Out of nowhere, the hooded man pulled out a knife and leaped at Lucian. He wasn't quick or aware enough to dodge, so he could only look on, confused, as the man, who's hood had long fallen backwards, revealing his dishevelled appearance, lodged his knife in Lucian's chest.
*Cough*
Lucian let out a cough and a groan as he fell to the ground, the dishevelled man still on top of him, holding him down. Lucian himself was well built and quite lean as he liked to take care of his body, but that couldn't help him win a fight against the laws of physics. The man holding him down had to weigh at least 150kg, and that was a conservative estimate. That much weight was too much even for Lucian to handle.
'Who is this man!?'
Lucian started to feel some emotions he had never felt so vividly in his life. Like a torrent, they all came rushing into him at once, as if his brain was releasing one last ditch effort to try and save itself.
Anger.
Frustration.
Fear.
They were all bundled up together, raging through him for the first time in his 35 years of life. It was both the most excitement Lucian had felt ever since he was born.
'Is this how I die?'
Lucian couldn't even feel his body anymore, as the disgruntled husband of the wife he had supposedly killed continued ramming the knife into his chest without end. He had long lost count how many times he'd been stabbed, but it was well into the dozens, and his internal organs were probably a mushy, bloody mess by now.
'Shit, I didn't even get to finish my research.'
As expected of someone like him, Lucian was more concerned about his unfinished business in this world than the fact that his own life was being taken away from him. But that was just him, and it was the way he had always been.
***
"Ugh…"
Lucian let out a groan of pain as he awoke. He felt as if his head was splitting apart, a headache like he had never experienced before took over all of the pain receptors in his head. The resulting headache made him want to smash his head on the wall in hopes of taking it away.
'I thought I died…?'
The scene that opened up before him was not something he was familiar with. At first he thought he was hallucinating, as his eyes were still taking a while to adjust. Everything was blurry, and his ears felt fuzzy. Overall, apart from the splitting headache, he felt like he had just woken up from a very long nap.
Then out of nowhere, an irritating voice in a language he didn't understand started grinding in his ears, only worsening the effect of the headache he was experiencing. Lucian almost wanted to just reach out and grab for whoever was uttering such ear-screeching words, but he held himself back.
He opened his eyes, disoriented. Half of him still believed he might be hallucinating, but things started to feel way to real to be fake.
"Where am I?" He muttered to himself, ignoring the irritating voice completely.
His vision was filled with walls made of wood, looking like they came straight out of the 17th century. The room was of a moderate size, with a row of windows to his left side and another wooden wall to his right, provided with a few doors on either side. At the front stood a podium looking object, with a chalkboard directly behind it.
'A classroom?'
Even more confusing was that there were quite a few youths with eccentric hair colours sitting around him with their heads buried in their work at each of their individual desks. They all looked quite young, some around 14 or 15 years old, with others looking closer to 17. Most of them were giving him some strange glances though.
'Is this a classroom?'
Lucian felt his head become clearer as the pain from the headache started to lessen slightly. His eyes started come into focus as well, allowing him to get a more thorough and detailed look at his surroundings. He was sitting at a desk, with some papers and books filled with some squiggly lines and other such symbols dotted across them. He looked around to find that it was the same case with all of the other students in the class room.
'It's clear I'm some sort of student he-'
"Arrghhh!!" Lucian let out a blood-curdling scream, startling himself and everyone else in the classroom.
Just as he thought the pain from his headache was actually going away, a sharp and intense sensation assaulted his head, like everything he had previously experienced all came back at once. The pain arrived suddenly, bringing with it some unfamiliar memories, as well as filling his mind with all sorts of knowledge and languages he was forced to accept against his will.
All Lucian could do was try his best to resist fainting, but even that seemed like quite a challenge for the present him. He was still somewhat disoriented after waking up, so trying to stay awake through all of this was like trying to set a world record in hurdles while simultaneously running through swampland!
"@#!{#@"
"Hey.. @~@#"
However, after 10 seconds passed, it seemed the pain had finally gone away, hopefully for good this time. Lucian was more concerned about the fact that he could now somehow understand the words on the paper in front of him though. Even weirder was the fact that he was beginning to understand the person speaking to him. It was all very strange for him. He could understand what the person was saying, but it still felt foreign to him?
"Is something the matter, Lucian?"
'Did I transmigrate?' This was his first thought upon seeing the smartly dressed middle aged man in front of him.