Judge's head was spinning like a top in a hurricane, the kind of dizziness that usually ended with him hugging a toilet bowl. But of course, the whole vomiting thing was out of the question—mostly because, well, he didn't really have much of a stomach to speak of these days.
He mentally wrote down a note for future improvements. "Add stomach to clone body. Maybe intestines, too. Possibly a liver. Could come in handy." Eating through a clone? That could be fun.
He was going to need all the tricks he could get.
Across from him, Eleyn dropped down onto the sofa, which, to Judge's quiet disappointment, was entirely too normal for a dragon. Not a single inch of gold was in sight inside the house, he somehow felt 'normal'.
"So—" she began, rubbing her sore joints, "tell me, why is my child inside a mannequin? A very hard mannequin at that? I swear, I almost dislocated my joints trying to lift him and run all the way here."
Seraphis let out a snort, practically rolling her eyes. "Dislocated your joints? You're a dragon, Eleyn. A dragon. Dislocating your joints would be like... I don't know, a rock complaining about a stubbed toe.
I'd believe you more if you said your mannequin son defeated a Sky Talon."
Judge bit his tongue, fighting the urge to blurt out, I did defeat a Sky Talon! At least the bird had to be one, since he did not know the names of monsters, he was quick to assume that was its name. Oh wait, Clio had told him about that bird, it was indeed sky talon.
But saying that he had defeated a sky talon would only lead to more questions (well, it was more like a comedy show. And the bird retreated), and questions meant explanations, and explanations meant way more work than he wanted to deal with right now.
He had bigger problems, like how to explain his current predicament. Maybe it was time to trust Seraphis, though that seemed riskier than jumping into an active volcano.
"Hey," Seraphis suddenly turned to Eleyn, her tone casual but her words anything but, "You know your kid's reincarnated, right? That's not a shocker for you?"
Eleyn blinked, looking genuinely confused for a moment. "One of them is. I know that much. Just not sure which one." She sighed, shrugging like it was no big deal. You know, standard parenting stuff—could be the reincarnated child, could just be regular old dragon offspring.
"Well, congratulations. It's this one." Seraphis motioned toward Judge like she was presenting a prize at a game show. "Story Deity, I'm guessing?"
Judge, who had been sitting there trying to stay as invisible as possible (which, ironically, was quite difficult when you were a sentient mannequin), couldn't help but pipe up. "Wait, how do you know the Story Deity? Cli—"
"Judge," his mother's voice cut through the air like a sharp knife, her eyes narrowing into that dangerous 'Mom Look' that could pierce through a mountain. "Go back to your body. I still don't know where you got this mannequin and mask from, but you're going back. Now."
Before Judge could protest, Seraphis interrupted, ever the instigator. "Hang on, Eleyn. Give him a break. It'll take time to crack that egg anyway." She pointed to the egg in the corner, the one that Judge had entirely forgotten about in the middle of the chaos. "Besides, I'm curious too. How does he know about the Story Deity?
Maybe she talked to him?"
Right on cue, Seraphis' husband barged in, sweaty and shirtless, clearly fresh from some sort of intense training session.
His white hair was untidy, and every muscle in his body seemed to be showing off like it was auditioning for a role in an action movie, his red eyes were killing it.
"Honey," Seraphis' voice dropped to a dangerous low, the kind that sent shivers down your spine even if you were an immortal mannequin and didn't have a spine, "Would it kill you to wear a shirt? You know, the loose ones I made for your training? Or are they just for show now?"
Judge was absolutely certain that his day couldn't get weirder. But hey, with dragons, reincarnation, and a shirtless muscle parade, who really knew anymore?
"Heh sorry Ser," He rubbed his temples awkwardly. "I just wanted to enjoy the sunbathing. I'll just get changed quickly." He hurried off. That was when he saw a crib, and a white-haired baby was sleeping peacefully inside it, are all babies born with hair?
Judge, as intelligent as he was, quickly pieced together some information. Clio had told him that he would meet his colleague sooner than expected, and both Seraphis and his mother knew about The story Deity, Aka, Clio.
So if he were to make an educated guess, Seraphis' baby was the colleague Clio spoke of. And Clio had notices of their arrival to both of their parents. There was no other way that Clio had spoken to people from this world.
"The story Deity had spoken to me after I married Alex, she told me that one of my children would be a child from my previous life. I guess Judge used to be my child in my previous life."
Judge, though he just thought of this scenario, was still surprised to hear that. Clio was breaking all the stereotypes of a typical reincarnation story, it felt illegal for some reason.
"She said the same to me, but was a little more direct. She said my firstborn will be a reincarnated soul." They both had a nonchalant tone when they were speaking of this, making Judge wonder if these were normal.
"I will return to the egg, but please get me out quickly, Mom." Judge (Clone) left for his studio without waiting for a reply, he wanted to see the repair progress, but he just left without checking.
Judge dreamed of the sweetest dream, he was swimming in money, everyone was bowing to him. The people who was against him were no longer against him, because they could not protest from inside a grave.
Judge finally stood inside a luxurious office, which was inside a tall skyscraper. He could see the entire city from his office, he was drinking wine and laughing like a maniac— wait... Wine?
The sweet dream of his was shattered, warmth spread all over him, he screamed as he opened his eyes.
He was inside the egg, but the shell was broken, and he could still feel the warmth from below, he looked around. The scene was horrifying, there was fire all around him, like he was put inside a hot pot, but in an egg.
"Oh, my baby is crying." Eleyn rushed to him.