บท 3: Awakening
After three days had passed, Tian Long still hadn't woken up.
Constantly suffering from pain in his head during this time, he looked as if he had been suffering from a nightmare.
"What happened to this kid? Is he suffering from some illness? But the apothecary I hired told he was perfectly healthy for his age, which is unusual in itself because he's been in a coma from the time he was born..."
"Is the heavens helping us?" Grey murmured as he found it difficult to understand this situation.
'Whatever, I'll just report it to the higher-ups as it is...' He opened the door and left the room.
After a few moments of silence in the room...
A child groggily opened his eyes.
'Where am I? What is this place? Why am I not dead?' Tian Long had a lot of doubts and many questions in his mind, but the most prominent one was..., 'What the hell is this black thing in my soul?'
'Ehh…wait! I can sense my soul?' Tian Long was utterly confused and even a bit scared. The feeling over his glabella, it was undoubtedly a new sensation.
The soul is in the glabella... This was rather a preconceived notion to him. Hence he automatically related this sensation to be his soul.
His heart palpitated in reaction at this sudden discovery.
Tian Long bit his lips as he whispered to himself in Chinese, "Alright, calm down me! If I think calmly and carefully, perhaps, I will be able to make sense of this situation!"
He took a deep breath to calm himself down, but it wasn't enough. He had to empty his mind and take a few more breaths to calm down. Then once his expression became quite calm, he started connecting the dots one by one.
'The Death Book was destroyed in the spatial tunnel, and I witnessed the scene with my eyes. I am sure of it, so what is this black thing in my soul that looks like a book?'
'Is this the Death Book? It looks similar...'
Tian Long heavily bit his lips but then stopped realizing that it might harm the child but then recognized that it was just himself. Feeling conflicted, he then continued to think.
'But if the Death Book followed me into this world, then it should've been able to kill me after exiting the spatial tunnel and gaining this body. If it didn't kill me, then I was right... The Death Book is probably restricted by the laws of this world!'
Tian Long felt elated! He had relied on luck, and this basis of entering another world should either destroy or reset the Death Book!
He had not been able to kill or manipulate animals with the Death Book, so it was within logic to think that the Death Book worked on some kind of principle, some kind of law within the set world.
He was also prepared for the Death Book to not work in this world. Hence, he rather felt disbelief at its presence in his soul.
'This world probably needs time to detect the arrival of an unknown object, so the Death Book was able to fulfill the condition of me being able to obtain a weak body below twenty years old, but it wasn't able to kill me after the five-minute time limit meaning the Death Book should've either been intrinsically destroyed or reset according to the laws of this world.'
'Then, if this black thing is the Death Book, how was it able to infuse into my soul? Is it because I am the current owner?'
'Yup, this should be the case; it somewhat makes sense of the situation.'
Even though Tian Long had many doubts, he was somewhat able to make sense of this situation. Even though it could turn out as nonsense, he felt that he was not far from the truth.
Tian Long got out of the bed, and just when he tried to walk, he fell.
'What!?'
He tried to stand up, but he couldn't, so he crawled his way to the mirror at the corner of the room, using every ounce of strength that he could muster.
'How weak!' He lamented but was able to understand since he was in a child's body. He asked for a weak body so he would be able to possess the body easily, but it seems like, for this child, he shouldn't have rather included that condition.
He looked around ninety-one centimeters in height with fair skin, a pair of sapphire eyes that looks adorable, but his face seemed quite emaciated, sunken in along with his body. His short blonde hair was messy, and with a tiny frame that is normal for 3-year-old children, he looked not much different from a child who was not taken care of, an orphan.
However, he looked clean without any dirt considering the circumstances he was in, probably taken care of by someone or the middle-aged person who looked after him and also seemed to be the child's father at first glance.
But now, he felt that this child didn't resemble that person at all.
'A 2 or 3-year child? An orphan? I guess it's alright since I can perfectly blend into this environment...'
'I don't know who you are, but sorry for possessing your body, I'm not going to make any excuses since I indirectly killed you...'
Tian Long didn't know that this child was in a coma from the time he was born and was going to die three days ago. He held complex feelings about killing an innocent child, but that didn't stop him from persisting to live his life.
'I swear that I will live your part as well.'
However, he felt ridiculous as a child became his first casualty in this world.
======
After Grey left the room, he headed for the room where the Captain's stayed.
*Knock!~*
"Come in..." A voice could be heard from inside the room.
*Creek!~*
Grey opened the door and went inside, his footsteps creaking on the wooden plywood.
"Oh, Grey, what's the matter?"
"Captain, it's time I left the mercenaries..."
There was a moment of silence in the room.
"Sigh, did the two year period come to an end already? Time sure flies fast..." The Captain reminisced as he sighed.
"Yes, I thank you for taking care of me in the mercenaries. The compensation will be given once the people from the Empire comes to pick me up."
"Taking care of you? Protecting a man with a cultivation base higher than mine? You must be jesting. Is it the child?" The Captain chuckled.
"You've already figured it out?"
Grey uttered, but he didn't look surprised.
"I have been together with you for almost two years, yes. If I can't even figure that out, I should just retire from being a mercenary..."
Grey blinked and said, "Good thing you told me this just now. If it were a month ago, I would've been forced to kill you..."
"Is it an order?" The Captain wryly smiled.
"Yes..."
Grey inclined his head, replied as if it was a matter of fact.
"The Loret Imperial Family sure is scary, considering that it managed to survive and execute the noble families who participated in the rebellion."
"What? The Loret Family has managed to quell the rebels?"
"Yes, I just received this news two days ago." The Captain nodded.
Grey stood, shivering from excitement!
'From this, both of us have survived...' Grey heaved a sigh of relief as he calmed down.
"Then, I'll return to my quarters, Captain!"
"Alright..."
The Captain sighed, once again at the thought of how he was going to lose his best and powerful subordinate. However, he knew that this was inevitable.
=======
*Creak!~*
Grey opened the door to his room and stepped in, but he almost got a heart attack.
"Where is the child?" Grey instantly unsheathed his sword and quickly rushed inside in a panicked manner.
Tian Long hurriedly turned back his head at the corner of the room and saw Grey rushing into the room.
'Ray Nolan, that's his name, huh?'
'Seems like I still possess the Death God Eyes, then that means that I still have the Death Book with me...'
With this, Tian Long confirmed that he still had the Death Book with him, but he felt that it was best to say that the Death Book is within him.
Ray Nolan heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the child was safe, albeit trying to do something.
"Nie…yay…udel..."
Tian Long immediately started putting on an act with a cute face.
'Considering that I was sleeping in a bed, this guy should've been the one taking care of me, and it's not farfetched for a 3-year-old orphan to not know how to talk!'
Ray Nolan immediately walked towards the child and carried him up.
"Huh, will I get beheaded if they found out that the prince doesn't know how to talk?" Ray Nolan got scared a little but then thought with clarity, 'Probably not...'
Tian Long had no idea what this guy was mumbling about because he still couldn't understand any of it.
The Death God Eyes displayed a person's name and lifespan, except the latter, seemed to be displayed by a thread.
'Dude, please talk in a language I understand...' Tian Long wished both sincerely and lamentably.
"Child, it's almost time for you to return to the empire, and there you can officially start learning the language of the world." Ray Nolan started lecturing and teaching the child even though he knew that the child couldn't understand him because his life depended on it.
"..."
The lecture continued for about ten minutes, leaving Tian Long with a face full of black lines.
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