Customary and Obligatory Letter

Do you remember what I said about the car salesman lookalike and how I was thankful for his role in putting me in as a duke's son? About how thoughtful of him for that?

Well, forget about all of that.

Because fuck that guy.

Also, forget about having a bad feeling about my current situation, because I was most definitely and assuredly… fucked.

I 'was' the son of a duke, and please take note of the emphasis on the word 'was.'

It was because I was no longer the son of a duke, at least not according to those who put me, my mother, and my little sister on the run.

Yes, we were on the run.

My father, the Duke Hartmann, was dead. Betrayed by his subordinates and killed by the very ruler he served.

You know, if this was not happening to me at this precise moment, I would take a moment to appreciate how cliché the entire situation was.

I mean, according to my mother, my father was the most powerful duke in the entire empire he served; which was called the Storgaard Empire by the way. He commanded absolute authority in his territories and even possessed a strong army almost comparable to the royal army.

This attracted a lot of attention and jealousy from the rest of the dukes as well as his liege lord, the emperor of Storgaard.

Long story short, my father was accused of unjustified treason by the emperor as the might of the imperial forces came down upon my father's dukedom. And since my father's forces were almost comparable to the royal army, the emperor resorted to deceit and underhanded means to make one of my father's most influential generals betray him.

With that stab in the back, the dukedom's army was in tatters and my father had no choice but to make a glorious last stand. But he managed to let his family escape before defending his dukedom's capital to the last man to buy us more time to run.

And now, here we were. With three carriages, and two carts filled to the brim with treasures and artifacts that tied to the legacy and history of the ducal house of Hartmann. Coming along with us were approximately two dozen household staff, three hundred elite knights who served under the Duke of Hartmann, as well as his most trusted knight commander who led the household guards.

It might be considered a not-so-small force for traveling fast and running away from those who wanted the Hartmann bloodline dead, but when you consider the fact that my father used to command over four hundred thousand troops under his leadership before he was betrayed by his men, you could guess how far we had fallen from the pedestal.

When I woke up from my lifelong coma, we were already in the middle of crossing over the border of my late father's dukedom, and into a foreign land. The only way for us to escape was to leave the territory of the Storgaard Empire as soon as possible. My mother had already wasted a decent amount of precious time by ordering the entourage to stop and getting the physicians to look over my condition, we needed to get moving again immediately.

This was what came into my mind after I was done listening to my mother explain the situation, and I let her know as much. That prompted my mother to make sure that I was fine with us continuing the journey, and then she peeked out from the carriage's window so that she could let the others know to restart the journey.

It was not long before I could feel the vibrations and jolts from the carriage I was currently within, as it moved again. Mother had already closed the windows again because, according to her, we were crossing into a cold and chilly climate as we got past our father's former dukedom.

At this point, my mother was done explaining and my little sister had fallen asleep after spending a decent portion of energy being excited about my recovery. Mother explained that the little girl was currently coping with the fact that our father was probably dead by focusing all of her mind and attention on my miraculous recovery.

After that, we sort of just sat inside the carriage quietly. I was lost in my own thoughts, but I also noticed that my mother kept stealing worried glances from the corner where she was sitting, with my little sister's head on her lap.

And it was at this moment that I could instinctually feel something happening.

Or namely, something not happening.

Because everything around me had frozen. It was like time itself had stopped. I could no longer feel the carriage moving, nor could I see my mother in the corner moving. The curtains that decorated the closed window also stopped in mid-air.

Yeah. Time was definitely frozen.

Before I could do anything to investigate why only I was moving in this circumstance, the decision was taken from my hand when a brown scroll suddenly appeared in front of me. The bright flash that preluded its appearance almost blinded my relatively recovering eyes.

Upon closer inspection, it looked like the rolled-up piece of ancient paper one could find in fantasy movies, series, or stories. It quietly and innocently floated in front of me as I weakly reached out with my hand.

It should be noted that I was still weak due to being in a coma for my entire life; but as soon as the tip of my finger touched the scroll, a weaker light lit up inside the carriage. The scroll opened itself and gently glided into my waiting hands.

I ran my eyes through the contents of the letter and it appeared that the car salesman had left me a parting letter, explaining the current circumstances.

'Hello, Frey. I guess I will just call you Frey as it is your name in this new life. The faster you assimilate into your new identity, as Frey Hartmann, the better it will be for you in the long run. But, regard this as a friendly advice.

Now, to address the main issue of why I left you this letter. This is a customary obligation from the organization before you receive your system, so don't worry too much. By now, you would have realized that you are not receiving any memories and experiences from your body; and we are here to tell you that it is because this is not a typical transmigration.

You see, in a typical transmigration - which is not a drop-in - the usual thing to do is to insert your consciousness into the body of a person who already existed. We habitually wait until they are dead, or experiencing their last moments before we do the deed. The problem here is that the entire process steps onto the toes of a lot of… the World's Wills, as you would call them. Most of the consciousnesses of universes do not like it when we transmigrate a new soul to replace the native's one place. And our organization has to offer some compensation to placate them. And trust me, it costs a lot to recompense multiversal beings.

And since this beta-testing period is nearing its completion, the higher-ups decided now is the time to cut some corners and relocate the resources into more important areas, like the official introduction of the [Systems] to our customers.

Thus, what we did this time is to create an entirely new vessel to house your soul, and then insert that vessel into an appropriate timeframe, as an embryo. When your vessel is born, we let a rudimentary artificial intelligence pilot it. Your body was not really in a coma and it was just more convenient for us to fake the lifelong illness and let AI pilot your body in the rare moments of awareness.

Now, you might be thinking, why we did not insert your soul into the vessel at the moment of its birth? It is because if we were to do that, the entire thing would have become a reincarnation and it is kind of against our policy. Do not ask why, because it is multiversal politics. Hence, we are taking advantage of loopholes while also going with a cheaper loophole option.

After all, our motto is 'Minimum risks, Maximum profits.'

And you are not getting those memories because there is nothing of worth or value. But as I have promised, I did drop you in a situation where you can have a massive advantage. You have the backing of a small yet elite army, an influential family name, multiple paths to choose going forward, and finally, you are gifted a strong and talented vessel. You will understand what I mean after a while.

Finally, your [System].

Simply tear this letter, and you will be granted the product you will be beta-testing for us. The time will remain frozen for another half an hour for you to familiarize yourself with the mechanics of the [System]. As I have mentioned before, read the guidelines carefully.

Besides that, good luck.'

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