A young man jolted awake on his bed. He darted his eyes around, looking at his surroundings. Sweat dampened his back and temples, and he rubbed his face.
"Damn. Where the hell am I?"
He was in a fairly spacious room, large enough to accommodate two beds, two desks, and two wardrobes. The style of the room reminded him of a dormitory in a TV series or movie.
"Wait, wait. What the hell is happening? Shouldn't I be dead!?" He vividly remembered the last moment of his life. Dying alone in a nursing home was already painful, but now the almighty God was apparently mocking him by resurrecting his body or soul again.
He stood up slowly and walked, stopping in front of a mirror on a study table. He frowned because the young man in the mirror was not him.
"Who the hell is this brat? What kind of afterlife is thi-" before he could finish his sentence, countless memories flooded his mind. "Arrgggh! What the fu-" he roared in pain and knelt on the floor while holding his head.
"I hate you, Eric!"
"Recently I began questioning our engagement..."
"Look at him, the disgraced son of Marquis Ostheno."
"How could a cruel human being like you exist!"
"The price is quite high. Are you sure, young man?"
The pain in his head began to fade and he slowly opened his eyes. "This is a sick joke, damn it!" he silently clenched his fist. Fate was toying with him, transporting his soul to a young man in another world named Eric Ostheno. And the fact that he also shared the same name 'Eric' added to the ridiculousness of the situation.
Taking a deep breath, he stood up but ended up accidentally stepping on bottles scattered on the floor. He clicked his tongue, vaguely knowing how this 'Eric Ostheno' lost his life. "Damn brat partied too hard..." he said as he began picking up the bottles. "And ended up intoxicated himself! Idiot." Even after finishing picking up the liquor bottles, the 'new Eric' also decided to clean his messy room. As he picked up the trash, a transparent text appeared in front of him.
Searching for random power...
Time remaining...00 hours, 45 minutes, 38 seconds...
Eric furrowed his brows, waving his hand to brush away the words. Despite his actions, he continued cleaning, which took about 40 minutes. He wiped his temples as he exhaled.
"Hmm...this will do. Now what?" he plopped on his bed thinking about his next move. Back when he was on the verge of death, he graciously accepted his fate, believing that his suffering had ended. Now that he was alive again, he honestly didn't know what to do.
While mulling over his decisions, the transparent text appeared again.
Searching for random power...
Time remaining...00 hours, 00 minutes, 5 seconds...
4 seconds...
3 seconds...
Crossed his arms, somehow he got bad feelings about this.
2 seconds...
1 second...
0 second...
Generating random power...success.
Chosen random power... Kageyama Shigeo.
"Aaannnd that's it? Who the fuck is this Shigeo guy-" A sharp pain struck him. The pain was far more intense and potent than the onslaught of memories of Eric Ostheno. His entire body felt pain from head to toe, causing him to convulse.
Holding his consciousness and blinking his eyes rapidly, a dump truck of information entered his brain. The power, techniques, experiences and many more...anything that made up the very being of this Kageyama Shigeo carved into his body.
Unable to bear the pain, he finally let go of his consciousness and once again fell into a deep sleep.
***
A knock on his bedroom door woke Eric, along with the sunlight barging through the window. He rubbed his eyes, then his head, and tried to stand up.
"Ex-excuse me..umm...Eric? Are you there?"
Hearing the persistent knocking and someone calling his name, he lunged towards the door. He opened his bedroom door roughly, still trying to adjust himself. "What is it!?"
A small, wimpy boy stood before him. The boy wandered his eyes between the floor and Eric, not daring to look Eric in the eye. The man winced after learning the identity of the boy in front of him.
"Jere-Jeremy, right? What do you want?"
"Ju-just want you to know tha-that it's time to take a morning lesson…."
Jeremy Memo, firstborn of Baron Memo, Eric's roommate. The information came out flawlessly from his memory.
"Right, right. Whatever. Huh? Why weren't you in the room last night?"
"Um...yo-you said it yourself, this room only belongs to you be-because your family is higher than mi-mine." the boy stuttered nervously.
Eric groaned while holding his head, "The fuck? I said that?"
"Ye-yeah. Shall we g-go, then? Ah! Should I wipe your shoes lik-like usual?"
"Wait a goddamn second, brat..." he pinched his nose bridge. Looks like he still can't recall some small details in his current body but Eric roughly understood the relationship between them. Since Eric came from a higher noble family, he took his position for granted and projected his superiority complex onto this boy, forcing the brat to become his errand boy. Knowing this, his inner old man cringed so hard.
"Listen to me, brat. From now on you can live in this room, but there are some rules you must obey. You hear me?"
Jeremy still felt uneasy hearing that, but he nodded meekly. "Ye-yes! Thank you so much, Eric!"
"Pshh. We should leave right away. Don't wanna be late." He walked quickly to his wardrobe and changed his clothes. He didn't want to go to class while his clothes reeked of booze.
"Wai-wait, let me clean the room firs-huh!? It's already clean!?"
After a few minutes, both of them departed to the Academy.