The smell of damp hay and manure wafted up, piercing my nostrils with brutal honesty. Not the familiar scent of morning coffee or office disinfectant, but the raw, organic smell of life. I blinked, my eyelids heavy and sticky. Faint moonlight filtered through the cracks in the wooden walls, illuminating the rough silhouettes of the roof support beams and dust dancing in the cold air.
Where am I?
Panic gripped my chest like a cold hand. I tried to sit up, but my body felt stiff and sore all over. Muscles unaccustomed to this thin straw mattress protested with every movement. This place… it's not my room. Rough wooden walls, devoid of any modern decoration. No movie posters, no bookshelves filled with novels, no blue glow of a monitor screen.
My last memories were hazy, like a dream trying to escape the grasp of consciousness. There was a sharp pain, throbbing throughout my body, and then… darkness. Now, I lay in a small, stuffy room with a low ceiling and an unfamiliar smell.
Slowly, fragments of other memories began to surface, not my own. A young man with calloused hands and a back bent from hard labor in the fields. A simple feeling of pride when the harvest was successful, and worry when storms threatened. Foreign names flashed through my mind: Elara, a woman with a gentle smile and warm brown eyes; Old Man Hemlock, a neighbor who always told stories about creatures of the forest.
Lord Alaric Edgewood. The name echoed stronger than the others. A title that felt foreign on my tongue, yet somehow familiar. Snippets of a small lord's life flashed like lightning: overseeing workers in a not-so-large wheat field, signing documents with an awkward quill, speaking in a clumsy tone to a merchant from the city.
Then, everything forced itself together, like puzzle pieces jammed into place. I… I'm not who I used to be. I am Lord Alaric Edgewood, a minor noble from Oakhaven, a region barely mentioned in my hazy recollection of the novel.
The novel… Reincarnation of the Sorceress Princess. Yes, that's the title. An epic tale of a royal princess hiding her magical powers and fighting against courtly political intrigue. I remember reading it a few years ago, fascinated by the magical world and its powerful characters.
And now… I'm trapped inside it. Not as the handsome prince, not as a powerful sorcerer, but as a minor noble who doesn't even have a significant role in the main plot. I'm just background, a titled extra.
I sat up, feeling a throbbing ache in my head. The room was simple, containing only a straw bed, a rough wooden table with a water jug and a clay bowl, and a rickety wardrobe. There was no mirror. I didn't even know what Lord Alaric Edgewood looked like.
Carefully, I stepped down from the bed. The wooden floor creaked softly under my bare feet. The night air felt cold on my skin. I walked towards a small window covered by wooden planks. With difficulty, I slid one of the planks aside, letting the pale moonlight into the room.
The view outside was simple yet peaceful. The dark silhouettes of trees stretched into the distance, and the sound of crickets chirped in the darkness. Nearby, I could see the rooftops of Oakhaven's sleeping houses under the night's embrace. A small village, far from the glitter and intrigue of the royal capital that was so vivid in my memory.
Knowledge. That was my only asset right now. I knew about this world, albeit only the broad strokes of the novel's plot. I knew about the existence of magic, though I hadn't seen it firsthand. I knew about the social structure, the powerful nobles, and the potential conflicts that might arise in the future.
But my knowledge was limited. I didn't remember the important details, the minor names, or the everyday events that shaped life in this world. And more importantly, I didn't know when or how I could return to my lost world.
Frustration mixed with helplessness gnawed at me. I, a modern man with all the conveniences of technology and information at my fingertips, was now trapped in the body of a minor noble in the Middle Ages, in a world filled with the unknown.
Yet, amidst the despair, a spark of curiosity began to grow. I might just be an extra in this story, but I had a different memory and perspective. I had knowledge of this world's future, however vague.
Maybe… maybe I could do something. Maybe I could use my knowledge to change Lord Alaric Edgewood's fate, or even influence the course of the written story.
I took a deep breath, inhaling the cold Oakhaven night air. This was my world now. I had to learn to survive, to adapt, and to find out why I ended up here.
My first step was to learn more about Lord Alaric Edgewood. Who was he really? What was his life like before I took over his body? And what was his position in the simple society of Oakhaven?
With newfound determination, I turned away from the window and stared at the wooden door at the end of the room. A new day was about to begin. And I, once just a reader, now had to play my part on this magical world's stage. The question was, what kind of role would I play?