Prologue: What Good Is Vengeance When You Have No Means of Revenge?

I wondered why. It felt like this wasn't my first life. Something was flowing in… memories! I slowly remembered. Memories of nearly a hundred people. Somehow, it felt strangely familiar, as if the memories belonged to me.

Strangely, I couldn't feel my senses. I couldn't open my eyes, hear anything, smell anything, or even speak. It was as if I was nothing but a conscience.

The memories suddenly stopped flooding in. Was that the last? The last one was short. Probably twelve years' worth of life. Not just that one. None of those crossed twenty years. Was I that hated?

Something else came flooding in. More memories? No. They felt rather painful, even though none of my senses worked. Emotions. Fear, sorrow, betrayal, guilt, vengeance. Why just negative ones? Happiness? I couldn't find it. Although the dark emotions would be strong enough to take over even a person at the peak of mental health, I didn't feel anything. Useless.

Yes, they were useless. What good are those dark emotions when you have no means of revenge? Was carrying the sorrow and guilt of any use? I cannot atone for them now. Rather, I was in a state where nothing was possible. An empty mind without a body. That was what I could describe myself as.

It felt rather weird. I felt unusually wise. Somewhere in my memories, I saw a grand mage, fighting a dragon. The face seemed to be familiar yet one I could not identify.

'Hey!'

I heard a voice. It sounded rather angelic.

'I'm talking to you!'

Where?

'Well, I guess you cannot see me.'

A ghost? Or was it my imagination?

'It's not your imagination. I am real!'

Real? Wait, more importantly, was this "person" reading my thoughts?

'Ahh yes. I communicate through your thoughts!'

Scary.

'That hurt!'

Where am I?

'This is just a temporary space I created. You will be born in a few moments!'

Born?

'Yes. Now hurry up and be born. I need you to become my successor.'