Like every isekai protagonist, I woke up in another world but I didn’t transmigrate there in a conventional method like the novels. It’s going to sound screwed up on so many levels but I died by walking into a lamppost on the way back from university. A. Goddamn. Lamppost. I wasn’t hit by Truck-kun or somehow accidentally died due to some erotic goddess’s mistake. No. I literally crashed into a lamppost in the middle of the street and the worst part was, there was no one around. Not even one single soul or human being. I wasn’t even drunk or high. Heck, I don’t even do drugs like some of my classmates. There were times where they offered me some crack but being a person with brain cells I told them. Nah, I rather keep all my organs healthy and intact. I was a medical student so I shouldn’t be destroying my health like some other crackheads. Then, that very same night, I just had to walk into that lamppost.
In those last moments, I began to see my life flash past my eyes. The time I spent with my younger siblings, the day I got a full scholarship to attend university, the days where my parents slapped me and my siblings with coat hangers to discipline us, and the days my grandmother spent with us before she died from a stroke. Those days, no matter how good or bad they were, were all snapshots of my pitiful eighteen years of life before the fateful day when the goddamn lamppost appeared in front of me. I know I'm repeating myself but if this didn't happen, I would have been home eating a warm dinner with my family, ah hotpot, but now I'm going up to heaven with grandma. Grandma, did you hear that? Your grandson is coming up to heaven.
As the last string of life was cut off, I felt my soul being pulled away from my body. My eyes growing heavy as I took my last breath. I was dead, or I was supposed to be. For what seemed like an eternity, I somehow am able to breathe. Then, I felt a heartbeat. I wasn’t dead! Forcing my eyes to open, I found myself looking up at a white ceiling where a circular light was attached to its center. It's warm glow shining over my face like a small sun.
Was I in the hospital? Did someone manage to find my body and I just ended up passing out? Am I in heaven?
Thoughts rapidly coursed through my mind and at that very moment, I realized that was when I began to realize something was off.
Inhaling a large sigh of relief, I place my hand in front of my face and begin to laugh in a hysterical manner. Hold up one second. My voice was different, it was not as deep. Then I took a look at my hand, it was a lighter pigment than my usual tan. It was white. Suddenly, a surge of images flashed through my mind like a movie being played at double the speed at high frames per second. My head throbbed. I felt dizzy to the point where I could hurl at any moment. That's when I knew, for sure, I had arrived in another world.
According to the flashing images, which I assumed where the previous owner's memories, my name was Alexis Stoneridge, a seventeen-year-old senior at Regalia's Academy of Magic Technology. That's right, this world has magic just like the novels but instead of that medieval fantasy time setting, I was in a world in the distant future where magic had combined with technology. The phones, the cars, even the power in this room were all generated by a type of magic energy called Ether, which the equivalent of electricity or any other fuel source you could think of on Earth. Additionally, Ether can also be manipulated by humans to create 'Spells' and these 'Spells' are attacks created by condensed Ether. These spells are classified from Tier One to Tier Nine with Tier One being the weakest and Tier Nine being the strongest. However, only a handful of individuals are able to control Ether and in the past, they were called Sorcerers but today, they are called Operators. I was part of that handful of individuals who could control Ether thus, I was able to attend the Regalia Academy of Magic.
Scanning through the memories, I also learned from the previous owner that most humans lived in walled cities, the one he lived in was called Adessa, protected by an elite force of people called Wyvern Knights which many young people, like the previous owner, aspired to become. These Wyvern Knights are warriors who are adept in both magic and martial arts and only those who pass the rigorous exam held every year could pass. Additionally, if one passed the exam, one could not tell anyone else that they did. In other words, if one became a Wyvern Knight, both their civilian identity and Knight identity had to be hidden and no one could know about it, not even a Knight's parents. The reason for this was unknown to the public.
Continuing my scan through the images that flooded my mind, I found out that Adessa was one of the largest cities in the Grish Empire. It's located several hundred kilometers from the capital, Yhonlas, ruled by the 56th Prime Minister, Franklin Kreves, who was democratically elected last year and is noted to be the youngest Prime Minister in history being only thirty years in age. Anyways, I went on a tangent there, Adessa is also a mountain city with its residential areas sitting at the foot of the mountain and the main city residing at the flattened peak of the mountain. I lived somewhere at the middle of the mountain since my parents own a bakery along the main road that leads up to the peak about a five-minute walk from the lift station, similar to ski lifts back on Earth, which serves as the main means of transportation around Adessa since there is only one road that leads to the peak of the mountain where the Academy and all other major businesses were located.
Propping myself up, I took a good look at my surroundings. I was currently sitting on a large twin bed which was situated to the right of a vertical window with a wooden desk sitting right under it, the sunlight piercing through the window where I could see the lift running up and down the mountain, each green and blue cable cars rolling smoothly down the cable. Removing the thick covers off myself, I take a good look at my new body in the full-length mirror placed on the white wall near the door to the room. I was around the same height as my previous life which was approximately 175 cm but in this body, I had dark amber hair that seemed closer to brown, skin that was a blend of white and peach, and a skinny frame that showed signs of muscle-building there were even indications that a six-pack was forming. What really stood out was the color of my eyes. They were an odd purple and in each one, there was a twilight sky moving around in them with stars dancing around his pupils. This was not something you could find on Earth but apparently it was normal here. With my current looks, I could be considered handsome on Earth but here, I was considered average.
Glancing over to the wooden desk, I found a clock, a sort of device called a Tabloid, which is a holographic supercomputer that can change from the size to the size of a standard cellphone, a pushed in a blue office chair and a pair of medium-rimmed black glasses. Now that I thought about, things did seem a tad bit blurry. Picking up the glasses, I put them on and I felt as though my world had become a lot clearer, I could even make out the words on the Tabloid asking me for my login password. At the top right corner of the screen, I could see the date. It was Friday and I had class today before the three day weekend for Staff Development and the week after, I would take Wyvern Knight's exam.
This world... is very interesting. I thought to myself at that moment, smiling as for what this world held in store for me.
"Al!" A female voice erupted breaking my stream of thought. It was mom. My mom in this world. "You have school today!"
"Coming!" I replied adapting to my situation quickly. Since I was transported to this world, and knowing most isekai protagonists do not leave their new world, I might as well adapt. Plus, I had an advantage which was that I possessed the previous owner's memories so things that I thought were strange seemed more normal.
Opening the wardrobe in front of the twin bed, I fish out a white tee along with a light blue pullover vest with the Regalia Academy's Emblem, a four-sided star, embroidered in silver. From the drawers, I take out a pair of freshly ironed black jeans and ankle-length white socks. Finally, I grab my leather shoulder bag hanging off the chair and sling it across my body. I was ready to go. Opening the door, I walked down the wooden stairs to meet my family in this world. As I reached the middle floor, which is where the kitchen and living room were located, I was greeted by the aroma of buttered toast and fried eggs.
"Morning." I hear a mature masculine voice greet. It was my father. He was sitting at the dining table watching the news on his Tabloid as he drank from a mug of freshly brewed coffee. As I recall, he's a man in his mid-forties who established the bakery here in Adessa before I was born. He had the same brownish-amber hair like me and wore similar glasses. His overall appearance was how I could visualize myself in a couple of decades, a little buffer, and some wrinkles on my face that showed signs of aging. Behind him, was a woman who was around the same age, yet looked as though she was twenty, flipping eggs with her spatula. She had black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and wore bunny slippers along with a brown apron. Here eyes, reflected the same twilight sky as my own. She was my mother.
"Happy Friday." She greets me as she places a plate in front of me as I was taking a seat. There was a fried egg, two slices of bacon, and a piece of buttered toast.
Smiling, remembering my own family back on Earth, I take a bite out of the egg letting the yolk burst inside my mouth. How nostalgic. No matter where you are, a simple home-cooked meal always tastes good. Memories of my previous life passed through my head as I chewed on the egg. Suddenly, I begin to tear up, clenching the fork in my hand to the point where it could break.
"Son," My father in this world begins noticing tears to well up in my eyes, "why are you crying?"
Being the mother hen in this household, my mother drops everything and rushes over to my side. "Honey, did something happen to you?"
"No," I sniffle before looking at them, "it's nothing. I'm just happy to have you guys as my family."
I just remembered these moments in my previous life.
"You haven't said that in a while. Well we're glad to be your parents." My father said in a caring tone.
"No matter what, we'll always love you. You're our only child." My mother added.
Feeling better, I wipe away the tears that were forming.
"That's better." My father said. "Now, you should be on your way to school while your mother and I will take care of things here in the shop."
Nodding, I pick up a piece of toast, shove it in my mouth, and run down to the bottom floor, the bakery floor, grabbing my shoes before bursting out the door.
"I'm leaving!"
"Study hard." My mother says from behind me.
"Have a good day!" My father adds as I run off into the distance.
Using the previous owner's memories, I navigate my way through the twisty back roads of Adessa, taking short cuts through the alleys, taking sharp lefts and rights, and before I knew it, I had arrived at the lift station. It only took two minutes since I was running. The lift station had cable cars running through it every ten seconds and each one could carry eight people. When a car arrives at a station, similar to a ski lift, it slows down to allow enough time for passengers to embark and disembark. Today was a school day so there were a lot of students from my area who were waiting in line to take the lift. Following them, I wait patiently in line as the cable cars load on students and other residents one by one while finishing up my piece of bread. As I shove the remaining portion of it into my mouth, I feel a hand grab my shoulder causing me to jerk up. Reflexively, I crane my neck back to find a guy with slick back blond hair and black eyes that seemed like a bottomless pit if one looked into them carefully. He word the same attire as me but he was a good five centimeters taller and better looking, his features were more defined than my own. If this were Earth, all the girls would drop dead for him if he said it.
“Yo, glasses!” He smirked.
“Tim, don’t do that,” I warned on the verge of slapping him. “You scared the living daylights out of me.”
“Sorry,” he laughed. “It wasn’t intentional. Al.”
>>>
This guy was the previous owner’s best friend, Timothy Halford, Tim for short. Sifting through my new memories, I realized that Tim was proclaimed one of the five geniuses at the Academy and the son of a large weapons manufacturer here in Adessa, LTech, which has a good relationship with the Academy. Besides specializing in magic, the Academy also trains students in various styles of combat for one obvious reason, the Wyvern Knight Exam, for damn prestige. Not only was Tim good at magic he was also a master of swordsmanship. It was even rumored around campus that he had the highest chance of passing the exam. Even if the Academy didn’t mention who passed the exam due to Wyvern Knight's policy, people could make a good guess at who passed without saying the person’s name but of course, no one would say the name. The Wyvern Knights were to be respected and it should stay that way.
On the other hand, I was average. I was decent in both hand to hand combat and magic but I was above average when it came to magic theory or Arcana, which is useless if you can’t execute spells. In comparison to Tim, I was a side character and he was the main character who could build some sort of harem with his looks alone. I wasn’t really envious because personally, I don’t like harems. I wasn’t perverted like some of the other guys that were my age, both here and in my previous life, plus it disgusts me.
>>>
“So, Al,” Tim continued, “are you preparing for the Wyvern Knight Exam.”
“Of course!” I retorted as it were obvious, “why wouldn’t anyone!”
“Chill dude,” Tim said retreating a couple of steps back before returning face to face with me. “So what do you think about your odds of passing.”
I shrugged. “I don’t wanna say because of confidentiality. Whether I passed or failed, I wouldn’t tell you. Either way, I would apply to become an Operator for a Wyvern Knight or LTech. After all, anyone who can control Ether can become an Operator and it pays well.”
“True,” he sighed in a defeated tone. “plus all Wyvern Knights have another job so you really can’t tell. I don’t understand how they balance both identities.”
“I’m not sure. Must be a pain though.” I said taking out my lift card and scanning it at the gate before it let me in. "But I've always wondered why they make Wyvern Knight's identities confidential?"
Tim's eyes widened as if he had some sort of revelation.
"I've never considered that."
"Forget about it." I say as we hop into one of the empty cable cars that slowed down at the station, placing my bag in between my legs. "it's better if we don't dwell on it too much."
"Yeah," Tim agreed as he sat down across from me in the cable car.
The cable car exited the station, picking up speed as it moved along the line. Looking out the window, I had a good view of Adessa. Glorious Adessa.
"This never gets old no matter how long you've lived here." Tim chuckled also looking out the window.
The colorful Victorian-styled buildings of the residential area faded as the car moved farther up the mountain. In the distance, I could see other lines of cable cars moving up and down the mountain, and below, the high wall that encircled the city separated it from the desolate wasteland on the other side. In the wasteland, I spot some dead corps of large bipedal beasts, their meat falling off their flesh leaving their large skeletons to be buried by the sand. It was disgusting. Averting my attention away from the wasteland, I focused my attention back on Adessa. The smaller residential buildings grew taller as we approached the peak of the mountain and before I knew it, I could see skyscrapers decorating the peak of the mountain like a crown. Each one pierced through the sky with their tips glowing in the sun like a majestic spear.
Dazing out of the window, time passed and before I knew it, we were almost at the station.
"We're almost there." Tim pointed to the station that was coming into view as the cable car began to slow down.
Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I prepare to disembark the car. The door slides open and Tim exits the car first while I followed in kind. This was the second to last stop before the car circles back down the mountain and the closest stop to the Academy, about three blocks away. In the meantime, Tim and I had some small talk.
"So," Tim initiated the conversation, "did you manage to break through into Rank 3?"
"Not yet. I think I could breakthrough this weekend." I shook my head.
>>>
In this world, Operators are classified into nine Ranks, 1-9, and each Rank was harder to advance to than the previous Rank. To advance to the next Rank, there were two methods. One was meditation and the other was to raise ones understanding in Arcana. The first method was easier but it took longer to break through a Rank while the second method was harder but it could bring faster results. To make things easier to understand, think of the first method like skiing and the second method like snowboarding. Skiing was easier to learn but harder to master while snowboarding was harder to learn but easier to master.
According to the previous owner's memories, he was currently Rank 2 but was on the verge of breaking into Rank 3 at any moment if he spent a night meditating. Tim, on the other hand, was Rank 4 but he was a far cry from Rank 5 but he didn't discriminate against anyone who was weaker than him like Alexis. The reason? He despised people with the same strength as him but looked down on others weaker than themselves and those very same people tried to kiss up to him to see if they could get any discounts from LTech. Did they have no shame? Of course not!
>>>
"That's faster than you expected." Tim smiled encouraging me. "You can break through tonight and have a week to stabilize your foundation before the Wyvern Knight Exam!"
"I hope that's the case because I'm still considered in the bottleneck stage. How about you?"
"It's going to take me a couple of years before I can break through into Rank 5. So you have time to catch up."
"Yeah, but I'm not as fast as you," I say pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose.
"Well, keep working hard. Who knows, if I become a Wyvern Knight, you become my Operator."
I snorted.
"So confident. Bold of you to assume you can! The Wyvern Knights only pass 25 people every year. Everyone who passes is some sort of genius. You're competing with the elite of the elite in the whole world! Even if you did pass and become a Wyvern Knight, you couldn't even tell me because of Wyvern Knight's policy of confidentiality! The same applies even if I became your Operator by some strange coincidence!"
A confident look crawled onto his face.
"Hey, you never know." He said shrugging.
"So what will happen if you fail?" I asked.
"Pass or fail, I'm going to have to take over my father's company."
"Harry Osborne aren't cha'," I muttered under my breath.
"What did you say?" Tim spoke noticing my slip up.
Shoots, I totally forgot that this world didn't have Ma*vel.
"Nothing," I said with a hint of panic in my voice. "I was just imagining you as the CEO of LTech."
Placing his hand under his chin, he walks in front of me with a toothy grin.
"I'd make a good one, right?"
"As your friend, I can't possibly see you as some domineering chairman."
"Really, and other people say I'm scary!" He said feeling a little offended.
"I think it's just those who don't know you well and your eyes," I replied readjusting the strap on my bag. "With those eyes that seemed like a bottomless pit, anyone would be afraid to know what you're thinking. I'm not afraid because I'm your friend."
"It's not my fault I was born like this." He pouted tossing his hands up in the air in defeat.
"Whatever," I said giving up on continuing this conversation any further. "We should just focus on school. I highly doubt I will pass the Wyvern Knight's Exam so I'm placing my hopes on you. Everyone in the Academy says you have the best chance at passing."
"Even though I'm confident that I can pass, there might be someone who else who gets the spot. Maybe Eric, he's stronger than me."
I give him a wry smile.
"Who knows."
"Who knows."
