Chapter 1: 0 – Prologue

 November 2^nd, year 781 of the Imperial calendar

   It was an unusually harsh winter. Much to my frustration, school is still not cancelled in this cold weather, despite protests from students. I glanced at the clock, it was still 6 a.m. Just before I went back to sleep after lamenting why I woke up so early today, I sensed a presence in my room, which belongs to my mother, Karin Gray. Before I got the chance to question her, she walked up to my bed and hugged me. As I was giving her a questioning look, she slightly distanced herself from me.

"Dear..." She spoke, perhaps in the sweetest voice she could conjure up

"What is it, mom?" I replied, mild annoyance can be heard in my answer as I slightly resented her for waking me up so early.

She looked at me for a bit, seemingly lost in thought before giving me an apologetic smile. "Sorry for disturbing your sleep, little Theo. But could you skip school and spend the day with me?"

I furrowed by brows. Though I did complain about school still opening in this weather in my heart, I still had to go to school today. Otherwise, I would miss out on witnessing that bastard Raun confessing to Amelia. Just thinking of his face when he inevitably gets cold-heartedly rejected makes going to school when it's freezing cold worth it.

"Sorry, mom, today is an important day, I can't miss school no matter what!" I exclaimed, each word oozing with determination.

"Is that so?" She lets out a dejected sigh, before patting my head and messing up my hair in the process. "Can you at least spend the morning with this old lady then?" 

Every times she used the word 'old lady', I feel pity for her. She's only turning 26 this year, that means she had me when she was around 15. Sometimes I thought that I'm just a burden to her. After all, who in their right mind would keep the evidence of the mishap that possibly ruined their life around, much less treating it as a proper parent figure. As such, the least I could do is to comply with her second request. "Got it, mom." I replied, somewhat begrudgingly.

We spent an hour doing various chores around the house. After having breakfast, mother suddenly asked me "Theo, would you like me to read you some stories? Like the good ol' days."

The 'good ol' days' meant 2 years ago. At that time, my paternal grandfather gave me the novel 'Transmigrated into the novel that I wrote, I stole the protagonist's cheats and charmed the aloof heroine, only to find out that I'm not actually an author but a regressor that turned the knowledge of future events into a novel and tricking me into thinking that I'm the author?!?'. Well, I asked my mother to help me read it since there are some words I really can't understand. It was a fairly cliché novel about an extra stealing the spotlight of the protagonist of the novel, though I think the title just spoiled the twist that came out near the end of the book. Interstingly, mother made a very strange and somewhat angry face when she looked at the name of the author, Marcos Dervit. It was my paternal grandfather's name, I never knew he was a novelist, it's not like I'm close enough to him to even know his job since my mother really insisted that I must not meet, let alone speak to him. I guess I had early access to his works, neat. He still has to work on his titles though since the so called 'biggest twist' would just get spoiled as soon as someone sees the title. Not that he could anyways since he passed away last year.

I sat on my mother's laps, you know, 'like the good ol' days' and she pulled out some books. Strange, it was not the usual type of book. Instead of fiction, it was more like a guide book on etiquette for nobles. Not that I care anyways since I had nothing else to do until school.

Thirty minutes later, I got up from her laps and began preparing for school. Just as I was about to leave the house, mother called out to me. "Theo, are you sure you absolutely need to go to school today? Mommy will be sad if you leave her alone in the cold today you know?" 

Sorry mother, but witnessing Raun's humiliation comes first. "I'm sure, mom. I'll be back as soon as school ends so you aren't going to be alone for very long, you know?"

Mother gave me a sad smile and hugged me "Well take care then, Theo." She said as he hugged me even tighter, unwilling to let me go. "Remember, whatever happens, mommy still loves you." She whispered, before letting go of me, having a pained expression as she was doing so. Strange, she never acted like this. I guess all those etiquette books really did a number on her.

"See you mom!" Shouted me as I was jogging through the snow towards the school.

***

Seeing kids younger than me running around with their friends, I felt a bit envious.

I did not have many friends. Well, more like I only have one, Raun. It's not that I'm unsocial or anything, it's because of my eyes. When I was 6 years old, I woke up and found that my previously beautiful ocean blue eyes were gone. Instead, what replaced it were dull grey irises with pupils as black as those pesky void beasts. Mother immediately took me to the doctor. He jumped back as soon as he saw my eyes, seemingly trembling in fear. After calming down, he put on some kinds of goggle, fiddled with some weird button and told me that my eyes became the 'magic eyes of fear'.

Apparently, anyone that maintained even the slightest bit of eye contact with me would feel fear comparable to directly experiencing their greatest trauma. Despite that, some adults was fine even looking into my eyes. Although they would flinch a bit when doing so for the first time. Mother told me that this was the gift god granted me, though I don't know which bastard of a god gave me the gifts that scares everyone my age from me. Thus, I was unable to make any friends. That is until Raun showed up though.

Apparently I scared away the people that was bullying him so he saw me as a savior of some sorts. After that, he kept pestering me until I became his friend. What is weird though is that he was stronger than the bunch that was bullying him, even I can tell that much, and he didn't even flinch even when we made eye contact for a long period of time. Well, he did flinch but it was out of awkwardness, questioning me why I was staring into his eyes.

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After shaking myself off nostalgic thoughts, I made a beeline to the school that was only a little further away.

***

Well, that was a disappointment. I didn't expect Amelia of all people would accept Raun's confession. Thus, I returned him without any teasing materials. He even teased me for not having a girlfriend as soon as he saw me stalking him confessing.

I got home and went inside the house. It was awfully quite, I guessed that mother just went out to buy groceries or something. Not that I care, I'm very fatigued anyways, possibly due to waking up at 6 a.m or because of the mental strength I consumed to not show a reaction when Raun teased me. I went into my room, dropped onto my bed and slept soundly.

I woke up, glancing at the clock as it was my habit. Two hours passed since I went to bed and my fatigue is already gone! I guess I will just sleep through every annoying things from now on. Sitting up on the bed, I suddenly recalled that it was my birthday. I'm guessing that's why mother went out earlier, it was to buy me some gifts! Last year, she bought me a book on Mana control. I know that it's expensive and all but it was too boring for me, so it ended up collecting dust on my bookshelf. I hope she got me something more interesting this year though.

I excitedly jumped out of my bed, ran down the stairs and opened the door to the dining room hastily. I was met with a traumatic sight that rendered me speechless. There she was, my mother, sitting on a chair. I could see the dried tears on her cheeks. Just as I was about to ask her what's wrong, I noticed that a knife was stabbed up her throat. I widened my eyes and panicked. I ran up to her and-

I excitedly jumped out of my bed, ran down the stairs and opened the door to the dining room hastily. I was met with a traumatic sight that rendered me speechless. There were no gifts, no cakes, no nothing. Did she forget about my birthday or she's just really pondering on what gifts to buy this year? I was about to leave the room when I noticed a piece of paper on the table. It was written by my mother. To sum it up, the content was that she was abandoning me and I need to live with viscount Nightshade from now on. Just as I was re-reading the letter to confirm if I was hallucinating or something, an excruciatingly painful headache assaulted me. Just like that, the headache knocked me out cold.

***
It's dark...

After fainting, I found myself in a dark place. There weren't anything but eternal darkness. Hm, did I die or something? Did I break my neck after falling to the ground? Or am I just hallucinating? Just as I was questioning my sanity, a man appeared before me. He was my paternal grandfather. Or at least it looked identical to him. I tried calling out to him but I couldn't move my mouth. He moved closer to me and put both of his hands on my head before chanting something I couldn't understand. Suddenly, I feel very drowsy. Well that was expected, I fainted and even hallucinated meeting my dead grandfather. Looks like I'm going unconscious this time for real. Just as I was about to close my eyes. A voice that shook the entirety of my soul rang out.

{Scram.}

One simple word was all it took for me to get out of my drowsiness. I looked at 'my grandfather', expecting him to be the speaker, but I was surprised to see him all petrified and looking extremely frightened before disintegrating into nothing. The voice rang out once more, this time from behind me.

{Well kid, I got here just in time, you gotta thank your mommy for this one.}

Just as I was trying to understand what he just said, a flood of information flowed into my brain. 

I'm confused.. wh.. what? No, NO STOP, I'M GOING INSANE-

 

 

***

A/N: Well this is the very bad prologue that I wrote. I have yet to write a proper storyline for this. I have only finished the settings and exposition as of now. So it's going to take a while before more chapters start to come out. It should take a week or two to flesh out the story so it won't be that long.

 

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