My name is Alphonse Ulric Tybalt Ambrose but my name was once Kim Si Woo.
I was born into a low-income family in Seoul, South Korea and despite being a bright pupil and hard worker in high school, I didn't have the money or connections to get into the university I wanted to go to or study the expensive science degree I had planned to.
After a few years working in my dead-end office job while part-timing at a take-out place after hours, I realised that no matter how hard I tried I would never escape my circumstances. I was drowning in my parent's debt, depression and loneliness from never meeting anybody. I was constantly plagued by a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.
It was when I got fired from my office job for someone else's mistake that I cracked. One night I woke up filled with resentment and hatred towards the world and slowly got out of my bed. In my crumpled pyjamas, I left my basement flat and caught a bus to the ocean. I didn't care about the stares I got from people, probably thinking I was some creep walking around in his pyjamas in the early morning hours.
Before I realized what I was doing I walked to the beach and kept walking toward the ocean. As the sun began to rise and the blinding light took over the horizon, I kept walking. The unpleasant feeling of salty water wetting my clothes and the sharp rocks beneath my bare feet didn't matter. I was walking the path of no return. A nameless faceless thirty-year-old man who had given up on life trudged through the ocean reef with the rising sun as a destination.
The blinding light of the sun was the last thing I remembered before the seas water reached the top of my head and a wave swallowed me whole, all the while cursing my life, cursing my circumstances, cursing the god who had forsaken me and handed out this disturbing fate. It is strange to think about that moment now because it seems that someone was listening to pathetic old Si Woo as he died. The gods must have heard me and took pity on me...
After all, they did end up reincarnating me.
I had been oblivious about my past life as Kim Si Woo until there had been an attempt on my life in the Royal palace. A woman who my eldest brother Geoffrey had fallen in love with had actually been an assassin from the Kingdom of Erithien. The Kingdom had apparently grown anxious of Girannon's ever-growing power and influence and had tried to weaken the Royal family by cutting down one of the princes. Since I was only six years old at the time, I was the easiest target.
That woman had taken meticulous time and effort to wriggle her way into Geoffrey's heart like a worm and make him feel it was safe to allow her to be alone with me. And had persuaded my brother to allow some of her 'friends' to stay in the palace with her.
My eldest brother had been so in love and so trusting in her. He would never have expected that she was just playing him. That he was just an obstacle to get to me. Since Geoffrey was so protective of me, his little brother, he always made sure I was close by and doted on me even more than my mother. His actions made Valda the worm, as I like to remember her, feel that it was necessary to go through Geoffrey to get to me.
The attack on my life was vicious, to say the least. That woman's friends were also assassins under her command and one day they all viciously came at me at once. A small defenceless little prince had to witness all the evil and viciousness his world had to offer. Even now, all I can remember was a painful slashing of my flesh as the assassins charged at me with all their weapons. Until suddenly, the visions of my past life rushed back into me.
I remembered that I was once Kim Si Woo and that I was once a fully grown man who had lived a depressing existence. Possibly the only noticeable thing about my life was how I had died. The beautiful but morbid act of walking into one's own light by trekking straight into the sun.
At that moment I, the third prince, was about to die after having been attacked by the assassins, the image of the blinding horizon was burning in my mind. My body and soul was overflowing with the bright light of my death and rebirth and the powerful sense that I couldn't die. After having lived such a pitiful previous life, how could I die when I was born into a life I wanted? A life where I would never want for anything. A life where I was royalty. How could that be the end of my magnificent fairytale?
Before I knew what was going on, that piercing light exploded from my little body. Like a silent bomb going off. I watched with bloodied half-closed eyes as my light shone over the assassins. My light was blinding and beautiful just like the sunrise. But undeniably deadly, because as soon as my light enveloped them, they turned to ashes. Their bodies, clothes and weapons were disintegrated in an instant.
My near-death had awakened my memories as well as my incredible power bestowed upon me by the gods. A power that was completely new to this world, that my family decided to keep secret from everyone except a few trusted allies.
Unfortunately, my power had disintegrated all evidence of the Erithien assassins and thus my parents had nothing to accuse the kingdom with. Although my light had saved my life, I had destroyed all the evidence and had thus denied myself justice from Erithien. Furthermore, I wasn't able to give my brother peace of mind about Valda, the woman who had betrayals him. He would never be able to confront her and never find the satisfaction he was looking for.
My body was so thoroughly damaged, that Royal mages had to stay by my bedside at all times to constantly chant their spells to keep me alive and heal me. My recovery took months, but it was time well spent. All those days in bed allowed me to come to terms with the new part of myself that I had forgotten about. Kim Si Woo. I didn't consider myself to be that man, I just considered him part of me. I was after all the third Prince of Girannon, Alphonse.
Thanks to the memories of my past life, I was suddenly very capable in mathematics and all my schooling. My teachers praised me a great deal for buckling down and taking my studies so seriously, even though I treated my lessons with the same indifference I always had. Furthermore, I became a lot wiser. I found myself being able to understand the adults when they chatted during dinner time and I became more mature. So mature that I didn't want to play with any of the kids my age anymore, they were all idiots compared to me. More than anything else, my powers changed. For a long time, the King and Queen have been concerned because I hadn't shown any signs of power, but after the incident, I was suddenly able to wield a mysterious new power that no one had seen before.
The magic that shone bright like the sun. I was getting better and better at wielding it, and my mage tutors began to call me a genius. However, for my safety, my parents decided to keep my mysterious power a secret for now. They feared that more assassins would come for me if my unheard-of power was exposed.
Soon after I had been healed my cushy life returned to normal, except that I knew I was a reincarnated person and when I fell asleep at night the gods would talk to me in my dreams. In this way, they communicated to me and showed me what my mission was.
The one bad thing that had happened since the incident was my relationship with Geoffrey. He had once been so loving and caring toward me but now I could see the shame in his eyes. He took the incident that hardest since he felt responsible for what had happened to me. I could see the guilt eating away at him and I made it a point to tell him that it wasn't his fault. It was Erithien's fault. They were the villains behind all this! But no matter what I said, the stain on my brother's heart never cleared. From that day on, he became a mistrusting, suspicious and cold person. The generosity and happiness that had once flowed from him were almost gone.
He never let other people close to him and he hasn't formed a deep relationship with a woman since then. He became a shell of who he used to be. I was so worried for him, we all were, my mother and father and brother were constantly in a state of stress at the change in him.
However, one day, someone broke through those barriers. Her kindness and generosity were like a godsend that allowed her to make Geoffrey truly smile again. Although he hadn't always treated her very well, I could tell that my older brother had fallen head over heels in love with her, and finally, I was starting to see his true self come back again.
I knew that Riley was a reincarnated person as soon as I saw her black hair and tasted the 'iced cream' from her café. Nobody from this world could have come up with such a good dessert and named it 'iced cream'. Honestly, it was such a giveaway. Moreover, I realized that Riley's mission was probably to help the people of this world. All her good deeds made that obvious. But what I wanted Riley to do most was marry my older brother. They were the perfect match. No one else was worthy of my big brother besides her. I was sure that once Riley completed her mission my brother and her could be happily married and produce lots of golden-haired babies.
Although I knew I was a chosen child, I chose not to tell anyone that. It was a well-kept secret that I was going to keep to myself forever. I just wanted to enjoy the life of a spoilt prince and spend my days eating Riley's food. I would never have to work a day in my life since I was a prince, plus there was no time limit on the mission the gods gave me, so I would get to that later. For now, I would remain the unknown chosen child, just as Riley was, however I had overheard Geoffrey speaking to my father and expressing his guess that Riley was a chosen child. Although Riley was about to be discovered I would keep my head low and stay out of the limelight.
I did find it strange that the Aurelia didn't come to inform my parents that I was a chosen child, but I decided to ignore that small and fact and just enjoy my free time.
Yesterday I had ordered my servant to go and buy me a cream roll from Sophie's café so I could eat it while I had my Holy lessons. Unfortunately, I had a private tutor from the church of magic who would go over all the scriptures and teachings with me. It seemed that my tutor, the 12th seat of the Church of Magic St. Silas Claudian was a serious admirer of Lady Riley. Whenever I had a lesson with him, the topic would somehow to shift to Lady Riley. Lessons about important paragraphs in the scripture would turn into a commentary on Lady Riley's good deeds. Reviewing my homework would somehow turn into him describing the exquisiteness of Lady Riley's face. This creep could only be described as a holy yandere. St Claudian already loved Lady Riley so much, I could only imagine how his obsession with her would explode when he found out about her being a chosen child.
Today my lesson would be in my mother's private rose garden on the west side of the palace. A place I loved to have my lessons because all the flowers and birds that visited this garden gave my mind something to focus on other than St Claudian's tedious lessons.
From the entrance of the Rose garden the two knights standing guard bowed to me. I could see St Silas sitting in the pavilion waiting for me. His long grey hair down his back neatly and his sharp yellow eyes looking through my textbook.
I calmly walked to the pavilion and took my seat beside him as my butler laid out the cream cakes and glasses of milk tea before us.
I knew exactly what to say to keep my teacher occupied so that I wouldn't have to work during this lesson.
I plastered an innocent childlike smile onto my face, just like how Geoffrey showed me and asked, "So how is Lady Riley doing?"
I grinned when I saw St Claudian's eyes lift, full of yandere creepiness, as he began to speak.
"Truly the kingdom is morning the loss of its crowned jewel, the kind, brave, intelligent, beautiful, level headed and wise Lady Delton..." St a Claudian smiled, while his eyes filled with joy.
"It's not that the Kingdom has lost her, she's only gone on vacation." I replied feeling irritated with his dramatics.
"Ah of course, after all the hard work she had done giving out Holy blessing to the whole of Girannon with such delicious confections such as these..."
St Claudian took a large bite of the cream roll causing his eyes to swivel to the back of his head.
"The masterful creations that she has left behind, I am somehow comforted, as if this magnificent creation brings me closer to her. Oh, brilliant cream roll from the mind of the Kingdom's prized jewel. How you bring tears to my eyes!"
I cringed as I saw actual tears begin to swell in his sockets.
Eww... Yandere are the worst.
I could hear my butler try and contain his giggle from behind, which in turn caused me to look away so that St Claudian wouldn't see me biting my lip from trying not to laugh at him.
I turned my head to the entrance of the Rose garden where I was surprised to see Geoffrey, the King and Lady Riley looking very frantic.
"What are they doing here?" I wondered out loud which made St. Claudian stop his monologue and turn to look where I was looking.
I heard the Saint behind me gasp in shock at the sight of his beloved and immediately stand up, I blocked out his incoherent mumbling as I zoned in on my brother, father and Riley.
I saw the guards gesture towards me and then I locked eyes with all three of them. They all looked completely shocked and slightly annoyed. Had I done something wrong? Why were they looking for me so urgently?
As soon as they saw me they came bulldozing down the garden path like a mini heard of buffalo, with Geoffrey leading them.
Geoffrey arrived at the table, huffing and puffing. How far had they run from to make my brother so tired? Riley and the King followed suit, they were panting even harder than my brother. From behind them, I could see my father's entourage of butlers and knights who were trying desperately to keep their composure even though they all looked exhausted. What was going on? Had they just come back from a cross country run?
"Brother, what is it?" I asked looking up into his eyes.
"You!" He panted. "You're a reincarnated person, a chosen child!"
"What!?" My voice wobbled with shock and astonishment. "H-How did you find out?!" I blurted out without thinking. I could feel my face getting hot with embarrassment. How could this have happened, how did he find out?
"Wow, I can't believe it!" Riley wheezed, still out of breath from what I presumed had been their run around the palace looking at me.
Suddenly my father pushed past both of them and walked right to my side. My father, the proud King suddenly knelt down by my side.
"Father! what are you doing don't kneel!" I had never ever seen my father kneel for anyone. He was the great King of Girannon. The proudest noblest man in the whole world. Hell, the universe! So how could he be kneeling to me?
"Alphonse me, son." He gently gripped my chin and held my face in his hand. "I feel ashamed that I did not know that my own son was a reincarnated person and it seems that I will have to pay more attention to you..." He began. He was speaking so gently for a man who was usually so gruff and curt.
"But I must ask why you didn't tell us that you are a chosen child?" I felt sad looking into my father's eyes, he seemed hurt, he looked so betrayed that I had been keeping this secret from him.
"Did you not trust us with that information? Was it out of spite or anger for what happened all those years ago when we weren't there to protect you when you were attacked?" Both my brother and father had pained expressions on their faces. They thought I hadn't told them because I resented them. That wasn't true at all because I loved and treasured my family. After living a sad life as Kim Si Woo, this world and this palace and this family were better than heaven for me. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
"No! that's not it at all!" I strongly rejected that comment. "I'm not resentful of you or ever was. I just decided not to tell anyone because I didn't want people making a fuss over me. I just wanted to enjoy a peaceful life within the castle. That's all I swear. As a reincarnated person as well, Lady Riley understands why I didn't tell anyone."
We all looked at Lady Riley, waiting for her comment.
She nodded. "Yes. Even I kept my identity secret from everyone because I thought it was the wisest thing to do."
My claims and Riley's input seemed to make them feel better but they still looked wounded. I felt regretful suddenly, I should have just told them as soon as I found out those six years ago.
My father sighed and then took hold of my shoulder. "Come along then, let us go inside to find the Queen. We will need to break the news to her gently and it would be best coming from you yourself." I nodded in agreement. My mother was probably going to faint when I told her. I was not looking forward to it at all.
"But how did you find out about me anyway?" I asked them curiously.
"It seemed that profit Aurelia had been attacked in the Nomansland and had been in slumber for a long time already," Geoffrey spoke up.
"She said she had been asleep for thirteen years, which would mean she was attacked and put to sleep right around the time you were born..." Geoffrey's face changed, that expression was a sure tell sign that he was on to something.
"So, it seems that someone purposefully attacked her around when the prince was born to stop her from notifying the kingdom that a chosen child had been bestowed upon Girannon," Riley said darkly. "Just as the prophet said..."
I frowned with the confusion that all this new vital information. "It seems like I have a lot to catch up on." I eyed the three of them questioningly.
"Indeed." My father replied. "We shall tell you everything in your mother's company as we expect you to tell us everything as well."
I nodded up at him, "I will."
Father then turned to Lady Riley.
"Lady Delton, I must ask that you return to Gismead immediately and put an end to your vacation. This is a crucial time and your Kingdom needs you right now. We shall also have to postpone the Four Great Kingdom Summit and call for an emergency alliance summit right away to inform the other Kingdoms about what is going on."
My father's face was grimly serious, back into King-mode again. It seemed that while I had been enjoying my life of leisure some serious things had been going on around me.
Father tugged on my shoulder and lead me out of the garden, with Geoffrey and the royal entourage following closely behind. I turned to see Riley watching us as we exited.
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Riley
Today had shocked me way more than any plot twist from The Vampire Diaries ever could. Prince Alphonse was a reincarnated person and so was the main villain in this fantasy world, who I could tell was so much stronger than I was. If a war was coming, I would have to prepare so much. I would need to make the sacred weapons as soon as possible, plus I would have to make a weapon for everyone I cared about. Furthermore, I would have to train my powers better. I hadn't been practising enough and meeting the cloaked man was a scary indication of how behind I was. I would need to get started right away. There was just so much to do and my head was spinning and I...
"L-lady Delton." The hair on the back of my neck prickled as I heard the voice from behind me. I spun around half expecting to see the cloaked man standing right behind me ready to kill me, but instead I was met with the familiar face of the man who had shown me around the church of Magic. St Silas Claudian, the 12th seat of the church.
"Forgive me, St Silas, I didn't see you there." I smiled down into his sharp yellow eyes.
"I beg your pardon Milady, but was what I just heard true?" Silas let out a shaky breath that I found alarming.
"Are Milady and the Third prince chosen children." I didn't see the point in lying to him since he had overheard the conversation and the whole Kingdom would soon know anyways.
"Yes, it is true." I sighed feeling kind of defeated for some reason.
Silas suddenly stood up as if jolted upright by electricity. "M-My lady. You have no idea what this news means to me."
Silas's voice was shaking strangely, and he had a crazy fire in his eyes as he stared at me that made me beyond uncomfortable.
"Um.. forgive me, St Silas, I must return to tell my friends of the news. Please excuse me." Without waiting for a reply, I immediately teleported back to my holiday house where I was reunited with all my friends who were inside waiting for me. I began the long process of explaining everything to them, including telling them about Prince Alphonse. They were just as shocked as I had been when I told them. Who wouldn't be shocked, to think that a reincarnated person was a member of the royal family? It was actually pretty insane.
After we had talked everything out, we began to pack up. Dimitri's painting equipment went back into his bags. Mellie and Edna were busy packing all of the utensils and clothes back into our bags. Soon We had secured everything in our carriage and we were flying back home.
It had been an absolutely insane day, but then again tomorrow would probably be just as unbelievable. Gosh, there really was no rest for the reincarnated.
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