The silence that followed the beast's death was heavier than any sound. The cold, pragmatic mind of the Grizzled Veteran evaporated like mist in the morning sun, leaving behind the raw, shivering soul of Alex Chen, trapped in the five-year-old body of Ray Croft.
"It's over, it's dead."
The thought offered no comfort. His hands, slick with a mixture of blood and grime, began to tremble violently. The thick branch, his improvised spear, suddenly felt impossibly heavy. It slipped from his grasp and landed with a dull thud on the damp earth. He stared at his tiny, blood-spattered fingers, a wave of nausea rolling through his stomach. He hadn't controlled that. He had been a passenger, a terrified spectator in his own skull as a ghost from a forgotten film script moved his limbs with lethal precision.
"A mask saved me."
The thought from before returned, but now it was laced with a new, sharper terror.
"What happens when the mask won't come off?"
A sob, thick and ragged, finally broke free from his throat. The world blurred through a film of tears. He was just a child. A weak, terrified child who wanted to go home, except home was a life, a world away.
"Young master Ray!"
The voice cut through his panic. He flinched, scrambling backward and tripping over his own feet to land hard on the ground. Through the trees, Rina, his personal servant, was running toward him, her plain face a mask of alarm. She must have come looking for him. Her eyes widened as she took in the scene: the small boy covered in filth and the corpse of the monstrous dog.
"Gods above!"
She gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. She didn't scream. Her gaze darted from the dead beast to him, and the horror in her eyes was swiftly replaced by a wave of pure, undiluted concern.
"Are you hurt? Did it bite you?"
She was kneeling in front of him in an instant, her hands hovering, afraid to touch him. He just shook his head, unable to form words. His throat was a knot of unshed sobs. This was the real him. Mute, pathetic, useless.
"Say something, you idiot. Act normal."
He said inwardly. But there was no script for this. Rina, seeing his state, simply pulled the hem of her apron and began to gently, methodically, wiping the blood from his face and hands. Her touch was firm, grounding.
"It's alright,"
She murmured, more to herself than to him.
"You're safe now, we'll get you back to the keep."
The walk back was a blur of shame. Rina didn't press him for details, for which he was eternally grateful. She simply held his small hand, her presence a silent, sturdy shield. But the shield vanished the moment they stepped into the main hall.
His mother, Lady Eileen, let out a cry and swept him into a suffocating, lavender-scented hug that made him feel more fragile than he already did.
"Oh, my baby! My poor, sweet boy!"
His older brother, Corbin, who was standing nearby, sneered.
"Look at him, crying because he probably fell and scraped his knee."
It was then that Lord Alistair Croft strode into the hall. His cold, assessing eyes took in Ray's state, flickered to Rina's grim expression, and then settled back on his youngest son.
"What is the meaning of this?"
His voice was flat, devoid of warmth. Rina bowed her head.
"My lord, there was… an incident in the woods. A fell-hound."
The air in the hall grew still. Corbin's sneer faltered. Even Lady Eileen's frantic fussing ceased. Fell-hounds were not simply large wolves. They were creatures of corruption, twisted beasts that were often the first sign of the Withering Plague's blight seeping into a region. They were unnaturally strong, vicious, and notoriously difficult to kill, even for armed men. They were omens of dark things to come. Lord Alistair's gaze sharpened. He crouched down, forcing Ray to meet his eyes. There was no fatherly concern there, only an unnerving intensity, like a jeweler inspecting a strange new gem.
"The hound, is it dead?"
Alex managed a small, jerky nod.
"And you did this?"
He nodded again, his heart hammering against his ribs. Corbin burst out laughing, a cruel, barking sound.
"Him? Father, look at him, he's a weakling. He probably saw a stray dog and wet himself."
"One of the guards must have killed it."
Lord Alistair ignored him. His eyes remained locked on Ray, searching.
"How?"
The single word was a death sentence. Alex's mind went blank with panic. He had no answer.
"The system did it, a ghost wore my body like a suit and killed it with a stick."
Alex thought to himself. He could feel a hysterical laugh bubbling in his chest. He was going to be exposed as a freak, a liar, or worse. His father's cold disappointment was a physical weight.
"Useless,"
Alistair muttered, standing up.
"Take him away, clean him up. I will have the guards dispose of the carcass."
Later, soaking in a tub of hot water in his room, the trembling finally subsided, replaced by a cold dread. The system's interface remained silent in his mind, an unseen observer. He had survived, but barely. His father's dismissal, Corbin's contempt, it was a mirror of his deepest fears about himself. Weak. A burden.
"I can't live like this."
He thought, the water sloshing as he clenched his tiny fists.
"I can't be Alex Chen anymore, Alex is a liability, here, Alex dies."
A grim determination, an emotion he hadn't felt in years, settled in his chest. He was an actor. He had played soldiers, spies, and kings. He had commanded armies on screen and manipulated empires from paper thrones. The terror was real, but the talent was real, too. This world was just another stage, and he refused to be heckled off of it.
That evening, he was summoned to dinner. The tension in the dining hall was thick enough to be carved with a knife. His mother kept casting worried glances at him. Corbin openly glared. But it was his father, sitting at the head of the table, who was the real threat. Lord Alistair had confirmed the kill. He had seen the juvenile fell-hound, its skull pierced by a sharpened branch. And he was no fool.
"Ray,"
His father said, his voice dangerously soft.
"Tell me again what happened."
This was it. The interrogation. The raw, anxious Alex wanted to shrink and disappear. But a cold resolve had taken root. He couldn't be a veteran or an assassin here. That would be too jarring, too suspicious. He needed something else. Something subtle.
"The System,"
He thought, focusing his will inward. The translucent screen flickered to life. He scrolled past The Grizzled Veteran. Past The Stoic Assassin. He needed a mask for this particular play. His eyes landed on the perfect role.
[Archetype: The Scheming Courtier]
[Skills: Etiquette & Protocol, Information Gathering, Persuasion & Flattery, Deception.]
[Side Effect: Becomes charming, passive-aggressive, and paranoid. Constantly analyzes social hierarchies and seeks leverage.]
"Perfect. Activate."
A strange coolness washed over him. The frantic drumming of his heart slowed to a calm, measured rhythm. The fear didn't vanish, but it was pushed into a small, locked box in the back of his mind. The world sharpened, but differently than before. He was no longer assessing tactical threats, but social ones. He saw the power dynamics of the table with absolute clarity: his father, the absolute authority; his mother, the emotional core to be soothed; his brother, the rival to be dismissed.
He placed his fork down neatly, folded his small hands in his lap, and looked directly at his father. The timid, downward gaze was gone, replaced by a look of clear-eyed, childlike innocence that was utterly manufactured.
"I was scared, Father,"
He began, his voice small but steady. He pitched it perfectly, a child recalling a frightening memory.
"I wandered into the woods, I know I shouldn't have."
He glanced at his mother, offering a look of apology that made her soften. One point to the courtier.
"The dog… it was big and its eyes were red. It growled at me."
He let a small, convincing shudder run through his body.
"I remembered what you told Corbin once, that the Crofts never show their backs to an enemy."
He had no idea if Alistair had ever said that, but it was the kind of thing a man like his father would say. He was flattering his father's ego, appealing to his obsession with family honor. Alistair's expression didn't change, but a flicker of interest appeared in his eyes.
"Go on."
"I fell, and my hand landed on a sharp rock, the dog jumped, and I… I just threw it. I didn't even aim."
Ray looked down at his hands, as if surprised by them.
"It hit its leg, and it yelped. It made me angry that it tried to hurt me."
He was building a narrative. Not a lie, but a carefully sculpted version of the truth. A scared but lucky child, possessed of a spark of the family's martial pride. It was far more believable than the truth.
"There was a big branch on the ground,"
He continued, his voice gaining a touch of breathless excitement.
"I picked it up, when it jumped at me again, I just… pushed it."
He met his father's gaze again, his own eyes wide.
"I was very lucky, wasn't I, Father?"
The question hung in the air. He wasn't claiming to be a hero. He was attributing his survival to luck and a sliver of inherited Croft bravery, handing all the credit to his father's bloodline. It was a masterstroke of flattery and misdirection. Corbin scoffed.
"Lucky? He's lying!"
"Silence!"
Alistair snapped, his eyes never leaving Ray. The Scheming Courtier's mind worked furiously.
"The father is intrigued, he sees a potential tool, not a son. The brother is a non-factor, his jealousy makes him predictable. The mother is a shield to be used if the father's questioning becomes too aggressive."
Lord Alistair leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. The cold, assessing look was back, but it was different now. The disappointment was gone, replaced by a disturbing, calculating gleam. He looked at Ray as if seeing him for the first time, not as a five-year-old boy, but as an unpolished tool he had just discovered in the back of a dusty shed. A slow, thin smile spread across his father's lips. It held no warmth.
"Yes, Ray,"
Lord Alistair said softly, a chill running down the courtier's and Ray's spine.
"Very lucky indeed, it seems I have underestimated you. We will need to correct that."