A ray of light peeks through the window across the room, flashing Ethan directly in the face, which wakes him up. Huh…? Where am I? Ethan Smith moves slightly as he places his hand on his forehead to both cover the light and to gently massage the pulsing pain in his head. My head hurts so badly… And in that brief moment, the window burst open with a strong gust of wind, making the red curtains flap uncontrollably, shocking Ethan Smith as he stood up and hitting his head on the edge of the metal bed.
"Ouch… That made my headache even worse…" He turned his head, realizing the surroundings seemed different from those of his apartment. "Wait, this isn't my room." He pinched himself, trying to wake up, thinking it was a dream. "Oh! I definitely felt that." Ethan Smith, realizing this wasn't a dream, quickly panicked. "This isn't a dream! I repeat, this isn't a dream!" he panicked even more, thinking he was kidnapped. He pondered, "Okay Ethan, just calm down, you are an adult, you can do this."
He closed his eyes and quickly pinched himself, praying that this was a dream. No no no no, this can't be happening, I still have to check the faculty agreement! as he shouted internally, a female voice was heard across the room, "Brother, why are you shouting early in the morning? You're disturbing the neighbors." Ethan wondered, Why does that voice feel familiar? The door next to his bed opened; a thin, young girl appeared, looking confused as to why her brother was shouting early in the morning. Wait, how do I know her? And why does it seem… Normal? Then suddenly, a snap echoed through Ethan's mind, and he quickly recognized her as Selena Fletcher, the middle child of the family.
Selena looked at Edwin with a weird face. "Hey Edwin, you seem a bit off today." Edwin, regaining his thoughts, scratched the back of his head. "I'm just a bit tired today, that's all..." With an awkward smile, he managed to persuade her. Selena sighed as she checked her brother's temperature. "You do have a fever. Don't overwork yourself and rest; finding a job can be done later when you get better." She went to the cabinet on her right, looking for some medicine for Edwin to take. "I didn't have enough time to process everything earlier since I panicked." He sat down and took a glance at Selena. I'm inside the body of Edward Fletcher, the second oldest in the Fletcher family, and she is my younger sister, Selena Fletcher.
Edwin rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his thoughts and organize them, This feels a lot like that one novel I finished reading… I think that was Lor- his thoughts were disrupted when Selena called out his name, holding a glass of water and a small white pill, she sat down beside him and made a gesture to take the medicine "Here, take this and go back to sleep, I don't want you suddenly collapsing out of no where." she offers the glass of water and medicine "Ah.. Yes, Don't worry, I'll get better soon." he reached out to grab the medicine and swallowed it together with the water.
Edwin suddenly coughed, which shocked Selena. "Edwin!" She panicked, thinking that something had happened to her brother. Edwin, regaining his composure, looked at Selena with a smile. "Don't worry, the medicine got stuck in my throat." Selena sighed in relief and shouted, "You almost scared me to death!"
Edwin awkwardly replied with a smile, "I'm sorry for scaring you." As he patted her on the head, Selena smiled, and before she left, she waved enthusiastically, "Get well, Edwin." Then she left the room. Edwin sighed and mumbled to himself, "Damn, that was close; good thing I managed to swallow that pill without choking too much."
He heard a tick on the right side of the window in front of him and turned his head towards it, noticing a wall clock. That clock looks like it came from the 1900s. Edwin went closer to the clock and inspected it. Roman numerals and with an antique design? Did I transmigrate into the past or what? He pondered, while looking at the clock a strong gush of wind went inside the room again, Edwin looked at the open window to his left and went over to take a look at the view, he looked with awe as the streets of Eldrida was filled with different kinds of markets, the houses made by brick and roofs with chimneys emitting smoke made Edwin even more fascinated by this world, This really is the past!
He smiled and closed the window, Now that things have been settled, I need to recall everything that was happening before I got transported here. He immediately went to the table besides the door that Selena went in from, he sat down, grabbed a piece of paper from the storage below it and a pen from a white cup to his right, he then observed closely the well built black pen, admiring its uniqueness Wow, this is a real fountain pen, I've hardly ever seen nor used this. He inspected and played around with the fountain pen for a while before finally remembering what he was supposed to do, Oh crap, I got distracted, let's get back into topic. he wrote on the paper but no ink was coming out, Huh… must be empty then. he twisted the back part of the pen, showing two compartments—the lower part containing the pen's nib while the top has a tube with a piston mechanism.
He refilled the fountain pen with the ink from his left, using a syringe to pull ink out of its container and inserting it into the cartridge inside the pen. Before Edwin started writing, he thought to himself, It's fascinating that I also have the original owner's memories; this all feels natural! After a silent pause, Edwin felt disturbed that he just took someone else's body, using their face and memories. Eventually Edwin started to write, So, before I got transmigrated, I was preparing a new lesson for the students while I was sick. I think I was heading to a printing station near my apartment and collapsed on the street…
Edwin paused his thoughts, realizing that his death was very awkward and embarrassing. I died on the street! He shouted in his thoughts in a panicked gesture, grabbing his hair while looking into the ceiling. Wait, that's how I died? Edwin looked back at the table and sighed, Well, there's no turning back now…
He looked at the paper that he was writing at, the paper was just a doodle of his pet cat back from his original world, "I miss you Dom…" he placed his arms on the table and rested his head trying to calm himself What now, I'm in another world, I know nothing and here I am, out of everyone why me. He started to overthink things. I miss my students, my co-workers, my cat, everyone…
A small amount of water started to drop from his eye. He raised his head and rubbed his tears off. No, I'm already an adult; I should be better than this. I'm a teacher for a reason. He took the wet paper, folded it, and placed it in his right mini pocket on his shirt. I'll learn and adapt to this world. Before he started exploring his surroundings, shouting was heard from the outside. "Is there something going on outside?"
He immediately rushed to the window and looked outside, a ragged man with a stick was holding and threatening a female hostage, Edwin noticing this grabbed his cane that was hanged near the window and jumped outside, he ran to the ragged man and struck him behind with the cane "Take this you bastard!" the ragged man fell on the floor and dropped the stick, Edwin dropped the cane and grabbed the man, strangling him "Someone, call the police!"
Luckily, there was someone on patrol who rushed to the scene. The patrolling police placed cuffs on the ragged man and grabbed his arm. "Sorry I'm late; I took a small break, and this happens. I do applaud your courageous act, young man." The police smiled at Edwin and dragged the ragged man to the nearby station. "And you are going to jail for assault." Edwin looked at the police dragging the ragged man before being interrupted by the woman that he saved. She grabbed his hands and thanked him. "Thank you, kind sir! I was scared to death when that filthy criminal suddenly grabbed me and asked for some ransom. Just because he was claiming to have a catalyst doesn't mean he can just do whatever he wants!"
Edwin smiled before wondering what she meant by Catalyst. He looked at the woman and said: "No worries, I saw that you were in trouble so I instinctively had to move." The woman made a massive smile and offered Edwin a good amount of silver paper money for saving her. "This is for saving me; I still can't thank you enough for saving my life!" Edwin looked at the money in his hands and looked back at the woman. "This is more than enough, thank you."
The woman moved forward and kissed Edwin on the cheek before waving at him and leaving. Edwin was left speechless; he looked at the woman before regaining his thoughts. Shoot, that caught me off guard. He touched the spot where the woman kissed and blushed. He picked up his cane, placed the sack on his left hand before looking at the grass where the ragged man dropped the stick. He picked it up and inspected it. Was the man crazy for threatening someone with… This? Even the woman was scared by it. Edwin went back to his room before being greeted by Selena. "Edwin, that was so cool of you! I saw you jumping out of the window and hitting the man from behind!" Selena looked at his brother with awe, her eyes sparkling with a wide smile. Edwin gave a slight smirk and looked at Selena. "Well, I just did what I had to do, nothing special."
Selena frowned at Edwin and scolded him, "No, that was very heroic! The bystanders were too scared to approach him, yet you were the only one who decided to act!" Edwin was shocked at Selena's serious approach to the scene that happened earlier; he tried to brush it off, but Selena was still enthusiastic about his actions. "I'll brag to my classmates that my brother saved a noble lady!" Edwin looked at Selena with an awkward smile. "Please don't..." Selena teased him before going to school. "Are you about to go now?" Selena replied, "Yes, brother, I'll see you later!" as she grabbed her bag on the table next to the entrance door and hugged Edwin. "Stay safe, Selena."
Selena smiled and let go of her brother. "Yes, brother." She left as Edwin waved at her, but something was bothering Edwin. Why would a noble lady wander on her own without any guards?
Edwin went inside, still pondering that question. He closed the door and went back to his room and closed the curtain to avoid any distraction. He then placed the money on the table and decided to focus on the catalyst instead of the question—observing the stick again, She said something about a catalyst; is this one? he questioned himself. As he was about to sit down, Edwin suddenly felt like something was moving inside of his veins. "What the hell is this?" He tried to move, yet something was restricting him
What is happening! My veins are going crazy, and I can't even move; heck, I can't even speak! His veins twisted even more following an unbearable aching pain in his head. A headache? What even is happening to me! After a few seconds he fell on the floor, his veins went back to normal and the headache disappeared like it never happened, Edwin fell unconscious for a while before regaining it back, he laid on the floor for a while before suddenly standing up and inspected himself, touching his arms, his head, and his legs, when he confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him he sighed in relief.
What the heck happened… It felt like I was being possessed by a ghost! He looked over the stick that he took from the ground earlier; the stick was now surrounded by red lines covering from top to bottom. "Wait, by catalyst… Does she mean this as a wand?" He slowly took the stick on the ground and placed it close to his right eye while closing the left to look at it in detail. The moment it got close to his eye, it suddenly reacted, and the red line surrounding the stick disappeared. Did I deactivate it somehow? He swung the stick around and attempted to cast magic. "How does this even work?"
He looked at the closed curtain and prepared to aim. Let's test this thing out! Though I hope we have an extra curtain. He exhaled and prepared himself. "Fireball!" The curtain flapped from the strong wind from outside, exposing Edwin from his room as he stood there awkwardly, as passersby looked at him; some even muttered about how cute it was. Edwin still stood, slightly blushed, and immediately closed the window and curtains. That was embarrassing; why did I even do that? As he sat down on the floor
"Do I have to undergo training, or do I need mana like any other fantasy story?" he pondered to himself as he stood up and placed the stick on his table. He went to his bed and lay down while he covered his head with his arms and closed his eyes. He felt something weird. "Wait, didn't I have a fever earlier?" He quickly rose and checked his head using his right hand. "Yeah, I did have a fever earlier. How am I suddenly okay?" He looked at the closed, curtained window. "How did I also have the reflex to jump on the window earlier?" There were too many questions that Edwin had. "Even the moment I first woke up here, the headache that I had was gone after I stood up. I may not be good about the human body, but I know that a bad headache does not just disappear after standing up." He starts to consider things regarding his transmigration. "There must be a reason I transmigrated here"