1 A New Start

Rhanes Hinter was quite the lazy fellow.

He grew up in one of the richest families in the Krolon Empire and spent most of his days moseying around and drinking. The youngest of three brothers, he was never tasked with any of the difficult missions their father handed to them. All that was ever required of him was that he learn the basic etiquette and manners a noble was to uphold, be proficient enough to make a living for himself, and get married.

Besides that small responsibility he was handed, he had nothing else. No aspirations or wants.

He would watch his brother scramble around as they delegated tasks to their own followers and try to appeal to their father that they should be the one to inherit the family. Rhanes would often smile at the anxious faces his brothers always had on as he sat against a tree drinking, which was one of his favorite pastimes. He scoffed when they would try to scheme against each other and would run away whenever one of the two would try to rope him in.

But as he grew up and got older, many in the empire looked at him like they were looking at waste, wondering about the amount of luck such waste was born into such a successful family.

When he turned eighteen, which was the age children became an adult, they compared him to his more successful brothers. His oldest brother, Elian, had inherited the family business of becoming a merchant and was soon on his way to becoming one of the most influential people in the empire. His other brother, Callum, had joined the army and worked his way up to becoming a general many people respected.

He, on the other hand, was still at home, drinking.

His family had always turned a blind eye to it, as they were used to it. His father and mother were never bothered him, as they knew their son had always lacked motivation.

Although his family never said anything to him, Rhanes could see from their eyes that they were desperately waiting for a miracle- a miracle that would turn him from waste into a gem.

Their eyes always bothered him. Even though they knew he was good for nothing, they still wanted something from him. What else could he give them besides his own life? He had nothing, no talents and no friends to comfort him.

All he could do was to depend on his bottles of wine and drink all of his emotions away.

Alas, they were bound to fail.

His parents grew older, and they passed away together one night.

His brothers soon followed them. Without the guidance and protection their parents had given them, Elian and Callum fell to the plots and conspiracies that had riddled the empire for so long.

It was only then that Rhanes started trying and asserting himself to his family. However, he was past the prime time to learn all those things he had neglected just a few years ago. The prestige his family once held started to crumble.

His family's followers betrayed him, leaving the castle. The soldiers soon followed them, as they realized there was no point in staying with the declining family.

The family's "most trusted" allies and subordinates conspired together to rob all of the wealth from the Hinter family.

Alone, and with nothing to depend on, he committed suicide.

As the blood flowed out of him and the cold started to take over, he hugged himself and wept. He regretting not taking everything seriously when he could have, and regretted how powerless he felt when he could do nothing for his brothers. He hated every last one of the people who schemed against his family since the very beginning and wished to eradicate them all. His hatred consumed every fiber of his being, until he could no longer keep his eyes open.

Rhanes Hinter died, marking the end of the Hinter family.

...

His eyes opened.

"I'm alive?" he wondered.

His eyes opened wider as he looked at his new surroundings.

He was almost blinded by amount of white that at his feet. Rhanes tapped his feet on the almost illusionary ground, and seeing that it was solid, he began to walk around more comfortably. He looked around him, and then up.

White. It was all white. For as long as he could see, he could only see the color white.

While he was walking around in awe of how white everything was, he neglected to look behind him. When he felt someone's eyes on his back, he turned around.

To his surprise, there was another being there.

Dressed in a white and flowing robe and standing there with an almost ethereal presence was an old man who was looking at him with a burning passion in his eyes.

"My, my, my. You're quite the looker, aren't you?"

Perplexed at what was going on, he slowly stepped away from the old man and started to run away. Even though the old man could even be considered handsome at his age, the old man's eyes were the things scaring him away.

Rhanes couldn't make sense of it. When the old man had looked him over, his butt had begun to clench subconsciously.

"What's he going to do with me? Who is he? And more importantly, where am I?"

These three questions rattled through his mind as he was running away from the old man.

He heard a snap.

...

His eyes opened once more.

He looked around and saw the old man was still behind him.

With his butt clenched, he began to run away.

He heard a snap.

...

Once again, he opened his eyes.

He started to run.

He heard a snap.

...

His eyes opened.

This time, he didn't run.

As Rhanes was now certain that the old man wasn't going to harm him, he began to relax.

He stood there and asked, "Who are you? Where am I? What do you want to do with me?"

The old man stood there and laughed.

"Me? I'm just a bored old man."

He scoffed.

"As if an old man would be able to put me to sleep with a snap. Who are you really?"

The old man, intrigued, looked at him.

Putting on a smile, the old man spoke a seemingly familiar line.

"Rhanes Hinter. Made any mistakes mistakes in your life you want to fix? Have any regrets you want to resolve? You have any wishes you want to settle?"

The old man pulled out a pamphlet, handed it to Rhanes, and continued.

"With the small, small price of your soul, I will get it done! With me, your request will be settled to the best of my abilities. Now sit back, relax, and leave it up to me."

As the words flowed out of his mouth, Rhanes gradually became astonished at how much it sounded like one of the business scams he heard people present to his family.

Looking at the pamphlet he was handed, he grew stiff.

The old man, who was talking and gesturing towards parts of Rhanes' pamphlet, gradually went silent as he noticed Rhanes' weird actions.

"Hello? Helloo?" the old man said.

Rhanes shook himself out of his stupor and curiously asked.

"What's a soul?"

The old man froze.

"You don't know what a soul is?"

Rhanes shook his head.

The old man sighed for a long time, but began his explanation.

"How do I say this in simple words? Souls are what makes a being the way it is. Many people have believed that the brain, the big mushy thing inside your head, is what allows a being to be alive and to think. However, this thought is wrong. The soul is what makes a being the way it is. For a human, the soul controls a brain the same way the brain controls a body."

Rhanes, who was confused at the plethora of words spoke towards him, nodded as if to beckon the old man along.

The old man picked up on this and sighed again.

"What part don't you understand?"

"What is the brain?"

"Alright. Let's skip that. You are the soul. The body is just there for fun. Capiche?"

Rhanes nodded. He asked, "Why do you want the soul? Why not something else?"

"What else could I possibly need?"

"Clothes?"

The two stood there in silence.

A cough could be heard.

...

"Can you take something else? Maybe, I can work for you instead?"

The old man was speechless. Rhanes that that it was as if the old man never thought of this idea before. The old man began to mutter to himself.

Rhanes could only hear parts of what he said.

"...thousands of years... overworked... cheat him into doing this."

The old man turned his attention back onto Rhanes and a crafty smile crawled out onto his face as the old man approached him.

Rhanes, having a bad premonition, began to stutter.

"Wh-what do you want from me?"

"Oh, not much. How would you like to work for me? All you have to do is go to different worlds and help people achieve their dreams. It doesn't sound that hard, right? I also offer a high salary, no vacation days, high pensions, twenty-four hour work days, healthcare, and dental care."

"That seems easy enough, but what are those last few things? Some of the things you said sound a bit different as well." Rhanes said.

"I'll even give you wine." the old man said, deliberately slowing down when he said the word "wine".

Rhanes perked up when he heard the word wine.

"Deal!"

The two men walked towards each other and shook hands, with different thoughts running through each of the men's mind.

The old man thought of all the different ways he would be able to cheat Rhanes into doing his job that he had been doing all of these years.

Rhanes thought of all the wine he would be able to drink and felt like he was missing something very important to him.

And so, an amusing collaboration between the two began.

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