He was lying on the floor in front of old Elizabeth, who stood with her arms crossed and her hand still glowing with a bluish fire that flickered on and off but grew brighter.

  “I want to confirm my suspicions, you brat,” she said in a low voice. “Tell me the ingredients you plan to use and how you made this cream. Don't put just anything on my skin, you little rat.”

  “Wait, Elizabeth, he's just a child. I'm sure he was just... just playing, believe me,” said my ‘father’ very nervously, seeming too agitated to even look her in the eye. “Of all our children, he was always the most unpredictable... Please, just take him away and don't do anything to him.”

  “Silence, Enrique.” He said nothing more, not even a glance at the trembling man.

  And just like that, he fell.

  “Well? Did the mouse eat your tongue or something?”

  I was remembering more than anything else the mixture and the instruction book for this video game.

  “I was just thinking.” I nodded as I approached the desk, picking up the pen and a piece of paper.

  She looked at me with displeasure but seemed to understand that I needed this if I wanted to explain it to her.

  “You see, the mixture is complicated and the materials are rare.” I began to write.

  I recalled a few carvings with difficulty and wrote down the basic ingredients, which were always used in the game to mix the most useful potions. “Rejuvenation Potion” does what it says, but in game mechanics, it returns the consumer's body to a healthy state, prior to receiving an injury. With the same materials, you could create a cream that was a gift that increased the affinity of the... Princes.

  “Don't tell me you're going to back down so easily?”

  “Will you let me finish, old woman?”

  Yes, I said princes, because this game isn't really a video game where I'll be the protagonist who will destroy everything, or find an item that will make me the god of this world.

  “And... and how are my daughters...?”

  “Hmm... I sent them to Dionis Academy in the capital,” she said, looking away slightly. “They haven't chosen a husband candidate yet, but they're aiming high. They want to charm the princes.”

  An otome game... that's right, and an otome video game is, let's say, a visual novel, but unlike galges for men, otome games most often come with a very special bonus that attracts the male audience, and don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm gay, okay? But they have that kind of genre that appeals to all of us, the most difficult strategy possible.

  “I'm done,” I sighed, looking at the sheet. “I don't remember the trip with Zac very well... but it's something.”

  “Hmm... they're true runes...” he acknowledged, raising his eyebrow in annoyance. “But they're too basic. Does something like this really exist?”

  This type of potion is revealed later on by a character to the protagonist of this video game. I don't remember the exact name, but... it was too cringe and too long, so I'm glad I don't have to remember something like that.

  “Will you trust me or not?”

  “Only if you make it, I'll give you your freedom, and to a certain extent, brat!” Elizabeth said, annoyed, clutching the sheet.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  She crumpled it up and threw it at the man standing there, who just sighed softly in relief.

  “I'll be back in a week, brat, and if you don't make it, you know what will happen to you! Forget about your freedom!”

  I nodded, sighing as I watched the magic in her hand stop glowing. You don't have to be a professional detective or investigator to realize that Elizabeth is a magic user. Most of the nobility have some trait that sets them apart from the rest, and it can even be the mere fact that they are privileged by their blood to use magic.

  Magic is a very ambiguous concept that even the basic explanation in the game doesn't describe well. I would rather define it as “unrepeatable sensations,” or at least that would be the case for me, being a human... reincarnated?

  “Go away, I don't want to see commoners in my home!” Annoyed, she just banged her hand on the table before sitting down in her luxurious chair.

  I shook my head and just got off the chair. My father sighed with relief, took me in his arms, and carried me on his back. He walked at a fast pace, looking tense until we left the mansion, where he finally let go, sighing heavily.

  “What a scare!” he said with difficulty. “I thought Elizabeth would snatch you from our arms, Liang... You don't know how happy your mother will be to hear the good news.”

  “I still have to prepare the cream, old man, don't get excited.” I watched as night fell.

  The moon shone with a beautiful color... the stars were beautiful in the sky, and I could even see them better from the floating island that brought us closer to them... even though space was vast, feeling just one centimeter closer made me feel so inspired.

  “That's true,” he nodded. “Are they very rare materials? I mean, we have the funds, but I'd like to see them.” He scratched his chin as he looked at me.

  “Not exactly, but you'll have to go to the capital to buy them.”

  “Must I?”

  “Do you want me to stay? I have to make the arrangements...”

  “Fine, I'll go tomorrow with Lilith, but now we have to go see your mother. I'm sure we'll at least get a smile out of her.”

  She ruffled my hair and walked beside me, guiding me through the island's dirt roads. The rice farms looked empty but peaceful, and some of the farmers' huts were lit up inside; the workers had obviously gone to rest.

  We didn't walk for long, but it was enough to tire my body a little. I was still a child after all. As we walked away, a concrete wall with very strange symbols could be seen along its length. It looked like the house of a Western feudal lord, and they weren't symbols, they were Japanese kanji. Perhaps that was normal, considering the lineage of this body.

  “I'm really glad,” he said, looking very relieved. “Not losing a pure-blooded Naerun son, at least for the most part, will make your mother very happy.”

  Naeruns, descendants of the misty dragon, one of the six dragons that once ruled this digital world... I lie, it's not digital, it's real now.

  The Naeruns come from the frozen lands of the north and are the children of the great Tai-Cyrix, father of mist and wind, a dragon whose size is the largest of his brothers at 40 meters long and without wings. He remains levitating in the air thanks to his affinity with the wind, which wherever he went caused a storm that swept everything away.

  “I told you that you could go to sleep early,” Dad said to some guards who wore oriental general's armor, Chinese to be a little more descriptive.

  They had a guandao in their right hand and were standing still.

  “We must take care of the lady while you are away, boss.” Their armor clanked as they stood up straight.

  “There is no danger on the island. Go rest. That is a direct order.” —I walked past them, showing character, and entered his house—

  I followed him, and what I saw left me speechless: a dazzling garden, full of vegetation and totally oriental decoration. I didn't know why things were this way, as this man didn't seem to have any features in his appearance that would indicate this, which leaves me with a theory.

  The mother of this body.

  We took off our shoes to step on the cold tatami and walked through the narrow corridors of this feudal lord's mansion until we reached a room set apart from all the others, which seemed to be the largest. When we opened the door, we crossed the threshold and saw a young woman caring for a woman lying on a futon. Her appearance was dull, she was very thin, her eyes were full of dark circles, her gray hair, which I imagine should have been white, was very dull, but even so, when she looked at this body, mine, and that of her youngest son, her eyes couldn't believe it.

  “W-wait, Dad, is that Liang...?” The young woman next to her dropped the bowl of soup from her hands in surprise.

  “Honey, look at this...”

  As soon as he said that, the woman struggled to her feet and crawled toward me.

  “Wait, Mom... calm down,” said the young woman, stopping her.

  As she crawled, the woman stumbled and one of her fingers broke almost instantly, but she didn't care. She clung to the idea of seeing her son back with her, and I didn't really know how to react...