Reborn as the Enemy Prince: Chapter 1 - A Cruel Awakening
The biting chill of the stone floor seeped into my bare skin. My head throbbed, a relentless hammer against my skull. Disoriented, I pushed myself up, my vision swimming with blurry colors. Where… where was I?
The last thing I remembered was the explosion… the searing heat… the agonizing pain. Then, nothing. A void. And now… this.
My eyes finally focused, revealing a sparsely furnished room, cold and austere. Rough-hewn stone walls, a single barred window letting in the pale light of dawn, and a rough woolen blanket discarded nearby. Panic clenched at my chest. This wasn't my opulent palace bedroom. This…this felt like a prison cell.
What happened to me?
The memory, fragmented and terrifying, began to coalesce. I was Prince Caius of Aeridor, heir to the throne. A skilled warrior, a cunning strategist… and now… seemingly, nothing. The war with the Solarian Empire… the ambush… the betrayal… it all came crashing back, a tidal wave of horror. I was dead. Killed in the very battle I had hoped to win.
But something was profoundly… different.
This body, young and frail, was certainly not my own. It felt smaller, weaker. My reflection in a chipped shard of metal on the floor confirmed my worst fears. Staring back was a boy, perhaps twelve years old, with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. Eyes that held a haunting familiarity… yet undeniably different.
Am I in another world?
No. The details were too specific, too vivid. This wasn't some fantasy realm. This was the Solarian Empire’s capital, Aethelburg. I was in their prison. But why? And how?
The answer came in a rush of memories, not mine, yet undeniably imprinted on my soul. This boy…this child…was Prince Theron of Solaria, the enemy prince, the one I had ruthlessly pursued, the one I had… killed.
How can I be reborn as my enemy?
It was impossible. Yet, here I was, trapped in the body of my former foe, facing the grim reality of a life I never chose, a life steeped in betrayal and war. The weight of the betrayal – both my own and that inflicted upon me – felt immense, crushing. The memories of my past life, my kingdom, my family, flooded through me, sharp and painful. The anguish of losing everything – and the crushing weight of the actions I had taken in that past life, the decisions that had led to Theron's death and countless others – were unbearable.
What is my mission in this new life?
This was not just a second chance; it was a second chance with a brutal twist. I, Caius, the Aeridorian prince, now lived as Theron, the Solarian heir. My enemies were now my people. My past actions had created this present. And now, I had to decide: would I continue down the path of conflict, or would I find a way to atone for the mistakes of my past life, to build a different future, even if it meant betraying the very memories that still haunted me? The weight of this question felt heavier than the stone walls that surrounded me. The dawn broke, illuminating not only the grim reality of my new life but also the daunting task that lay ahead.
