2 Chapter 2 - Rebirth

There was a light above my head, it momentarily blinded me as I opened my eyes. I looked around, before trying to get up. However, I was met with resistance in the form of... restraints of some variety? I looked around, seeing surgical items beside me. I looked down at my body, there were stitches in my body and blood covered my body.

The only item of clothing that I had on was a set of black trousers. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw that there were men in white coats looking at screens. The only screen I recognised was the heart rate monitor, due to the pixilated heart symbol that was at the top right of the screen.

I inferred from the heart rate monitor that they were monitoring my vitals.

'Am I safe? Maybe I'm in a hospital?'

But I dismissed that idea immediately, I wouldn't be awake if I was in the surgical theatre due to the anasthetic they'd use and they certainly wouldn't restrain me in such a crude manner.

Then, I opened my mouth, wanting to speak. But, nothing came for reasons unbeknownst to me. Fear took over as I realised that I wasn't remotely close to being safe.

One of the men spoke, turning around to face his peers, his lab coat fluttering as he turned.

"He's... He's alive? I thought he was dead? Perhaps it was an error... But, this is the first survivor of the Godheart Program! Send the recording of the surgery to the Master, handle the subject with the utmost care. And monitor his vitals, while he's alive for now, if his body begins to crumble from the burden of being the host to a God's Heart, then we must act immediately. His body's value is immense, as the only person to have survived the project his body will be a valuable source of data even if he doesn't survive."

Nodding, one of the men began to approach me, he then scribbled some notes down while looking at me.

"His body seems to be fine, it's the same as the other subjects. His physical body is fine, but he exhibits signs of life, unlike the others. He can breathe, his new heart is beating properly."

Then, taking a small blade, they cut me causing me to involuntarily flinch.The blood that came out wasn't fully red, in fact, it was very slightly gold.

"Ichor... he bleeds Ichor? Everything seems to be in order."

Noticing that I was awake, their leader smiled.

"You're conscious? You should be proud, young man. You're the first being capable of hosting the heart of a God while being nothing more than a human."

I didn't understand anything that was being said, what on earth were they talking about. Gods...? Their hearts? What were they talking about?

"Alright, I want everyone to carefully monitor the vitals of subject 365."

Then, another one of the men spoke.

"Sir, as the first human to be capable of housing the heart of a God, shouldn't we call him by name? It feels a bit disrespectful to refer to the culmination of our effort and the master's by a number."

Their leader nodded in agreement, seeing the point of his subordinate.

"I'm not sure if you remember, but you are Reinhardt. Former Knight of The Imperial Princess. Now, you are Reinhardt. Nothing more and nothing less."

Reinhardt... The name was oddly familiar.

Then, I sort of understood what, or rather, who I was. I had reincarnated as Reinhardt, a character who's figure wasn't too prominent in a novel I had read.

I had memories of both my past life, and of the body I was currently inhabiting. However, the memories from this body were... a mess. I could barely remember anything aside from my name when it came to this body's memories.

Reinhardt was the Knight Of the Imperial Princess, he was supposedly a pretty powerful character who was kidnapped by a group of maniacs who sought to create a human capable of harnessing the power of a God.

Unfortunately, Reinhardt didn't survive the experiment. No one could, the burden of being host to the heart simply extinguished the soul of those who had it transplanted into them.

I took a few deep breaths and calmed down, if Reinhardt had just died, then I would be found in a week. In the original story, Reinhardt's corpse would be found by Imperial Knight's a week after his passing.

In other words, I'd need to survive a week to be rescued.

Then, they placed a hand on my throat and a dim, green light was produced and slowly my larynx was repaired.

"Who... am I?"

I said, feigning memory loss. I didn't know what else to do, so I settled on this. I was scared out of my mind and I couldn't remember what Reinhardt was supposed to be like so this was probably the best way to handle the situation.

"As we said, you're Reinhardt. Now stand, and tell us what you remember."

The scientist said, as he removed my restraints. They were all unafraid of what could happen to them if I suddenly tried to fight back, perhaps they were ready to die or perhaps.. they were just confident in their individual power.

"I don't remember anything, who are you?"

I said, again, feigning amnesia.

"My name doesn't matter, put those clothes on. We're going to assess your ability to manipulate Mana. Come."

I nodded and followed behind him, wearing nothing but a pair of black trousers. Looked down at my body, it didn't have a single scar despite being rather muscular. This was due to his affinity, or attribute. The Arcane Attribute.

It was among the rarest attributes, it had some other effects and abilities but I only knew a few of them.

It granted superior to ehancement compared ordinary Mana Enhancement and superior healing to ordinary healing Magic. However it consumed a much larger amount of Mana than it's weaker counterparts.

'I wonder if that'll be an issue for me though? I am supposed to have a Mana Capacity dwarfing even the main characters."

I followed the man, he acted unbelievably calmly around me. Even I could tell that he was stronger than me.

"The Master doesn't need you to be battle ready yet, but, it'd be a shame if you weren't capable of using Mana. So tell me, can you use Mana?"

He said, bringing me into large and empty room and closing the door behind us. There was a large glass panel, and on the other side of the glass panel, there were the scientists from earlier.

I looked at him, pretending to not know what he was talking about.

"You don't even remember what Mana is? I guess it'll be a long day."