“Brother Cael?”

  I blinked awake with a modicum of horror, surveying my surroundings.

  I was laid in a hospital bed with a horrible pain in my ribs and back.

  Well, I suppose they were mine now.

  “Easy.”

  I’d hardly realised until the bearded man standing over me had raised a hand to stop me that I was trying to clamber out of bed—this one was way less comfy than I’d gotten used to, and I wanted out.

  Also, my body still kinda felt like it was on fire. Bad feeling. Probably shouldn’t move much.

  Almost as bad as looking down at myself and not recognising my hands. My skin tone was lighter. My fingers were more thin than I was used to, plus longer. My nails looked immaculately neat, and my arms had faint black hairs running across them.

  I needed a mirror, stat.

  Unfortunately, just thinking ‘I need a mirror’ didn’t seem to fetch me a mirror anymore.

  Yup. Great. Looks like I was fully back to life. No more AI butler for me. Just a weird new body and some searing pain to go along with it.

  Why’d I choose to come back to life, again?

  “If I were you, Cael, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to get up. Damian Voss isn’t satisfied that you survived his challenge,” the bearded elder spoke. “Guild rules are the only thing stopping him from marching in here and finishing you off.”

  That… didn’t sound good.

  “There’s a guy trying to murder me?”

  The elder gave me an odd look. “You did sleep with his intended.”

  Shit.

  “Or so he loudly proclaimed when he challenged you to the duel.” The elder frowned. “Are you feeling woozy? Suffering memory loss?”

  “I… maybe?”

  It was true. I did feel sick. How much of that was a sudden, rampant case of fear and body dysmorphia, however, I was unsure of.

  He disappeared for a moment, then returned with a couple of pills in his hand. He offered them to me, and I gulped them down with little hesitation.

  Again, he looked at me like I was mad, offering me a cup of water just in time for me to start gagging on the large pills.

  I graciously coughed and swallowed my way through the lumpy medicine. I’d rather not die from choking twice in a row, but I was a bit preoccupied with the hundred thoughts racing through my mind right now to human properly.

  First off, who the fuck was I?

  Cael Soulgrave, apparently. Who was he?

  Memories started to assail me as I attempted to grow accustomed to the fact I was now the occupant of someone else’s body. I’d known my reincarnation was coming, but I had never imagined it’d be like this. I thought I’d be reborn as a baby, or something. Not whatever the hell this was.

  Cael was apparently a magus initiate in the Skyreach Guild. Wait. I knew a little about this!

  Mages and Ascendants had been one of the topics in that book I’d read to induce sleep. Not every detail was fresh in my head, but I had the basics fairly down.

  It was pretty straightforward from what I’d read. Ascendents harnessed and used energy from the world to do flashy feats of strength and magic, generating said energy within their cores and even gathering it from the world around them.

  Cael was apparently a low-tier Ascendant from an important family, and used his family name to accomplish just about everything, despite the fact he hadn’t seen almost anyone from his clan in years.

  His name had gotten him his position in Skyreach, as well as access to the money he’d borrowed in order to buy magical elixirs and grow stronger. It had also gotten him through multiple feuds unscathed, as well as landing him in his current predicament.

  Oh, god. I owed people money, too, didn’t I?

  Well, not that Cael had seemed worried about it. Cael’s memories were all honour and virtue and status and anger at perceived slights. He was an entitled and arrogant young man who believed the world owed him something simply because he’d been born in the Soulgrave clan.

  Unfortunately, the world seemed as if it’d acquiesced to that belief for a bit too long. Cael’s ego had risen to such heights that he’d thought he could steal away the intended bride of a warrior from another clan, leading to…

  Yup. All caught up now.

  My previous inhabitant was a fucking dick.

  I groaned, partially from pain, mainly mental exertion.

  Crack baby wasn’t looking so bad now. Why’d I been reborn as this guy?!

  Like sure, I had some degree of power and privilege, but I also had a guy at twice my level gunning for me! Cael had been at the third stage of his ‘Tier 1 awakening’, while Damian Voss was at the sixth. The fact Cael had even taken his challenge was a complete testament to his stupidity. If I know the difference in their ranks, he knew it.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Guess he thought he was hot shit. I didn’t have to look too far in his memories to find positive affirmations or delusions of grandeur, they were basically half of his waking thoughts.

  Jeez. What a walking disaster.

  The elder checked on me some more. He said something about my mana channels seeming blocked and the distribution of mana in my body being a bit off.

  That sounded bad.

  "What exactly does that mean?" I asked the elder, trying not to sound too freaked out.

  "It usually means that your channels haven't been properly exercised to accommodate the level of mana in your body," the elder explained. "This leads to a blockage. Your recent injuries may be exacerbating your symptoms, however."

  "Does that mean I'm gonna... blow up, or something?"

  The elder chuckled. He stroked his long beard. "Nothing so grandiose. It should simply inhibit your casting." He pointed a finger at me. "This is fairly common in initiates that consume elixirs in excess and don't cycle their new mana properly. How many have you consumed in recent months?"

  I said nothing. Just silently cursed my predecessor once more.

  "Work on exercising your core," the elder suggested. "Try to practice movements that encourage your mana to flow normally again. Don't drink any more of that rubbish in the meantime."

  I thanked him and he left. Shit. How did this guy want to be an archmage and yet he'd managed to block himself from using his own freaking mana?

  Part of me really wanted to try and run away. Just get the hell out of here as soon as I was well recovered enough to move and pray that Damian didn’t try and find me.

  Hell, even the grand idiot Cael Soulgrave probably would’ve known that plan was shitty, but what other choices did I have? Try and fight him?

  Maybe he’d accept an apology. Cael didn’t really know much about Damian, or the Voss clan for what it was worth, and he also wasn’t the type to go around apologising for himself.

  Like ever.

  I racked Cael’s brain and literally could not find a single time he’d apologised for anything.

  So maybe owning up to Cael’s mistakes and saying sorry would at least repair some of the damage. Who knew?

  Maybe I could just accept it and die. Bad life, bad roll. Try again, see if I incarnate as someone less ridiculous?

  Nah. I got a second chance because I lived a ‘virtuous life by Earth standards’, which apparently the bar was pretty low for, because I wasn’t exactly a do-gooder. I guess I never hurt anyone?

  I imagine that by the standards of whatever shithole world I’d woken up on, just letting a guy kill me so I could have another shot at reincarnating wouldn’t be very ‘virtuous’. Meaning I wouldn’t get to spin the wheel again.

  And… what would that even mean? Straight to hell?

  Maybe I should at least try to make this work then. Worst case? I die and start over.

  [Hi there! How’s the integration process treating you?]

  Oh, god. Was this really happening again?

  Yup. It was. Blue text box right in front of my face.

  “Kinda thought I wouldn’t see you here…” I mulled over the text in front of me. “Also, shitty. Why’d you put me in this asshole’s body? Did you just grab the first recently dead guy you could find and stuff me in ‘em?”

  [Not exactly! Cael was nearly dead, and his soul wasn’t deemed worthy of human reintegration! That left a vacancy in his body, and your mana signatures were a close match! You’re welcome!]

  “Not sure I’m very grateful… just what are you here for, anyways?”

  Thankfully, everyone else in the hospital wing appeared to be sleeping right now, but I still tried to keep my voice down. Hardly needed people overhearing me yapping with my deathbot.

  [I’m here to confirm you’ve reintegrated safely. Transmigration is a rarer form of reincarnation, and there are occasionally horrible errors! You seem fine, though!]

  I arched an eyebrow. “What kind of horrible errors?”

  [Bad ones! That being said, I’m also here to inform you about your soul status, as well as the benefits you’ve retained from your time waiting to be reincarnated, as well as any experience you gained in your previous life!]

  “Wait, wait, hold on.” I dropped my voice even lower, just on the off chance someone could hear me. I almost let a breath of relief creep in. “Are you telling me I get buffs from my previous life, or something?”

  [That’s certainly a way of putting it! I can list to you your passive bonuses now, if you’d like!]

  I nodded pretty frantically. Anything I might have that could give me an edge in this situation was big, and I needed to know about it fast if I was gonna make survival plans.

  [Alright! Here they are!]

  [Skill: Touch Typist. Adept. +2 Dexterity.]

  [Skill: Coding: Adept.]

  [Skill: Phone Scroller: Master.]

  [Skill: Written Debate: Apprentice.]

  [Skill: Cooking: Novice. +1 Constitution.]

  [Skill: Literacy: Adept.]

  [Skill: Illustration: Novice.]

  [Skill: Photo/Video editing: Adept.]

  [Skill: Running: Novice.]

  [Skill: Memorisation: Expert. +3 to all Mental Stats.]

  [Skill: Mathematics: Adept.]

  [Skill: Investing: Novice.]

  [Compound Skill: Crammer (ability to study quickly on little sleep): Adept. +2 Willpower.]

  This… was a pretty pathetic list. Was this what my entire life amounted to?

  ‘Phone Scroller: Master.’ It didn’t even confer any stat benefits, and it was my highest skill!

  Then there was novice investing… Thanks for reminding me of my crypto phase.

  Memorisation being high was something. Touch Typist sounded pretty fucking useless in a world was probably centuries away from a working typewriter, but at least it gave me a Dex bonus.

  Come to think of it, what the hell were these stats?

  Obviously, I got the concept of stats, but they’d never been mentioned to me until now. I didn’t know I was getting graded on all of this shit, either.

  Then there was the cooking skill. Was the implication that my cooking was so bad my body had become stronger to compensate for it?

  That was depressing. Crammer at least sounded decent. If anything on this list besides memorisation was gonna help me, that was the one.

  [As for the bonuses you conferred from your time in the afterlife, you’ve gained a basic understanding of mana and mana sense from the time you devoted to study!]

  Right. The book. Glad I at least picked that up.

  [As for your OTHER bonuses from your seventy-six days spent in the afterlife, you have… none! That’s unfortunate!]