Ultimate Trickster Lord Reincarnation

Recognition

I'd been acting like a fool.

Take over this kingdom? Regain my position? What nonsense was that?
Somewhere along the way I had forgotten how much I had struggled to rule over that city. The nights I had spent training, barely escaping capture with the bruises to prove it, fending off weapon attacks that had left their fair share of scars. Hiding for my life as the gun cocked behind me.

The world was a big fucking place. Why did I think I already knew everything? This place was a complete mystery to me. I was dead, had been reborn, and was stuck in a strange land I knew nothing about.

Okay. Deep breath in through the nose, out through the mouth.

You are okay.

I'd been hasty, sure, but I was still sound of mind and body. I hadn't lost a leg or been imprisoned. Even if the bar was low, it could be worse.

I flipped my hood off and undid the wrap tying my hair up. It fell loose around my shoulders as I shook it out. Dark locks tumbled down my chest.

Wait.

'Dark? But my hair was...'

I pulled at it with my fingers and brought it into the glow of a street lamp. It seems there was one more surprise I had to deal with tonight. As if the light show menagerie hadn't been enough.

My hair was black. Black as the night sky, like a fallen crow's feather, just as it had been in my previous life. Unless I had been losing my mind looking in that puddle just a few days prior, my hair had been golden brown. Was this body becoming more like my old one? That was comforting if so, but also unnerving.

'Could my hair have turned dark earlier when I made that deal with Diane? Can magic do that? I wish it would fatten this poor body up.'

Even more mysteries. If I had known this world had magic I wouldn't have been so quick to take credit for Diane's murder. What else could it do besides causing light shows and coloring hair? Could magic track people? Speak with the dead? Force witnesses to confess?

I had no clue what I was dealing with, and that realization burned like a bee sting. But for now, I was free, and freedom meant time to prepare. There was still potential here; I could regain the comfort and safety I had lost, I just had to find a way to stand above all others. The hood fell low over my face as I flipped it back on.

This didn't mean in the slightest I would be stopping. Just slowing down. I wasn't one to be overly cautious; I was still a risk-taker. Putting my life on the line had gotten me this far, damn it, and I wouldn't be backing down now.

I needed to focus on my current goals, plus a new one; obtain money, secure footholds, and figure out what had just happened back in Diane's bedroom.

My palm was cool, but it tingled from the memory. I was torn, unsure if this power would prove useful or spell my downfall.

Only one way to find out. I needed to use it again. But not yet; first I needed a baseline of how much I could get away with. It didn't seem like magic permeated the everyday. The stores I had been in hadn't filed in for my arrest using magic camera footage, and no one had noticed the coin purses I had stolen from them. If this was the case I had leverage and didn't need to fear being watched with a spell at every turn.

The best place to test my limits was going to be the Outreaches. Diane had spoken of them as the section of town riddled with crime, where guards were paid off or refused to step foot in. These sorts of places had all kinds of shady ways to make cash, and little to no consequences for cheating. So long as you weren't caught, what could anyone do? Call the guards and admit you lost money during an illegal endeavor? Ha.

Tomorrow morning I would head to the Outreaches and scope for a place to run my experiments. Until then, I'd go find a comfy doorframe in a back alley to sleep the night.

Ugh. My back was going to sustain permanent damage at this rate.

'Actual first goal: obtain a consistent place to sleep.'