"Damn it!"
Suleiman woke up furious in the cold morning.
He flung the alarm clock away; it bounced off the wall, shattered, and fell to the floor.Suleiman, by nature, was very angry!
He hadn't had a proper night's sleep — the reason being the annoying noises and the black things that had started appearing in the rented house recently.
This morning was his first day at a new company.Of course he had worked before, but he never liked the servile life at corporations anyway.He'd quit his previous job after a fight with his manager, and had been looking until he found an interview invitation on his phone.
Suleiman showered quickly and changed his clothes, exhausted; he hadn't slept well and dark circles ringed his eyes."I think I'll move house," Suleiman thought as he headed to the grocery store — he'd rented a one-star place because the rent was cheap.He was single and didn't have much money; he'd spent half his life on video games and staying up late.He'd been surprised by the low rent and one-star rating even though the place looked fairly large when he rented it.But he understood the reason immediately after his first night there.
He hadn't believed in evil spirits before, but now he did. At least he got one thing out of that weird house.
He left the shop sipping a soft drink, and as usual had an awkward encounter with the person at the counter.Suleiman suffered from social anxiety and was extremely introverted; he hated human interaction. That was why he hadn't had a girlfriend yet and hadn't even gone to brothels — he was too shy around women there.
He walked down the street tapping his phone and didn't notice the light had turned green.A whistle sounded in his left ear, and before he could register what happened, Truck-kun had hit him.
His body lay on the ground, covered in blood, his chest rising and falling with difficulty."Ah… let me at least finish the soda I bought," Suleiman muttered bitterly, feeling pain all over his body. He closed his eyes and his consciousness began to fade.
He heard the angry voice of the truck driver: "You son of a bitch, why'd you jump in front of me!""Wait — you're about to die!""Don't die, please — I have a family, I don't want to go to prison..!""If you die I'll kill you, you bastard."
Suleiman didn't have the strength to curse the idiot who robbed him of a proper death.His breathing slowed, then his vision shattered into darkness.
Suleiman drifted through nothingness, cursing Truck-kun and lamenting his fate."Is this the afterlife?" he wondered.
He found himself gliding in the dark and saw white lines streaking across a black sky.A light shone on the horizon, growing until it swallowed his sight completely.
"Cut the umbilical cord quickly."
"Rebecca, wash the baby with hot water."
"Congratulations, Mrs. Isabel — your child is a boy."
After an unknown stretch of time — Suleiman had lost any sense of time — he opened his eyes; his pupils shrank from the dazzling light. He spent seconds trying to adjust, and when his vision cleared he was met by the cold face of a middle-aged woman staring at him with contempt.
Her blue eyes glittered, and her silky black hair fell over her shoulders. Suleiman tried to move but felt he couldn't control his body, like a spectator watching a first-person film.He looked at the woman in amazement and admiration for her beauty; if he'd been able to control his body, his chubby cheeks would have flushed.
"My God, she's so beautiful — but where am I? Aren't I supposed to be in the hospital?"
"Lady Isabel, your baby is adorable. What will you name him?" the maid asked. Isabel didn't answer, ignoring her entirely; her face remained stiff as she stared at Suleiman."If we name him Isabel — isn't that a French name? Wait — is this what they call reincarnation in another world? Have I been reincarnated!? I can't believe it…"
Suleiman couldn't process the situation. Of course he was addicted to web novels and knew terms like "isekai," but he never believed such things could actually happen. He loved reading them, especially magic systems and magical matrices — they'd driven his interest to obsession.
A door opened and a cold voice followed: "Lady, the patriarch of our clan, Ironside, wants a report on the boy's talent."
"Tell him he's trash. He shows no elemental inclinations and his aura gate is closed. He may have a high rank in his mana core, but that doesn't matter because he can't use it," Isabel said disdainfully while holding the baby, showing no maternal affection.
"Did she call her child trash? How can she do something like that to her newborn?" Suleiman collected the pieces and realized this must be his mother in this other world. He wanted to scream or cry, to move his hands — but he couldn't; he was watching without control.
The man seemed confident in Isabel's judgment. "I'll be sure to tell the patriarch. He's very weak — not like his sister Silvana, who demonstrated affinities for fourteen elements and has an open aura gate.""That girl is three years older and already awakened an SS-rank core. She's a rising star — basically a miracle, a monster.""I'll take my leave now, Lady Isabel," the man in black turned to leave, but his footsteps paused when a cold voice said, "Also tell the patriarch I named him Suleiman."
"Suleiman? Doesn't that mean the bottom of the abyss in the language of the Great Dragons? A fitting name, I suppose. I'll include it in my report." The man left and closed the door behind him.
"You weren't worth even the weight in my stomach," Isabel handed the baby to the maid, who began to cry at last, then left the room without a word."Your life will be difficult, Suleiman," she said sadly, looking at the infant wailing and placed him in the cradle.
"Damn that bitch! She leaves me like this just because my talent is weak? Isn't a mother supposed to show love and affection to her newborn?" Suleiman was startled and went pale when he realized something: wasn't he supposed to be the petty villain side character who dies early at the hands of the handsome, powerful protagonist? He knew the clichés of the usual novels.
"It seems I won't stay long in this world," Suleiman thought; he wanted to cry but couldn't control anything in the body, which frustrated him deeply.
Days and years passed until Suleiman reached the age of fourteen, and during that time he gained a notorious reputation spoken of throughout the empire.
Trash.Garbage.The disgrace of the Ironside clan.
Suleiman developed a violent personality, bullying the weak — servants and others — which made everyone look at him with contempt and hatred; he was considered a complete failure. Sadly, no one knew the problem wasn't Suleiman himself. If he were on Earth, he would have been diagnosed with several psychological disorders due to his miserable childhood.
No one knew there was a man from a planet called Earth living inside him. Suleiman from Earth lived a life that could only be called hell.
From his death by Truck-kun and his transfer to the other world, he lacked control over the body and watched the new Suleiman grow up and be despised by everyone. Suleiman from Earth didn't feel the body's sensations; he didn't feel hunger, the need to use the bathroom, or even the five senses. It was like diving into a bathtub of warm water and floating, losing bodily sensation — like something ethereal and mysterious.
The Galvanic language, the human tongue of that world, was a mirror of English, which made it easy for Suleiman to understand information about this strange world.
Suleiman adjusted his clothes while looking at the mirror with arrogance and vanity."Honestly, I hate arrogant people like you — but you're handsome… I guess," thought Suleiman from Earth inside the body. He had snow-white hair and blue eyes, a handsome face, and a slender teenage body.
He already understood the original Suleiman's personality in the other world: arrogant, despicable, bully of the weak and fearful of the strong — the typical villain who gets killed by the hero in the first half of a cliché novel, the kind who becomes a stepping stone in the hero's journey to collect harems and gain power from nothing.
His maid and personal guard, Silila, entered the room and said coldly, "Hurry up, Suleiman. The patriarch and the elders wait in the Awakening Ceremony courtyard." Her eyes held a hint of pity; Suleiman had no affinities and his gate was closed, and he hadn't even awakened his core by the awakening ceremony, which had made his bad reputation even worse.
To explain how bad his talent was: most commoners awaken their mana core at nine years old or older. Nobles of royal blood typically awaken their mana core between five and seven, and geniuses awaken it even earlier — like Silvana, who awakened her mana core at three. She received praise from the whole clan; she was called a miracle, a monster at the least.
Suleiman, however, had reached fourteen without awakening his core, forcing the elders to hold an Awakening Ceremony and spend high-quality elixirs to forcibly awaken the core. It wasn't out of love or care; it was tradition within the Ironside clan to awaken every member's mana core. Notably, the Awakening Ceremony is only performed at age fifteen — you can't perform it on a one-year-old child because they would die.
When the body finishes growing at fifteen, it can withstand the amount of mana the Awakening Stone releases.
Suleiman followed his maid; both he and Suleiman from Earth felt nervous, and the tension rose with the increasing distance as the palace gleamed.Suleiman saw many servants and knights along the way, but none of them bowed to him. It was clear no one respected him. Oddly for the arrogant, conceited Suleiman, he didn't protest their lack of respect — as if he was afraid to speak to them — yet he bullied them from time to time. It showed how bad his psychological state had become.
He entered the courtyard — a lawn covered with black roses crowned by a platform where the twelve elders sat on silver chairs, and the patriarch and his mother on golden seats. The elders' faces were cold and scornful, including his parents'. His mother looked like she wanted the ordeal over and cursed the wasted time watching a failure fail even more.
"I will leave now, Lady Isabel, great Patriarch," the maid Silila bowed fearfully and hurried away; the patriarch's presence was overwhelmingly powerful — his mere sitting added pressure to the place as if gravity had intensified. Isabel's presence was no less imposing.
Suleiman knelt on one knee and said nervously, "I will raise your name and the clan's glory high — mother, father." His father, the patriarch, hummed and rested his chin on his hand in boredom. Suleiman from Earth mocked the original Suleiman; he looked like a frightened cat.
One of the elder men stood and said, "I will explain the Awakening Ceremony. You must hold the Awakening Stone given to you by your personal maid. It will absorb mana automatically and emit a mana light that will illuminate the black roses. The more roses lit, the stronger your mana core." In general, the higher the number of lit roses, the higher the rank: Rank F lights fewer than ten, Rank E between ten and twenty, and so on; ranks like S illuminate between sixty and seventy black roses. Rank SS is seventy and above, though most who awaken it light between one hundred and two hundred roses.
Monsters like Suleiman's sister awakened eighteen hundred roses, causing a sensation throughout the empire. If a person of Rank F lights ten roses, Silvana's speed of advancement and strength would be 180 times faster: what a Rank F could do in a day, Silvana could do in one day multiplied dramatically.
Suleiman gripped the stone and it released a magnificent ethereal light. The stone rose slowly from his hand and then emitted a large amount of mana. Suleiman looked at the roses with eager eyes: the first lit… the second… the seventh — then it stopped.
"Impossible," Suleiman nearly cried at the result; his eyes widened as if they would pop out. Suleiman from Earth laughed inside the body — he had already decided this body had nothing to do with him and had taken it merely as a film to watch.
None of the elders or his parents on the platform looked surprised; if anything, their contempt for him increased. They had expected him to be a failure, but not to this extent. The chance of a Rank F lighting seven roses was rarer than awakening Rank S.
One elder announced, "Suleiman Alderrick Ironside has awakened at Rank F. I will record this in the clan's records."
Rank F.
This news would spread and worsen his reputation, ensuring a near future of death.
The crowd dispersed without bothering with another word or glance, while Suleiman remained kneeling, tears streaming down his face.
"Your life is over, poor thing," thought Suleiman from Earth inside the body, feeling pity for him — in the end, it was all because the gods had bestowed him with nothing.
Thank you for reading Chapter One of the novel. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.