Chapter 2

Florentine city is the only major city in our territory, it was built at the border of the enchanted forest which is located at the very edge of the kingdom's land.

The Beaufort family has been serving the Turox Kingdom since its establishment 8 centuries ago. That is still pretty young if your gonna consider the age of other neighboring kingdoms having several millennia of history.

At the same time, Florentine city is under the rule of the Turox kingdom and it is located in the east of the Vreachland continent behind them is the enchanted forest, and in front is the mountainous region that separates the entire northern land from the rest of the continent.

People called it the peak of the heavens also known as the northern mountains, which serve as the natural wall against the monster's invasion of the far north. Turox kingdom is located at the edge of the continent, and it was known for its rich deposit of mineral called Turox ore which is known for its non-rusting properties, hence the kingdom was named after it.

"Young Master, here's your breakfast. I have already informed the other personnel in the house that you will be staying inside your room for the whole day. At the same time, I also ask the kitchen to cook this soup for you to supplement your health." Melissa said as she entered the room while holding a tray of food.

"Thanks, just leave the food on my table. I'll call you when I'm done." I replied as I slowly sat up from my bed.

"Please call us if you need anything, Young Master." Said by her as she vows her head and exited my room.

The tray contains a variety of dishes, like hard bread, a bowl of soup, and boiled eggs. There's also a small plate of cheese and dried fish on the side.

The diet of this era mostly uses salt as a seasoning. The practice of using herbs, spices, and other condiments is rare. Since most of the varieties of spices, and herbs are still unknown and undiscovered or too expensive to use in a regular meal. 

There are only a handful of spices known to people and each one of these is quite pricey even for us. And only wealthy individuals can afford to properly season their daily meals on their table since it can cost several silver coins per dish. A price that we can't afford in our house since money is the one thing that we are having trouble with.

Thankfully, salt is still a cheap commodity since were located near the sea. It also helps that salt has a lot of use, so it makes the price of salt fairly stable in the market.

As I started eating my food I found out that I also had a lot of knowledge regarding the trade and economy of the kingdom and our territory. Mostly because it was always included in my private lessons.

For a child my age, this is already a big accomplishment since based on what I can remember other noble children are rather busy in bragging about their wealth or spending their money on lavish parties and stupid games.

My name in this world is Lucas Flynn Beaufort and I am currently 11 years of age turning 12 in several months. At the same time, my father Hubert is also known for being a strong and kind man in the kingdom. Which is very unlike the original owner of this body.

Who has an inflated ego and a proud noble demeanor, which is the complete opposite of his father.

Although the original Lucas was like that, he actually did great when it comes to his education. Aside from that, he also has huge aspirations in life.

Unfortunately, he died too young, and I now take over his body. I guess the only thing that I can do now is to live my life to the fullest and find something meaningful to do.

Because I highly doubt that I could go back to earth and I'm not even eager to do that too, as I have nothing there. So I'll make sure that I will enjoy every moment of this life, and won't repeat the same boring life I have on earth.

However, I still have a lot of problems that I need to solve first in this life, as this body is plagued by an illness called "creeping death".

This is a rare illness that causes a person to suffer from fever and muscle pain. Although it might sound simple, it is also one of the deadliest illnesses known on this continent since it has a high fatality rate.

The reason why it was named creeping death is that this illness kills the victim in a slow and painful way.

What a bad luck to transmigrate into this ill-ridden body but I don't have a choice so I just have to deal with it.

The problem is, the illness will worsen as the person grows in age until it leads to their death during their sleep. It also didn't help that my predicament is quite complicated. While others might experience the illness in a span of entire weeks, I suffer from all of it, in just one night.

Can you imagine it? An entire week of pain that I have to deal with compressed in just one night. It's gonna be a torture. It also means that the pain has multiplied by several times. The pain is so intense that it is enough to kill people who have a weak tolerance for it.

 Only a small number of the population suffer from this illness and very few survive from this. And every known case has been recorded and saved in the kingdom's archives to keep a track of it. It commonly starts at a young age and most often than not, it's the nobility that always suffers from this disease, and theirs only a few cases for peasants.

The symptoms will last till the age of 14 since most people died before they reach the age of 15. This means that I only have less than 3 years to solve this issue.

There is only a handful of a known recorded cases that we're able to survive from this disease and most of them came from a prestigious noble family.

This is also the reason why the Beaufort house is always thrown into a mess every time I suffered from this illness. Because as the only heir of the Beaufort house, my existence is vital for the survival and continuation of the Beaufort family line.

And based on what I know the illness itself is not contagious but can be said as hereditary. Especially in the aristocracy class as it might have something to do with intermarriage with other families and for those cases from the peasant class, it might be because of elicit affairs of some noble men with other women.

This illness is known as one of the most deadly common diseases for the nobility, but it doesn't mean that everyone is plagued with it. A good example of this is a record that shows that most of the recently risen noble family doesn't suffer from this illness, especially for those families that have just risen in position over the past hundred years.

"Heck, this is pretty long I thought this would be easy since I already have all of his memory. But dumping all that information at once is not helpful at all." I said in a grumpy mood.

But what can I do? I need to know all the information on this world if I want to survive in this place.

As I went back to organizing all of my memories, it turns out that my father had 2 other siblings, and none of them have the same disease as mine. But according to the family records, a few of our ancestors have cases who lost their lives to the same illness.

The Beaufort house in the past had more people than now. But unfortunately, my father's siblings had died due to a war that happened a decade ago. And it happened when my father is still young. Sadly he was the only one left in the family who can succeed as the rightful heir of the Beaufort house.

But because of this rare disease, the church uses this to their own advantage, as they raised their flags and used this as propaganda to spread and strengthen their influence on the aristocracy. They claim that their prayers and blessings are effective in lessening the effects of the "Creeping Death". But for anyone to receive their grace, an offering must first be made, in exchange for their service since it would use their precious power.

Yes, it indeed has some effect but it also means that a priest must always stay on my side all the time to make sure that I received the continuous blessing from their prayer which would mean a massive expenditure of gold coins. They charge ridiculous amounts of money for all of their wasted time and precious divine powers.

They used their power and authority to take advantage of the situation in exchange for more mortal wealth. The funny thing is, sometimes they also used this method, to determine if someone is evil or good. You know, by the means of donation. If you donate a lot of money all of your sins would be pardoned they said.

They also told me that my chances of survival from this illness are not guaranteed even with all their blessings bestowed on me. They claimed that my chances of survival depends on my loyalty and piousness to the church of Agatha.

This is also one of the reasons why my father hates the church because he knows the truth behind their history. 

Every time someone gets diagnosed with the illness of "Creeping Death", most often than not, people would always call for help from the church.

Especially those noble's houses that have only risen recently. They never hesitate to spend huge amounts of gold in exchange for their blessings and this also serves as a way for them to ally themselves on the side of the church. Even though they know that the royal family forbids it.

But the thing is, the kingdom and church wouldn't hesitate to support and allocate resources, as well as power to anyone who could survive this illness, but in exchange, they must take a vow of loyalty to the throne or serve under the church. It's because for some unknown reason, people who survive this ordeal can easily cultivate both profession of knights and wizardry.

And Lucas the original owner of this body aspires to become someone who will overcome this illness and the one who will restore the honor of the Beaufort house.

With this goal imprinted on his mind, the original Lucas has never felt remorse towards anyone nor did he try to neglect his studies.

He always makes sure that he excels at everything, that a nobleman must be known for, whether it's about politics or etiquette. Since he doesn't want to be treated as a joke once he reaches the capital.

And as man that came from the modern earth, All I can say is that the original Lucas is a strong child to be able to persevere and still have his motivation in life, despite all the challenges he has to face.

With this thought on my mind, I finished the last drop of soup from my bowl and hurriedly called Melissa to take it out of my room.

I used the bell on the bedside table to call her attention and pulled the string multiple times to ring it, and a few minutes after this, the door to my room opens and the butler of our house James appeared.

James entered my room followed by my father and other maids.

And as "Father" walked into my room with a deadpan expression on his face when he suddenly said something I didn't expect.

"My son I heard from Melissa that your illness had relapsed. Are you okay? Do you need anything?" my father asks, and although he doesn't show any emotion on his face his tone had given it away, as it had a hint of worry on it.

For someone who grew up on Earth, and has seen a lot of drama in life, although his reaction didn't say it, I know for a fact, that this is his way to show his concern and care to me as his son. The only problem is that the original Lucas doesn't know it.

The original Lucas might be smart, but he is still a kid. And he doesn't have a lot of experience when it comes to relationships. Besides, adults have a different way of thinking compared to kids. And this might be one of the reasons behind their misunderstanding. As the original Lucas has always thought that his father was strict and cold to him.

But Hubert, who is now my father, can be compared to a modern dad who had trouble keeping up with his family, especially with his child.

"I'm alright father this is just the same illness I had as last year. I only need to take some rest and everything would be fine." I answered with a small smile on my lips.

"Don't give up, son remember you are the heir of Beaufort's house and you will succeed in my position in the future. I have great expectations for you." father said with a straight face.

Although I know that he just wants to motivate me, but to me, it sounds like a big burden was suddenly placed on my shoulders. Aside from the guilt that I felt for possessing the body of his son, and even though I have all the memories and emotions of his kid, I'm still not used to calling him as my father.

I don't really know if the soul of the original Lucas is still alive or just hiding within me, but I know that if he heard this word from his father he would definitely be really happy as I can also feel that emotion rising within my chest.

"Thank you father, I'm glad to hear those words from you, rest assured that everything will be better and I can definitely overcome this illness." I replied, not as a man from earth, but Lucas as his child.

I guess it's time for me now to accept my new life. Besides having a father like him in this life would not be bad thing. 

The smile on my face cannot be hidden by anything and is seen by everyone. Giving them the impression of me as a cheerful kid, which is the opposite of the original Lucas.

"That's good to hear son but for now lie down and take your rest. If you have anything you want just ask James or Melissa. They will always be there to help you." Father said with a satisfied smile on his lips, because I know for a fact that it is rare thing for him to receive a smile from me and I know that this would make him happy.

Most of the time that the original Lucas had a conversation with his father, he always have a straight and cold face. Thinking that by doing so, he is showing his dignity and respect to his father, not knowing that his father only wanted to have a casual talk with him most of the time.  In short, they really have a lot of misunderstandings.

The only thing I can do now is to fix everything from here. Which might take me some time to do.

*sigh* as I release a breath I'm holding before looking at my window and seeing the strange yet familiar view from my room.

It was the beautiful terrain of the mountainous region and looking at it causes me to relax my nerves and release a big yawn.

"Young Master, we're done cleaning your room. You can now go back to your sleep and please take your rest. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call us." James said as the maids proceed to close all the curtains in my room before leaving.

My father was the last one who left my room, but before leaving my room, he touches my head and patted it while saying "rest well my son." Which makes me smile in comfort.

Now that I was left alone again, sleepiness had quickly taken over my body as the fatigue from last night catches up to me.

It sure is nice to have a second chance in life, even though it's not perfect it still much better than staying dead.

"At least, for now, I have my own father and a new world to explore." I thought off before I drifted back to sleep.