"You don't want to be a baron and have elves by your side, boy?!" The duke asks, extremely surprised, with a smile on his face.
"Yes, my duke. Elves are very beautiful, but..." I think about telling him that I have someone in my heart, but his gaze, the promise that the former owner of this body made to the maid who gave me food, and my treacherous attraction to Ana prevent me from doing so. I feel my defenses fall, and I've only been here a day—certainly there are other women in the world.
"Oh, there are, boy. Beautiful demi-humans; some with bunny ears and others with crocodile tails. And how beautiful they are, boy. Surely you won't forget the first time you see one. I can well say that at least these men haven't forgotten." The duke looks at the guards behind me with a teasing expression, and everyone starts laughing, including the knight behind him. And I call him a knight because of his black armor with the wolf he wears and his silver sword or a similar metal.
The atmosphere remained calm and serene with the duke's eccentric and abnormal way of acting. From my experience reading books, the duke seemed like the type of character who captured the soul and heart of readers; that was his way of being. But I could perfectly see that there was much more to him than just his good humor and obscene jokes. His eyes, at times, seemed to reveal sadness and a deep aversion to life and something more. Most likely because of Ana's mother. "Could the red-haired girl be a bastard?" I think, and the thought made logical sense. After all, the look the girl gave her father conveyed a lot.
"Father, but what inappropriate behavior is this?" She carried a certain anger and hurt in her voice, her eyes letting the drop of life flow like a poorly closed faucet. The duke looks her in the eyes with an expression of sincere adoration, but with a light touch of irritation, thus creating an almost comical contrast. "Oh, my dear daughter, why do you get so upset with your old man?" He gives her a little pat on the head and turns to me and the guards, with Ariny and Ana watching with a smile. "You know what? You can leave. Everyone, except the slave and Delluzio."
"This is what I'm talking about, father! When things go wrong for you, you always resort to authority and at times even violence!"
Using authority? He's a duke. He needs to use authority to guide his flock of sheep with strange hair and temperaments. That's what authority is for—to maintain order. Besides, this girl was his daughter, and speaking to her father this way was very uncomfortable and could result in her being punished. Andy wasn't abusing his power, but his daughter seemed to be abusing it.
"I. Said. Everyone, except: The slave and Delluzio. I may be the duke of Decatry, but I'm your father, and I ask this of you as a father: control yourself and go to the carriage or see if nothing is missing for the academy. Ask the maids to prepare some Alór clothes; the sla..." He looks at me with a hint of guilt.
"I apologize, boy. If I had known you were going to be chosen by a god, I would never have let Ana buy you. This is my fault for never making them feel the consequences of their actions." No one seemed to be smiling anymore. "What's your name?"
I look at the duke and ask myself the same question. I gave myself the name Ethan because of the story my mother used to tell me, but apparently, this was the original body's name. An unnatural and complicated coincidence. I shift my gaze from Andy to the two suns that were already in the middle of the sky and sigh, laden with burdens of sadness and the weight of other emotions that contradicted each other in everything.
"Ethan, my duke."
He raises a hand, palm open.
"Hello, Ethan, I am Andy van Decatry, the duke of Decatry Island, son of Agrís Decatry, and progenitor of three devils."
I grab his hand, and a genuine smile falls upon my face.
"Father, don't ignore me!" The blood-red-haired girl begins to tremble with rage as if she were Edmond Dantès after being unjustly imprisoned. "You shouldn't..."
"I love you very much, my daughter. But I don't want to have to educate you in front of the guards and Delluzio. I don't like to spend resources unnecessarily; I saw the war and I know what comes out of it. If you don't want me to suddenly marry you off to some noble boy, do what I asked. Stop being spoiled. At least Alór has a brain and common sense. Since you can't even be normal! Besides, if it weren't for my twisted mind, none of you would be alive." Seeing that his daughter began to sob, the duke gives her a tight hug.
"I know that Mom never shows up around here and you're very tired. But if Dad doesn't smile, who will? Look at your mother, she barely smiles, and that pushes people away from her. Now"—he brushes some hair away from her face—"go do what I asked you." The girl gives her father a kiss on the cheek and leaves with her defeated sisters, as if she hadn't been arguing with her father just minutes ago about matters of etiquette. The guards laugh and leave after bowing to their lord, who, surprisingly, also bowed to his subjects and laughed with them.
When everyone disappears from the stable, the duke says:
"I apologize for you having to witness this, boy"—Andy sighs. "Today is not only the anniversary of Ana's mother's death; today is the day their grandmother died because of a wolf. The old lady was caught while walking without any guard." There was something indecipherable in Andy's eyes, as if he were a knight who had suffered much and continued to suffer, but still found ways to be rational and playful. "So, if you can, be patient with the three of them, and I wasn't joking when I said you could hit Ana."
"Yes, my duke. Don't worry, I don't plan to upset any of them. Especially because I doubt I'd come out alive if I did. I'll try my best to understand Sara."
The duke laughs, and then looks at me with a mischievous expression on his face, beginning to walk toward the rift of reality that kept alternating between various colors.
"I thought you wanted Ana, but you seem to covet Sara too, boy. Good luck."
"No, my duke, I don't..."
"Then be careful, Ethan"—the duke called me by my name, most likely to emphasize what he was about to say. "Keep this for your life: Unless you are on equal footing with a noble, you should never call her by just her first name. You should always use her title or 'miss' and 'lady' before her first name. But with Ana, you don't need to; Ariny likes to feel young, so call her Ary, if she doesn't stab something into your skull, or 'miss,' never 'lady,' and treat Sara as 'miss.' She's the most normal of the sisters."
"Alright, my du..."
"Call me Andy, boy. Didn't you see how even the maids call me Andy? Why wouldn't you be able to?" The duke laughs, and Delluzio, who wasn't given to smiling, sees his lips rise almost imperceptibly.
"Alright, Andy."
"That's better, much, much better. This way, maybe you can get the king's son to stop killing for power. Ha-ha-ha-ha!!" Now even Delluzio was laughing hard. He turns and points at Delluzio.
"You can call him by his name too; you don't need honorifics like 'knight' or 'sir.' He-he. And I doubt anyone who knew him would call him that." The duke stops laughing and stares fixedly at the portal when he sees that Delluzio was no longer laughing. The portal had stopped changing color and maintained its reddish tone. "Very well, but do you know why I called you here today, Ethan, besides your trip to the academy, of course?"
"To enter the portal and defeat monsters?"
"No, boy, no. It's for something much simpler; you won't need to get your hands dirty. You're Macano's chosen one, the creator god, and it wouldn't suit him if his chosen one died the first time he entered a Torrus-endra. You're going to go in there and answer some questions."
"Questions, my duke? What questions?" I look him in the eyes, and he doesn't seem to have noticed that I had returned to calling him "my duke."
"Yes, boy. Questions, from another layer of reality. See this as an onion: The first layer of the onion is our layer, and when you enter a Torrus-endra, you'll go to another layer of the onion. Now, if you change to another onion, you'll go to another world, if other worlds indeed exist. Did you understand?"
Everything was extremely strange, and there was something, perhaps intuition, that told me this onion analogy was much more complicated than that. But it wasn't time for fear. I have to complete my mission in this world, whatever it is, and return to Júlia before I have a lapse.
"I understood, but... is there any way to enter another onion? And will Macano appear, and if he does appear, what will he ask me? He's a god, shouldn't he know things without me telling him?"
"There are no records of people leaving this world, but there are records of people from another world stealing someone's body to take them over, so yes, there are ways to travel to other worlds. We just don't know how. Macano won't appear, and the questions themselves aren't important. This is a test. Your god will ask you uncomfortable things, and how you respond will determine whether you keep your position as chosen one."
"But..."
"Get up and go answer Macano's questions. I need to prepare things to receive the nobles and the king in a few days; maybe you'll have to use your chosen one powers sooner than I had when I was your age to defeat Tryni. I hope not, but the two suns have been very unstable, and you are, right now, the only chosen one, which is strange. Go, boy, keep your head steady, and don't you dare lose that sword. It's special..." Andy turns and leaves without saying another word.
"Bye, kid. Survive until the tournament in Lutos." Delluzio also leaves, and I notice the maid who said she knew me looking at me from a hidden corner, as if I were a dangerous animal. Her eyes were red, and she seemed to want to tell me something but didn't know how. I enter the portal, Torrus-endra, and go...
---
The scene was blindingly white, very different from the place where Macano had received me. The floor was made of extremely fine white sand. The place was infinite, and I saw nothing but blinding white.
I decide to walk until I spot something. "How am I going to answer questions if Macano won't be here?" I think, irritated that no one tells me things from start to finish. I walk. I walk. I walk. I walk. I walk. I walk. I walk. Until I finally find two doors. At the foot of the doors, I see several flowers with diamond petals. I steal some. I hate helping the stereotype that Black people steal. "But I'm not Black anymore. So there's no harm in taking a few more, right?" I think, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
I look at the sign between the two doors. The left one is black as coal. The right one is white as snow. Nothing is written on them. I read:
"Answer the question—Do you consider yourself Denis or Ethan? If you consider yourself Denis, enter the left door. If you consider yourself Ethan, enter the right one."
This question is... uncomfortable.
I am Denis. But I died as Denis. I was reborn or transmigrated into a body that isn't mine. Does that make me Ethan? Or am I still Denis? I know nothing about this body, and I know nothing about the person who had it before. So, what am I? I can't be a hybrid, certainly not; I've never read anything like that, or maybe I have and simply don't remember.
Oh, wait. That's exactly what I am. A greedy thief. I'm a body thief! Someone who stole a hero's place from some other boy. I dig my nails into the palm of my hand until I start to feel pain.
Either way, why think so much about it? This new life isn't mine. It's Ethan's. And am I Ethan?
I enter the right door, with guilt.
Fortunately, when I come out of the right door, I come across two more doors. Left black and right white. This time, the diamond flowers at the bottom—attached to the white sand and earth—had multiplied by two. As the honest person I am, I take some. I stuff them into the only pocket my suit gives me.
This time, written on the sign, clearly:
"Would you be willing to seduce women who look at you with disgust (the chosen ones of the gods) so that one of your desires becomes reality?"
I enter the right one. From what I understood, left means no. Right means yes. I am willing to do anything to bring Júlia from Earth here. If I can't, I am willing to do anything to have a harem of beautiful elves.
This time, the flowers multiply by three. I no longer have room in my pocket. So I leave them in their proper place.
On the sign, this time, it's written: "And men...?"
No!
I enter the left one.
From what I understood, these questions were made with more than one intent. If I seduce the chosen ones of gods—even if they hate me—then I'll have a desire fulfilled. Perhaps I should start with her...