Chapter 6 - Duke of Corruption and The Blade of Victory

My name is Cain Morris, a normal high school student with a handsome face. I was on the bus home like any other day, closing my eyes and about to go to sleep.

"You shouldn't have existed." I suddenly heard a familiar voice, but the tone was filled with anger. I suddenly felt multiple sharp pains in my stomach, and I immediately looked down to see a knife lodged in my body. I was shocked by the situation. I tried to scream, but the assailant pulled out the knife and slit my throat, making me profusely bleeding and unable to scream. My next best option was trying to stop the bleeding by pressing my hands on the wound.

The bus turned into a state of pandemonium as everyone panicked at the sudden situation, and I heard the bus crash into something but didn't stop. I was able to get a good look at the assailant, Abel Glynn, a classmate of mine.

"W-h-y?" As I struggled to ask the question, he looked more enraged than he already was.

"Yesterday I confessed to my childhood friend, you know what she did? She rejected my confession, saying she fell in love with you. My life has no meaning anymore, so I take you down with me, and if there's a next life, I will kill you agai-" Just before he finished his line, the bus crashed into something, and suddenly I found myself in a black space.

A card appeared in front of me, it has an image of a pure black humanoid figure sitting on a pillar, and at the bottom of the pillar were people curled up in masses, chained up with black chains originating from the pure black figure. I put my hand forward, and the cards turned into a pair of gloves.

After the sequence of events, I was in a daze, I recollected my thoughts, and when my mind became stable, I was able to analyze my situation. My name is Cade Von Drethcus, son of Mathias Von Drethcus, the Duke of Drethcus Dukedom. I have a twin brother who's 10 minutes younger than me, named Adam Drethcus. The Von was a sign of heirship only for the heir, and I was chosen due to firstborn rule. It's safe to say I excel at everything I've done, and things got boring until today, my 12th birthday, when I was met with a surprise. I received a Card of Power within my dream and the memory of a different person. At first, I tried to reject the memory, thinking I was being possessed, but my instinct told me that this is me and not someone else, me in my past life.

My card of power was the Card of Corruption. I have no idea what it does, as the only thing I know about it is the name of the card. The only information about this card in the library was the name. I wish I had the mindspace of the Erzian, but being a Morsian isn't that bad since we cast spells with our imagination and the laws of the universe are more lenient toward us than other races.

Things were normal after my reincarnation, but looking at Adam, I kept remembering Abel. Abel was my classmate, but as the observant person that I am, it was easy for me to see the similarities between them, uncanny even, but I didn't care much about it since, for one, despite us being twins, we have different interests in things. I like to study while my brother likes to go out and play, but we both like to hang out with Elia since she keeps my mind off of things and my brother seems to have an interest in her, but It seems like she prefers me more than my brother.

Being the heir of the Duke, I got engaged at quite a young age, and it was Elia Hraven, the engagement happened when we were 15 years old. After our father announced it, my brother looked like he lost something, but I simply don't know why it felt so familiar, like I'd seen those eyes somewhere.

-Abel/Adam's pov-

After I lost the purpose for my life, I found myself deep inside the abyss of rage. The girl I loved most and have known for the longest time has an unrequited love for one of my classmates. The day after she rejected me, I brought a knife with me to end his life. Knowing that I would be stopped inside the school, I waited till school ended and followed him to the bus station, where he always takes a bus to get home.

With my sole focus on him, the bastard was closing his eyes, trying to sleep. I spoke aloud my declaration to wake him up and feel my wrath. I proceeded to stab him multiple times before slitting his throat. The feeling was liberating, and I was exhilarated. The feeling I felt was euphoric as I looked at him squirming around and struggling on the floor. I sat him up on the chair and gave him a piece of my mind, giving him the promise that if the next life existed, I would find and kill him.

That was the last of my memories that I obtained on my 12th birthday. After that, I found myself inside a black space with a card in front of me. Inside the card was a figure holding a sword and a scale. I claimed the card without much thought about it, and after what was done, I realized I claimed the Card of Victory, one of the 20 Cards of Power.

But... What's the point?

of all this? Why was I reincarnated here? Maybe this is a sign of something. In this life, I also have someone I love, a girl named Elia. We play with each other a lot since she is the second daughter of Marquis Hraven, one of my father's close aides and friends. At first I felt guity, but after a few months passed, I got used to her presence and started liking it like I once did toward my past life's childhood friend.

Yet it all came crashing down once again. My father announced that Elia would be engaged to my brother, and my dread and rage creeped up on me again.

'I don't like it, I don't want to lose another loved one, not again, I will not accept this, where is my justice? Where is my happy ending?'

I was enraged. No longer will I have something stolen from me again. I will never allow that to happen as long as I'm alive. I already know she is mine. My decision is justifiable, and I will not allow anyone to taint it. Right, I have the card, I will not lose against Cade. Brother, it's time for me to claim back what's mine.

-Elia's pov-

It was a day after my engagement with Cade, and I was happy that my father managed to convince Duke Elias to change my planned engagement to Cade instead of Adam.

Being a Marquis's daughter, when I go to social events, it feels weird when a lot of eyes are after me, like they are waiting to use me for their own gains. So I asked my mother to teach me the way of the grownups, and she taught me everything she could, knowledges and skills that will be necessary when I interact with high society, one of which is reading the thoughts of others. My mother wasn't a noble, but she managed to capture the heart of my father. She told me that her family was unknown because they wanted it that way since if they were known by others, they would be destroyed by everyone.

Her family's ancestor was the only god specialized in the concept of Thoughts, a lesser version of the Mind concept belonged to the Card of Mind from the Cards of Power. Because of that, he erased all the traces of his involvement in the past and placed a restriction on his descendant to be unable to pass it down to anyone but their descendants for those who inherit the concept of Thought, like me. Anyone who doesn't have the concept of Thought and tries to analyze us is unable to think about it and acts like nothing wrong is happening.

That aside, the more my mother taught me about high society, the more disgust I felt toward it. I used to hold the dream of justice for everyone, and yet High society is just filled with people who only ever cared about themselves and their desires and didn't care about the people who are actually struggling right outside their homes. I wish to change the country into a better place, and I know how I could do it with the help of Cade von Drethcus.

Adam Drethcus and everyone else I've seen want me to belong to their family. My father's authority as Duke Drethcus's right-hand man was too big of a role. Albel's obsession with me was so potent that it made me uncomfortable every time I went near him. Cade, however, actually thought of me as a person and a friend, which I greatly appreciated and was grateful for. Of course, if I had to choose between Cade and Adam, I would choose Cade because we could be good friends, and I think that's important.

And currently, the sight I'm seeing shakes me to the core. Adam was trying to kill Cade with a knife his face was smiling a maniacal smile, and his thoughts were a jumbled mess as I only heard 'She is mine' in his head. As for Cade, he was desperately trying to push his brother away, but for some reason he couldn't. With these as clues, I went and tried to save Cade by trying to push Adam out of the way, but he slashed my arm.

"Aah!" I screamed in pain as my forearm started bleeding.

The brothers stopped what they were doing. Cade's face turned into anger, and he tried to incapacitate Adam, but Adam was quicker and stabbed him in the stomach. I could only stand there in horror. Adam tried to pull the knife out to stab again, but Cade held his arm tight, not letting go. I saw a magic hexagon appear in front of Cade and pass through Adam. Adam's thoughts came to a halt, his appearance turned into something sinister, his limbs extended to an inhuman level, his right hand merged with the knife in his arm and extended through Cade's body, his maniacal smile turned into a large grin spreading up to his ears, his crazed eyes became crazier with bloodlust and one look at them gave me a sense of dread and fear. Adam was now unrecognizable. The room came to a halt, I couldn't move, and neither could Cade nor Adam. In Cade's mind, he didn't know what had just happened. Suddenly, a guard opened the door.

"Young masters, what h-" Before he could finish his line, the image of Adam piercing Cade with an elongated knife got inside his line of sight, and he wasted no time shooting the creature that was threatening his young master's life, not knowing what he had just killed. He then turned on his communication device.

"Sir, we have an emergency, there was a monster inside the young masters' room, and young master Cade and young lady Ellie are injured. Young master Adam is nowhere to be found."

He ran to help Cade and patch up his injuries. I felt an indescribable urge to look at Adam's corpse, and as I turned my head, I saw an outline of a card appear on top of his lifeless body. I couldn't really see what it was, but it flew toward me at unprecedented speed and merged with me.