Justice is another tool used by those who wish to wash their hands off the blood that they swore to protect, a perfect irony. They wish to use weapons to end the war they preach to be the cause of all evil and suffering, yet here they are brandishing their blades against those who simply think differently than them.
Humanity in itself is a deplorable existence, filled with irony, misery and malice.
But those negativities are what makes us feel alive after all so why shun it?
"This world is a never-ending battlefield, no one will ever come to an agreement unless another ideal looms in the darkness. Humanity... such a foolish concept preached but at the end of the day... it's impossible to even escape our most primal instincts."
How many days have it been? How many days have I been fighting in this barren wasteland, slashing and cutting those who came charging at me with the intent to subdue the unstoppable force that is my blade. One body after another, they're all the same in my eyes, dropping like the flies they are.
How many days have it been since I've seen my face? I desire to see those old scars of mine again, I might've grown my beard once more? Who am I kidding, time doesn't even fly that fast.
Seeing that there's no more resistance left, I finally took a seat on the huge rock nearby, supposedly a burning boulder thrown by the catapult used by the enemies, which dealt a lot against our forces, but it's cooled down now so one didn't need to mind.
I wanted to rest for a long time but taking a look over this place filled with nothing but spears piercing some of the bodies around, swords with half of its blade buried on the grown while others were still plunged deep inside its respective enemies, tattered banners blown by the wind with the insignia of the lion and the crow.
Looking over to the north where it's mostly flames, grey smoke and dust. Is there anyone even alive at this point?
Hardly matters.
I said I was fighting for the freedom and authority of the people of the empire, to have those ignorant people on the other side join us so we could all unite under one flag that wishes for the betterment of this world.
But looking at this land filled with unnecessary blood and lives lost, I'm starting to see the hypocrisy.
I stood up to look over the puddle to see my reflection, wondering if I still even have humanity left in me.
Dead fish eyes with eyebags under them, long black hair and an almost well-kept beard enough to make the ladies fall, I'd say I'm still in my prime dating form.
"Who am I even kidding? I don't think a monster like me could even date at this point."
I looked at my crimson tattered cape with the insignia of a crow before tearing it off, crumpling it and tossing it on the ground. I clutched my sides as I felt something odd, which is most likely pain but it seems that i've become numb to it.
I tried to walk forward but it wasn't even granted the luxury of walking aimlessly...
*Thud!*
As I already fell on the ground, lying alongside the enemy soldiers and my fallen comrades.
"... Man... if i were reborn... wished I dated a well endowed woman atleast or gotten some kids..."
And with my parting words on this world uttered with my very last breath, I closed my eyes.
Or how it's supposed to be.
As I felt excruciating pain overwhelm my body in an instant, rising from the soft mattress where I presumed i'm laying earlier. Sweating profusely, I began to question myself.
What?
Where the hell am I?
Who picked me up? What the hell is this pain all over me!?
Aren't I supposed to be finding my resting ground?
Those were the questions that came to me first but what horrified me more is the odd feeling of my body right now... It feels heavy, it feels hard to even move around.
It didn't even feel like... me.
I tried to look at my hands that were trembling and the real question is... Am I even in my own body or was I reborn?
These feelings that washed over me were nothing to scoff at, nervousness, fear and somewhat the urge to run away from this place? Like hell I'd run from anything. But first and foremost...
Looking around me, this place is a small room with wooden walls and a carved desk beside my bed. I can hear the chirps of the birds outside and the flaps of their wings. Looking outside I came to see the new world before me. Greeneries and bustling sounds of the city nearby... the grunts of what looked like workers rebuilding a wreckage of a building?
What is this place? This can't be the empire.
But I didn't even have much time to process all this information coming to me at once before...
*Slam!*
The door swung open and before I could even react, I was raised on the air by my neck by... a kid? Of all people!?
"You little son of a b**ch... thinking that you could pretend to be sick and completely avoid me? But guess what!
I can finally repay your peeking head by completely caving it in! That way you can never look at my sister again!"
I can almost feel the rage and hate oozing from this kid but forget about that, he's choking me that I can barely even breathe! There was no time to even process all of these things occurring at once but if I have any sense of self-preservation right now, I have to act!
"That's right! Crumble and feel how my sister felt!" The kid said with gritting teeth as his fingers slowly dug into my neck.
I'm sorry in advance but you gave me no choice!
It is a good thing that this kid is choking me with only one hand as I mustered all the mana in the surroundings that this new body can handle which isn't much, but never underestimate a battle-hardened soldier.
[Excelsus - First Collapse]
Focusing all that in my left arm as I gave the brat a palm strike that caused a shockwave enough to push him back enough to let me go as I fell on the ground coughing and gasping for air.
"... F**k! You almost killed me there... you f**king psycho!" I groaned holding my neck before I looked at the brat.
A messy long red hair, blue eyes, standard empire student uniform and... the colors are wrong? they're not supposed to be white, gold and silver! they're supposed to be the cool and edgy black, red and silver! not to mention there's a golden lion insignia on his left chest!? This kid's an enemy!
I stumbled trying to regain my composure to enter a fighting stance, this brat right here might be here to assassinate a sneaky one but I wouldn't back down on a challenge!
"F**king [Velkaarn] scumbag!" The brat spouted, ever so spiteful but I don't think I could gauge out where it's coming from, I didn't sense any proper killing intent from him at all.
"You think you're a big shot learning a Tier D skill!? Newsflash for you asshole, everyone can!"
Tier D skill? Does he mean [Excelsus - First Collapse]?
"I'll show you what a real skill is and it'll burn your annoying ass face!" This kid's hatred towards me is serious, it almost felt as if I killed his family, it's not that deep.
Especially with that burning mana gathering around his clenched fist, I'm quite familiar with this one due to just how simple, practical and effective it is.
[Fire Bolt]
I'm not sure if I can handle it right now with how heavy my body is but I'll try dispelling it otherwise!
"Stop it already, Elias!"
A pleading girl's voice and all that gathering of mana was put into a halt.
"Seris!? W-why are you here!?" So Elias was the name of this brat.
"Of course to stop you from doing something so reckless and stupid!" Looking past that brat was a short woman with blue hair, silver highlights and sharp golden eyes having the same golden palette uniform albeit with a knee-level skirt. Is this the brat's sister?
They hardly look like one another, but you couldn't judge a book by its cover.
"But if we let this guy off the hook..."
"Shut up! I don't care, do you wanna get expelled!?"
This looks like a mom scolding her child, now I felt somewhat bad for instigating this, somehow?
"Sorry for ever disturbing you! Mr. Bigshot!" Seris said but it sounded sarcastic.
The brat followed after Seris but not without that girl giving me a sharp disgusted glare as saying this entire thing was my fault and it'll be on me if her sibling ever gets kicked out.
And as quick as they entered, they disappeared. Not a pleasing experience for a confused man like me, but if it isn't already obvious... I'm in another person's body. Most likely someone in their 20s perhaps since those two kids looked like they're around that age, there's the mention of expulsion which only means one thing as well.
I possessed some kid's body that's attending an academy with inappropriate behavior. But why is a [Lunareth] student in here... not to mention they called me a [Velkaarn] scum? What's a [Velkaarn] in the first place?
As much as I wanted to find out what that is, first I have to do something about the main problem, I don't know whose body this but its current state is way too horrible, one might say irreparable. The [Mana] roots are scattered in the wrong places, some are disabled, some are overlapping each other which isn't a good sign, trying to cast any [Skill] with that kind of roots is asking for internal explosion.
If I could only rearrange these then it'd be fantastic, but the problem is... I don't know how to rearrange mana roots.
But honestly, frustrating over these kinds of things this way too early while putting wrinkles on my face fast, can't have the owner of this body extremely disappointed if I ruin their face.
I looked around the mow messy room for any mirrors which there are unfortunately none — which leads to the next thing that mostly has mirrors, the bathroom.
...
God he looks so plain.
Forget the wrinkles but even that would be a compliment to this dunce in front of the mirror right now. Red eyes, long messy black hair. I haven't even noticed it but I've been wearing nothing but this plain white short and these casual black grey leggings.
He doesn't even look funny or ugly, being ugly might've been a compliment to this boring face that makes me miss my good old beard.
I've been trying to avoid it for a while but staring at this mirror makes me think what kind of life this person had before I took over his body.
"I wonder if this is just heaven at this point giving me a chance to experience youth... nah, I'd be sent straight down to the boiler room of hell."
Wouldn't it be funny if I gave myself a good haircut? But damn, I miss that ol' beard of mine.
"Huh?"
Something felt odd, a looming feeling over my chest as something was about to consume me. I can't tell if it's dread, danger or anything but it doesn't feel like a positive or a negative. A strange feeling that I simply couldn't explain...
...?
Sharp pain strikes my mind as voices fill as I writhe on the floor clutching my head, as if any moment now it will explode.
"ARGH! SH** WHAT IN THE BLOODY F**KING HELL!?"
The pain continues until...
[System Reconnected. Welcome, Elric von Eisenwald.]