The dream shattered.
I woke up with a scream, the taste of blood and snow on my tongue.
My chest burned, my hands shook, and tears slipped down my face before I could stop them.
The wind howled outside, rattling the windows. For a moment, I didn't know where I was.
Palace? Battlefield? Past? Present?
I clutched my sheets, gasping for breath. The pain still lingered — sharp, suffocating, real.
It wasn't just a dream, it was his memory. Lioren's final memory.
It took me a full minute of panicked blinking before my brain whispered, You're alive, idiot. Right, alive. In a bed, in a castle. In a 'duke's' body.
I pressed a hand to my chest, half-expecting to feel a sword wound. Instead, I found smooth skin and a violently racing heartbeat.
"That—was not a dream," I muttered, voice still hoarse. "That was trauma in HD quality."
Because, yes, I had just lived Lioren's death.
The pain, the blood, the words "I will never stop loving you, Kael"—everything. It was seared into me.
And the realization hit like another sword to the chest.
Lioren… the duke whose body I now occupied… had died in love with the Emperor.
Yeah that emperor, I don't mind, I completely agree, he is handsome and all…
"Wait, WHAT?!" I sat up so fast the sheets flew off.
'HE WAS GAY?! I mean—of course he could be, that explains the tragic romantic tension—but the emperor? Bro, you picked the worst man possible!'
'How was it possible, wasn't the game a hetero dating sim?'
I covered my face, groaning into my hands. 'Great' . Now I was living in the body of a beautiful, cursed duke who had confessed to the man who killed him.
Talk about an easy way for survival.
I fell back on the bed, staring at the ornate ceiling.
"Okay, okay, focus. You're not Lioren. You're just... borrowing him. Temporarily. Maybe. Hopefully."
Still, my chest ached with a strange heaviness. His last words echoed faintly in my head — not as mine, but as something that lingered, like smoke after a fire. It wasn't my pain, but I could feel it.
I sighed and rolled out of bed. "No use crying over a tragic love story. I've got work to do."
________________________________________
Apparently, being a duke came with responsibilities.
And by responsibilities, I mean an endless parade of papers, servants, and morning training schedules.
My new body's stamina? Decent. My brain? Screaming. The butler, a very serious man named Claude, entered with tea and an expression that said "you terrify me but I will never admit it."
"Good morning, Your Grace," he said with a bow. "Your swordsmanship instructor awaits in the training hall."
I tried to act cool. "Of course. Tell him I'll be there in five."
I was there in fifteen.
Because first, I got lost. Then I realized Lioren's estate was massive. Like, 'I need a horse just to reach the courtyard' massive.
By the time I found the training ground, my hair was a mess, my boots were muddy, and my pride was barely breathing.
The instructor—a grizzled man who looked like he ate swords for breakfast bowed stiffly. "Your Grace. Shall we begin?"
"Sure," I said, trying to sound like I totally knew what I was doing. "Let's… sword."
It went about as well as you'd expect. The sword weighed like ten bricks. My arms felt like noodles. After five minutes, my form collapsed, and the instructor's eyebrows twitched dangerously.
"Are you… feeling unwell, Your Grace?"
'Just… reincarnated' I wheezed. "New body. Adjustment period."
He blinked. "...Pardon?"
"Never mind!" I straightened my back, clutching the sword again. "Let's continue mister"
By the end, my shoulders burned, my hair was damp with sweat, and I was grinning like a maniac.
Because despite the pain — I loved this. Sword fighting, magic lessons, noble drama, it was everything I'd read in novels, everything I used to daydream about while stuck in my boring real-world life.
Now, I was living it. Even if the duke's reputation was in shambles, even if everyone thought I was a monster, I had the chance to live his life.
And I was going to survive.
I flopped back onto my bed later that evening, staring at the golden glow of the sunset spilling through the windows.
"Okay, Duke Lioren," I murmured with a small, tired smile. "Let's not die this time."
The wind outside whispered softly, like it was laughing.