'Finally... I am alone.'
Elias, who didn't like loneliness, had now started to love it. The constant presence of the maid next to him was nerve-wracking for him. It felt as if the maid was keeping her eyes on his every movement. Every time he moved or did something, he could feel her gaze.
And in just a few hours, this became nerve-wracking for him.
'Was this how the celebrity felt?'
Elias joked, shaking his head, before he exhaled and turned to look at his reflection.
"Whoo..."
Hazel eyes stared back at him as he threaded his fingers through his well-styled dark auburn hair.
'It's very weird that I am starting to get accustomed to this body.'
Elias thought as he messed with his styled hair. Next, staring at his reflection, he rolled the sleeves of his green linen shirt to his elbows.
After being done with that, he posed, with his forefinger and thumb on his chin, as he commented on himself.
"I look quite... handsome."
As his voice echoed in the silent room, a thought crossed his mind.
'But not for long.' Elias gave a self-deprecating smile. 'If I don't get myself out of this situation, I am going to be beaten black and blue by people. Maybe even die.'
Chills.
Just thinking about what he could go through made goosebumps rise on his skin.
'Not another anxiety attack,' he cursed, moving towards the desk, present in the room, adjacent to the balcony.
Reaching, he pulled the chair back and sat in it.
Khrr
Following that, he closed his eyes as his head hung on the backrest of the chair.
The room, covered in darkness and lit only by the chandelier, returned to its silent state. The balcony, the only source of sunlight in the room, was hidden behind the exquisitely designed velvet curtains.
In that room, Elias sat on the chair, with his eyes closed and his head hung on the backrest. He calmed his mind before going through everything he remembered about this world—Lasthaven.
The novel surfaced in his mind.
RADIANT EMPIRE: LAST DAWN
Like a book getting its pages flipped, texts after texts came to Elias's mind, forming scenes that he had read during his happy times. Characters started to take form, conversing, fighting, going through hardship, falling in love... before all of this came to a doomed stop.
Everything started to burn; destruction occurred everywhere; blood, flesh, and filthy things started to take place.
The once-happy world had receded to a canvas of blood and gore. Not one living thing was spared. Everyone went through the most hellish moment of their life...
Before more images could form...
Elias's eyes opened with a quick snap. His back was wet, his heart thudding against his chest as if it might burst out at any moment.
Elias took a huge gulp of breath, starting to breathe, which he had forgotten to do.
"...Fuc..k!"
After a few moments, he calmed down. The mere thought of what the future held had caused an anxiety attack.
Now that he calmed down... a thought crossed his mind.
'It's still a surprise that I remember the whole novel.'
Elias was quite perplexed when he first recalled everything from the novel in the bathroom. Every detail sprang up in his mind, as if someone had copied and pasted it in his brain.
It was a huge mystery how he could remember hundreds of thousands of words without missing a single thing, with his goldfish memory.
But now that he recalled again, to cross-check if something was missing. He didn't find any part that was not there.
The story felt whole as he remembered.
'Is it like a "cheat" for transmigrating?'
He thought, rubbing his chin.
'It must be.'
Even though Elias felt hate towards the person or being or whatever it was that transmigrated him here, he also felt a tinge, a little bit of a tinge, of gratefulness too that they at least imprinted everything from the novel in his brain.
'They could have given something more, man. I would have increased my gratitude percentage for them.'
Sighing, he once more closed his eyes, returning to his earlier position, and started to check through the memories of the previous Elias.
Elias did remember the memories, and he had gone through them once in the bathroom. However, just in case, he wanted to revisit all the memories once more so that he could check if he missed something.
Snap
Elias opened his eyes once more, his hazel eyes glowing in the light of the chandelier.
'I haven't missed anything.'
He concluded. And even if he had, he could not know, because there was not much mention of Elias in the novel.
After he was done with everything he had, Elias now thought of choosing the most viable plan. He had already thought of many, but some couldn't be executed due to his condition, and some were too far-fetched—like a wet dream.
Very few were the executable plans.
Elias had to fight two situations at once. One was a short-term one, in which he had to do something about his barony and current condition. And second was the long-term, the DEMON SOVEREIGN.
The second situation was something that he would have to plan for if he didn't want to be killed during the destruction of the Radiant Empire, as well as Lasthaven.
But to plan for the second situation, he first has to come out of his current situation. If he were left alive, only then could he plan for the future.
Just thinking about his situation, he felt quite apprehensive.
'What should I do?'
Elias thought, his fingers drumming against the desk.
Should he run away? This was also a viable plan. If he wanted, he could run away, and he had ways to plan an escape. Well, the percentage of it being a success was a question.
However, leaving a barony was too much of a loss.
He was losing money, armed forces, support, and a whole lot of other things, which could be quite helpful in the long term.
Then...
Should he start acting well and become competent? This was tough. If he starts acting, he could do "public control" by providing citizens with benefits.
However, his uncle—the Cestallen of the Varen barony—Victor Varen was there.
Victor was the person who threatened Elias's power in the barony. He was the brother of the previous baron Adrian Varen.
Elias knew about his hands in the barony; he was the one who controlled everything, even though he was the baron.
However, this did not mean that he could overrule Elias's order. He couldn't. Instead, he was like a good face of the Varen household, while Elias was the bad one.
Also, Elias felt the person who was spreading the rumor that Elias was a good-for-nothing son was Victor.
Because there were a few nobles who were truly good and noble.
So, Elias, being one of the scum, was not a very surprising thing. But Victor, instead of sweeping it under the rug as every household did, was letting the rumor fly around.
Even in the novel, after Elias was thrown out of his barony, Victor was the one who claimed the throne.
Thinking that...
Elias's eyes moved to the portrait kept on the desk. His fingers stopped drumming as he saw the previous Elias smiling with his parents.
'Did Elias's parents really die due to a monster attack?'
It would not be surprising if Victor had killed them. People can go to great lengths for power. What it could make a person do was not a surprising thing.
'The chances of him killing his own brother and sister-in-law are quite high.'
Elias thought as he stared at the portrait of the happy family.
This was the reason that he felt quite apprehensive about taking the lead of the barony and clearing his bad name.
Because...
'What if Victor were the mastermind behind all this? Or what if someone even more dangerous was?'
And... Elias's becoming competent and taking back control of his barony messes with their plan, so they kill him, which would be quite easy, as Elias was a normal human being.
Maybe Elias was being paranoid, but this was what he felt, and acting on things he didn't have full control of or full knowledge of was not something he wanted to try out.