I open the door slowly.
I step out of my room for the first time in a long time, I don't even remember the last time and the only time I came outside my room, I think it was the time when I was overtaken by curiosity and wanted to see how the house outside my room looked like, but I was only met with a dark, spooky hallway and I quickly ran back into my room.
As soon as I'm out of my room, I feel a drastic change in the temperature.
Hmm? Why is it suddenly h–
"Are you Charles?"
My heart felt like it contracted as I heard his deep, cold voice which was eerily calm and authoritative.
I raise my head to meet the face of the towering figure that stood next to me.
A giant...
The gaze from his chilling cold blue eyes feels like it's piercing directly into my soul, like it can see everything about me.
I can trace the direction of his gaze, he's looking at my hair, probably the color as it contrasted with my red eyes.
His eyes meet with mine.
I feel small, like... Like I'm nothing as I look into his eyes.
I can't respond to him, I don't know why, I want to speak but I can't, I just stare at him blankly, my lips quivering slightly, parting and closing again.
Why do I feel this way? What the hell is this? Why am I this intimidated?
Sweat starts to form on my body. Not because I feel intimidated by him, but because of the sudden temperature rise
He let out a deep, annoyed sigh as he rolled his eyes.
"As I thought. Pathetic."
His words strike a chord in my heart.
He turns his face away from mine.
My fingers curl into a fist as I feel a surge of emotion quaking from my heart.
It's okay, it's okay, I half expected this, I expected to be hated by everyone and treated like shit, calm down, I have only one goal in mind.
I unclench my fist.
"You better follow behind me. If you don't want to get lost." He says nonchalantly.
Fucking Asshole.
I swallow hard, resisting the urge to snap back with a nasty insult, because if there's anything I've learned In my past life as a businessman, it's how to be patient and tolerant with assholes. I don't want to be burned to death just because I couldn't keep my damn mouth shut.
I follow behind him cautiously as we walk past the dark and narrow hallway.
It's silent, only the sound of our footsteps can be heard.
This hallway is long, it's almost as if it's never-ending, we've been walking for five minutes.
As we walk through the hallway, I see many large wooden doors on both the left and right sides of the hallway.
They must be rooms...
I look forward, glancing at the man walking in front of me, he's tall, with long, shoulder-length blonde hair that he ties into a ponytail.
He has stubs of facial hair and he's dressed in a half-plated metal armor that has a crest at the left side of the breastplate. When I looked at it back at my room door, I saw the crest– it's a bird with fire around it. Must be the family symbol, after all, he is a mage of the family.
But I still can't get over this red flowy cape that he wears.
I scoff.
What does he think he is? Superman?
Finally. We arrive at what seems to be the end of the hallway. We meet a large door, it's larger than the other doors I saw as we passed through the hallway, this door has golden patterns on it, fancier than the others.
Creak!
He pushes the door open.
Ahhhhh. A cascading wave of cool breeze baths my body, and the heat I felt while walking with him disappears.
I set my sights on a scenery that I've never seen since I was born in this world.
The yellow sun shines its light on the world as I see various workers walking to and fro around the compound. Some of them are maids, some are errand runners, and some aren't workers and are dressed in blue uniforms like students, I see some gardeners tending to the flowers right at the entrance of the compound.
I can see a great golden gate at the front of the building, not too far from the flowers where the gardeners are.
Outside the fence, I see houses made of wood and the ground of the street is littered with mud. I can see children, some of them are my body's age, playing in the street and dirtying themselves.
There are four guards dressed in red uniforms with the same bird and fire crest, guarding the golden gate outside, preventing kids and other people from entering the compound through the gate.
"Are you just gonna stand there?"
My guide, who was already about eight steps away from me turns back and says.
I immediately recollect myself, shaking my head.
I step down from the wooden stairs that I see below me, it's just three steps down.
"I'm coming."
He doesn't wait for me and continues walking.
At the sight of him, every worker, with stiff and dim expressions on their faces– Obviously reverence, halt their movements and tasks to bow their heads down to him in greeting.
Just who is he?
He doesn't pay attention to them and continues walking, it must be a normal occurrence for him.
As I walk behind him, all the eyes of the maids, gardeners, workers and strange teenagers with uniforms are on me.
I can hear their chattering and gossips, and they're all saying the same thing:
"That's the illegitimate young master of the Flameworths."
Ha! It's even more blatant than I thought, even these people... It doesn't matter to me though.
I look back to see the building I had just come out from with my guide.
It's a bleak building made of a material that I can't distinguish, but it's most likely block? one can tell just by looking at it, that it's not properly taken care of, even the milk-coloured paint is peeling off.
Tsk.
I turn to look in the direction where I and my guide are headed, I can see various buildings inside the mansion, and all of them look better than the one we just came out from, and the one we're heading to is the best-looking building.
It's a big, really big red and white colored building.
He halts and turns back to face me.
"We have reached the mansion of the Flameworths. Where the family resides."
My guide speaks to me with his cold voice.
"Mansion of the Flameworths? So where have I been living all these years?"
His eyes widen as he looks at me, probably shocked by the fact that a four-year-old child with a tiny voice like mine is asking him such a sound question.
"You live in the building reserved for... Servants."
My face contorts into an unreadable expression.
"I see."
My heart pounds with bitterness as I stare at the building that we're about to enter.
"How old are you ag–"
"Let's go in."
My voice is sharp and tiny, but It's still authoritative and a 'bit' commanding, I had lived my life as someone who ordered people around back on earth, so I guess that attitude is still somehow stuck with me.
––––––––––––
I guess bloodline never lies huh
A smile creeps up my lips as I watch the little kid walk up the stairs.
I was the one in front guiding him, but he's the one in front of me now.
Ever since we left that rundown building, he changed entirely.
Not bad.
I watch him stand next to the door.
"Won't you open it?"
Is he ordering me? Cute kid. Let me just please him for now, after all, he might not even be alive by the end of the day.
A kid that doesn't act like a kid– even though it was his first time outside that house, he didn't allow awe to overwhelm him and he carries himself like... A refined adult, he even has better manners than most commoners...
I look at him with an encouraging look on my face, at least that's what I think, I don't know my expression.
Don't die kid.
–––––––––––––––
What the fu– I mean hell is he doing?
I flinch as I see the ominous look on his face and that eery gaze that's suddenly focusing on me.
Let's just go in!