Ethan opened his eyes to the sound of hammers, the distant crack of timber splitting, and the scent of wet clay. The last thing he remembered was the screech of brakes and blinding headlights. Now, he was staring at a wooden ceiling rough, unfinished, poorly joined.
He sat up on a straw bed, his muscles stiff and unfamiliar. Outside the open window, he saw it: a town, or what was left of one. Muddy streets. Crumbling stone walls. Smoke curling lazily from thatch roofs. And beyond it all, a cracked stone wall barely holding back a forest that looked ready to swallow everything whole.
A door creaked open. A girl stepped in, no older than fifteen, dressed in patched clothes. "Milord," she said. "The steward says you're to inspect the defenses today. The baron died last night… and they say you're the new lord."
Ethan blinked. "Excuse me?"
She looked at him as if he were daft. "You hit your head, didn't you?"
No, he thought. He just wasn't in his world anymore.
But as the weight of his new body settled in and the realization clicked, Ethan's trained eyes scanned the crude beams above, the unstable foundation of the house, and the unplanned sprawl outside.
It was a disaster.
It was also… a blank canvas.
He stood slowly, brushing hay from his clothes. "Alright. Show me the town."
Because if he was going to live again, he would build a city that would last a thousand years.
His confusion deepened as he stepped outside. The air was different, the sky a slightly deeper hue. The gravity felt ever so slightly lighter, and the sun though familiar seemed to cast a warmer, almost golden light.
He stumbled through the muddy path, led by the girl named Lina. And as they walked, memories surged back his life before.
He was Ethan Cole, a modern-day architect and civil engineer. He had worked on infrastructure in developing nations, designing low-income housing that could stand storms and floods. He taught sustainable urban development at university, lectured about transportation and rural planning. He had just finalized a housing project when he was hit by a car trying to save a child crossing the road.
Now he was here. Not in the twenty-first century. Not on Earth.
"What kingdom is this?" he asked suddenly.
Lina gave him a confused glance. "You… don't remember? This is the province of Ironwood. We're in Greyrest."
Greyrest. A fitting name for such a faded place.
"And my family?"
"Your father, Lord Alric, was the Baron of Greyrest. He passed last night. Your mother died during the plague years ago. You have no siblings."
So he was now the last of a minor noble family in a crumbling corner of a strange world. A town on the brink of collapse. But if he was to be its lord… he would not rule it.
He would rebuild it.