Alex woke up like a drowning man falling on a solid, block of ice.
The veil of darkness above him was duller than what he was used to.
Alex did not see the familiar ceiling or the remote-controlled draperies, but instead, he saw the thick drapes of deep grey hung overhead that was embroidered with patterns that caught the faint glow from dying embers in a hearth across the room.
The weight on his chest was wool, not the thin duvet he'd fallen asleep under night after night.
His hand moved before he could form his first thought, reaching sideways across the vast bed for the phone that should have been charging on the nightstand. Fingers swept through empty air and then brushed the coarse blanket.
A realization slowly crept up to him.
'Hmm...? Bed? Thick blankets...? Hearth? What...?'
Alex pushed up on an elbow, his vision still glassy.
When Alex moved, he felt his body move with ease. His body did not feel heavy, and no groan or pop left from his overworked shoulders or his spine. His body under the covers felt light and unburdened by years of desk hunch and skipped meals.
Slowly, Alex looked around and clutched his head. The migraine from last night was still there. Looking around, he found himself in a giant room. It was even bigger than the suite his bosses had bought for him.
Hot stone walls surrounded him, broken by tall, narrow windows that let in slivers of gray morning light. Dust floated slow and lazy in those beams of constant light as a massive heart crackled opposite the bed, keeping his body really warm and comfortable.
He threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side. His bare feet landed on flagstone that drank the heat from his soles like a sponge. The shock of cold raced up his legs, but his body didn't complain as it simply adjusted, his toes flexing against the chill as if it knew how to handle it.
'Hmm...'
Just as he stood, Alex felt something was off. The height was off, longer by a few inches, narrower in the shoulders, limbs even longer in proportion but not yet filled out with the "adult weight."
He took a step toward the corner where faint light glinted off something tall and polished. The floor wasn't even as one stone rose a fraction higher than its neighbors. Alex avoided it without conscious choice, landing lightly on the flatter one beside it, as though some quiet instinct had nudged him aside.
'What's going on? This is not my room, but it doesn't look like any other room in my neighborhood either. Hell, there won't be a room like this in the entire country, save for the dilapidated castles that are no longer maintained by the authorities.
Also, I just moved away from that raised surface on instinct. I have never been a very physically gifted guy... Hmm, scratch that, even my body feels different. I had white skin, but I was never this pale. This is all too eerie...'
Quietly analyzing himself, Alex walked over to the shining object. It was a long, full-length mirror and the edges were covered in silver. Four different colored gemstones were embedded at the top, bottom, left and right side of the frame of the mirror.
However, just as he looked once into the mirror, he looked away. His face had gotten even more pale. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.
Gulping a dry lump of saliva, he looked back into the mirror. This time, instead of looking away, he kept staring at the mirror. What stared back was not his weak, high-cheeks face with brown hair and brown eyes that looked 10 years older than his real age, but rather, it was the face of a very young boy with slightly prominent freckles, long ginger hair that reached to his shoulders and murky green and dead eyes.
His features were not sharp, but they were not round either as it still carried some of that pubescent fat. He was quite a bit taller than before, a little healthier, but most of all, his eyes did not have the trademark dark-circles around them.
He had siren-shaped, double-lid eyes, that only half-opened, giving him an ethereal, dreamy look. He looked more beautiful than handsome. If he could grow his hair a little, he would've easily passed as a girl.
'What the hell... Hmm, let's not panic.'
Alex sat down and tried to remember. As he tried to do so, a flux of memories flooded his brain. Biting down on his lower lip, he endured it. While on the outside, it did not feel like much, internally, Alex felt like his brain was being stabbed with scorching needles.
After a long while of constant encephalodynia, he finally calmed down. The murky green eyes turned clear, as if life had just returned to them. At the same time, his complexion became less pale, but compared to his previous body, he still looked like a corpse.
Slowly clutching his long and silky, bleached-orange hair, he tried to calm himself down.
'Hah... Arthur... Arthur Bolton. How can this be even possible? It sounds like one of those stories Sarah used to read, where a person gets transferred to someone else's body in another world after they die... Does that mean, I died?'
Realization slowly crept up. For a moment, he panicked hard, thinking what would happen to Sarah. However, soon he calmed down.
'The Will I have left is foolproof. There are no loopholes anyone can exploit. That means, no matter what happens, everything—the suit, my car, the farmhouse and all of my savings—will go directly to Sarah and Logan can deal with the Inheritance Tax. Yes, it's ok... She'll be fine... I have enough savings and assets to last her for quite a few years...'
A sad smile appeared on Alex's face. He wanted to see Sarah grow, however, that little joy was now just a faraway dream. He was not sure if he could go back to that place, and in all honesty, he was tentative if he even wanted to go back.
Sure, it had Sarah, and he was living a good life, but the mental stress and slowly feeling like dying inside was a feeling he did not wanted to experience again. It had been a few minutes in this body, and he was already feeling like a child again.
Free and unbounded by the burdens on his shoulders.
'Boltons... Boltons... So, I have...what's the word, ah, Reincarnated in the body of Arthur Bolton, the once Crown Prince of Ironhold, and the current Lord Duke of it. Arthur's parents died a few weeks ago due to a Plague, and once they had died, the four sworn Knights of Boltons had rallied their loyal men to quickly help Arthur sit on the throne.
However, this has resulted in sour conditions in the Small Council. The Minister of Ironhold was set to become Lord Regent until I turned 18, and there were still 2 years to that.
Hmm, but since Minister was trusted by Arthur's father, Duke Harlan Bolton, so much, why did the four sworn swords make such haste to crown me? None of them take active part in training or grooming Arthur to their benefit. Then why?
Did they uncover some secret? This is so headache inducing...'
Running his fingers through his hair, he tried to rein in his jumbled thoughts. As he was trying to come to terms with the sudden and weird shift of events, he heard three knocks on the door. The knocks were equally spaced with a moderate force.
Alex cleared his throat and straightened his back. He was not sure what happened to the real Arthur, but if things had led to this, he was going to entertain whatever force was behind this ridiculous turn of events. "Come in." He said in a voice full of authority, however, the pubescence in him made it much shriller than he had expected it to be.
At his command, the door opened slowly as a figure walked in. The figure was tall, freakishly tall, clad in armor from neck to toe in dull silver. From where his neck was visible, Arthur saw an old man with deep-set, small eyes, a face that bordered on ugly, white whiskers and short, white hair on his head. The man's eyes were pale grey in color.
"I believe you've had a wonderful night, my lord." He greeted by bowing his head.
Alex felt a little uncomfortable. While not on this level, in his previous life he was the one dishing out respectful gestures like to his bosses and senior managers. He had always assured himself that he was a man of little ambition, just as his mother had always berated him to be, hence he never extricated himself from the company to start his own firm.
"I did." Alex replied curtly before turning back towards the mirror. In the reflection, he could see the tall, bear of a man staring intently at his reflection.
This man was Blade of Dawn, Ser Godfrey. He was born and raised on the docks of Greyharbor, right on the outskirts of Ironhold. During the High King's Tourney, Duke Bolton—Arthur's grandfather—had taken interest in him. However, the Duke soon died. After that, Arthur's father took little Godfrey under his wing, nurturing him and then turning him into a Magic Swordsman.
Ser Godfrey was older than Arthur's father, but not by much, and he had helped the Lord of his time raise his children.
He was also one of the four sworn blades to Duke Harlon Bolton. The others were Sword of Dusk Ser Isabella, Sword of Noon Ser Cedric and Sword of Midnight Ser Hector.
"You seem troubled, my lord." Godfrey did not move from his position and instead took a step back. In his mind, he felt as if their indulgent young Duke was still reeling from last night.
"I am not, I just feel...famished." Alex carefully walked around the topic, to not make the veteran knight suspicious of himself.
"I will have the servants set up the table, my lord. Would you perhaps wish to be in the company of you...siblings?" The man with white whiskers hesitated.
Alex looked back and smiled a little. "Sure, please do, if they are awake. It's no obligation."
Ser Godfrey narrowed his eyes but ultimately reflected the smile his lord Duke had. Bowing down again, he was about to leave when he stopped in his tracks and turned back again. "One thing, my Lord."
Alex was not in the mood to talk even further. He had a splitting migraine, and more and more information was constantly pouring into his mind. He was seeing flashes of Arthur's life, his condescending behavior towards the servants and even the knights.
However, instead of adopting Arthur's previous habits, he decided not to get agitated. With a calm voice he replied: "Yes?"
"Minister Voss has asked for your company. He arrived from the Dardon Caps moments ago and had sent a letter immediately."
Minister Voss was the councilor of previous Lord Bolton. He was the minister that was supposed to become Lord Regent of the land until Arthur turned 18, however, due to the four Knights' prompt actions, he was unable to do based purely on politics.
Immediately afterwards, he had gone to Dardon Caps while naming the visit as a holiday for himself.
Dardon caps rested on the far, south-end of Ironhold. Behind the Dardon Caps was the Sea of Battlebriand that connected Ironhold to Ravenmoore. Ravenmoore was the richest capital of the Northern Continent, only second to the King's Landing—the mega-city where the High King of the North resided.
Dardon Caps were a series of mountains with moderate temperature, slightly warmer winds than the ones in Ironhold and Frostspire. They had multiple lakes, most of which were property of Ironhold's Boltons, Ravenmoore's Thornes and Frostspire's Styrns. The rest of them were public property.
'He is back, after so long. There is definitely something nasty cooking here. Arthur rarely busied himself in the matters of Ironhold or just in general, so it is natural that I can't connect a lot of dots... Hmm, well, since I am here, I might just look into it.
This is a world that is still stuck in old times. It might be possible that the Minister Voss is trying to get me removed. He has significant influence and can call for enough banners to seize Castle Black by colluding with Styrns and Thornes.
This land—Ironhold is at its weakest anyways and High King Holt do not involve himself in the matters of the Three Dukes, unless it damages the overall peace of the Kingdom in the long run. That means that if a quick excursion is done, High King Holt will let Boltons go down...
That would mean that I will be killed... Yeah, that would suck. This life might be much harder than my previous one...but at least I won't be scrubbing other's asses to live by. Well, anyways, not like I can do anything about it now.'
Alex looked up and moved his hair back with both his hands as he looked into the window. The sun was rising and was causing his pale green eyes to glow. "Tell the Minister that I will meet him in the evening."
Ser Godfrey nodded and was about to leave when Alex called him again. "Ser Godfrey?"
"Yes, my lord?"
"Please bring some books on Mages and Potions to my room. I wish to read them all."
Ser Godfrey nodded. "As you wish, my lord. Do you still wish to do breakfast with the lordlings?"
Sarah's face flashed in his mind as he remembered the little girl with her small, chubby feet hanging from the chair and sitting right beside him as he fed her food while having a hand printed on his cheeks.
Alex's lips curled up. "Sure."