by William Bill
Lily being very familiar with Rong Imperial City, introduced him to the locations of many key areas.
They soon reached the Imperial Palace with few guards stationed around the entrance, which didn't seem like the main entrance of the palace.
They got off the carriage as they entered the entrance, which seemed like the side entrance to her residence, which seemed to be on the imperial palace's east side.
Damien was able to see the two protectors' faces now that they had removed their hooded cloaks.
Both were middle-aged men. One had black hair, black beard; his blue robe was plain but elegant; his eyes sharp with a gaze that seemed to scrutinize Damien from top to bottom.
The other had black hair with little white shades on his sides, with a pencil mustache. His white robe was simple but graceful. His face carried kindness and a faint smile, and his gaze was like a tranquil pond.
The imperial guards saluted one after the other as they saw the princess while the protectors and Damien followed behind.
This was the first time Damien entered an imperial palace. He had a feeling of being overwhelmed by the luxurious surroundings. The imperial palace's architecture was naturally luxurious; golden-colored tiles glittered under the sunshine in every direction and directly dazzled his eyes.
Inside the palace, everywhere they went, the guards and palace maids would all hurriedly bow down as they saw Lily. Some maids were stunned seeing a bloodied figure following behind the princess, but they hurriedly lowered their gaze.
Lily stopped walking and turned as she said, "I will meet you after a week so that you can rest and recuperate. Court Master Nestor, please show Damien to his quarters. And you know what to do in case anything happens, right?"
"Of course, Your Highness. I can take care of this matter without any issues." The man in blue robes nodded.
Even though Nestor Rong didn't look favorably upon Damien and only somewhat admired him, he had no choice but to follow her decision. And when he thought about the princess's plan for Damien, he partially understood the treatment she was giving to Damien.
Damien was still wondering what she had in store for him. He was already worn out as the fatigue was slowly kicking in. He didn't have the energy to think much about their plans for him.
All he wanted now was to take a quiet and peaceful rest. He never had a moment of proper rest for the past few years, including his previous life.
He was always on the run, being on his toes to not let anyone be suspicious of his identity.
But now, in this place, he need not worry about his identity at all. The world wasn't after him, nor does he have any enemies in this place. So he thought he needn't worry about an ambush or any sort of those things.
After looking at Damien briefly, she turned her back towards him and left with light footsteps.
"Nestor, you go ahead with her orders. I will also leave and manage the potential headache that's coming my way."
Nestor Rong gave a bitter smile as he said, "Sorry, Oswen, this time I have to leave the troublesome stuff to you."
"Don't worry about it. It is, after all, my duty too." Oswen Rong patted Nestor Rong's shoulders and gave a light smile at Damien as he left.
He was surprised that Damien had a calm demeanor and didn't show any sign of nervousness even after entering the imperial palace.
It just made Damien slightly more interesting to him.
Nestor Rong gave a light sigh as he looked at Damien, "Well, I will show you to the place you are going to stay."
Soon they reached near the servant's quarters.
"This is the place you will be staying at for now. Your room is on the far left with all the necessities and a bathing area included. And also, remember you are not to take a single step outside the room without my permission. Just settle down and focus on your rest as your arm won't heal if you move around a lot."
Damien nodded. He didn't feel good about being put on house arrest but considering his situation, he could be regarded as fortunate enough to have at least a place to stay. And also, so far, they didn't do anything harmful to him.
Chapter 10: The Ethereal Girl
Damien's room was gorgeous compared to Damien Ward's room during his time at the Ward Family.
That showed the difference between a small sized family and an imperial family. Even the imperial family's servant rooms would be seen as luxurious compared to families with lower status.
But what Damien didn't know was that those rooms were only for servants who had the topmost status compared to other servants.
His room had a single sized bed near to a corner with square-shaped windows. There was one small bathroom attached along with basic toiletries provided.
'Hm, I would rate this room a four-star based on the standards of hotels in the Earth.'
There were also some pills kept in a bottle on a table, and when he took a closer look, he identified it as Sustenance Pills, which will let the person go on without eating food for a specified period. And the period depends on the grade of the pill.
Pills are ranked from 1 to 9 as the pill's rarity goes up from 1 to 9.
It can be quite useful for servants if they don't have time to eat during emergencies or have extra work to do.
'Well, I would still prefer some tasty food rather than swallowing some pill. Don't tell me they are lazy enough to keep feeding me these pills. Or should I make my own food?' Damien pondered if there was a canteen like system.
He didn't think of buying any food because he was used to making his own food even when he was on the run in his previous life. He couldn't risk entering public places to eat unless he had to gain some information.
If it's made by his own hands, he need not worry whether someone poisoned it or not and also, he would enjoy it more.
'I guess I will take a bath later. I feel so tired right now. I should just take a little nap for now.'
Damien removed his clothes and jumped right on to the bed in his underwear.
—
The bright sky had already turned dark as the moon was shining in its full glory.
"Hey, you! Wake up!" An exasperated but melodious and childish voice resounded in his head.
"WHO??"
Damien abruptly opened his eyes and called out as he was startled by the voice in his mind. He instantly scanned his dark surroundings to see if somebody broke into his room.
He was always a light sleeper. During the last few years in his previous life, he always had at least 50 percent of his senses focused on his surroundings whenever he sleeps.
He had modified his daily habits and behavior such that he was always prepared for the worst.
A slightly strange feeling came from his chest. He looked at his bare chest and was surprised to see a white mark in the shape of a crescent moon lying on its back.
Suddenly a white irregular pyramidal-shaped crystal shot out from his chest.
It was floating in mid-air right in front of him. And a white shadow shot out from it, which seemed to take the form of a girl who seemed to be twelve or thirteen years old and who was unbelievably beautiful to the point that even hermits would forget about their celibacy vows and stare at this celestial figure in front of them.
Although her face was a bit immature and tender, every single feature on her snow-like face was exquisitely delicate and perfect beyond compare; moreover, it reached the pinnacle of indescribable perfection.
She had short and glossy black bob hair and was dressed in a snow-white dress, accentuating her dainty and petite body.
Below her skirt's hem revealed two slender snow-white legs. Her almond-shaped sparkling black eyes had a sense of haughty but noble aloofness that came from the soul.
Damien was stupefied by the inexplicable things happening in front of him, especially when he saw the mesmerizing beauty in front of him.
He felt the whole world went silent, and even the bright moonlight that illuminated his room seemed to darken and diminish to the
point where he could not sense its existence.
Damien stared silently and dazedly at her. His body did not move an inch as his eyes seemed to be thoroughly fixed to a spot as if he had been petrified. Every part of his vision and every part of his soul seemed to be drawn in by a force he could not resist.
His heart was thumping so loud, he could hear its echo reverberating throughout the room. It was as if he was looking at his soul mate. And for some reason, he felt his heart was getting heavier.
"How long are you going to stare at this goddess, you pervert!"
Damien closed his eyes and violently shook his head as he got out of his daze, hearing the girl's irritated tone before him.
'I AM NOT A LOLICON! Damn, what would Sofie even think of me? Did I get charmed by a kid? Impossible!'
Damien found it ridiculous that he reacted so exaggeratedly at a little girl, not to mention a stranger. He had never been stunned like this before, although he had to admit that this girl was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen despite her immature features.
Damien took a heavy breath, tried to calm down with great effort, and opened his eyes towards the girl who was floating in mid-air and finally spoke: "Little girl...who are you?"
The girl looked at Damien and spoke in a tender but condescending tone: "Hmph, this powerful goddess is not a little girl. But how did this goddess even get stuck with a poppycock like you?"
"A poppy what? You are one rude little kid. Is this how you should speak to your elders? And what did you mean by saying you are a goddess?"
Damien was incensed that this girl insulted him using a weird term, which for some reason felt like his manliness was being questioned.
"Pha, elder my foot! I am even older than your ancestors. Anyways, I don't know why I had to link my soul with yours, as my memories are missing along with my fragmented souls. Hence my current state. Nevertheless, I am still a goddess." The girl continued talking in a lofty voice with her nose in the air.
Damien's lips were twitching, hearing her narcissistic lines. He had already calmed down, but a few words stuck out to him from what the young girl just said now.
Goddess...soul...memories.
'Am I really in the presence of a goddess? Do gods really exist? Or is this just some crazy girl who lost her memories...but she indeed has an otherworldly appearance. And she said that her soul was linked with mine? What nonsense is she talking about, and how did she pop out from that crystal?' Lots of questions were popping up in Damien's mind.
"Hold on a second. What is this soul thing you are talking about, and how exactly is it related to me?" Damien asked, trying to get answers one by one. He had heard of the concept of soul in his previous life as a philosophical thing but didn't really give much thought to it.
"What kind of a country bumpkin are you? You live in a cultivation world, and you don't know about souls?" The girl mocked.
"It's not like I would benefit from knowing anyway. I am a cripple, or are you too blind to see that, you cheeky kid?" Damien was pissed off hearing the girl calling him names as he tried his best to stay calm.
'I can't believe an annoying little girl provoked me.' Damien facepalmed inwardly.
Damien's previous self didn't bother about anything related to cultivation since there was no hope for him, and he didn't want to get depressed by learning the awesome things a cultivator can do.
"Sigh...fine, as the superior being, it's my duty to teach the mortals some fundamental knowledge." She said in an egotistical tone.
'Oh my god, how cringy. Well, as long as I can learn something useful, I can bear with it...I hope.'
"Well, the soul is the incorporeal essence of a living being. And the soul comprises the spiritual abilities of a living being such as reason, character, feeling, consciousness, qualia, memory, perception, thinking, comprehension of the laws, etc. And even if one dies, their soul will enter the reincarnation cycle to be born again with their mind as a clean slate without any previous life's memories.
"Of course, if their soul is destroyed, they would never be reincarnated. Right now, since my soul is fragmented, I have lost my memories, most of my abilities, even my spiritual body regressed to that of a child." She spoke displeased at her own situation.
She continued, "Also, because of my memory loss, I don't even know how my soul ended up getting fragmented or why I linked my soul with yours. But I do seem to have found out one fact. You are a reincarnated one, aren't you?"
"..."
Damien was in the middle of processing all this new information that he previously believed as if they were merely fictional things, and he felt some kind of pity thinking about her situation since he could relate to it as he also ended up in a pathetic state, including his memory loss.
But when she asked if he was a reincarnated one, he was dumbstruck at the fact how she managed to find out.
'So it seems my soul did really transmigrate. The reincarnation cycle, it seems, huh. So Sofie must have reincarnated too! But would she remember me? Is this all just a dream or…'
Damien was finding it a bit hard to believe in these new concepts of soul and reincarnation suddenly.
But seeing some kind of proof in front of him, he couldn't help but believe.
And he also felt sort of hope thinking if this girl could help him recover his memories or help him find out why he reincarnated that too with his memories intact.
Chapter 11: Destiny Laws
"How do you know I reincarnated?"
"Hmph, it's only a child's play for me, especially when my soul is linked to yours. Somebody, surely a god, seems to have manipulated your soul's reincarnation cycle using Destiny Laws."
"Destiny Laws? What kind of laws are those?" Damien was flabbergasted hearing her talk about a law that seemed to be related with destiny itself.
He had heard about scientific laws like Newton's 1st, 2nd and 3rd laws of motion, the law of conservation of mass and energy, and so on. But where did this destiny law come from? Isn't destiny just another philosophical thing?
"Ugh...you are just a big dum-dum. I suppose you don't know that there are many kinds of laws in this world, considering your previous life might have been on a backward planet, or you were just too dumb to know about it."
"You!! — "
"Shhhh, let this goddess finish enlightening you."
'Goddess my foot. You are just an imp with a cute face.' Damien wanted to retort but restrained himself since he didn't mind shutting his mouth for now if he can learn about this new and mysterious knowledge from her.
"As I was saying, there are Lesser Laws, Greater Laws , Supreme Laws and finally Origin Laws which can be considered to be the origin of all laws and are the most essential towards the functioning of the universe including everything in it. And this destiny law happens to be one of the origin laws. In simple words, using these laws, one can manipulate and shape destiny, allowing them to orchestrate the events that will necessarily happen to a person or thing in the future."
Damien narrowed his eyes as he tried to make sense of this law he had never heard before.
He wondered if he lived all these years under a cave. All the scientific knowledge he had learned in his previous life amounted to nothing in front of this new inexplicable knowledge.
'Does that mean I was really manipulated the whole time? Was I like a puppet being pulled along to someone's whims? The calamity, Sofie's death, my transmigration, everything was planned by that god? But why?? Why would a god even bother with me?'
"Do you know which so-called god did this to me, and am I still being manipulated?" Damien asked while clenching his fists so tight that his injured forearm started bleeding again.
If someone now asked him who his most hated enemy was, he would undoubtedly say it was the person who reduced him to his current state, the one who manipulated him and made him lose everything.
The girl sighed as she said: "Unfortunately, I don't know who did this to you. Right now, I am not powerful enoug
h to track that hateful god through your soul. Otherwise—" she gritted her teeth as her voice turned ice-cold, "I would have already found that lowly god myself and sliced his soul into a million pieces."
'Seems like her hatred for that god is no less than mine, but why?' Damien thought as he felt the air around her stifling, and for a moment, he truly felt that he was before a powerful entity and that he was nothing more than an insignificant ant in front of her.
Her voice returned to normal as she said, "Anyway, you are not being manipulated now. Otherwise, I would have seen strings of destiny attached to your soul, and it would have also made it easier for me to track him. I had only detected some traces of destiny laws in your soul, and that's how I found out about your reincarnation, but it seems like his understanding of destiny laws is too poor, or he is too weak since he has done a sloppy job by leaving traces in your soul. If I could recover my power, it would only be a child's play to track that despicable god. Hmph, he must have used some despicable means due to which I was forced to split my own soul and attach one of my soul fragments to your soul to save myself."
'So now I am free from that god's control...and it seems like she attached herself to my soul.'
"But why did you attach your soul to mine? Am I not just a lowly mortal to you?" Damien sarcastically asked.
She snorted as she said, "It's not like I had a choice. I have to admit that your soul is one of the things that truly stand out when compared to other mortals I have seen. Your soul is abnormally strong for a cripple to even host one of my soul fragments. If I didn't see it for myself, I would have never believed a mortal could possess such an abnormal soul. Even though I don't remember attaching myself to you, there is no other way my soul would have linked with yours without my wish. I must have found you in my weakest state and attached myself before my consciousness can dissipate."
'So seems like my soul is kind of special. Maybe that must be why I was so powerful in my previous life. But I don't remember meeting this girl just like she doesn't...maybe it has to do with my lost memories.' Damien mused.