I couldn't be confident about anything. Arthur and Ramiel had grown up next to each other; if someone were to immediately realise something was wrong, that would most likely be him first.
The image of Arthur's soft and naive smile from just now flashed through my mind
'The Fool, huh. Wasn't Ramiel being a little too harsh with that nickname?" I thought inwardly.
I think it had something to do with 'Her', Arthur's... And from there it caught on.
Arthur spun around one more time, oblivious to my thoughts. His smile seemed to brighten up the already well lit room.
"It's been a while. I'm really glad to have you back, Ramiel."
"..."
I stared back silently for a beat and muffled a grunt, nodding.
"Likewise, Young Master."
And that was how 'I' met my master... Arthur.
***
I returned back to my room shortly after greeting Arthur. All the strain and tension leaving my body the moment i was completely out of sight and slumped down against a chair before my desk.
My hand quickly moved to pull at the knot of my tie around my neck with a sigh.
"That was exhausting."
I guess this is my life now, i thought. I felt the crass urge to ruffle my hair, but the tenacious trait of Ramiel's body wouldn't let me present myself as such an undignified.
Even now, the only visible telltale sign i was way in over my head was an unpleasant scowl of my lips at the mirror. Through it, i stared at my new, and still unfamiliar reflection.
There was absolutely not a single thing in common with my original appearance from earth. Ramiel's black strands of hair were even more silky and shiner than mine, and the cold blackish and red eyes were almost like contrast to my original dark brown eyes.
And then there was the face. The most drastic difference of all. It was a face at least a decade younger than what i was used to. With fine, almost unrealistic porcelain skin, and elegant features, i looked like one of those children models from high-class families back on earth.
No. My grace outclassed any of them.
I had just met with the living Adonis that was Arthur, my master, but I'd still never felt more confident over my looks than i did right now.
Ramiel's cherry-black eyes stared back at me from the mirror. It was a gaze that belonged to my reflection, yet i felt unsettled by it, shifting on my seat.
'Who even was this kid?' i thought inwardly. Surprisingly, it was a question I hadn't deeply considered since i woke up here, up until now.
I mean, from his environment i find myself in, and the scattered memory fragments and thoughts, i knew about his past. And even the lingering traits and habits of this body spoke about his personality to an extent.
But who really was the original Ramiel Se'Mortaniel De'Monttclairre? And how has he ended up the host of my possession?
Questions. Staring back at my unsettling reflection, questions and considerations rose from deep inside of me.
What happened to the kid, and where was he now? How come I'm able to possess his body like it's my own? Unless, Ramiel was dead?
If that was the case, i thought it could make some sense? I was supposed to have been dead, before my soul was transported into this body from earth. If that could happen, would it make it likely somehow that the original Ramiel's soul was as well, leaving the body vacant?
But, wouldn't that just be too convenient?
And that is all under the presumption that 'i' really was dead, i thought. According to Moriah, i wasn't. Instead my soul was stuck in a limbo between Death and the afterlife; my body on earth was allegedly suspended in some kind of coma.
Then if that was the case...
Could the original Ramiel, his soul, still be somewhere in here, asleep, perhaps? Or stuck somewhere, just like mine? It could explain some of the lingering memories and habits of this body.
A kind of 'the soul was gone, but the body remembers' situation.
Except, Ramiel's soul wasn't at all fully erased...but merely buried and asleep...
If Ramiel's circumstances were parallel to mine, i thought with a rising headache, wouldn't that mean the original owner of this body could wake up at anytime...?
I stared back deeply at the mirror, full of even more unease. My reflection contorted back a disturbed frown.
'Then what would that mean for me?'
[Does it matter?] Suddenly, a velvet voice like honey due reverberated from within the walls of my bedroom.
I felt a familiar chill race up my back, as something eerie and supernatural i couldn't explain happened.
Plop—!
I heard the inexplicable sound of a drop of water like a backdrop. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, the world freezing on it's axis. All of a sudden, the world was drained of all its colours around me.
"What—?!"
My reflection, the mirror, the white sheets of my bedroom, everything became a tinted mix of dull grey, black and white colours.
It really was like time had paused and reality had frozen. Then the surface of the glass mirror sitting before me rippled like a drop in a still lake surface and a soft, smooth sigh drifted from all around.
All of a sudden, there was a dazzling young woman sitting elegantly against the edge of my desk table, legs crossed, like she belonged.
"M-Moriah...?" My voice unintentionally rose and trailed.
A pair of unearthly golden eyes gazed at me aloofly, as if unbothered by the matters of the word and untouched by its impurities. Streams of silver, like each strands of hair was woven from pure starlight, flowed down her head as she spoke.
"Not quite." It was a voice that was illusionary.
And indeed, the familiar figure that suddenly sat in front of me was Moriah and wasn't quite at the same time.
"Did you get smaller?"
Dressed in a beautifully dark and haunting black dress spilling down the curves of her body, the Moriah before me was quite different from the one i met at the Golden Hall.
She looked a lot younger by at least a decade. Her beautiful oval face framed by her hair was like that of a child not much older than 12 or 13. And even her long silver hair was a bit shorter.
Yet this Moriah still managed to retain the familiar aloof and untouchable grace. An aura beyond the mundane.
In the silence, the little Moriah switched her crossed legs, raising an arm elegantly to brush her hair in one fluid deliberate movement.
"Is that really what you should be focusing on right now?"
Moriah's curt words managed to snap me out of my reverie and pulled me back to reality.
"How—" before i could finish my sentence, the little Goddess's voice cut through my intent.
"I'm a fragment of Moriah's Will left over by my original form when last you met."
I blinked in confusion.
"A will?"
The little Moriah indifferently continued to stare at me with het golden eyes for a beat.
"I am a mere representation," she said the gesture around the room. "Even now, this very conversation and all of this, isn't real."
I looked around the environment as she said. The eerily still and colourless world I'd suddenly found myself in felt like it was a lag in reality. Yet the little Moriah's words failed to make any proper sense to me.
Full of even more questions and doubts, i forecfully restrained the complicated thoughts running through my head from before and frowned at the self-proclaimed Representation.
"I don't think i understand what you mean." I simply said.
"That is fine. The original Moriah expected you to have confusions and be overwhelmed by what to do after your Transmigration, since there wasn't enough time in the Great Hall. Simply put, i was made to guide you." The Will said in a Suave voice unexpected from someone with such a childlike figure.
I sat back in my chair. So this was Moriah's way of compensating for the sudden collapse of the Great Hall. Although i still didn't know why that happened, or even what happened to Moriah after that.
Part of her last words to me was that it'll be almost impossible to get in contact with her, and the way the whole space ruptured at the time was crazy and terrifying. Was that crazy Goddess okay?
"There's no point in you worrying about the Original's well being. And the reason for the collapse shouldn't concern you either," the cold voice of The Will came like sharp shards of ice. It was like she could directly listen to my thoughts.
I was startled a bit, and slightly peeved; glaring as she sat tall and perched against the desk like she owned the room, the way she looked at me vividly reminded me of Moriah. Granted she was made exactly in the original Goddess's image — heck, she was literally a fraction of her will.
Though the aloof and arrogant look with little regard in her golden eyes like i was nothing more than threads to weave, especially when it came from someone in the form of a child, didn't feel good.
The little Moriah tilted her head, her face was straight and unexcited.
"You should be more focused on the task at hand and your mission in this world. What concerns you about the original owner of your body? Once you accomplish your end of the deal, you shall be returned back to your usual life on Earth, and all of this would be in the past." She said fleetingly.
Somehow i hated to admit it so easily to her, but i knew she was right. Still this whole thing about Transmigration, Otherworlders, souls and Heroes was too bizzare. No one in their absolute right sense would take it all at face value.
Even how comfortable i felt inhabiting someone else's body like this made me uncomfortable. I was afraid i could lose myself.
It... terrified me.
A small quiet sigh broke from Moriah's lips. And she spoke again, directed addressing the thoughts in my mind.
"If you must know, the reason you feel so welcomed in that body is because a vessel with the closest attunement to your true spirit and soul was found. As for how quickly you easily fit into the new body, that has to do with your Spirit and mind's ability to adapt. And from the looks of it, you're doing well."
Moriah's Will's lips pulled into a hint of a cold smile.
"You have a powerful Soul, Aiden Walters. An unbending Spirit."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I refuted almost immediately.
The will regarded me dismissively, brushing off my concern.
"Enough with the unnecessary concerns and questions. You currently lack enough authority to ask such." She said.
My lips parted in a scoff
"Now, you're not making any sense. You said you were a guide sent by Moriah to make sure i was on the right track, now you claim I can't even as questions about my soul?" I tilted my head to the side and raised a brow.
"Indeed. I was made to ensure a smooth transition of your spirit, and provide you with the necessary resources and information to complete your task. Any otherwise information or details outside the scope of your end of the bargain is deemed unnecessary. Besides you'll learn more as you grow yourself and gradually discover more about this world."
The words of Moriah's will left me full of reservations and even more doubts, but judging from the way she spoke, i knew there was nothing i could get from her like this.
But i was keen to take note of a few details and points she mentioned in passing. Like the detail about my soul and spirit.
'It's unsatisfactory, but for now I can only play the cards I've been dealt and go along with whatever absurdities as long as it ensures my ultimate survival.'
As if she could read my mind — which at this point, i was certain she could — the will nodded, content.
"Very good."
"Could you stop doing that?" I hissed, expressing how uncomfortable i felt when she kept reading my mind.
Moriah's will ignored my words and proceeded with hers.
"As you already know, you have been reborn into a world much different than Earth, and now occupy the body of a ruined noble. As Ramiel Se'Mortaniel De'Monttclairre You're end goal in this world... is to kill its Heroes."