Lucian heard this voice in a daze, and couldn't help but open his eyes to look up at who was speaking to him. He was wearing clothes that would normally be shown in pre-industrial revolution exhibits back where he came from, so it was quite odd to see someone with such a stern expression staring at him in such a costume.
'Does this mean souls exist? If this were in my previous world, this would be a ground breaking discovery.'
'If only I could have continued my research…'
'No, wait, Maybe I could continue my research in this new world…'
Now that his head was clear, Lucian remembered very clearly that just moments ago he was getting stabbed repeatedly by the husband of a woman he had killed in one of his experiments. It sent some shivers through his body involuntarily, as the memory of the blade entering his abdomen still lay fresh on his mind.
In the time he was from, the year was 2175, and technology had advanced so far that everyone received their own AI implants right after birth, and medicine had even reached a point where limbs could be regrown and cancer could be cured. But even with all that progress, Lucian wouldn't have been able to survive such a brutal attack before the doctors got to him, nor could his fellow lab geeks save him either. They were specialised in dissecting humans, not sewing them back together. The damage to his heart and all his other organs was just too severe.
But the obvious giveaway that he had transmigrated was the very room he was inhabiting, as well as the fact that his body felt very different. He felt like a foreigner in his own body. His hands weren't quite the right size, his arms not the right length, and his legs didn't even fully reach the floor.
This place would be considered a museum exhibit in his previous world, it all seemed so backwards and behind the current progress that he almost wanted to believe he had fallen asleep and woken up in some sort of renaissance festival, but that just couldn't be the case. It would answer one question, but it wouldn't explain why he was in a completely different body.
After organising the memories he received when that sudden, sharp pain assaulted him, Lucian finally had a better grasp of things. The people of this world were at a developmental stage equivalent to the European middle ages. With Knights, chivalry and all the romanticised history still being the main focus of this society.
His current body was also named Lucian Verdan, the son of a Knight. His father, Knight Robert Verdan, had him tested and found that he had the gift to become a Knight as well, and so he asked some of his old buddies from the academy to pull some strings and allow entry to Lucian, even though he was officially too young to enter.
Lucian was currently in the preliminary classes, with the actual academy being in another location. And all this time the teacher was still standing in front of him, waiting for an answer; he also happened to be the owner of that grating voice that annoyed Lucian so much right after he awoke…
"No sir, I just had a bad headache, that's all."
Lucian tried his best to imitate the actions and words of the previous occupant of this body to the best of his memories. From what he recalled, he was a timid child, afraid to speak too loudly, while also too afraid to speak up for himself. But he was most afraid of getting into trouble or bringing attention his way.
Lucian felt like he gave a pretty solid performance, he'd rate himself a solid 8.5/10 if he were auditioning for a show.
"No ordinary headache causes a reaction like that one. Go to the nurse to get yourself checked out."
It seemed like the teacher was a responsible one, though, as he wouldn't just forsake his duties and take a 12 year old boy's word for it when he said he was fine after letting out such a blood-curdling scream. Lucian just nodded and stood up from his seat, following the instructions of his teacher as he left the classroom.
This was what his predecessor would do, so he had to follow due course to not bring any suspicion or attention to himself.
"Now, where was I…"
The class carried on as usual without him, like nothing had even happened. The teacher still had a class to teach after all — he couldn't give all the attention to one kid and cause everyone else to fall behind on their studies.
Meanwhile, Lucian silently slipped out of his seat and made his way to the back of the classroom where one of two doors out of the room was located. He chose this one because out of the two, it was the one that brought the least attention to himself. The other door was at the front near the podium and chalkboard, and following the same actions the old Lucian would have taken, Lucian kept his head down and walked out of the room.
He decided to actually visit the nurse to confirm that nothing was wrong with his body. While he may feel fine now, he had no idea what sort of ailments or illnesses he could be carrying that might have caused him to have such a bad headache. He suspected this was just the side effect of his soul performing a hostile takeover of this new body — but it wasn't exactly like he could prove this, nor would he voice this theory to anybody either.
He didn't know what kind of aftereffects could be caused by transmigration, but one thing for damn sure was that he wasn't willing to be thrown back into the loop so soon after he was given a second chance.