Chapter 2 : The Axis of Evil (1)

At first, I thought it was some kind of crow model, so I rubbed my eyes several times.

But the fellow was still tilting its head, its black eyes twinkling.

My vision was clear, and the fellow was still distinct.

Once it became clear that there was nothing wrong with my eyes, and that it wasn't a model, I had no choice but to push myself up from the soft bed and look around.

A luxurious room, which looked even larger than my house, though it showed its age, came into view.

“……Where am I?”

“Caw!”

The crow cawed, as if answering my mumble.

What on earth was this thing, staying put even when a human had been screaming since earlier?

Half feeling that the crow was strange, and half feeling that I should first check outside the window to see where this place was, I got out of bed and approached the window.

Though I soon had to stop at the unfamiliar face faintly reflected in the window.

“……Huh?”

A dopey voice, unlike me, came out.

A face with upturned eyes that looked a bit fierce, and a somewhat youthful face, somewhere between a boy and an adult.

Maybe around 20 years old?

Unfortunately, it wasn't that I had become younger.

Because it was just a complete stranger's face, with nothing in common except black hair and black eyes.

It was a strangely familiar face, but it was definitely not the face I saw in the bathroom every morning.

And it wasn't my face from when I was young, either.

I fumbled and touched the face reflected in the window.

My hand was moving according to my will, and my facial muscles also moved as I controlled them.

I was dumbfounded by the sense of disconnect that came from a different person's face moving, even though it was unmistakably my body.

In the end, the conclusion I reached was

“……Should I just faint?”

but,

“……Caaaw?”

Thanks to the crow cawing as if answering my monologue from behind the window reflecting my face, I lost my strength, and it couldn't be realized.

I stared at the fellow, dumbfounded that it had broken the serious atmosphere.

“Caaaw!! Caaaw!!!”

The fellow, letting out a cry indistinguishable from a squawk, now even flapped its wings a little, as if it was excited about something.

“Do you understand what I'm saying?”

“Caw!!!”

It was even faithfully giving something resembling an answer.

This situation, communicating with a crow in a strange kid's body.

If something that would never happen in reality was happening, there was only one answer.

“It's a f*cking dream.”

Tap! Tap!

To the empty monologue, the fellow responded again by tapping on the window.

As clear as its meaning to 'open up' was, its intention to come in also seemed certain.

Still, I had no intention of opening it.

Even if it was a dream, I didn't want to see that level of chaos.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tatak!

But when it seemed like I wouldn't open it, the fellow began to hit the window even more fiercely.

It wasn't just a funny crow, but a foul-tempered crow.

Rattle. Rattle.

If it had just been noisy, I would have tried to ignore it, but when the window frame, which retained the full flow of time, began to shake along with the fellow's pecking, I had no choice but to surrender.

“Shh! Dammit, I get it, so stop.”

Even if it was a dream, my petty-bourgeois side, which couldn't bear to watch an expensive-looking structure be damaged, popped out, and I had no choice but to open the window.

The fellow flew into the room as if it had been waiting.

Then it naturally sat on my shoulder and nuzzled its head against me.

“Are you a bird the owner of this room was raising?”

To say that, there was no sign of a birdcage or of an animal having been raised anywhere in the room.

I felt it wasn't right to let a winged beast into an expensive-looking room, so to release the now-calm fellow back outside, I stuck the arm it was sitting on out the window.

The fellow just looked at me calmly, as if unafraid of my hand trying to brush it off my shoulder.

Knock knock.

“Kaak?!”

The hand I had extended to lightly brush it off was startled by the knocking sound and ended up grabbing the fellow's neck tightly for a moment.

The bird struggled in surprise, and I, startled as well, quickly let the fellow go.

I didn't know for sure, but it seemed certain that the fellow was cursing me out with its eyes.

“Th-…… It wasn't on purpose.”

I offered words of apology as calmly as possible to the flustered fellow, but the crow just looked at me with eyes full of betrayal before flying far away.

“Ugh.”

What came before my guilt towards the fellow had faded was a faint pain transmitted to my fingers.

Blood was flowing from the wound caused by the poor bird's struggling just now.

The problem was,

“Why does this hurt?”

The pain, which shouldn't be felt in a dream, was too distinct.

***

Knock knock knock.

Before the confusion could even fade, this time the continuous knocking sound pressed down on me.

It was hard to make a rational judgment in this sudden situation.

Why did this hurt?

Was I such an imaginative person in the first place?

That definitely couldn't be it.

Suddenly, an ominous thought that maybe all of this was real flashed through my mind.

My sense of reality, which had been faint until then, grabbed hold of me forcefully.

***

This is a really big problem, isn't it?

I'm inside a stranger's body right now.

And I'm about to show that state in front of someone else.

But should I just tell them honestly?

Would they even believe me?

If it were me, I'd think they were sick somewhere.

I wasn't confident the other person wouldn't think the same.

Besides, the body I had entered was lanky, but judging by the face, it was a child who looked like he might not even be an adult.

It would be a relief if they just accepted it as the lie of an adolescent boy craving adult attention.

What if they suggested outpatient or inpatient treatment at a mental hospital without hesitation?

When I didn't answer, the person who had knocked revealed their identity.

“Your Highness. It is Sein.”

It seemed to be a young man.

But, a Prince? Were they talking to me?

Was I literally a Prince?

If not, his parents had an incredible naming sense.

While I was having these thoughts, the other person continued, as if not intending to give me time to worry.

“Pardon the intrusion.”

And I heard the sound of a hand on the door.

I hadn't expected them to come in like that when I hadn't even answered yet, so I had to rack my brain.

Right, first, let's pretend to be the owner of the body and buy some time.

That would be better than immediately saying I'm not this boy, but a 28-year-old office worker from somewhere far away.

Having reached a conclusion, I leaned against the window in the most natural posture I could manage, with the heart of a prisoner awaiting a death sentence.

A cool breeze blew in from outside the window, drying my cold sweat a little.

At this moment, I was starting to envy the crow that had escaped the complicated situation and flown away.

Dammit, if only I could fly away and escape like that bird from earlier.

This was just a silly thought.

Just like idly wishing, 'Ah, if only I had the ability to teleport,' in a crowded subway; it wasn't a heartfelt wish, just a personal grumble.

It was that moment.

Suddenly, heat rose from deep within my stomach.

It was…… it was a sensation I had never felt in my 28 years of life; it felt like heat starting from my core was enveloping my whole body in the form of warm slime.

The kind of feeling that made me zone out for a moment, wondering if this is what it feels like to be a fetus in a mother's womb.

But it vanished as quickly and emptily as it came.

As if it had been my delusion.

What was that just now?

Click.

I, who had been bewildered by that fleeting sensation that felt like an eternity, snapped to my senses at the sound of the doorknob turning.

Right, first, I have to deal with that person somehow.

The door opened, and a tall man strode in.

I prepared my heart to begin my all-out acting.

The owner of the body didn't seem to have a very pleasant impression, so matching that, I stood with a frown on my brow.

“Good grief…….”

Contrary to what I expected, he must have been a person of gentle character who never lost his smile.

Otherwise, the face of the person who entered couldn't possibly look so horrified.

The man's face crumpled hideously.

“What is this?”

It was a reaction as if he'd noticed something was wrong with me.

At the man's voice, which was even tinged with anger, I immediately changed my stance, smoothed my expression, and opened my mouth to explain.

In the calmest voice possible.

-I am not a strange person.

“Caw! Ca……w?”

But what came out of my vocal cords wasn't a human voice, but some kind of crow sound.

I panicked and opened my mouth one more time.

-No, I'm not the kind of person who suddenly makes crow noises upon meeting someone.

“Caw!! Caw!!”

But what came out was still a crow sound, so it wasn't convincing.

“To manage the room in this state……”

The man, who muttered with a frown, approached me.

“Shoo! Get out!”

I had thought he was big, but when he came closer, he wasn't just big, he was truly huge.

Ah, no.

The man wasn't the huge one.

Only then did I realize that I had become small.

He waved his arms around to chase me away, and I, who had been sitting on the windowsill, ended up flapping my arms in a flurry and flying a lap around the room.

Before I could even be surprised by the fact that I was flying, I now had to escape out the window, avoiding the man who had rolled up some paper and was aiming at me.

My reflection, glimpsed in the window before I left, “Caw!!!” was unmistakably a crow.

***

That is the record of the shameful yet informative experience of my first day of possession, which no one knows about.

I said it was informative because, thanks to it, I came to understand the situation I was in.

That day, I had become a crow and had to drag my bewildering body around, flying over the area until nightfall.

Thanks to that, I eavesdropped on the conversations shared by the soldiers guarding the vicinity of the Imperial Castle, and I went up high and confirmed the three circles drawn on the fluttering national flag.

And when night came, I was able to sit for a long time under the three distinct moons floating in the night sky.

These things were enough for me to draw one certain conclusion.

The conclusion that I had possessed a body in the fantasy novel I loved so much, [Dark Header].

***

A little over a week had passed since I possessed the 7th Prince in the world inside the book.

I waited, hoping to return to my original world on my own, but my body still didn't go back.

Surprisingly, no one noticed the fact that I was a different person.

They didn't seem to have any interest in that sort of thing.

They just faithfully carried out my order not to let anyone in at any time, except for meals.

Thanks to that, I came to calmly understand my situation, very slowly and thoroughly.

I crossed the room, which I was now used to, and examined the mirror hanging on the wall once again.

Black hair and eyes, upturned eyes, the mark of a scar that cut through my left eyebrow, visible only if you looked closely.

This body is unmistakably the Abalan Empire's 7th Prince, Ran Abalan.

“Dammit, of all people……”

A sigh escaped me automatically.

Of all things, it had to be the seventh.

Not the first, second, or third, but the seventh prince.

The one treated the worst among the siblings, and at an awkward age.

The current Emperor has quite a lot of children, so I'm not even the youngest.

I went from being an only son to suddenly having numerous siblings, but I wasn't happy at all.

Because most of them will die within 3 years anyway.

And some of them even die at the hands of the protagonist.

Yes, unfortunately, we are the axis of evil.

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