Somewhere in the universe, far, far away, amidst the wilderness, in a remote world—a blue ball of life, as if blessed by the gods themselves.
Silas woke up the next day. He had an upset stomach. A severe stomach pain, so painful that he could barely stand.
I should not have eaten so much yesterday.
Silas had enjoyed the food a little too much. So much that he forgot that the body he now inhabited was not accustomed to eating a lot in one sitting.
The body was even more fragile than his own body back in his world. Silas had gained a little more understanding of his new body. With that, he made a mental note not to devour three plates at once.
It is a wonder how this body is a septa-wielder, but all it takes is a little nudge and it'll practically break. The only strong part in this body has to be the brain, after all, it housed someone as insane and crazy as Silas.
Silas was lying on his soft and comfortable bed. It was already noon; he had been lying there for four hours after waking up.
His mother had asked the maid who dropped by for chores to take care of him by offering her some extra payment. Luckily, the maid was eager to, and so Sophia could leave without worrying too much about her son.
Silas, who was very experienced in having maids around him serving him thanks to his previous life, could see the unprofessional mistakes she made while handling things. There was a visible difference in skill.
Of course, the servants at the Gnalet mansion had been doing their job for years. They could be said to be professionals. In comparison to them, a temporary caretaker wouldn't even come close to that level.
After trying some more and failing to stand up, Silas gave up and tried sleeping. There wasn't anything he could do anyway.
After four more hours, Silas finally woke up. The pain in his stomach was somewhat less; he didn't feel the stinging sensation anymore.
Silas finally managed to get up at four in the afternoon. The sun was shining bright in yellow and orange. The temperature outside was very warm compared to his room, because he had the AC on.
Having wasted half of the day, he finally decided to get out and go for a walk. He had gone out the previous night and did not meet any unfortunate accidents. He gathered his courage, put on his boots, and was ready to go out.
He had already used a spell: Healer's Will, which was a second-tier spell and used two manacules, Verdanite and Lustralis, to conjure. Since Silas had always been a mono-wielder, he couldn't use spells of higher tiers.
The pain had made him completely forget that his body was a septa-wielder, and when he finally remembered the fact, he quickly used one of the healing spells to subdue the stomach pain.
Silas was outside, walking around the neighborhood. His neighborhood was on the outskirts of Varanasi. He had lived here since the very beginning when there wasn't a lot of development. In recent years, the area had developed quite a lot.
The area had evolved into a small advanced colony mainly inhabited by foreigners. It was a safe neighborhood; the people who had moved from overseas over the years had settled in this area, and now it had a population of more than five thousand foreign inhabitants. The neighborhood was large enough to be considered a small town of its own.
It wasn't long until Silas saw people of different ethnicities. One thing that Silas liked about this neighborhood was that it somehow reminded him of Virelia, how people of different nations were together.
Silas was a mixed blood. His father was Indian and his mother was Canadian. The language they used to communicate, as well as Silas's first language, was English. It was only later, when Silas started going to school, that he learned the more popular language, Hindi.
Walking through the neighborhood, Silas saw several shops: general stores, shopping marts, smaller shops, and fast-food stands. There were multiple facilities available. It was as good as his neighborhood back in Virelia.
He walked past a big park where he could see children playing together—children of different ethnicities playing together. It made him somewhat happy, although he was not quite able to understand the feeling.
Just then, he heard a ping sound—a notification sound. It was his phone. He had wanted to ignore the notification, but by the time he could, he had already found himself unlocking the phone by entering the very normal 12-digit password.
This body is as if it is trained to respond to the notification sound by reflex.
The screen of his phone was cracked; it was so cracked that he was having touchscreen issues. He saw the notification he had just gotten—it was a YouTube notification, a random recommended video.
Does YouTube recommend random videos through notifications? Silas wasn't aware of this; after all, he had been introduced to such technology only a day ago.
He clicked on the notification, curious to see what it was that the YouTube algorithm thought Silas would definitely like. He assumed it to be a documentary because he had watched over seven hours of documentaries the previous day.
To his absolute horror, the video that played was something he had expected but wasn't mentally ready for.
It was a small clip—an eighteen-second clip—a video that looked like it was created using advanced visual effects and editing software, or maybe generated using AI. It was, however, none of the above.
The video was a recording of the sky, showing multiple rings of fire expanding at great speed. It was the recording of the mistake Silas had made yesterday!
Silas had already anticipated such a development, but there was nothing he could do. He watched the video again. The video did not have anything except for the rings of fire, so he assumed that he was still safe.
At best, they would be able to mark a large area. I think I have some chances of survival. If they do find me, then it depends on if they are friendly, and if they aren't, then I'll put up a fight. A septa-wielder can take on big armies; I won't die easily! I don't even know who is trying to find me anyway. I should not overthink this.
After thinking for a while, Silas decided not to worry too much about the topic. He took another lap around the park before walking back toward his house.
Even though he had just come outside, deep inside he was a little scared that someone would ambush him, completely catching him off guard, and he would not be able to resist in time. His fear forced him to return to his house, like a rat to its hole.
It was barely past five; the sun was still up in the sky. Silas had already returned to the vicinity of his home. He went inside, walking through the hallway to the kitchen, which was quite big and had the dining table that was never used.
He found that the maid had already left. She had prepared his dinner and arranged it on the table. It was also then that he realized something else.
I was very careless. I left the house, leaving it to the maid. Although she has been working here for several years, this was very careless of me. This is not my home in Virelia!
Due to his past life, Silas had a habit of leaving the house to his maid, who was always there. This habit led him to make a big mistake. Luckily, the maid was good and, according to his memories, was trustworthy, but it was still a careless move.
Ever since my transmigration, I've been making so many mistakes. I think it will take some time for me to get used to my new life. Well, every mistake teaches a lesson!
...
RRCAT, Indore Madhya Pradesh, India.
The independent manalogy research facility had an unusual guest: a masked man dressed in a formal black suit, with a striking red tie that stood out.