Chapitre 3: MIND HEX?

The orphanage had been in a proper mess for the past few months. Not only had there been a suicide attempt, but the attemptee was unlucky enough to mess even that up.

The kid—Caspian, last name unknown, had been scooped off the mansions interlocking a couple of months ago, and since then the entire school had been in turmoil.

Firstly, a lot of students were annoyed that he survived–For the most part, and since Caspian was ranked as a special grade by the government, a lot of resources had been put into resuscitating him.

The fact he was found in pieces wasn't enough to convince the government otherwise. In fact, in their own words;

"Stitch him back up!"

Their ruthlessness was understandable and with the declining number of living knights, every potential knight was to be treasured dearly– According to state law.

It still didn't make much sense but the government had specially delivered Caspian to the orphanage all covered in blood with bandages around his eyes. It was with great trembling that the knights tasked to deliver the cursed child instructed that his blindfolds never be taken off, hence the caretakers took it very seriously.

Of course, other details were left with the head caretaker, but none that would let him be raised as a normal child.

Since then, he had yet to show the reason for being called a special grade and none of the caretakers or teachers were curious enough to find out. Their warriness quickly spread to the kids and it all went to hell from there.

The name 'Demon spawn' was given to him thanks to rumours about him having been born in a Crisis-ranked Event with several challengers actively trying to conquer it before it wreaked havoc on Earth.

Caspian was still ranked special grade, hence the reason why the orphanage had been sitting on cacti for the past few months.

Right now, most of the heat had died down. Actually, Caspian lay in bed just fine. The miraculous healing capabilities of the medic knights had proven its metal.

Of course, Caspian's body was no natural compilation of flesh and bone either.

He had been in a coma for the better part of six months. There was little certainty he would ever awaken, yet there was no shortage of prayers for him to go in his sleep.

While Caspian slept, he had visits only from the guards he was fond of discussing with in the infirmary.

Some brought him flowers while others just wished him good luck as they lay beside him receiving treatment. The infirmary was made mostly for the guards, given their job description.

Sadly, the guards were one of the reasons why the orphanage was in such rough shape too. A couple of men had gone missing. So the school had been busy trying to find them whilst also praying that Caspian would die in his sleep.

On the last week of September however, Caspian finally woke up and with quite a howl.

"What the fuckkkkk!!! W-where where am I?"

He tried to open his eyes but they had been sealed tight.

"What the hell is all this?!"

He couldn't remember the last time he had them actually sealed, or even had to do without his spectral gaze, yet here he was tossing his arms about like some blind man.

There was also the overwhelming scent of everything, reminding him of how he had coped in his youth.

"What the hell is happening?!"

He said, heaving like a wild beast. He couldn't even rely on his memories for answers or clues. The more he tried to dig the more foggy everything became.

Just then medics flooded the room rushing at him from all sides in a jumble of different scents. The only one he could recognise was Sir Julian's, cold like steel yet warm like a furnace.

'Sir Julian?'

Caspian paused on the name, wondering if he was just smelling things.

They did their checkups and asked Caspian if he felt like anything was wrong with him, to which he replied;

"Nothing, just that these damn things on my eyes keep making me claustrophobic."

The room went silent then only breaking off when Sir Julian chuckled lightly.

"Best we leave that on, okay kiddo."

With that, Caspian was left on his own, and he couldn't be more glad. Now he could try figuring out what exactly was wrong with him and where he was.

He was very sure it wasn't a mind hex. Nothing wanted to be in his head for too long, not even spells, at least he believed he had been that much of a menace.

It got a bit vexing the more he tried digging into his lost memories, but he soon thought;

'To hell with all this.'

The more he tried the deeper he fell into confusion, all he was able to finalise was that he had definitely been a Dawn knight, who might have died in war.

The truly strange thing was that he still felt like himself, his ten-year-old self. Most of his childhood memories were intact, but for some reason, it felt almost like he was a different person, a forced mixture of his future and past selves.

He didn't feel like his knight self, neither did he feel like his ten year old self. It was like they had formed an entirely new self.

"Then I'm certain I must be back in the past."

It felt like his future self– the dawn knight had been transported to the body of his past self. That was his only explanation.

He wasn't exactly sure how or why, but there was no need to think too deeply about it. He tried to recall specifics about his future self's life but only ended up with violent flashes and horrific scenes. Such was his future... the future.

"Dreadful times ahead."

The world thought things were bad now, but what he knew he lived a couple of decades in the future was so grim that his mind had formed barricades thanks to the trauma.

He was a knight though, and after knowing or more like not knowing what happens, he was sure of one thing;

"I need to get much stronger."

There wasn't much he could do than that, and besides he had or at least felt like he had too many regrets. Becoming much more powerful than he had previously been would be sure to be a real game changer for him and his earth.

"That's how these things go right?"

It wasn't like he had any interest in saving the world exactly. Saving a good percentage of it though, wouldn't look so bad on his résumé.

With that out of the way, he tried to analyse his current body's memories. He couldn't necessarily determine if they matched with the past he had lived, but not much seemed to have changed or at least he believed so, due to how familiar his memories seemed.

There was the overbearing depression, wistful mindlessness and constant bullying.

"Ah, that sweet old constant need for validation."

It had taken a while before he had turned to the strong, confident, self-loathing, selfish piece of crap he currently was.

"Ahh, we'll get there someday."

Caspian nodded to himself with a dark grin.

One thing bothered him greatly though, and that was the emotions of his current younger self, which were mostly in control of his body and responses. He could feel the child-like innocence and naivety. Surely it'll prove to be a hassle.

"Damn, either way, all I have to focus on right now is getting stronger. If I calculate correctly we are 7 years behind the dawn of the dark years. That leaves me plenty of time to get as strong as possible."

Caspian still knew about these from his previous life because of how heavy an effect it caused. Forgetting any one of them was like forgetting how old he was.

There was also a lot he was curious about, like how he got here and how he had died but what was just as curious was how his current self had ended up in this state.

When he tried to pry he found out that those memories were even more tightly sealed than his war times.

There wasn't much he could do about that now, which left him with figuring out how exactly he was meant to gain power quickly.

"A lot determines strength in this doomed world filled with harrowing Events. There was combat ability, Bloodgifts, mental fortitude and so much more."

In his past life, he was a well-renowned sword and he would of course stick to it, in fact, he now had the potential of becoming the greatest that had ever been now that he had regressed and with all he knew about the sword.

There was also his domineering Celestial will, which he still had barely scratched the surface of its power in his last life. Celestial Will was the most vital arsenal in every knight's armoury. In fact, without that vital inner force becoming a knight was impossible.

There was also his aspect arsenal which he could surely improve on, and then there was alchemy which he knew a lot of but never tried to weaponize there was a lot of room for improvement.

Before he could jump on any of them though;

"I have to get out of these damned bandages, one of these nurses has to be a looker."

Blindly, he reached for the medical tray beside him. He ran his fingers through the metalware till he eventually found a scalpel.

With one fluid motion, Caspian dug into the bandages and after a bit, he was completely free.

He opened his eyes for the first time in a while and felt his current self sigh at how beautiful the world was.

He unplugged the devices placed on him and shot out of his bed. The infirmary was mostly empty, excluding the two guards who lay on their beds fast asleep.

Caspian had been to this infirmary almost every day for the past 10 years and yet he had never known that such a massive window lay right beside his favourite bed.

It was wide and let in most of the room's light. Caspian watched silently as the birds chirped and the branches swayed.

It was strange to him like he was still that ten-year-old blind kid who had never seen a thing in his whole life except for nightmares.

The memories of his past life were mostly like that too.

"Horrific nightmares."

He didn't even notice when a tear rolled down his cheek. But just then a nurse walked in with a couple of the orphanage officials.

When they called out to him and he turned they all ducked and evaded for dear life.

Caspian meanwhile stared at them teary-eyed as he laughed his heart out.