Siegfried Fors
The wail of sirens split the night, their red and blue lights flashing against the mansion's polished walls. A crowd had gathered, murmuring in hushed but eager voices as two men were escorted out of the grand estate. One was an older man, his face twisted in shock and disbelief, while the other, much younger, barely in his twenties, looked more confused than afraid.
"That's Senator Caldwan, isn't it?" someone whispered.
"And his son… I heard he was laundering money."
"Laundering? Try bribery and witness tampering. Some people are saying murder."
A ripple of murmurs spread through the onlookers. The younger man's jaw clenched at the sound of it, his hands balled into fists. But unlike his father, who looked broken, he held his head high, his gaze sweeping the crowd defiantly, until his eyes locked onto mine.
I couldn't stop my face from grinning.
The truth hit him, and he immediately froze. His face crumpled into a mask of fury.
"You bastard!"
He lunged, breaking free from the officer's grip.
"You! You did this!"
His voice was raw with rage, his movements wild. But before he could reach me, the officers tackled him, dragging him back as he thrashed.
"I won't forget this!" he screamed, his voice cracking with desperation.
I pulled my hood over my head, smirking as I turned away.
He wouldn't be coming out. Not for another thirty years, at least.
As I walked, I heard a voice from above.
I looked up, just in time to see the blinding headlights of a truck.
A deafening crash.
Darkness.
Floating… Drifting… Nowhere.
There was no pain. No sound. No sensation at all.
At first, I thought I was dreaming. Maybe unconscious. But the longer I floated in this vast, endless black, the more I realized, this wasn't a dream.
It was nothingness.
No weight, no air, no body. Just a hollow awareness, suspended in the void.
Did I die?
The thought should have scared me, but all I felt was… detachment. Like an observer watching from a distance, as if my own existence were something foreign.
And then whispers drifted into the air.
"Bastard."
"He ruined everything."
"He should have died sooner."
"Dude, you are a monster."
The voices came from nowhere and everywhere, overlapping, repeating. Some were angry, others sorrowful. Familiar, yet distant.
Faces flickered in the darkness, strangers, enemies, people I should have recognized but couldn't.
A man in handcuffs, sitting in a dimly lit interrogation room. Me.
The truck. The headlights. The moment everything went white.
I should have died. I did die.
But the memories kept coming. Not of that world, but of another. Steel clashing. Blood on my hands.
A woman's warm and caring eyes.
A boy's laughter, warm and innocent.
The hacker. The noble.
Two lives.
A hacker who brought down powerful men, and paid the price.
A noble heir who wished for magic, and now lay bleeding in the arms of his family.
The weight of them both pressed down on me, splintering my mind. They overlapped, tangled together, reality unraveling into something incomprehensible.
I tried to reach out, to grasp onto something solid, but I had no hands, no body, just a swirling storm of thoughts being ripped apart.
Then, for the first time since the void swallowed me, I felt something.
A pull.
Faint at first, then stronger. A force dragging me down, down, down.
Heat.
It spread through the darkness, and then,
Agony.
A searing, all-consuming fire tore through me, like my very soul was being reforged. It was unbearable, overwhelming, endless,
Out of nowhere, a voice reached me.
"Wake up... my beloved."
The voice pierced through the darkness, pulling me down, no, dragging me.
Pain surged again, white-hot and searing, like molten metal being poured into my veins. My lungs seized, my body twisted, nerves screaming as if they were being torn apart.
Out of the darkness, the light appeared.
Blinding. Overwhelming. A sharp contrast to the void I had been floating in. My body jerked, a choked gasp tearing from my throat as I was wrenched back into reality.
I was awake.
But I wished I wasn't.
A dull, throbbing suffering ran through every inch of me. Even breathing felt like a battle. My eyelids felt heavy, but I forced them open, only for my vision to remain half-shrouded in darkness.
Bandages.
They covered my right eye, wrapping tightly around my head. I could only see from my left.
The familiar ceiling of my room. The scent of herbs, heavy in the air. No sunlight remained; night had already arrived.
I was… alive.
Movement beside me drew my attention. Two figures stood near my bed. An old man with a face full of wrinkles, grey sideburns framing his head. A thick pair of glasses perched on his nose, threatening to slip as he worked, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, hands glowing with a soft green light as he pressed them against my chest.
Doctor Ridge.
The second figure, an old man with a thick, graying beard, was draped in ceremonial vestments, white and light-green, embroidered with the sigil of a tree. His expression was calm yet unreadable, his hands pressed together as if in silent prayer.
Father Kaelen.
It looks like they were healing me.
I tried to move, but pain lanced through me, making my body seize up. A groan slipped past my lips.
Beneath the pain, something stirred inside my head. Not just heat, but something, like embers waiting to ignite.
"Easy, young lord," Ridge's voice was calm but firm. "You're in no condition to be moving around. Frankly, it's a miracle you're even awake."
A miracle.
I let out a dry, raspy breath. Right. I should be dead. I felt like I had died.
I shifted my gaze to Father Kaelen. "What… happened?" My voice was barely above a whisper, my throat raw.
The priest exchanged a glance with Ridge before speaking. "You underwent your Awakening… but it was unlike anything we've ever seen."
"Awakening... Wait! I Awakened? Finally!"
"Ouch." I tried to curl my fist in excitement, but pain came with it.
Still, I'm 'Awakened' now.
The word echoed in my head with joy, stirring faint memories of what had happened before everything went dark. The unbearable pressure, the flood of this life's memories, and… the fox?
"Fuuuueeee."
A small, high-pitched sound came from beside my head. I turned, slowly, painfully, to my left. There, perched on the bedside table, was the same fox.
Its soft reddish-orange fur shimmered under the lamplight, its fluffy tails curled neatly behind it. Its large, intelligent eyes met mine with something close to curiosity, and relief.
"He never left your side the whole time," Doctor Ridge said.
"Even when Sir Zayn moved him out, he slipped back in," Father Kaelen added, a rare hint of amusement in his voice.
"Is that so?" My voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper.
I lifted a hand to touch it, but the moment I tried, pain shot through my arm like needles digging into my muscles. My fingers twitched but refused to move any further. I let out a slow, frustrated breath.
The fox, as if understanding, leapt from the table. But instead of landing on the bed, it floated, its tiny body hovering in the air. With a graceful movement, it drifted next to my pillow, pressing its soft head against the side of mine.
"He really likes you," Ridge noted, adjusting his glasses.
A flying fox, huh? I guess everything goes in a world filled with magic.
Before I could dwell on it further, voices rang out from beyond the room.
"I heard his voice!"
"Valka, are you sure?"
"Let's go and see."
"Wait, you stupid—!"
The door slammed open with a loud bang, and a flood of familiar faces stormed inside.
Mother. Grandpa. Granny.
And right behind them, Silas and Erina.
Granny, Grandpa, and Erina rushed toward me.
"Lord Sieg!"
"Sieg!"
A bombardment of voices crashed over me, drowning out the dull throbbing in my body.
Granny immediately turned to Doctor Ridge, pressing him for details on my condition.
"How are you feeling?" Grandpa knelt beside my bed, his sharp eyes scanning me for any sign of lingering pain.
I forced a smile. "A little pain, but alive, I guess."
Grandpa let out a small chuckle, his shoulders easing just a bit.
Erina, standing close, looked like she was on the verge of tears, her hands clasped tightly as she took in my bandaged form.
Mother was the only one who remained completely unfazed. She stood near the door, arms crossed, a casual expression on her face, almost as if she had known all along that I would be fine.
"...Thanks to Father Kaelen stabilizing him, I was able to repair his veins before permanent damage could set in," Doctor Ridge explained, adjusting his thick glasses.
Granny let out a long sigh of relief. "Good."
Then, she turned to look at me, her eyes full of concern.
I mustered a weak smile.
"Looks like my luck is quite bad," I said, voice hoarse but amused. "I'm injured again in just a month's time."
"No," Granny said firmly. "It's not your fault." Her gaze darkened as she suddenly whirled around and pointed straight at my mother.
"If it's anyone's fault, it's hers."
"Huh?" Mother raised an eyebrow, looking genuinely baffled.
"If you hadn't dragged him out to fight, he would have been safe at home! It's always you."
Mother grunted, clearly annoyed.
"Blame that spirit if you want to," she shot back.
"Spirit? What spirit?"
I frowned. What was she talking about?
Before I could ask, Grandpa stepped in with a weary sigh.
"Now stop it, both of you."
"Are you all not forgetting something more important?"
A familiar voice cut through the air, laced with amusement.
Everyone turned to Zayn at the door, his usual smirk playing on his lips.
His gaze flickered over me, sharp and knowing, before he stepped forward, walking past the others without hesitation.
He stopped at my bedside and, with a small, satisfied nod, said,
"Congratulations on awakening, Sieg."
"Thanks," I said, mustering a smile.
Zayn looked genuinely happy. I guess he had put in all the work behind my training; all that effort was for this moment.
He grinned, resting a hand on the side of my bed. His next words carried a quiet weight.
"Be proud. From now on, you are a mage."
A chill ran down my spine.
The words settled into me, as if the truth of them was only now sinking in. My body had endured the worst pain imaginable, my very soul had been reshaped, and I had come out the other side.
I was different now. Stronger.
And for the first time since I woke up in this world…
I felt it.
The embers. The power thrumming deep within me.