My head was breaking. I couldn't think straightly due to the overwhelming pain. It was like having headaches overlapping over one another at the same time. It was killing me.
As I opened my eyes, a lit stone-walled room with a huge snake greeted me. I couldn't even care about my surroundings at this point. Suddenly, the pain in my head started intensifying like someone was creating a new pathway inside my head and memories unfamiliar started displaying inside my head.
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At first, I was surprised. How could the one I just ate reappear out of thin air? But it was not like it was the same person. I could sense the body of the human I ate, still inside my stomach. I was assessing the human, in front of me, shrieking in pain holding his head. I couldn't read his thoughts like before, it was all chaos inside his head. The situation was maddening even for me. I have never heard or witnessed such a thing over my long time in this world. Does it mean this was immortality? The thing I searched for endlessly? But that wouldn't explain what transpired over here. Soon, I noticed something. The energy within him started increasing in an exponential manner. The situation was getting dangerous. So, I leapt at the human. He swung his arm at the air, in a horizontal manner, at my direction. Before I could understand what happened, I felt my head flying off, my neck was cleanly cut. Did I die? Was I always that weak?
He spoke, "You were the one who killed this body right?" while holding his head.
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I beheaded the snake quickly with my magic essence as soon as recovered the latest first memory that it had killed this body. But the goddamn head-breaking migraine only continued intensifying. It seemed that I was slowly acquiring the memories of the previous owner of my new body. As I started slowly focusing through parts of the information that was overflowing inside my brain, I could go through them without much of the earlier pain. But the pain was still there, not reduced much.
It probably took hours for me to finally accimilate with all the new memories, with fainting several times in between. The process was not in one bit enjoyable. To know what transpired in his life is different, but to feel it by putting myself at that place, experiencing it firsthand was nothing short of torture. To feel all the emotions he had been going through was the breaking point for me. I couldn't get my thoughts straight due to his overwhelming emotions.
The physical pain was something. To feel your own limbs and body being chewed upon and the physical trauma induced on this body by his fourth brother. But the worst was the mental anguish, he had been feeling. He was just a sixteen year old kid. Though I was only twenty-two myself, even I doubt if I could go through this and stay anywhere near sane. He went through constant scorns from his father, the Queen, constant bullying and the fact that he was taught to believe that he deserved this cruel fate. Even after all this, he only prayed for their wellness. He never got any love, so he couldn't have even be able to understand it. The closest he felt affection from would have been his maid. The only person who was there for him all along. Even, I had difficulty differing
Ah. This was really shitty. I spoke aloud,"Where the hell did you send me, Lumina?" But it was not like she would respond. Not after stabbing me to my death, while I was sleeping in her lap peacefully.
Trying to move proved difficult. It was understandable. After forcefully opening the magic path in his body for the first time and using that amount on the first try was simply beyond reckless. As my body ached from all that happened and their aftereffects, I drifted to sleep to save energy. It wasn't easy but I slept.
After a somewhat long time, I woke up. I looked around. The blood seeping out from the serpent's body had even hardened by this time. The important thing to do now would be to make this body atleast usable. So, I decided cooking the snake.
It was weird even to me that I arrived at such a decision so calmly, but it was most likely the only way. After all, it had a good amount of magical essences and was non-venomous as far as I knew.
Technically speaking, magic essence was a concept of my old world, people use mostly science these days. Though it was limited back there, magic essence is abundant here. Magic essence are similar to dust found in air. They are available at all corners of the world. If anything exists, then it is covered and contains magic essence, whether it be living or inanimate.
The reason magic essence became unavailable to common people, back in my world, was due to the existence of machines. Made specifically for the reason of absorbing magic essence efficiently, unlike the human body. It became a cycle of machines to atmosphere back to machines, no.