that monster!"

A man appeared behind the woman as the others followed.

Hearing this, out of instinct to survive, the boy promptly forced himself to stand up and ran far away.

"He-help..." He continued running even while his body felt heavy. He didn't dare to look back because he could still hear those people who was chasing after him. They were slowly catching up.

While running, he accidentally tripped from a root of a tree and fell down. His foot got twisted. The bones inside was visible. It was clearly broken.

He forced himself not to scream, nor make any kind of sound that could lead the people to his direction.

While in great pain, he crawled towards the bushes to hide.

Soon after, the people finally arrived to where he was at. They didn't see him because he was well hidden, as they began to converse with each other.

"Where do you think that monster go?" One of the people asked.

"I don't know. One thing for sure is that that monster hadn't got that far away. We should look carefully before we continue." A man with a scarred face answered. He was probably the leader of the group.

While this was happening, the boy covered his mouth using both of his hands, trying his best not to make a sound.

𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦? He thought to himself. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯? ...𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦. 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.

Being born with such an extreme amount of bad luck, he was always forced to be in this kind of situation. It was also because of this unluckiness that all of his family died due to a fire accident. He was the only one that managed to survive.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, the people who had been hunting him finally went away.

"You..."

Before he could even breathe out a sigh of relief, he suddenly noticed a girl standing beside him. Because of this, he grimaced.

"What are you doing?"

A long and silky black-haired girl who looked the same age as him, was staring at him with a curious gaze.

He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before lowering his head. He finally decided to resign his fate, waiting for him to get killed.

Slowly, he closed his eyes.

Before he fell unconscious, he heard a faint and soothing voice coming from the girl.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you."

...

....

.....

[Congratulations, Player!]

[You have successfully regained Lucius past life memories.]

Staring at the panel in front of me, I couldn't help but be speechless.

"Lucius past memories? Isn't Lucius supposed to be the me in one of my past life? If he were someone else, does that mean the original owner of this body also has many past life...?" I went silent for a couple of seconds before continuing, "Or... perhaps, his case was similar to Athena, who may have just been reincarnated by chance?" I questioned myself. I didn't know what to think of this current situation. Lucius, who was supposed to be me, was actually somebody else!

𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘶𝘴... 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺?

[New trait acquired!]

***

Somewhere around the Aspirant Academy.

A bald man wearing a tattered cloak was walking around the academy's corridor, attracting some of the students attention, and stopped after reaching a certain room.

[395]

Staring at the door's number, the bald man nodded to himself.

"I'm coming in, brat!"

Suddenly, he kicked the door open as it flew inside. The student who was living in this room noticed the bald man come inside, and hurriedly walked towards him.

"Why are you here, Master?" The boy asked the bald man with an anxious look.

The bald man noticed his gaze and spoke, "Arthur, you're coming with me."

Arthur tilted his head. "...Can you repeat th-!?" Before he could even finish his sentence, the bald man picked up Arthur and placed him on his shoulder.

"Master, what are you doing!?!" Arthur panicked and asked, but was ignored by the his bald master.

His bald master turned his head to look around for someone, when suddenly...

"What are you doing to Arthur!?" Lumine raised her voice towards Arthur's bald Master.

Noticing her, the baldy turned his attention to her and smiled. "Oh, princess, great timing!" He said, picking Lumine up and placing her to his shoulder, opposite to where Arthur is in."

Surprised, Lumine struggled to free herself but failed. Thus, she turned her attention to Arthur.

"Who the heck is this man!?" She asked, still trying to struggle free.

Soon after her question, Arthur sighed. "He's my Master. He is the one who adopted, trained me when I was a child, and was the reason why I was able to attend to this school."

"..." Lumine became speechless. "Is he also the person who--?!!"

Before Lumine could even ask more of her unnecessary questions, the baldy hopped down on the window and made his way towards the Principal's Office.

While the bald master was rushing past many students, he voiced out, "Hey, brat. Do you know a student named Athan? I want to meet him."

"A-Athan?" Arthur stuttered. "H-he is probably back in his room with his sister, sleeping. It's been a few days since the last time he went out. When his sister and I visited him, Athan was unconscious. We didn't know how, but he won't wake up."

Hearing this, the bald master stopped and turned his head to look around. "I see... Anyway, where is the Principal's Office. I had something to say to her."

"It's... It's in that direction." The one who answered his question was Lumine. Although she didn't know what was happening and why they mentioned Athan, she didn't try to stop their conversation and listen.

Soon enough, they finally reached the Principal Office.

"I'm coming in!"

*-Thud!*

The bald master kicked the door open and immediately came inside.

"... Cossette?"

With her hair silky black hair cascading down to her back, Cossette turned her head after she heard someone called out her name.

Thus, the Arthur's bald master and Cossette stared at each other.

"Father... What are you doing here?"