There was a story someone told me... I can no longer remember the person, nor even the story she told me
But there is one word I have never forgotten; that woman said in the end
Forgive me
I don't remember if the apology was directed at me or merely part of the context of her story, but I remember my opinion of her
She will not be forgiven.
She did not deserve forgiveness.
I opened my eyes, these strange thoughts swirling in my head, accompanied by a sharp headache splitting my skull in two, and I groaned.
I tried to organise my thoughts, but I felt them slipping like sand, so it took me a while to understand who I was, where I was, and what was real. But before I could piece together any coherent sentence in my head, a golden holographic screen, adorned with ominous red, caught my eye
__________________________.
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🔴Narrator System
🔻Status Screen:
▪️Name: Eckehard Khaos von Grünewald Ehrenfeld
▪️Talent: Swordman
▪️Age: 14
▪️Title: The Prince of Massacre, Narrator Heir, Crown Prince of Hagelmark Nordreich, The Saint.
▪️Innate Aura: Bloodshed
▪️Rank: G
▪️Essence: Destruction
▪️Element: Cursed Light
▪️ Ability: Annihilation
▪️Sanctuary: Last winter
▪️Status: madness, Physical fatigue.
Cursed by ▫️▫️▫️▫️
▪️ Curse: The Saint,
Marked by▫️▫️▫️▫️
▪️ Mark: Gate, The Cursed Book Engraving, Sacrifice, Blood sign.
🔺 Statistics
▪️Vigor: 5
▪️Endurance: 3
▪️Strength: 3
▪️Agility: 2
▪️Mind: 7
▪️Dexterity: 3
◻️Skills:
▪️Silver threads - Soul
▪️Moon Fragment - Sword
🔺 Reader Screen
🔻Reader Tasks
▪️Reader Gifts
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I raised my hand to touch the holographic screen, but it flickered and vanished from view.
Wait...
What is this thing?
Am I hallucinating?
Oh, speaking of hallucinations... I looked around cautiously and spotted a middle-aged man who looked just like me... or rather, like me from the memories intruding on my mind. He was sitting elegantly on the luxurious white sofa opposite my bed, holding a white book with no title, inscription or symbol. Judging by his concentration, I reckon he was reading
I flinched when he lifted his head and looked at me, so I unconsciously shifted my gaze to anywhere of the room, trying with every fibre of my being to ignore him
In my memories—or let's call it 'the record', figuratively speaking, so as not to confuse it with my real memories—
Me in the record, the worst thing ever did was to communicate with this terrifying being; and the worst part was that no one else saw it,
and they told him he was suffering from hallucinations and seeing non-existent figures.
And the fourth reason for his confinement to the mental asylum was the presence of this terrifying thing that provoked him, messed with his mind, made him doubt everything around him, and even tempted him to kill and even commit suicide.
Once again, it's not that I trust this record, but it's wise not to communicate with strangers... At least until I'm sure whether I'm the only one who sees it, as I was in the record, or whether others see it too.
I looked around the luxurious room, where silver and white dominated all other colours; even the sheer curtains around the bed were woven from silver.
My thoughts returned to my doppelgänger when the sound of a book being closed echoed through the silent room, but I fought with all my might not to look at him. When I found myself failing, I closed my eyes, even as anxiety began to rise within me
Then I heard the voice of a madman, identical to the voice of my character in the record, except that it was filled with madness and had a playful tone.
"Hello, you've finally woken up. My goodness, I thought you'd rot away in your bed like a sleeping princess until they stripped you of your status and your name once again."
As you can see in the records, the imperial family could not bear the shame of their heir apparent having gone mad and been banished to a mental asylum, so they simply stripped him of his name, declared him dead, and he lived the rest of his life stripped of his identity, carrying nothing but the name Eckehard with him
And this was a greater insult to him than the stigma of madness.