Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

Let’s switch to Bernard who wanted to meet Luna’s aunt. He’s obviously in for a surprise.

Bernard Thesax is a boy of many secrets. The moment he was born, he knew he was different than the people around him or even among his peers. Of course, he did not think he was special, he knew he had to work on that.

One of his secrets was that he was born with the memories of his previous life. And the most unusual thing about it was that his previous life was not in Afasia. At first, he thought he was a lucky person, after all, he was born in a fantasy-like world, but one question did linger on his mind;

‘How did I get reincarnated in Afasia?’

He grew up wondering about that question. He often heard of legends, told in the village he was born to, about heroes summoned from another world to fight the evil in Afasia or those reborn with the memories of their previous life intact. He wanted to tell them he was the latter, but he knew they would only think he was crazy.

He then started to wonder if there were others like him in the present.

Bernard was born in the Gihen Tribe, a tribe of blacksmiths. He marveled at the coincidence that he was an engineer and inventor in his previous life and used his knowledge on his blacksmithing skills.

Years passed and he enrolled in the Imperial Academy at the capital to broaden his view on the field he was good at. Luckily he passed and managed to snag the fifth place on the entrance exam of the Engineering Department.

And so, his exciting school life began…

Bernard thought he was living a good life just like any other citizen of Afasia, but he soon realized he still had questions left unanswered.

On his journey to search for those answers, he met Luna, Thomas, Andrea, and later on, Peter, Kai and Charles. And maybe throw Freya in the mix as well.

At first, he marveled at Luna’s level-headedness, matureness and strength. The moment he witnessed that, he immediately thought;

‘Maybe she’s like me, someone who reincarnated with memories intact!’

With that, he began paying more attention to his red-headed friend. His suspicions even became even more believable for him when Luna started offering him ideas of different items and inventions. They were ideas not even available with the current knowledge of the citizens of Afasia.

‘Maybe she really is like me!’ he used to think.

The icing on the cake was when Luna’s familiar, Vyfal, revealed its true form; a qilin.

Back in his world; Earth, the qilin is a mythical hooved chimerical creature known in East Asian Culture. Bernard grew up in a country called China in his old life, so he was very familiar with the creature as well as the stories that accompanied it.

He could not believe he could see such a creature in his new world!

After the incident in the northern forest, his questions and suspicions grew more and he could not wait to ask Luna for answers. But he was disappointed when Luna turned out to be not the person he was hoping for.

“My aunt gave her to me as an egg.” Luna said which made his dwindling hope to resurface.

“Your aunt?” he questioned.

Bernard perked up at this and finally asked if he could meet her aunt. Luckily, Luna agreed and he finally had the chance of meeting someone who was like him and maybe he would finally have answers to his questions.

He waited for days to have the chance of meeting Luna’s mysterious yet elusive aunt. He learned to be patient upon being reborn in Afasia.

Bernard knew nothing about Luna’s aunt. He had never met her either. All he was sure of (and speculated) was that she worked for Archduchess Celestine and she took in Luna when she was orphaned at the age of eight.

***

Bernard was preparing for the Winter Ball later that evening. He was so happy to be invited by both Kai and Peter, princes of the Praiji Empire. In fact, he was so happy that he forgot about his anxiousness of waiting to meet Luna’s aunt.

Just as he was about to rest after finishing up his chore, Bernard suddenly found himself inside a dark room. Even if he did not want to admit it, he had been in enough dangerous situations to know that he was probably in one. His honed sensed immediately kicked in and he put his guard up.

All of a sudden, he heard a clap just behind him. Bernard turned around slowly and saw a marble table with a lone figure sitting on one of the two chairs around it. Upon seeing the person sitting on the seat, his fear was replaced with shock.

Who wouldn’t be shocked when Praiji Empire’s Prime Minister, and rumored to be the immortal and most powerful mage of Afasia, was the one sitting there; Zaira Chrishni von Celestine.

“I suppose your senses are honed due to getting entangled with Luna Hysi?” she mused with a smile on her face.

Bernard had seen the Prime Minister only twice, both from afar. The first one was when she visited the village where his tribe lived. She seemed to have a good relationship with the tribe since she would personally visit whenever she wanted to order armors and weapons from the Gihen Tribe. Customized ones of course. The second one was after he started living in the capital city, Azte. She was doing an inspection on the local offices with another imperial officer and a few local officers.

Even though he had only seen her twice, Bernard took note of her. It wasn’t everyday he would see someone with ethereal beauty and powerful aura. If the rumors were true, the real reason why no nations would easily go to war with Praiji Empire (unless they have some sort of death wish) was because of Archduchess Celestine’s presence and involvement. Nobody would want to go against a descendant of one of the Heroes of Old who saved the world almost two hundred years ago from the demons. Her power was no joke either.

“Archduchess… Celestine?” Bernard called cautiously and fell to one knee.

“Please stand up Mr. Thesax. If my niece finds out I was intimidating you she would throw a fit.”

“Pardon?”

“You are friends with my niece, are you not?”

“Your… niece?”

“Yes. She told me you want to talk to me and gave me this note.”

Bernard’s eyes widened when he saw the note he gave to Luna.

“How do you… Luna’s supposed to give it to her… aunt.” realization dawned on Bernard. “You’re Luna’s aunt?!”

The archduchess only smiled and started speaking in an unknown language. “Take a seat Bernard, it seems like we have a lot to discuss.”

‘She’s speaking in Chinese.’ he thought. ‘The archduchess is a reincarnator? Or is she an otherworlder?’