Ren's eyes opened in shock as his body let out a sharp shiver, his eyes falling back onto the mirror that was right in front of him.
His vision was still a bit blurry, and he still felt cold and weak, the pain in his stomach still lingering.
He drew a deep breath, trying hard to calm himself down. That fall felt so real... of course it did, because it had truly happened to him.
He reached out to press his left chest and sensed his racing heart that exuded immense vitality.
Kenneth had really taken everything from him... everything; his game, his girl, and his gift of life. Thinking about it hurt so much, so he decided not to think about it.
His eyes still felt heavy, and there was this persistent feeling in him that made him feel as though he was only dreaming.
Subconsciously, he lifted his head, and his sight fell through the open thick curtains of the large window to the atmosphere outside.
The day was seemingly breaking, and there, high above the dim horizon hung three crimson moons, perfectly arranged in silent symmetry, their glow haunting yet beautiful.
"Wh…" Kai Ren mumbled, his voice cracking due to astonishment. Instead of the simple bright moon he saw every night, he was seeing three red crimson moons.
With a quick motion, he returned his blurry gaze to the mirror.
His reflection was very pale, and white disgusting fumes clung to his mouth. His body was cold, stiff even, but that wasn't the problem, for he remembered now that earlier he had noticed it wasn't his face and body, and now it was no different.
This current him had black, curly, shiny hair. His eyes, though wearied down by an indescribable weakness, were dark brown, and his face was sharp and smooth, with a cool jawline that made him handsome even through his weariness.
He was wearing a linen sleeping robe, and somehow his thin build was thin no more, it now had this sweet average muscular feature and a sharp, deep outline.
"Dear God," he gasped, his mind flooding with helpless and confused thoughts.
The weird, strange room he was in, the three red moons that were different from the Earth's moon, and now this body, all indicated one thing.
"So I did transmigrate," his mouth slowly said.
He had grown up reading web novels, and as a lover of anime, he had watched many that dealt with his current situation and had often fantasized about it. His game storyline even dealt with transmigration. But now that it was happening to him, he found it hard to accept.
"Calm down, Kai Ren, calm down," he muttered to himself, taking three consecutive deep breaths and trying hard to stop panicking.
At that moment, as his mind and body calmed down, his eyes shut, and memories began flooding him, slowly appearing in his mind, overwhelming and vivid.
Star Crestfold, a noble citizen of the northern continent of Thairon, bearer of the Spirit Spell Mark, a late bloomer in every way, the prince of Tingen Kingdom, firstborn son of King Edris Crestfold the Fourth.
His father, Edris Crestfold, was a Spirit Warrior, a Legacy, and an Ascended Master of the Anger Division. And he was always a pain in his ass.
Kai Ren, who was being flooded with Star's memories, couldn't help but think if his life was cursed to have father issues.
His former father had thrown him out when his mother died, because of that silly-conniving woman he got remarried to. He could remember the day he pleaded with his dad all he could, but his father still threw him out, not wanting to hear that he was falsely accused by his wife.
And now, even after his death and life had given him a second chance, it appeared that the body he transmigrated into had daddy issues too. Well, this one made a bit of sense because Star's father, the king, saw him as a shame, his firstborn son, a late bloomer, someone who was supposed to be his heir when he died.
But that wasn't enough reason why a father should detest his child, was it? Taking a good look at things, his mother, Aurelia Crestfold, the first wife and queen, loved him. She wasn't a Spirit Warrior; she was a normie, a kind-hearted woman with a priceless soul, too humble to be a queen. And somehow, she had been the reason why Edris hadn't killed Star since.
He also had a stepmother who wasn't his fan. Hers was real cruelty, since she wanted her sons to be the ones crowned heir, so all she did was triple the hate his father already had for him.
His stepmother had two sons, they were twins, Zhou and Rhou Crestfold, and they were three years younger than Star. From the memory of Star Crestfold, which was becoming his, he knew they were assholes.
The twins lived with him in the castle but were no longer there. In fact, the two had just bloomed a few hours earlier during the day. It was their birthday, and when they turned sixteen, they bloomed and faded into the Woeplane.
Normally, all marked Spirit Warriors from noble homes were mainly Legacies (early bloomers). The Spirit Spell Mark, which normally appeared on kids between the ages of sixteen and seventeen, appeared on them when they were fourteen or younger. By the time others were still receiving their marks at sixteen, they had already bloomed. They were known to be strong-willed and always turned out strong and powerful. This was because their marks appeared early, giving them time to train and prepare their minds for the journey ahead.
(*Check the auxiliary chapter above for detailed information and meaning of Legacy.*)
Progenies (average bloomers) were those whose marks appeared around the normal age of sixteen or sometimes fifteen, and they bloomed at seventeen. That meant they only had one year to prepare before blooming. Progenies could come from noble families, but Legacies were more common.
As for the Relapsed (late bloomers), none had ever been recorded to come from noble homes. The Relapsed received their Spirit Mark at a late age, when others had already bloomed, and by the time they bloomed, those who had bloomed earlier might have finished their trial in the Woeplane and already become Acolytes.
That made Star the very first Relapsed to come from a noble home, a royal one to be precise, and made his father hate him even more because of the shame and embarrassment Star cast on him, to the extent that he refused to give Star the training they gave those who were marked. Branding him a shame and disgrace to the royal blood.
Edris was very disappointed in him when he wasn't marked early. At first, he didn't take it too seriously, but when Star turned sixteen and the mark still didn't appear, he went crazy.
He thought Star was going to be a normie like his mother, until what he dreaded most happened. When Star turned seventeen, the mark appeared, and he became a bearer of the Spirit Spell, a Relapsed bearer. Things only got worse. A Relapsed from a royal family, it brought shame to Edris, and as punishment, he refused to give Star proper training.
Meanwhile, all his stepbrothers were already marked. The twins were marked at the age of ten, and they always made fun of him.
His two younger sisters, Clara and Fen: Clara was already marked but was still fifteen, while Fen, thirteen, was also already a bearer. Making him the only one that got marked at late age, because, if things should have been in a very perfect order, he should be an Acolyte by now if not even a higher ranked Spirit Warrior, maybe a Reverent.
Star was born in the same month as his stepbrothers but not on the same year or day. The twins were born on the 17th day of the ninth month, while he was born in the early hours of the 18th day of the same month which was at night, amd that had earned him the name *Star.*
And so, today was his birthday, his eighteenth birthday. As a Relapsed, he was supposed to have bloomed already. It was already past time the he left his mother's womb.
But he hadn't. It turned out his mind and body weren't ready yet because he had nothing to trigger the bloom. He hadn't received any training or anything that would make him bloom.
Many more memories rushed through Kai Ren's mind, each one syncing him deeper into Star's memories.
Then he felt a sudden warmth engulfing him. He felt more alive, as though he had just woken from a deep slumber. The pain in his stomach was gone.
His eyelids opened, and his vision became clear and sharp. It fell on the mirror leaning against the wall.
A gasp left his mouth. It was like a miracle. His pale white skin was turning back to normal, his weary face more handsome, his outline sharper than before. He wiped off the disgusting white fumes from his mouth and touched his face in disbelief.
He looked down at his hand on the table. The effect had spread through his whole body, but then his eyes fell on the parchment on the table.
The words on it were strange... very strange, written in an ancient script, but as he stared, they blurred and reshaped, and suddenly he understood them. The writing said.
"Mom, whatever happens to me, the blame is on the king."
Those words were written in the Zeyeche language, and they were written by...
"No way," he gasped. "Me… it was written by me."
His eyes trailed to the silver cup tipped over the parchment, the liquid spilled from it, had stained and attacked the part of the parchment it touched. The pungent, acrid smell filled his nostrils, stinging like venom.
And then, like a hammer blow, the fragmented memories from that night pieced themselves together.
It turned out that the person staring back at him from that mirror had been a desiccated corpse.
It made sense now; the fumes around his mouth, the pale skin, the bloody pain in his stomach.
"No way…" he muttered, his voice trembling.
The realization struck him like lightning.
Star Crestfold had poisoned himself.