Nolan remained seated against the headboard long after the warmth beneath his skin finally began fading.
The rain outside continued falling steadily against the cathedral windows, soft droplets tracing winding paths down the glass while dim amber mana-light flickered quietly throughout the sacred chamber.
The atmosphere should have felt calming after the overwhelming tension from earlier had finally subsided, yet the silence pressing against the room now felt heavier than before.
Because the foreign memories had not disappeared.
They lingered.
Waiting somewhere beneath the surface of his thoughts.
Nolan lowered his gaze toward his hand resting loosely atop the blanket, golden eyes unfocused as fragments of unfamiliar emotions continued drifting through his mind like pieces of another existence refusing to fully dissolve.
Even after cleaning himself and forcing his breathing to steady again, traces of embarrassment still lingered stubbornly beneath his composure.
The entire situation felt absurd and deeply humiliating in ways Nolan still struggled to properly process.
And yet no matter how much Nolan tried rationalizing it, he could not deny the reality of what had happened moments ago.
Those emotions had not been fully his own. The hunger attached to those memories possessed a shameless intensity entirely unlike the restrained self-control he had spent years cultivating within the disciplined environment of the church.
Still…
His body had reacted.
The realization irritated him far more than he cared to admit.
Nolan exhaled quietly before leaning his head back against the wall behind him, closing his eyes once more while trying to calm the strange mental exhaustion gradually building inside his skull.
The moment darkness settled behind his eyelids again, however, more fragmented images surfaced almost immediately.
This time, the memories came slower.
Less violent, almost drifting.
A crowded train filled with exhausted strangers staring blankly into glowing devices clutched in their hands.
Countless voices overlapping together into meaningless noise while the owner of those memories wandered through the crowd with detached indifference.
The emotional residue accompanying the memories felt hollow.
As though that person had spent most of his life moving endlessly without direction.
Nolan's brows furrowed faintly.
He still struggled to fully understand the foreign world revealed through these fragments.
Some aspects appeared primitive compared to Astralis. Others felt disturbingly advanced in completely different ways.
Despite lacking mana entirely, that civilization had somehow reshaped its world through pure technology and industrial development alone.
And yet…
Compared to the beauty of Astralis, those memories often felt strangely lifeless, cold, and artificial.
The skies hidden behind endless steel structures.
Cities overflowing with noise but lacking warmth.
People constantly surrounded by stimulation while somehow appearing emotionally emptier than anyone Nolan had ever met within the Sacred Land of Divinia.
The contrast unsettled him.
Especially because traces of the transmigrator's emotions still lingered clearly throughout every memory.
An endless obsession with fantasy worlds more beautiful than reality itself.
Then, another fragment surfaced.
Unlike the previous memories, this one carried excitement strong enough to immediately overwhelm everything else.
A glowing screen filled with beautifully illustrated women clad in elaborate armour surfaced within the foreign memories, their appearances ranging from elegant and ethereal to openly seductive.
The emotions attached to the memory surged violently.
Obsession.
Lust.
Admiration.
The owner of those memories had stared at those women for countless hours with almost embarrassing intensity.
Nolan eyes twitched slightly.
Another memory followed before he could suppress it.
This time, words appeared clearly.
Astralis.
The name struck him instantly.
Nolan's golden eyes narrowed slightly.
The foreign memories shifted rapidly afterward, fragmented scenes bleeding into one another chaotically.
Floating academy structures suspended beneath glowing skies.
Massive duelling arenas erupting with elemental destruction.
Young men and women dressed in black academy combat uniforms trimmed.
Then, that face came up again.
Silver hair and cold blue eyes.
The same woman from earlier.
Only now Nolan saw her clearly.
She beautiful, proud, and sharp-eyed.
The emotional reaction attached to the memory intensified immediately.
The transmigrator had desired her obsessively.
It was not just simple attraction, it was possessiveness.
Nolan's expression darkened slightly.
'Does this guy's head only filled with this… this kind of nonsense?'
The transmigrator's desires slammed repeatedly against Nolan's thoughts hard enough to make his chest tighten uncomfortably once again.
"…Damn it."
Nolan rubbed a hand slowly across his face while forcing himself to steady his breathing.
These women… they weren't merely random fantasies.
The memories surrounding them possessed continuity.
As though they belonged to some larger story.
And somehow, Astralis itself existed at the center of it.
That realization disturbed Nolan more than the lustful fragments themselves.
Because now the foreign memories no longer felt meaningless.
There was logic hidden beneath them.
A frightening kind of logic.
Nolan slowly lowered his hand while silence filled the room once more.
The rain outside had softened slightly now, though distant thunder still rolled faintly beyond Divinia's skyline from time to time.
The soft golden glow of mana lamps illuminated drifting dust particles throughout the chamber while cool air continued slipping quietly through the opened windows.
His thoughts remained restless.
The deeper he looked into the foreign memories, the stranger everything became.
Especially because, starting from the name "Astralis", certain details felt familiar.
Not personally familiar, but culturally.
The architecture within those fragmented academy memories resembled Astralisian design principles too closely to dismiss coincidence.
The floating structures, the mana-powered infrastructure, the aesthetics woven together with modern luxury.
It resembled their world, Astralis, too much.
Nolan's heartbeat slowed uneasily.
Another memory surfaced quietly.
This time, it belonged to him.
Younger students standing together beneath towering cathedral arches while instructors evaluated elemental sensitivity one by one.
Children nervously waiting for their results while soft sacred chants echoed throughout the hall.
Nolan remembered that day clearly.
The Church discovering his Light affinity.
The astonishment from several instructors afterward, and the expectations that followed.
Another memory surfaced.
Gruelling physical conditioning beneath relentless instructors while rain poured across outdoor training grounds.
Bruised knuckles, aching muscles, and endless repetition.
Then another.
Late nights studying sacred doctrine and healing theory while mana lamps flickered softly across enormous library halls.
Then another.
Hearing about some prodigy's training routine, knowing about true geniuses.
And quietly realizing the gap between them.
Nolan's gaze lowered slightly.
That feeling… he remembered it clearly.
The silent understanding that some people simply possessed something greater.
Outside the Church, Nolan had always stood in an awkward position.
Too talented to be ordinary.
Too gifted to disappear into the background completely.
But never enough to truly stand at the center beside those monsters capable of bending attention toward themselves effortlessly.
The foreign memories stirring inside him now only amplified that old insecurity strangely.
Because whoever those memories belonged to, that person had viewed Nolan exactly the same way.
Useful, attractive, and talented.
But ultimately secondary.
A side character to a story.
The thought unsettled him deeply.
Nolan slowly rose from the bed at last, bare feet touching the cold polished floor beneath him. A faint chill travelled upward through his body instantly, grounding him slightly against the chaos still lingering inside his thoughts.
The room remained silent around him as he began walking slowly toward the tall windows.
Rain-covered streets stretched quietly beneath the night sky outside, illuminated faintly by rows of mana lamps lining marble pathways far below.
Towering structures rose proudly throughout Divinia's skyline, their white-gold architecture glowing softly beneath the storm-filled darkness while distant bridges connected enormous sacred complexes together high above the city.
It was a beautiful, serene, and familiar scene.
And yet Nolan suddenly found himself wondering—
How had someone from another world known about Astralis at all?
For several minutes, Nolan simply stood motionless beside the windows while foreign thoughts drifted quietly through the back of his mind.
The atmosphere surrounding Divinia beyond the glass suddenly felt strangely distant compared to the growing noise inside his own head.
Eventually, Nolan exhaled softly before turning away from the windows at last.
The dim room remained illuminated beneath warm amber mana-light while shadows stretched quietly across polished floors and elegant white-gold walls.
His footsteps echoed faintly throughout the room as he walked slowly past the desk, bookshelves, and sacred ornaments scattered carefully throughout the chamber.
The atmosphere felt lonely now.
Just… quiet in a way that made his thoughts impossible to escape from.
Another memory surfaced suddenly as Nolan passed beside a tall standing mirror positioned near the far side of the room.
Memory of excitement, greed, and possessiveness.
The emotions struck violently enough to make him stop walking instantly.
Nolan's gaze shifted slowly toward his own reflection.
Long golden-blond hair rested loosely around his shoulders beneath the warm glow of mana lamps.
His pale skin reflected faint golden light softly while sharp golden eyes with long golden eyelashes stared silently back at him through the dim sacred atmosphere surrounding the chamber.
Even dressed casually in loose night clothes, his appearance carried an almost unnatural elegance difficult to ignore.
And the moment Nolan looked at himself—
The foreign memory surged violently.
It was the overwhelming excitement from seeing Nolan for the very first time.
Not admiration, but covetous greed.
The emotional intensity behind that memory made Nolan's stomach tighten instantly.
Because suddenly—
Everything connected.
The foreign memories.
The invasive emotions.
The unnatural sensations earlier.
'Someone… wanted to take over my life.'
Someone wanted this body.
Someone wanted to be in Astralis.
And wanted him.
Not metaphorically.
Not symbolically.
Literally.
The realization settled coldly inside Nolan's chest.
For the first time since waking up, genuine anger spread visibly across his expression.
Because now Nolan finally understood what had happened.
Someone had tried to erase him.
And somehow—
Failed.
Volume 1: Prologue — END
*******
Author's Note
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading this chapter ❤️
If you're enjoying the story, I'd really appreciate it if you could drop a Power Stone to help the novel climb the rankings and reach more readers. Every single one makes a huge difference!
I'd also love to hear your thoughts — please leave a Review and drop your comments below. Whether it's glowing praise, honest criticism, or anything in between, I read every single one. Good or bad, your feedback helps me improve the story, characters, and writing.
I'm especially open to your ideas! Feel free to share:
• Suggestions for future plot developments or academy events
• Thoughts on the characters (favorites, ones you want more of, or some idea like their backstory or future)
• Opinions on the current writing style, pacing, or anything else
And because this novel will also have smut… I'm very open to your spicy ideas too 😉
Don't hold back — any suggestions for steamy scenes, intimate moments, harem dynamics, or even specific kinks and fantasies you'd like to see are more than welcome. Your ideas might actually make it into future chapters!
Can't wait to read what you think!
See you in the next chapter~