Chapter 1: The World of Arcanists
In a boisterous capital of a kingdom, a public execution is currently being held.
"Charles Freeman, pronounced guilty by the Adminis Council for corrupting the minds of the kingdom's citizens and the youths and causing disorder and rebellion. Your offense is punishable by death; you shall be executed. Do you have any last words?"
Asked the question, the middle-aged man who kneeled in front of several hundreds of people, waiting for his inescapable death, suddenly smiled as if unafraid of death. He glanced at the people below the execution platform and said courageously: "I have lived my life to the fullest and served my noble purpose! I have no regrets! My death will sprout the seed of true freedom! Adminis Council! You shall kill me today, but you will not be able to stop what is about to come!"
The man laughed triumphantly as the sound of conversations grew within the crowd.
"Kill him!" The black-dressed man leading the execution ordered the executors.
Two silver spears pierced through the kneeling middle-aged man's heart, ending his life...
Charles D. Freeman, died Augustus 7, year 1956 of Algorean Calendar at the age of 32. People later regarded him as the grand founder and national hero of the prosperous Ergen-Freemen Republic, and they remembered him for a thousand years. But the true story starts not here…
…
In a dimly lit room, a 14-year-old boy woke up with a strong headache and blurry sight. He felt as if the surroundings were spinning due to his dizziness. 'What is happening to me?'
Fortunately, after a minute, the blurriness of his vision passed, and he slowly recovered from his unusual condition.
'What happened to me? Why am I in this young body? Where am I? Didn't I die?' The boy inwardly asked a series of questions, completely unaware of his current situation. No one could have ever thought this boy who just woke up was actually Charles Freeman who had already died somewhere else.
Charles was confused as he looked around him. But he quickly discovered a woman's body lying 2 meters away from him, lifeless.
Additionally, he noticed that the floor beneath his feet had bloodstains, specifically markings made of red blood. But he had no idea what the blood markings were for.
Checking out the lifeless woman, he flipped the dead body over, only to be startled upon seeing the dead woman's face. After recovering, he realized the woman must've died with her bleeding eyes open, quite not long ago.
While he was busy with his thoughts, Charles suddenly felt another pain and heaviness in his head. Soon enough, a large stream of memories flew into his mind. It was the original body owner's memories.
Surprisingly, the original body owner's name was exactly the same as his name, Charles D. Freeman, where "D" stands for Donatyr. But just from the boy's memories, there were far more surprising things. Charles seemed to gain a lot of knowledge in nearly an instant. It was quite magical.
Arcane Arts... It was astonishingly the most dominant knowledge from the boy's memories. Charles thought it was a fancy name, but it was basically magic in own understanding. There was no rejecting it, as the mystical moment ended and etched the knowledge and memories into his brain as if they were originally his own.
At this moment, Charles had no choice but to accept an additional fact that he was in a completely foreign world.
When Charles glanced at the blood markings on the floor for the second time, he finally had a likely guess of what took place in this dark room. The dead woman was actually his, or, to be more exact, the original body owner's mother—an Arcanist. She must have conducted what they called a "forbidden ritual" to revive her dead son in exchange for her own life. According to the original body owner's memories, he indeed also died due to a terrifying curse he accidentally acquired while dabbling with Arcane Arts without his mother's strict guidance.
Charles couldn't help but sigh in pity at the mother and son's tragic destiny. But he pitied his mother more, since she still failed to revive her son in the end and instead summoned another deadman's soul into her son's body.
'Was it because her son and I have exactly the same name?' Charles had no way of finding the true answer.
After a moment of tranquility, Charles' lips curled into a smile. "It seems fate has gifted me another life."
Glancing at the dead woman's corpse, Charles decided giving it a proper burial to pay some respect. After all, he has her son's body and memories now, so she's also his mother, in a sense.
Charles buried the body on the nearby hill and left a mark on it. The dead woman's name was "Cataleya Donatyr", departed at 39 years old.
Days passed and Charles began getting used to his new life in solitude. Charles lived undisturbed in a house on the outskirts of Earswell village. During the entire time, he also learned more knowledge about the place and the world where he was, particularly those details that weren't found in the original body owner's memories.
Most importantly, the fact that many people in this world are practicing arcane arts and mysticism is actually a very common knowledge. Specific knowledge regarding them however, remains isolated from the normal people; although it doesn't mean normal people can't enter the world of arcane arts.
A month later, Charles found himself facing a black tent outside the walls of Aesgrain city, 5 kilometers north of Earswell village. This moment was his first great step in his new life journey.