Chapter 1: The Vanilla Wake-Up
The room smelled faintly of sweet vanilla.
Julius slowly opened his eyes. He blinked against the bright morning light, feeling a strange dizziness wash over him. This was not his room. In fact, this was not even his body.
Memories that did not belong to him suddenly flooded his mind. He was no longer the man from his past life. He had reincarnated into a new world, trapped inside the body of a boy named Julius.
As he looked down at his hands, he noticed how slender and tiny they were. He touched his face, feeling smooth skin and large, beautiful eyes that stared back at him from a nearby mirror. According to the memories swirling in his head, the original Julius had fallen from a high balcony. The fall had knocked him unconscious for several days, hanging on the edge of life and death.
Before Julius could fully process his new reality, the heavy wooden door flew open.
Bang!
Kael burst into the private, luxurious bedroom. He stood there breathing heavily, his sharp, handsome eyes locked onto Julius with pure coldness. Julius had never seen a man look so striking yet so freezing cold in all his life. Kael radiated power and anger.
In this massive metropolis known as Veridia City, Kael’s family was the wealthiest and most powerful family of all. Kael had been forced into a marriage with Julius because Julius’s father owed a , debt to Kael’s family. Now, with Kael’s own father lying unconscious in a hospital coma, Kael had taken full control of the household—and he wanted out of this trapped marriage immediately.
Without a single greeting, Kael slammed a set of papers onto the table in front of Julius.
“Read it,” Kael ordered, his voice deep and sharp like ice. “Sign the divorce papers.”
Julius remained completely calm. He did not panic, and he did not yell. He adjusted himself slightly on the bed, his slender fingers picking up the document to read through the terms.
The agreement was clear:
Julius would receive a cash payout of 10 million.In exchange, he must leave Veridia City permanently and never return.They would publicly announce that Julius had moved far away to a distant place.
If Kael’s father ever woke up from his coma—since the old man had arranged this marriage in the first place—they had already prepared a cover story to keep the old man from asking questions.
Julius kept his eyes fixed on the paper, showing no emotion at all. Kael crossed his arms, staring down at him with those sharp, intense eyes, waiting for a fight that never came.
The heavy silence in the room felt thick enough to cut with a knife. Kael stood over the bed, his jaw clenched, waiting for Julius to sign the divorce papers. But Julius was completely zoned out.
With his mind still foggy from his strange reincarnation, Julius looked at Kael’s moving lips and heard nothing at all. To him, Kael looked like a silent movie villain shouting underwater.
Blah, blah, blah. Such pretty angry lips, Julius thought to himself, completely lost in a daydream about how unreal this whole situation felt.
"I said, SIGN THE PAPERS!" Kael roared, slamming his palm hard against the mahogany table.
The loud bang snapped Julius right out of his trance. He blinked, rubbing his ears innocently.
"Oh! Wow, okay, loud," Julius mumbled, flashing a slow, confused blink. "Look, mister... I literally just woke up from a multi-day coma caused by gravity trying to murder me. Give a guy a minute to remember how lungs work."
Kael’s face remained a masterpiece of pure, unadulterated fury—completely deadpan, cold, and rigid. He didn't say a single word back immediately; he just glared at Julius like he was staring at a particularly annoying insect crawling on his expensive rug.
Julius tilted his head, sliding the divorce agreement a few inches away with one slender finger.
"Why are you in such a big hurry anyway?" Julius asked, raising an eyebrow with a playful smirk. "Before I sign away my entire life and exile myself to the middle of nowhere, give me five days."
Kael let out a sharp, harsh bark of dry laughter. It was cold, humorless, and dripping with absolute contempt.
"Five days?" Kael sneered, his voice dropping an octave into a dangerous register. "What kind of pathetic petty game are you playing now, Julius? Are you really trying to pull some cheap soap opera drama just to squeeze a few more days under my roof? I am not in the mood for your cheap little scenes."
Before Kael could launch into another angry rant, Julius cheerfully held up a hand, cutting him right off with a blinding, sunny smile.
"Oh, please. Scene? Me? Never," Julius laughed, waving his hand dismissively. "I'm not making a scene, I'm making recovery plans. I just woke up from a deep sleep after turning my skull into a bounce pad off the balcony. A guy needs a little transition period to stretch his legs, drink some water, and figure out why I smell like an upscale bakery."
"I don't care if you smell like a bakery or a garbage dump. I can't wait that long. Three days. Not a second more," Kael snapped, turning on his heel and marching toward the heavy double doors, slamming them shut behind him with enough force to rattle the windowpanes.
Click.
The lock turned, and the room fell silent again.
Julius sat cross-legged on the massive velvet mattress, staring at the closed door for a second before letting out a soft chuckle.
"Well, drama queen has some serious anger management issues," Julius muttered, stretching his arms high above his head.
He slid out of the bed and padded over to the massive, floor-to-ceiling gilded mirror near the wardrobe. He expected to see some tragic, sickly patient staring back at him. Instead, what he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.
Julius blinked. Once. Twice.
"Hold on a minute..."
He leaned closer to the glass, gripping the edges of the frame. The reflection showed a face with impossibly large, striking eyes, soft doll-like features, and skin that looked like porcelain under the morning sun. His body was slender and tiny, yes, but it was remarkably well-proportioned, with a delicate waist and smooth lines.
Julius turned sideways, striking a dramatic bodybuilding pose, flexing a tiny, delicate bicep that didn't have an ounce of fat on it.
"Wait a damn minute," Julius whispered to his reflection, grinning widely. "I died, reincarnated into a tragic fictional world, got dumped by a walking iceberg husband, and I look like an absolute doll? Oh, honey."
He struck another pose, lifting one leg back like a ballet dancer and winking at himself in the glass.
"I am wasting prime real estate sitting here stressing over some grumpy billionaire with chronic resting-cold-face. Look at these collarbones! Look at this face!" Julius chuckled, tossing his soft hair over his shoulder. "Ten million cash, free real estate, and a gorgeous new face? Honestly, falling off that balcony was the best career move I've ever made. Three days, huh? Let's go see what else this mansion has in the kitchen."
