"That fool. He hasn't been back since yesterday. I have a feeling that he must be dead somewhere." Keal said in anger and sadness. When he met Cullen, he didn't want to be emotionally attached to the kid, but somehow a piece of his heart went to him. The young hungry boy he met on the street on a random day was too pitiful to ignore. If he didn't give Cullen a chance to work anyway he could, then he was going to end up dead. But now it seems Cullen has ended up dead anyway.
'I should look for him.' Keal thought. Impatiently stamping his foot on the floor while keeping his eyes on the door, hoping that Cullen would walk in. He plans to give him a good beating first for the sudden disappearance before questioning him on why he had been out for so long.
'The door is open?' Cullen thought in relief as he walked in.
Keal got up from his seat expecting to see the young boy he had been waiting for, but he only got disappointed when he realized that the wind blew the weak wooden door to his house open. He let out a curse and took his old worn-out jacket and headed outside to look for Cullen with a heavy heart. Every part of him wasn't ready to see the dead body of the boy he worked with. But his old sense knew that was what would be waiting for him.
"Where are you going?!" Cullen shouted. "I'm right here!" He touched Keal, but his hand had no weight and felt like a ghost. He tried pulling on Keal's cloth, but his grip was weak.
Cullen had been watching Keal from the broken window of the old house they shared. He tried getting Keal's attention, but nothing was working. Everything in Cullen's situation pointed out to him that he was a ghost. With his last breath, he had hoped to die without any reincarnation to another pitiful life, but once again, his life has become pitiful and lonely in a twisted way he couldn't understand, and he was scared of it. He thought he had died, only to wake up in the body of the boy he planned to bury before he was killed. His dead body was still out there in the grave, and he couldn't bring himself to lay hands on it.
When he had woken up, lost in his mind as he moved to Keal's house, it had taken him some time to remember that he was walking around as a noble, stained with blood from a wound that was now healed, and yet no one was paying any attention to him, almost as though he didn't exist. It made Cullen doubt that he was alive.
The street Cullen was chasing after Keal suddenly went quiet. Store owners along the open road retreated deeper into the shadow of their store as a sign of fear and respect for a tall, handsome man dressed in black clothing. The high-quality material of his clothing shows that he wasn't only a rich noble but a powerful one. A frown remained on his face as he stopped a few feet away from Keal.
Keal stood by the side of the road in fear along with other poor humans who didn't dare to breathe in the same air as nobles without permission.
"I can sense him. But why can't I see him?" The man said to himself in annoyance. A sudden look of surprise replaced the frown on his face. "There's no way a weak fool like him is able to use a high-level concealing spell." In swift motion he waved a hand in the air to cancel out the spell he was feeling. The boy he has been searching for stares back at him in a dazed state.
"Brother." The words automatically flew out of Cullen's mouth before he could stop himself. He was surprised, and the surprise gasps around him made him turn his head around. People could finally see him. Keal jumped back in surprise and lost his footing and fell down, a horrified look on his face.
The man whom Cullen had referred to as brother curiously stares at the blood stained on his shirts and scoffs in annoyance.
Cullen wanted to ask, 'Who are you?' but stopped immediately after feeling a ache in his head; memories of the man started flowing into his head. The man's name was Valen, his talented elder brother that he hated.
The hatred between both brothers was mutual; they had a sore relationship.
"You looked like death." Valen hissed through his teeth as he eyed his younger brother's appearance, "Don't worry, soon enough, with Father's permission, I will make sure you feel like death." He said coldly.
'Father?' Cullen thought. 'I'm an orphan.' He felt confused and groaned in pain as his head ached again, and memories of the man his current body recognized as Father came to him. He let out a deep, fearful breath as the image of the man he called father appeared in his mind. His father is the demon lord. Cullen was the second and last son of the demon lord. He didn't understand how this happened and was still confused about his situation. Although he had never seen the demon lord before, he knew that the evil lord was dead—well, supposed to be dead after he was defeated by the heroes of their kingdom.
"What are you doing still standing around for?" Valen asked in annoyance. Cullen was clutching hard to his aching head while Valen glared at him from afar. While Cullen was trying to understand the new life he now had, Valen had walked ahead of him. "Let's go home." Valen turned around and continued walking without waiting for Cullen to keep up with him.
Valen used his magic to send out a message to the hidden troop that had been scattered around in search of his foolish little brother. "I hope you continue disappearing like this so that Father can kill you for real one of these days." He gritted out. He was disappointed that he didn't find his brother dead.
'so much hatred.' Cullen thought.
The full force of Cullen's situation hit him when he got to the demon realm. He tried to escape but was easily caught by the guards.
"Father." Cullen fell down to his knees and bowed down. His body knew what to do, and his mind knew the next words that were appropriate for him to say.
A tall muscular man, dressed in dark clothing mixed with bright gold, stares down at his son. He had long dark hair that flowed down freely to the waist of his back. "My little chaos." He said. It was his favorite name for Cullen since he was born. He examined the wound on his son's body and emanated a dark pressure filled with bloodlust. It made the room stuffy, and the guard and Cullen found it hard to breathe as their bodies fell down at the pressure. "Where have you been? Who did this to you?" He asked calmly.
Cullen swallows hard; he didn't have all the memories of the body he was in. And the calm tone of his father, which sounded harmless, made him tremble in fear because he knew that he was in trouble.