[07] You are Xael Eitan Laurhette

"Hey..."

"... Wake up"

"Nathan... Bro..."

"Wake up or mom will get angry..."

Nathaniel's brows furrowed in his sleep. His body felt heavy, as if a heavy weight was pressing him down. He couldn't move even a tiny bit of his fingers.

"Nathaniel? Why are you still not up at this hour?!"

'Mom? I hear her voice...'

"Wake up or you'll be late for class!"

Nathaniel did everything he could to open his eyes. To wake up. However it was unsuccessful. His vision was covered in darkness. His body, still immobile.

'Move... C'mon body move damnit!...'

"... Up"

".... Wake up"

"Xael, wake up!"

Nathaniel's eyes fluttered open abruptly. His body was heaving for breath as he laid against the soft mattress weakly. However, he squinted his eyes due to the blinding light that was coming from the large french window on the side. He raised his hands with much difficulty to shield his eyes from the sun.

However he was stunned when he saw his hands placed in front of him. With a face filled with confusion. He roamed his gaze around the room he was in. It was unfamiliar. It was strange. The floor was made with white marble tiles, with the walls painted in white. There was a lamp by the bedside table. The bed he was on, was very comfy. With a soft mattress and a fur quilt. Everything he laid his eyes on screamed expensive.

What confused him the most though was the lack of modern furnishings. There wasn't any light bulb in sight. Electrical sockets or anything related to the technology of the 21st century.

"Where am I?..." Nathaniel questioningly grasped his neck. Aside from feeling the dryness of his throat he also noticed his voice. It has changed. It's more mellow and like an adolescent still developing from puberty. It's different from his baritone voice!

He pushed himself to sit up. He reached for the glass of water served on a tray that was on the bedside table. After wetting his parched throat and dry lips, he further examined himself. His hands grabbed his hair. It was long, which was wrong. He remembered that just a few weeks ago he went to the barbers to get his hair trimmed. There's no way his hair grew long that fast.

Nathaniel quickly stood from the bed, his feet coming into contact with the cold marble floors. However he didn't care about the coldness against his skin at the moment. Instead he hurried and rummaged on the room's cabinets, successfully finding a gold plated mirror on one of the drawers.

"No...This can't be... Who... " Nathaniel couldn't mutter a complete sentence due to shock when he saw a different person staring back right at him in the mirror. His hands cupped his cheeks and so did the reflection in the mirror.

"There is no way. This is impossible, this person is not me." Still stunned from the shock, Nathaniel turned his head to the side as he examined the face on the mirror. It was estimated that the boy was 16 or 17 years of age its face still containing the immaturity of a young boy.

[You are Xael. Do not Forget.]

Nathaniel's eyes widened when he saw how the image in the mirror blurred and instead, a mysterious text slowly emerged. It was very familiar, as if he had already seen it countless times before. He didn't know why but his hands trembled causing the mirror to fall and break into pieces.

His breathing started to race as he felt a sudden surge of nausea churning in his stomach. He took a step back weakly and sat on the bed. His hands clutching his stomach.

The sound of glass breaking alarmed the maids that were cleaning around the room. Hurriedly they knocked against the door and entered the room Nathaniel was in.

"Ah! Young master when did you wake up? Please be careful, I'll get the broom and dustpan to clean up this debris." The maid was shocked when it saw her young master sitting on the bed with a troubled face while clutching his stomach along with the broken mirror on its feet.

Without even waiting for Nathaniel's response, the maid ran outside the door, her shouts could be heard outside telling that he was awake. It wasn't that long before Nathaniel heard a series of footsteps right outside the room's door.

"Young master we'll be going in." The butler outside announced cautiously before opening the door. However they didn't know who pushed who but because there were a lot of them piling up behind the door, all of them fell against the floor with a loud bang.

"Henry quit pushing!"

"I'm not pushing! Saro is the one crushing me!"

"Idiots! Quickly get up! I'm getting crushed with all your weights on my back!"

"Fuck I can't stand someone's pulling in my clothes!"

"Ah! My hair!"

"???" Nathaniel sat there dumbfounded as he stared at the mass of humans scrambling chaotically on the floor. What exactly is happening? This added much more confusion to his mind.

'What the heck is happening?'

"You guys! You are disturbing the young master!" A maid shouted from behind. It was the maid that he saw earlier. She now has an additional broom and dustpan on her hands. She bypassed those people and cleaned the broken pieces of the mirror.

"I'm sorry. Who are you guys?" Nathaniel finally couldn't help himself but asked. They were strangers that were unfamiliar to him. He's a hundred percent sure that he has never met any of them in his entire life.

However, his question caused the entire group of people to pause. Even the maid that was cleaning the debris stopped mid-way. All of them stared at Nathaniel in disbelief. The look in their eyes as if the world was ending. The original chaotic room went silent so that you could even hear a pin drop.

Oblivious to the strange reaction of the people in front of him, Nathaniel couldn't help but ask again. "I have to ask again. Who are you guys? And can you kindly tell me where I am?"

"Y-young master? Oh no. This can't be." The head butler was finally able to stand up from the original entanglement with the group.

"Quick! Tell the master Laurhette that his son's having an emergency!" The head butler immediately commanded to which the others nodded as they hurriedly ran outside the room going who knows where, leaving only the head butler, him, and the cleaning maid inside the room.

"Young master please lay back on the bed! It must be because you have been frightened that this has happened." The old butler approached him and guided him back to lay on the bed.

Nathaniel resisted and stubbornly asked the Head butler again. "I don't know who the young master that you're saying is. I am Nathaniel, I don't know how I appeared here, if you could please let me borrow a phone to—"

"Young master please take a rest first!" The maid finished cleaning and set aside to a safe distance the dustpan containing the mirrors debris. "You must listen to the head butler. It must be because you were so scared when you were kidnapped for four days."

The maid was shedding tears as she stared at her pale young master who was furrowing his brows. With the insistence of both the head butler and the maid, Nathaniel finally couldn't help but lay down on the bed again.

"Your mind must be confused because you just woke up. But your name isn't Nathaniel, it must've been a random name you heard. Your name is Xael Eitan Laurhette. The only son of the house of Laurhette." The head butler patiently reminded him as he tucked the quilt to his young master's chest. The maid also nodded on the sidelines.

Nathaniel was about to refute what the butler said when a knock interrupted him. The head butler shouted to come in. A man walked in along with a few people who were wearing white clothes with a wing symbol on their right chest.

"The clerics are here. What about Master Laurhette?" The head butler asked the man. Embarrassed, the man shrugged his shoulders and whispered against the head butler's ears. The head butler's expression was complicated for a few seconds before returning the warm assuring smile on his face.

"Please check our young master. I think there was an impact on his mental health because of the kidnapping he experienced recently." The head butler gave way to the people who were dressed in white.

The clerics nodded before approaching Nathaniel's side. Meanwhile Nathaniel watched dumbly as the clerics stood on his side, pressing a palm against his forehead and the rest was casting a holy light in the background.

Nathaniel's eyes widened as he stared in amazement seeing how the clasped palms of the clerics behind lit up with a white light, the light floating towards him and surrounding his body. He could feel a warm current against his forehead, coursing all over his veins. As if cleansing him. The original weakness and fatigue was slowly being alleviated.

Due to the comforting warmth coursing through his body, Nathaniel couldn't help but feel his eyelids growing heavy. He could feel drowsiness approach his system.

"Sleep, my child. Everything will be alright. Lumiere's light will guide you to a safe dream." The soft and angelic voice of the clerics was the last thing he remembered before he was consumed by darkness all over again.

The head butler watched in relief as the young master fell asleep peacefully with even breaths. He signed for everyone to exit the room silently.

After successfully closing the door, the head butler turned towards the clerics, grasping their hands in gratitude. "Thank you very much for coming in short notice."

"It's what we should do as Lumiere's child. Spreading light towards the people. " The clerics replied with a smile.

The head butler nodded and lead them towards the living room. As he let them rest there, he ordered the other maids to serve the clerics some refreshments before sitting in front of them.

"I am concerned with one thing. While you were healing the young master was there anything strange you noticed?" The head butler couldn't help but asked worriedly when he remembered how the young master acted earlier. It was very strange, it was as if they were seeing another person and not their young master.

"There wasn't anything strange at all. At most, his body has suffered extreme fatigue and stress, not to mention that I observed from his veins that he must've gone hungry for 1 to 2 days. With enough rest and nourishment, he will recover in no time." The clerics smiled, reassuring the old head butler in front of them. They were telling the truth. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary when they observe the boy's veins. However they did notice something else. The extreme weakness that the body was experiencing was connected to his contracted veins. It was a very similar sign of someone over passing their body's current limits without breaking through their level.

It must've been probably because of the boy's deteriorated health that the veins was contracted. It's impossible for him to overpass his limits when he hasn't even exhibited his magical affinity. Not to mention the vein was the same formation with sword aura users. So it's really impossible.

The butler breathed in relief again before finally setting his worries down. He entertained the clerics before sending them off after asking them some precautions with their young master's recovery.

IT WAS ALREADY AT NIGHT when Nathaniel was woken up by a knock from the doors. He opened his eyes. He was greeted with the same familiar room he woke up to earlier. There was a knock on the doors again.

Sighing, Nathaniel shouted for them to come in. This time it was a different person who came in. It was a man mid 20's wearing a uniform similar to the head butler.

"Young master. Your father has requested you for dinner. We will help you get ready." The man announced before leading a few more maids in.

"Help getting ready for —" Nathaniel's eyes grew wide when he saw the maids reach out for his clothes. Unbuttoning them and leaving his upper body bare naked.

He finally reacted when he saw that they were aiming for his pants next. He immediately covered his pants and stared at them embarrassedly. "I'll take care of the clothing myself. Give me my change of clothes."

Although the man found it a bit strange, he knew better not to argue with the young master. He commanded the maids to give Nathaniel his change of clothes. Nathaniel grabbed it and asked for the bathroom's direction before going in swiftly.

"I swear, everything's been strange the moment I woke up. Plus it feels like something's missing." Nathaniel couldn't help but mutter himself before undressing and changing his clothes. It took him a while before finally changing to the cumbersome clothes he was given.

"They said I'm requested for dinner. I should ask their Master what really is going on." He went out of the bathroom to which the maids immediately let him sit in front of the dresser. They combed and styled his hair, arranged his clothes neatly and applied a light powder on his face.

"You are finally ready. Please let me guide you towards the dining room." The man offered to which Nathaniel accepted. Better have someone guiding him in this unfamiliar place or else he'd probably get lost without knowing which direction is towards the dining room.

The moment Nathaniel walked out of the room, he wasn't surprised when he saw that even the hallway was lavishly decorated with ornaments. With a blue carpet leading towards a long magnificent staircase to which they walked down on. He could see a big glass chandelier hanging in the ceiling, there was a cushioned couches with a center table signalling the living room. The place was well lit and showed elegance and extravaganza.

Nathaniel let his eyes roam before they stooped in front of a large mahogany door.

"We're here young master. Your father is waiting for you." The man said before bowing and opening the door.

Nathaniel entered the dining room and he was met with a long table filled with dishes of countless delicacies. On the other end of the table sat a majestic man. His face was finally clean and shaven. His robust body appears tall even when sitting. With an undeniable momentum radiating off his body. His piercing sky blue eyes stared at Nathaniel. His face deeply resembles the boy.

"You're finally here. Take a seat Xael." The man's low voice sounded as he stared at him focusedly.

"Yes." Nathaniel pressed his lips before cautiously approaching the man's side. Slowly he took his seat on the man's right side. His eyes staring anywhere but the man's intense gaze.

"How are you recovering so far? I heard that the clerics visited you early this morning." The man crossed his arms as he asked the boy sitting on his right.

"I'm doing good. My body has felt better than before." Nathaniel responded shortly. As if he was a cadet answering his commander. This gave him a flashback of when he was training under Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Nathaniel has finally gathered enough courage to ask the man in front of him about shere he really is and omwho the man is. However his eyes took sight of the table cloth in front of him. There a mysterious text slowly appeared. Written in bold letters are.

[You are Xael Eitan Laurhette. Do not Forget.]