It took some time for me to calm down.
I brushed my eyes dry.
The tears had stopped, not because the sadness faded, but because anger replaced it.
A memory appeared as if I were standing there again.
The banquet.
Selene.
Her green-blue eyes looking at me.
The warmth I felt from her as we danced. Strings of White-gold hair that tickled my cheek, and her bright smile as she laughed.
Then Favian.
His practiced grin as he entered.
Standing at the center of the hall with perfect posture, Sarah stood beside him, bruised and crying.
The way he spoke, words laced with poison, in a clear voice.
Assault.
Sarah's tears as she spoke.
"He did it. He hurt me."
How she showed the bruises on her skin with trembling fingers.
While the man who had done that stood right beside her.
I didn't need anyone to tell me.
I already knew that it was him.
Favian was that kind of person.
He'd hurt anyone for his own advantage.
My jaw clenched as I balled my fists.
'What a bastard.'
He'd always been like that.
Brutal. Scheming. Lying.
I'd just never seen it.
I clenched my fists harder.
My voice shook.
"I will never forgive him."
Then—
Another face appeared.
Anton.
My uncle.
The Marquis.
Anger rose again.
He helped Favian plan it.
They schemed it together—the plan to throw their own family member away.
My fists clenched even firmer.
He should have taken care of me.
He was my uncle, and I was just a child.
But he likely never saw it as a basic human responsibility to take care of me. As I know him, he must have seen it as some sort of duty.
Duty?
Yes, that was how he would name it.
I laughed sharply.
What a bastard.
He sacrificed me.
Betrayed me.
And all that because he chose that monster instead of me.
I clenched my fists so hard that my nails dug into my skin.
Drip.
A fine red line flowed down my fists, blood falling to the floor.
Did he say for the family?
Which family, even?
He only has a fancy noble title and a son drunk on power.
The others aren't his family.
Not anymore.
Before I could rant further, another memory rose.
The tribunal.
A court laced with lies.
A theater performance.
Bought witnesses and rehearsed testimonies.
Servants I'd treated with kindness and guards, I'd shown respect.
Each of them lied.
And though I hated them, I understood.
They were forced, not like Sarah, but still forced.
Reward or punishment.
They feared what would happen if they declined and took the money.
That's human.
But what's not human were the people who made them choose.
Anton and Favian.
One obsessed with power and position, the other a monster wearing human skin.
Then came the magistrates.
How they didn't even hide their smiles and their refusal of the truthstone.
They were in on it from the start.
I was guilty before I even entered the hall.
And behind them all was the Empire itself.
Rotten to the core.
A staged tribunal with high-ranking nobles present, and no one intervened.
I wasnt even allowed to defend myself.
At last, her face appeared.
Selene.
Her soft voice as she sealed my fate.
"Let him live as those he wronged."
How she had spoken such words without even a twitch.
Making it sound as if it were justice.
Justice?
And what justice did I receive?
She thought her words would change the world, but didn't even see the stage of lies in front of her.
Drip.
Another drop of blood fell to the floor as I clenched my fists harder.
'I hate people like her the most.'
The ones who think they know everything and who judge without knowing the full story.
I felt a sting of pain in my hands and loosened the grip.
If Anton and Favian had planned it all, with even the magistrates working for them.
Then—
Selene must have been involved as well.
She knew everything from the beginning and still played her little role of justice.
And everything she said—
Lies.
Her smile as she looked at me.
Her laugh as we danced.
Maybe it was all an act from the very beginning.
My body shook as anger rose.
I clenched my fists even harder, not caring about the blood I spilled.
The anger rose with each passing second, bordering on eruption.
Until—
Her face resurfaced.
Lisa.
My clenched fists opened, and the anger vanished as if it was never there.
Lisa's bright smile as she looked at me.
Then—
The crash.
Her bloodied hand reaching for me.
Her weak voice as she called my name.
I raised my right hand toward my chest and placed it over my heart.
A tear slid down my cheek as I whispered.
"I'm so stupid..."
I had wanted to propose.
The ring was waiting at home in my drawer for too long.
I had been too anxious to ask.
Waiting for the perfect time and then for the perfect moment.
But I had waited too long.
The crash came, and everything was over.
Drip.
Another tear slid down my cheek and dropped to the floor.
I miss her.
Her bright smile as she looked at me.
Her warmth as she hugged me.
And her kisses.
I barely forced out the words stuck in my throat.
"I want to see her again."
Drip.
More tears followed.
Drip.
But now...
It's over.
We died in the car crash.
And only I was reborn—
Wait.
Reaching that point of thought, I remembered something strange that happened after the crash.
The place I had been before I was reborn.
All the different versions of me and the conversation I had with myself.
And the push at the end.
Brushing my tears away with the back of my hand, I thought.
'That wasn't normal.'
None of it was.
The strange place and how I talked to myself.
"Rebirth…"
I whispered it aloud.
That itself wasnt normal.
It shouldn't be possible.
Rebirth was something from novels or manga.
Fiction.
Not reality.
But—
If...
If it happened to me.
It could happen to her.
We were both in the same car, and we both died.
There was no reason for me to be reborn but not her.
There was that saying.
Impossible things are impossible until they happen.
Rebirth is impossible.
But it happened.
So it became possible.
My breath quickened.
If I were reborn, why not her?
It's not like I'm special enough for something like this to happen only to me.
Then, as if to answer, another memory resurfaced.
From the moment I was reborn.
I wasn't in my right mind at that time.
But—
I remember.
The pain and how it felt like something deep inside me shook.
Then the whisper.
Something had tried to speak to me.
I couldn't notice it at that moment, but I remembered.
Not all.
It was just two words.
'Better option.'
Those were the only words I could hear.
I spoke it aloud.
"Better option…"
What did they mean, and who had spoken them?
Options...
What options?
Or were there options to choose?
Options between what?
The moment I heard the whisper was when my vision darkened. It was also when I had lost my memory of being Lukas.
But the feeling I had at that moment.
I could never forget it.
Cold.
It spread through me, seeping deep inside me.
I had lost all control over my body, and my vision blurred as I felt something push me away.
If I had to describe it.
It was like my body wasnt my own anymore.
As if something else was taking over.
Like a...
Possession.
Right.
It felt as if something was trying to possess my body, but it stopped a moment later before everything turned black.
Possession...
And—
Options...
If it's really possession, and some being that had tried to possess me said 'better option'.
Then—
Wouldn't it mean that there were other options to possess?
But what could have been another option?
It choose me?
And—
I am from Earth and was reborn in this world.
Then—
The only other option similar to me would be...
Lisa.
It rose.
Weak, but it was there.
Hope.
A whisper escaped me.
"Maybe she is also..."
I stopped what I was saying and clenched my fists, my voice firm.
"No. She is alive."
The idea cemented itself as I spoke it.
I didn't need proof.
Just one reason was enough, and I had one.
Lisa is alive somewhere in this world.
The thought steadied me.
My head lifted, and my eyes drifted through the cell.
Straw was scattered over the stone floor, with a few pieces of cloth lying between. Stone walls surrounded me from all sides, while in front of me, a wall of metal bars rose.
The cell was small, barely enough for one person.
There was no bed nor toilet.
In the corridor shone a dim lightstone, which barely illuminated the cell enough for me to see my own hands.
I bit my lip as I thought.
If I am here, what about her?
Does she have food?
A bed?
A family?
My fists clenched firmer.
What if she is alone?
What if she is hurt?
Or if she is in a cell like this?
I can't—
I can't lose her again.
The car crash flashed in my mind.
For me, it felt like it was only a few hours ago.
The pain still felt fresh.
The thundering of my head as I slammed into the steering wheel. Glass splitters cutting into my skin like knives.
Through it all, her hand had reached out for me.
Not again.
Never again.
My fists loosened as I brushed my palm over my forearm.
The brand still burned faintly.
My voice came out hoarse.
"She needs me."
Maybe she is safer than I am.
Maybe not.
I don't care.
If I'm wrong, I will still be with her.
If I'm right, I will save her.
Different world?
Different body?
Different name?
It doesn't matter.
She's here.
Somewhere in this world and—
I will find her.