Chương 1: Chapter 1
A snowy, untouched snowy blanket enveloped the world, creating a serene atmosphere. Delicate snowflakes descending from the heavens created intricate patterns on the frozen landscape. Hills and mountains appeared like spectral giants, softened by snow accumulation. The feeble sun cast elongated shadows across the icy landscape, painting the world in ethereal hues of rose and gold, like a fleeting, frozen dream.
"If only it was just a dream," I whispered to myself before I took one last look back at the picturesque scenery before walking towards the town I found myself in more than a week ago.
"What in the world is happening for fucks sake?"First it was reincarnation; now it's world travel? Where is the Rob that I'm supposed to meet? Where are the wishes and the powers that every Isekai protagonist gets????? " I yelled out in frustration as I kicked a pile of snow away.
That's right. I, Edward K. Grey, am not originally from this world. In fact, I wasn't even from the world I was previously in before I came to this frigid, backwater place.
Let's recap how I got here.
In my first life, I was a simple 21st-century American Law student who did nothing but binge-watch TV shows and anime while downing six packs on a daily basis. However, my leisurely, carefree lifestyle was cut short when one of my classmates decided he had enough of everything and everyone and opened fire in our lecture hall with an Ak-47, effectively ending my life just days before my 21st birthday. Honestly, it's kind of sad that my first death wouldn't even mean anything in the grand scheme of things. After all, there were more than 365 school shootings in the last year alone. One for every fucking day of the year. So what difference was this one going to make?
Absolutely nothing.
Anyway, enough of my little rage moment.
Life after death was not what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't like those stories that I read or the Isekai animes I watched.
Hell. It wasn't even like what those preachers claimed it would be every Sunday morning.
There was no hell or heaven for me. only darkness and silence.
It was just me and the void.
There was no meeting with a higher being to decide where I was going to go or which powers I was going to get.
No. It was more of a now there is darkness, so let there be light kind of shit. One minute I was in darkness, and the next I was in the arms of an angel who was holding me in her bosom. An absolute beauty whose hair was as white as the whitest snow on a snowy day and eyes that were greener than the finest emeralds These features, paired with her exotic olive brown skin, made her a beauty that could even make the most beautiful models I had seen in my previous life pale in comparison.
As many of you have already guessed, this woman was my new mother.
However, it seemed as if my life in this world was not destined to start as a happy one.
Death, as if angered by my audacity to reject him and return to life, claimed my mother on the day I first laid my eyes upon her.
A life for a life and a soul for a soul
It left me all alone in this new world with nothing except the name that my new mother gave me right before she died from complications due to childbirth.
Edward K. Grey
The early years of my life until the age of 10 were rough, to say the least. My adult mind stuck in a child's body was absolutely horrible for my mental health. That was before taking into account that I was born in what I could only describe as medieval times, a time in which crusades and witch hunts were at an all-time high.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that someone was being burned at the stake at least once every month. However, the worst part is that we, the orphans, had to attend each and every one of these burnings. Our matron at the orphanage made sure of that. I guess that is what happens when your largest backer is the church.
"No mercy for the unnatural. Heretics. Devil worshipers, " she would say.
So I did what any rational 21st-century person would do. I put my head down and pretended to be like any other idiotic child. After all, I had no intentions of dying early for a second time and an even greater desire to not find out what being burned alive felt like.
Two things that are definitely not on my bucket list.
For all I know, these people might claim my above-average intelligence as a sign that I was the son of the devil.
Anyway, my plan worked perfectly. Everyone viewed me as a model child. Soft-spoken, quiet, obedient, and most importantly, perfectly normal.
However, all that changed in the blink of an eye when a freakish accident happened in the living room of the orphanage, right in the middle of everyone.
When I said everyone, I meant everyone—There were fellow orphans like me, our matron, and a couple of priests that were there to preach their ways to the young, developing minds.
Before we go on about what happened, there is one thing that you should know.
Ever since I came into this world, there has been nothing that has really made me lose control of my emotions.
Sure, there had been some close calls, but in general, I was always calm and collected. I never made a fuss about anything, and most of the kids generally left me alone.
I don't know if it is because of my adult mind or something else, but the point is that I was always in control of my emotions. The keyword here being was.
My clean streak came to an end that fateful morning when I accidentally stepped on a nail that was sticking out from the floor board below.
The pain was quick and intense.
It radiated from the bottom of my soles to the rest of my body, causing me to subconsciously roar in pain.
If it was just that, then I would have been fine. But the problem was that the moment I shouted, the fucking curtains caught fire.
Not like a small fire.
The entire thing got engulfed in flames.
It almost felt as if the flames mirrored my pain and, to a certain extent, anger at whoever was in charge of fixing the floorboards.
"HERETIC. A DEVIL WORSHIPPER." A priest shouted out.
I still remember the looks of horror and disgust that everyone gave me. But what hurt me the most was the look of shame on the matron's face. The person who had looked after me since I was a baby now looked like she wished that she had nothing to do with me.
At that moment, I wished nothing more than to get away from that place.
To be whisked away from the people that were very likely to capture me and burn me alive like a pig on a campfire.
Ironically, that was exactly what happened. One moment, I was in the living room of the orphanage and the next I was outside this icy town called the winter town. A fitting name for a place that was covered in snow and ice.
Who knows? Maybe there was an entity out there looking out for me after all.
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