Cold.
That was the first thing I felt—a bone-deep chill, as if death itself had wrapped its fingers around my ribs and squeezed. Then, fire. A searing pain lanced through my veins, my heart lurching like a wild beast trying to escape its cage.
I shouldn't be alive.
The thought was instinctive. My last memory—skidding tires, blinding headlights, the sickening crunch of metal—was already fading, replaced by something… foreign.
No. Not foreign. His.
Memories surged like a floodgate breaking.
Lucian D'Aureville.
Sole heir to House Aureville. Seventeen years old. Orphaned. And very, very rich.
A bitter laugh bubbled in my throat. Of course. The universe had a sick sense of humor. Back on Earth, I'd been a nobody—overworked, underpaid, and dead before thirty. Now? I was nobility draped in silk, drowning in gold… and murdered by my own kin.
The last fragments of Lucian's memory flickered—his uncle's too-wide smile. A goblet of wine pressed into his hand. The crushing pain that had gripped his heart. Then—darkness.
Until now.
[System Initializing…]
A translucent blue screen flickered before my eyes, its glowing text searing into my retinas.
[Welcome, Host. Vitality Stabilized. Soul Integration: 100%]
[Legacy Detected: Aureville Bloodline]
[Poison Resistance: 50%]
I barely had time to process the words before—
A gasp shattered the silence.
"M-My lord…?"
A maid stood frozen in the doorway, her face bloodless. The tray in her hands hit the floor with a deafening clatter.
For a heartbeat, we just stared at each other. Then she screamed.
"HE'S ALIVE! THE YOUNG MASTER—HE'S BREATHING!"
Chaos erupted.
A series of running footsteps sounded before someone burst into my room. It was a beautiful blonde haired girl, she rushed into the room at a sprint, ending up at my bedside.
Tears poured down her face as she looked at me, sobbing, "you're alive."
Before I could even process this,
Another stream of people poured in, their faces twisted in shock. A physician—an elderly man with shaking hands—lunged forward, pressing fingers to my wrist. His breath hitched.
"Impossible… the poison was lethal. He should be—"
"Dead?"
The voice that left my lips was Lucian's—smooth, aristocratic, laced with a venomous amusement that was all mine.
"Disappointing my relatives seems to be a talent of mine."
The room went still.
Then—boots. Heavy, hurried. The crowd parted like frightened sheep as a man stormed in.
Uncle Reynard.
Broad-shouldered and wolfishly handsome, his emerald-green doublet strained over his frame as he froze mid-stride. For the first time in his political career, his mask slipped.
"L-Lucian?"
The raw shock in his voice was sweeter than any wine.
His face—handsome, if not for the cruel twist of his mouth—was a mask of perfect shock. "You—how—?"
I tilted my head, drinking in the panic flashing behind his eyes. Oh, you bastard. You thought you won.
"Uncle." I crooned, letting my voice drip with false warmth. "How… disappointed you look."
His jaw clenched. I saw the exact moment his mind raced—how? Why?—before his politician's facade slammed back into place.
"Nonsense, my boy! We all mourned you. The physicians declared—"
"A mistake."
A new voice cut through the room, deep and ironclad.
The crowd split like the Red Sea as a mountain of a man stepped forward—Garron, Lucian's personal guard and his most loyal retainer. His obsidian armor gleamed as he dropped to one knee beside my bed, his voice a vow.
"My lord. You live."
The reverence in his tone sent a pang through me. This man had stayed loyal even when Lucian's corpse grew cold.
I reached out, clasping his forearm—a soldier's grip. "Thanks to someone's poor poisoncraft."
Reynard's eye twitched.
[System Alert: Hostile Intent Detected – 'Uncle Reynard D'Aureville']
[Objective: Survive the Viper's Nest]
I leaned back against the pillows, exhaustion tugging at me.
As I laid back on my pillows, my body too exhausted from the experience, something in my uncle's mind finally snapped.
The thought of a cooked duck flying from his mouth—of his carefully laid plans crumbling because I dared to survive—seemed to unravel the last threads of his restraint. His face twisted, his polished noble demeanor cracking like thin ice under a hammer.
He stepped forward.
His steps were slow, deliberate, menacing. His aura—thick with killing intent—billowed around him like a storm front. The crushing weight of a champion's aura suffocating everyone in the room, including me.
I gasped, the pressure driving the air from my lungs. My fingers clawed at the sheets, my vision darkening at the edges.
Shit. He's really going to do it.
Reynard's lips peeled back in a snarl. "You should have stayed dead."
just as I thought I would suffocate—just as I thought the bastard would finally get what he wanted—
A broad back stepped in front of me.
Garron.
His own aura erupted, not in a wild tempest, but in a controlled inferno, steady and unyielding. The two forces collided, the air itself trembling under the strain.
And then—
Garron's aura pushed back.
Hard.
Reynard's killing intent buckled, his advance halting mid-step. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he strained against Garron's will.
The room itself seemed to warp, the pressure distorting the candle flames, making the tapestries ripple like water.
Garron didn't speak. He didn't need to.
His sword remained sheathed.
His stance remained relaxed.
But his eyes—
They promised death.
Reynard's breath came in short, furious bursts. His fingers twitched toward the sword at his waist—
"Try it," Garron said, his voice low. "See what happens."
For a heartbeat, the world held its breath.
Reynard regarded Garron with a furious stare, but his reason finally reasserted himself. He plastered on a fake smile, "I was just too worried for you nephew, I got a little too carried away. I'll let you rest."
With that he flashed out of the room, followed by his flashy revenue. Garron remained static, staring at the door until he confirmed they had left.
Only a few people were left in the room, I took this chance to observe them and identify them.
felt my eyelids become heavy as the exhaustion finally caught up to me, i instructed Garron to show everyone out, thanking them for their loyalty before finally, darkness swallowed me whole.