Karl

'Sigh, it is all over huh...' thought as he felt a feeling of freedom envelop him.

James suddenly jerked and sat straight or at least that's what he thought of doing.

'Hmm? What? Thinking? I can? Brain? What the fuck!? Can I think even after death or is this a dream?' James thought as he tried to understand his current situation.

'I can't hear and can't feel anything huh? Well the bigger question is how long do I have to stay like this. Maybe right now I am going through Rigor Mortis... I can only wait.' James mentally sighed.

'Death is not quick huh.' James thought as he tried to remember the life he had lived.

 'Ooh! I don't feel the regrets I was feeling, not like I had any regrets but whatever second thoughts I was having are no more.

It is… peaceful.'

Disrupting his thoughts, James felt a touch on his shin.

'Huh?'

The touch turned into a grab and then a pull and James found his body being pulled towards the touch.

'What now? Ooh is this perhaps.. hell? But I don't remember doing something that warrants me to go to-'

James thoughts were cut as he suddenly felt like he was suddenly out of a bath tub filled with warm water into the cold.

'Huh? Isn't hell supposed to be hot-' James stopped his thoughts in the tracks as he understood something greater.

He was feeling! He was able to feel the temperature and wind!

Before he could wonder what is happening he felt someone touching his body at different parts but the touch was weird as it felt like huge hands were holding him.

And then he started to hear sounds. At first small like a mumble but in seconds it was loud and clear to him.

"@#&*$"

"#*$&"

"@@###@!!"

"#*$%#"

He heard words that sounded human but were not like any language he had heard before. 

James' mind went blank.

As he was racking his brains to understand what is going on, he felt something again.

But this time it was not the touches he were feeling on different parts of his body, neither was it the sound.

He saw light.

He was not able to understand it was light that he was looking at. He was just blankly staring at it.

His eyes were closed but he didn't think of opening them. The coaster of his thoughts didn't pass through the thought of eyes.

A minute passed when he felt a touch on his eyelids. Someone was opening his eyelids.

And then it happened, a torrent of colors entered his mind shaking his thoughts from their core.

It finally deemed upon him.

He was able to see.

He looked around. His eyes were not able to focus at any specific point. Just looking around him in a blur. When he was able to focus a bit he saw it. A face that he had never seen yet was not unknown to him.

With hairs white as snow, falling on his shoulders, his eyes white like moon, a man with a tall nose and sharp facial features was looking at him.

What astonished James more than his looks was that the man looked like someone James had imagined.

Karl Hearth.

The main villain of his favorite novel.

Before he could think further his vision closed and… he felt panic. He felt darkness.

When he was suddenly able to see, he didn't feel the joy as it was all too sudden and new but as the light faded and he saw the darkness he was all too familiar with, something in him snapped.

He started panicking. Flailing his hands and legs. He could still feel the giant arms holding him but he paid it no attention. He was not capable of. The only thought in his mind was…. fear.

In the midst of the greatest panic he had ever gone through, his mind got hold of a fact that gave him a huge ray of hope.

He was still able to see.

Though it was still all dark, the darkness was not the same as he had always seen.

There was a shade of light that filled the darkness making the darkness feel... less empty.

That understanding calmed him down and the next instant his thoughts understood another important fact that he had ignored.

His eyes were closed.

So he tried. He tried to open his eyes, his face contorting as he felt pain in his eyes with the incoming light. 

He opened the eyes a little bit, becoming used to the light and then opened his eyes completely as his eyelids fluttered, the way that could be if was done by a girl, could have given the men watching it a heart attack.

A few moments and he could see clearly, again.

This time the scene had changed and what he saw was a beautiful woman.

She had smooth, lustrous black hairs and her black eyes, dark yet calming looked at him with worries… or fear, James couldn't specify.

What he understood was that she was looking at him with love.

As James' eyes met with the woman's, the woman's expression lost the worry or fear as she broke into a smile.

It was a simple smile but that smile gave him peace which allowed him to let down the guard he was unconsciously keeping due to the unknown situation he was going through.

He closed his eyes, the peace overpowering his desire to see.

James was finally able to think as he felt the warmth enveloping his whole body. As his mind traced back to the recent events he understood a fact.

He was reborn or as others might call it, reincarnated.

What was more shocking was that the man he saw earlier looked just like Karl.

These thoughts would have sent him in a frenzy of thoughts and in another swim in the pond of 'ifs and buts' but due to the warmth and peace he felt, he was able to think calmly.

'Is this reincarnation or character possession as it happened in some novels? Am I in Saga of Isurt? Was that Karl? No, Karl died so it can't be him. Is it Raun? But Raun didn't look like that. That look was definitely Karl but it was also a bit too burly for Karl. Hmm… Whatever.' James put an end to his thoughts before they became more complex.

'I have been reborn and I can see. Enough for now. I will find other things later.'

James thought as his mind drifted to serenity, enjoying the warmth of the hug. He fell asleep.

***

James was lying on the bed beside the beautiful woman he concluded was his new mother.

He had just been breastfed for the first time in this new life and the first time he could ever remember.

His mind did try to start thinking with the mind of a 28 year old virgin he died as, but as fast did his conscience pull it back preventing him from having any thoughts that he would have regretted all his new life.

Since he woke up he had cleared his mind of many thoughts and concluded and accepted a lot of facts, the biggest being accepting his new parents and his new life.

He also concluded that this might not be a character possession as that would make the already crazy situation, more crazier.

'This is not necessarily Arhaven, the world of Saga of Isurt. That man, my father, might just be someone who looks like Karl. I don't have enough info and I don't want to rack my brains to think of useless assumptions.

And now I know that rebirth exists. There are a lot more things I have to think of regarding rebirth but for now I want to just enjoy the sight. This is what I had missed upon my whole life.' James thought letting out a sigh, which came out as a small moan, making his mother, who was lying beside him on the bed, turn towards him with a smile.

"&$%*@" His mother said something incomprehensible and giving James a pat on his head.

James felt the pat and gave a giggle looking at his mother trying to make her happy.

'Before whenever my mother or any of my family on earth talked to me it was never with happiness. It was full of worries and words giving me hope and courage heh…

I like this type of interaction better. Too bad I can't understand the language yet but I enjoy the moment and won't mind acting spoiled if it makes me and my new family happy.'

James kept giggling as his mother took him in her hands and started cradling him in her hands.

'I can enjoy this for now but I also have to understand my situation better like what is my family's current status and what is the technological development of this world?

Is there magic in this world? I would not get my hopes up. It is a possibility as I have already seen rebirth but that will be too lucky and thus is very unlikely for me.

This world is not advanced for sure. What is with those lamps? These guys have not even invented tube light. Well, technological development is something I can do later by myself. Won't be too difficult with all my knowledge of earth.

For now, I can conclude the current system of this world is of medieval age.

With my knowledge I can make it big in this life, no doubt. Perks of a reincarnator!

Also mother and father seem to be RICH!

This room is not just big. It is grandiose! This is enough to fit 6 rooms of the size I lived in and that only length and breadth wise! The ceiling is thrice as high as my room back on earth! Though with my money, I could have brought a bigger house but what is the use when it would only become more difficult to navigate around.

What this tells me is that if there is nobility and commoner system in this medieval era like world then I am surely a noble!

It also explains why there are so many women dressed like maids around as nobles were known to have lived with extravagance.'

As his mind was addressing his different ideas and thoughts, he heard the sound of door opening as he saw his father entering the room with the smile he had seen before still plastered on his face.

"$&#@"

"@$3\&"

"!*#&"

As his mother and father kept conversing, his father gently took him from his mother's embrace into his own. His mother kissed him on the head and let go. His father, holding him in his embrace, started walking towards the door he came from.

'Oooh? Am I going out of the room? Finally!'

As James went out he saw another bunch of maids getting inside the room, his mother was in, to which he paid no heed. His focus was rather on the grand corridor that was so wide that one could have made a road in there.

As he was enjoying the sight of beautiful decoration all around the corridor, he became curious about the outside view so he stretched his hands towards the nearest window so that his father would take him there.

"@%#@&"

His plan worked perfectly as his father grinned, saying something as he walked towards the window showing him the view outside the window.

The view so beautiful as if it was straight out of a fantasy!

His father extended his hands holding him with a grip that was loose yet felt very firm.

He enjoyed the scenery of the huge and luxurious buildings that were connected as if part of the same estate, as his mind compared them with the depiction of buildings he had heard about in history classes and novels.

The buildings, the huge trees, the people dressed like servants who, as they caught sight of him, gave a deep bow, smiling happily.

'Is this how Kings feel?' was the only thought James' mind could conjure.

His father let him savor the feeling of awe for a minute after which he took him back in his embrace and continued walking.

James closed his eyes and kept thinking of the beautiful scene he just saw as if etching it in his mind forever.

When he felt his father's hold becoming loose, he opened his eyes and found himself in a huge hall, bigger than any he had seen in his previous life.

Infront of James was a preacher wearing a baggy white cloak which reminded James of the clothing people like popes were said to have worn.

His father held him out towards the preacher.

The man then put his hands above James and spoke some words as light erupted from his hands, blinding James for a few seconds.

'Magic?' was the only question that echoed in James' mind.

As the light stopped, the preacher smiled at him and started talking to his father which James ignored while he stayed in his father's embrace his mind overjoyed with the possibility of there being magic in this new world.

After a few minutes passed his father held him again and started walking the way he came from with the very same smile.

'I think he asked the preacher for my health.' James guessed as he was taken back to the room where his mother was.

His father handed him back to his mother and started talking but after talking for a few minutes, there was a sudden silence.

James shifted his focus from the maids back to his mother and saw her looking at his father, intently.

He also turned his head to towards his father whose smile had still not diminished in the slightest.

He gave a nod and said a word that, shockingly, James was able to understand and that one word made him silent unlike his mother and father who continued talking their voices and faces happier than before.

But Karl kept thinking about the word in silence which was like the silence before a storm.

The word his father said was… Karl.