《The Reader of Souls》Vol 1 Ch 1: The past and the future

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Author: PeacefulMyst

Editor: Stein

The ground had turned black from repetitive wars. Ashes covered the soil and blood flowed on the ground.

There was a strange, rotting stench in this place. It must be from the corpses scattered all throughout the place.

There were also various broken pieces of technology lying around. Broken guns, destroyed aircrafts. There were too many to be listed down. It will be a treasure trove for collectors.

The air was also quite polluted. It seems several explosives had been used around here. A great war had occurred in this place. There were trees though, there were still a few trees around. However, They were all dead.

And In these dead lands, there's a valley nearby. Unfortunately, though, there's not a drop of water or any sign of greenery in the valley. Just some dry land and the smell of ashes and rotting bodies all around. And on the edge of this very valley, a few people had cornered a man named Abraham.

“Look at the state you’re in. Leader of Gracia.’“ Spoke a man in his early forties. He had blond hair. And his skin was rough and dry.“To be fair, your achievements are quite amazing. Unfortunately, you were born in the wrong age, you see.”

Abraham’s expression had already turned pale. He knew his end was nearing. And there’s nothing he can do to prevent it. “One small nation can’t go against the rest of the world.”

The man became quite sad. He had several feelings rushing to him at the same time. Resent for Abraham, and sadness for his lost comrades. But, at last, He was also glad. “This shitty war will finally end now.”

They had won.

“Goodbye.” He raised his arms to signal all the armed men around him. They all got ready to pull the trigger. “Haaaa. It seems like I’m dying aren’t I?”

Abraham asked the man. He was feeling a lot of grief and regret. If he had not been careless, he wouldn't have been cornered like this.

“You’re correct.” The man responded.

“Hmmm. Well. Too bad that the poison didn’t work in time. But it’s fine. You all are following me after this anyways.” Abraham spoke melancholy.

This surprised everyone present at the spot. The man, who had earlier been speaking with confidence. Turned pale.

“What? What did you just say?! You! Tell me! Did you poison us?” he held a gun on Abraham’s face and asked him in an extremely panicked manner. He couldn't even speak proper English.

A few people approached the man and took out some of his blood. After that, they hurried behind the crowd of soldiers.

“Man. You’re quite scared of me, aren’t you? Don’t worry.There's no reason to test your blood. There was no poison.” Abraham must’ve gone mad. Joking in a situation like this. The others did not take this situation that nicely either. They just couldn’t believe his words.

For causing all of this, one would think Abraham has a plan of getting out of the situation. But no. He wasn’t trying anything. It seems he has truly given up.

They all waited until the people were back.

It wasn’t that long until they were back. But, to the man and Abraham. It felt like hours. “He’s correct. There’s no poison in your blood.”

‘It has been a good life.’ Abraham thought. He had given up all hope. And it’s understandable. There was no way he can overturn this situation himself.

‘I’ve lost. There’s no need to try anymore.’ At this point, he just wanted a quick end.

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“Very well then. Everyone shoo-” Before the man even finished, however. He stood in his place. His eyes were wide open. And he was sweating quite a bit.

He slowly walked towards Abraham, picked him up by his hair, and began dragging him.

‘How dare you.’ This, however, was a bit too far.

Abraham quickly retracted. He got up immediately and bended the man's wrist in a full circle. The man squealed in pain. Abraham then aimed for his neck. But, it was too late. In a blink of an eye, he was shot on his hands. ‘I… Can't move my body.’

The man then regained his composure, and threw Abraham off the edge of the cliff, inside the valley which was filled with metal junk on the ground.

‘I guess. Even a quick death isn’t in my fate.’

***

“Oh, hello there! This is the first time we’ve met Isn’t It?” A voice, that was strangely familiar to Abraham, spoke. How the voice sounded wasn’t clear to Abraham. But… he just felt a strange sense of familiarity. “W-”

“You don’t need to speak.” As soon as the voice said that, Abraham shut his mouth. He looked up to see who was talking. And yet again, even though this face was strangely familiar to him. And even though he was looking at it at this exact moment. He could not make out a thing.

“You’ve done well. Phase one is now over.” The voice continued speaking. But Abraham ignored it. He wasn’t himself at this moment He was… In a sort of dream-like state. He took a look around him. They seemed to be… In an empty white room. No matter how far he tried to see, there was nothing other than white. Not even shadows. Because of this, Abraham didn’t know how big the room itself was.

“I will send you into a good body. Let’s see… something that makes things easy for you. Hmm… Too easy would be no fun, wouldn’t it? I guess the upper blessed lands and heaven are a no go. I can’t send you to the cursed lands either. That will block off all the paths for phase 2. And the under… no. Let’s leave that place. Anything’s better than being under that bastard Hades. I guess the lower blessed lands it is then.”

“As for the body itself… I think I know a perfect one. Goodluck. And don’t screw this up ok? Well… not like you will remember any of this anyways.”

After the voice finished speaking. Abraham disappeared from the spot.

“After all you are…”

A blue entity suddenly appeared behind the ‘voice’ “Are you ready? They’ve found out about it.”

“I already knew this would happen. Let’s go.”

Spoke the ‘voice’. A man with… | A massive schlong- stein

***

“Huff Huff Huff” Abraham woke up in utter shock. He still had a hard time believing what just happened. “Wait… I-I’m alive? Then that means… That was all a dream!”

He got quite excited… Before getting out of the bed.

'Where the hell am I??' Abraham thought to himself while carefully inspecting his surroundings.

He was extremely confused at the moment. Just moments ago he was being executed and thrown off a cliff. And now hes in an unfamiliar place. 'This place..'

The room he was in was quite extravagant, the floor was made of marble and the furniture was all luxurious with golden engravings on them. There was even a chandelier made of diamond and gold hanging from the ceiling and a red carpet on the floor.

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A strong, sweet scent could be smelled inside the room.

To Abraham, It looked pretty bad. The only redeeming quality being the expensive and extravagant look of the room. he got up from his place and gave a closer look around the room. In a corner, he found a mirror.

Curiously, Abraham took a glance at the mirror. His face turned distorted.

"What the hell.. this is..." Spoke Abraham, filled with confusion.

"Is this, me?"

****

Abraham got out of the house he was in and began walking outside to take a good look at his surroundings. The place he woke up in was on top of a hill. And looked extremely nice from the outside. The white stone brick walls that are engraved with gold, The brick roof, along with all the luxury decorations covered the house.

‘The owner is quite rich.’ Abraham thought. He took a look around the house for a bit more. However, The design is quite old. And it doesn't look that secure either.’

Abraham didn’t particularly like these types of houses. But he didn't hate them either. He started walking away from the house. And saw several houses in sight. ‘Is this a village?’

Abraham thought of this place as a village since all of the houses looked extremely medieval. But now that he thought about it, this seems more like some kind of private property of a medieval design lover.

‘Hmm… I need a better look at this place. Somewhere higher.’ Abraham began looking around him before he saw a slightly tall building. The building was a bit far from the wall behind Abraham’s house, But. It wasn’t far enough so that he couldn’t reach it. Abraham began climbing on the building slowly. He was able to climb it without too much effort since he had done it several times before. “Damn. This body is weaker than I thought.”

Abraham soon set his eyes on the tip of the wall and made a jump for it. Thankfully, it seemed this part of it was being repaired so it was lower than the others. He was barely able to reach it. He let out a sigh in relief and began climbing to a more stable part of the wall. He soon reached. ‘That was harder than I thought it would be.’

He thought as he began cleaning his clothes and checking his injuries. He had minor bruises on his knees and his hands were red with lots of cuts and scratches. But, just this much wasn’t really enough to cause inconvenience for him. ‘Time to get a good look at this place.’

He began walking to the other side of the wall and… ‘Are we on a mountain?’

He got quite surprised from the scene in front of him. It was an extremely steep cliff. ‘We are about 40 meters above the ground. Probably even more.’

The cliff wasn't exactly steep. It was gradually going down a slope but it was destroyed enough so it would be near impossible to climb it without the right equipment. But what surprised him the most… Was the fact that, unlike the inside, the outside was covered with snow.

Abraham stood on the wall looking at the scene of him

It was quite wonderful. In the middle of 2 mountains, There was a magnificent castle. The rays of the morning sun were gently protruding from the mountains.

Abraham could also feel a gentle breeze from where he was standing.

Just a little In front of The castle was a lively town. People were going in and out of their houses, children were playing around, and others were busy with their work.

The houses of the town were all nicely made.

Some people he thought to be guards could be seen walking around the town.

The town was very lively and filled with energy. The residents all looked extremely happy. Most of them at least.

'It's quite peaceful. This must be a wealthy empire's territory.' Thought Abraham. The town was like heaven if compared to the cities in Abraham's previous life. It was so peaceful. And surrounded by nature.

‘It’s quite cheerful and peaceful. Man would living here peacefully be amazing.’Abraham thought. However, he had no intentions of doing so. Even if he could.

He also noticed that all the residents were wearing old clothes. And the houses, just like he saw before, were also old in the architecture. "It looks like the middle ages. I haven’t ever heard about a place like this existing… Even after scanning the entire planet, we had found nothing like this. Did I perhaps travel back in time?" He kept wondering on what could have possibly happened to him. He had several theories but most of them were just empty what ifs. The only one that seemed convincing enough was.

'My subordinates must've developed a time travel machine.' This wasn’t a far fetched idea for him. As his closest comrade said that they had almost developed it. However, this way of thinking soon changed as soon as he saw...

'What the hell?'

a group of people levitating and coming towards him.

***

A group of soldiers armed with a sword on their waist, spears In their hands and dark plate armour on their bodies. Along with a red cape on their backs. They somewhat fit the description of the knights from the middle ages. Further strengthening Abraham's thoughts about time travel.

But then why was he so surprised?

It was simple. The group of people were levitating in front of him.

Levitation was not a technology that was available during the middle ages.

‘Is that a knight?’

One of the knights then stood in front of him. He took out his helmet revealing a slightly old-looking man. The old knight bowed his head and spoke "Prince. Do you need anything from us? Why are you all the way here in this place?"

The old knight sounded a bit rude, but Abraham did not mind it. He was more absorbed in the fact that he has learned the position the original owner of Abraham's new body held here.

'A prince... not too bad.' thought Abraham. 'More importantly... how are they..'

***

'Weird.'

The look on the old knight's face turned anxious.

'Is the prince mad at me? No... that can't be... I haven't yet done anything to anger him...' The longer Abraham stayed silent the more the old knight became anxious.

The reason?

It was, of course, the behaviour of the original owner of Abraham's new body.

'I have been stationed on the walls for defence for around 5 years. I have naturally seen Prince Carl before.'

'Why would he, who has always looked down on others be here?' Thought the old Knight.

He looked quite nervous. As though he had seen the prince before, this was his first time talking to him in person.

'Don't tell me... no... I have served the kingdom sincerely from all my heart for 7 whole years. They cant...' several worst-case scenarios were going through his head.

Thankfully, what the prince said next put a bright smile on the old Knight's face.

***

"I just wanted a nice view of this place you can leave," Abraham said to the anxious old Knight.

This put a bright smile on the old Knight's face. Unfortunately for him though, right when he thought he was safe...

"Just a... Prince, do you truly not need anything from us?" Replied one of the other knights.

'Fucking moron!' The expression on the old knight's face crumbled.

"I will only say it once. Leave." Replied Abraham with a cold voice. His blue eyes looked extremely fierce.

‘Eeck! So terrifying!’ The old knight thought.

“I look terrifying?” Abraham looked into the eyes of the knight with an ice-cold gaze.

‘How did he…’The knight wasn’t able to handle the pressure any longer and just ran away.

'Finally, a moment of silence.' Abraham began organizing the information he has in mind.

After some thought. he began walking near the edge of the wall and then…

‘Even if this is not time travel. I know one thing for sure. I am not in my body.’ Abraham kept walking on the edge of the wall. ‘And, it seems the original owner was quite important too.’

Abraham seemed to be worried about what happens when people start suspecting who he is. ‘Them finding out is inevitable. To prevent that…’

‘I only have a few choices. First, I continue on normally and try to blend in. I learn more about my new body and try to imitate the original behaviour this prince had.’

‘Or, I can go with a bit of a riskier approach.’

He kept walking and stopped at a part closest to the ground. ‘This seems to be enough. It looks like I’m about 7 meters high. If I use that building in front to break my fall a bit, I can probably survive without any long-lasting injuries ’

‘I will probably break a few bones though.’ Abraham began considering both of his options. He had to make a decision. But, honestly speaking. The first option is definitely more riskier than the second one.

It will be severely difficult trying to act like someone else. And succeed in it. People will eventually get suspicious.

And Abraham knew all of this. ‘The prince was walking on the walls. Then, he slipped and fell. Losing all his memories in the process. That’s quite a convincing story.’

Thinking so, Abraham jumped from the wall.

***

Author note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Please do tell me if there was any problem with it. Bye!

Stein: I got a fever but fuck it, Stein coming in for the re-types bitches!

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