Reincarnated in Another World

My name is Thomas. Or… at least, that’s what it was back on Earth. I wasn’t special. Just a twenty-year-old college student trying to make it through each day. I had no secret talents, no grand future waiting for me—just exams, part-time jobs, and a nagging thought that maybe life wasn’t meant to be this… ordinary. It was a gray, rainy Tuesday when everything changed. I was running late—again. My phone buzzed in my pocket with reminders I didn’t want to read: Assignment Due at 3 PM, Don’t Forget to Pay Rent, Mom Called—Call Back. My umbrella flipped inside out as the storm winds whipped around me, and for a moment, I cursed my life out loud. “Damn it! Can’t I catch a break?” The world answered my question cruelly. A screech of tires. Headlights blinding through the rain. The roar of metal crashing into water. Pain exploded through me—sharp, searing, then fading. My body went numb. The last thing I heard was the distant wail of sirens and someone screaming for help. Then, silence. Darkness swallowed me. But death wasn’t the end. When my eyes opened again, I was lying in a grand bed draped with crimson silk. The ceiling above me was carved stone, traced with golden patterns of lions and wings. My body felt different—lighter, stronger. My hands weren’t the calloused, ordinary ones I knew. They were slender, pale, with faint marks across the knuckles like they had once wielded a blade. “What… the hell?” I whispered, my voice softer, higher, as if my throat belonged to someone else. The heavy wooden door creaked open. An old man in robes entered, his silver beard trailing past his chest. He froze when he saw me sitting up. Then, his eyes widened, filling with tears. “My lord… my prince,” he whispered, falling to his knees. “You’ve awakened.” I blinked. “Prince? You must be mistaken—” Before I could finish, memories not my own surged through my head like a floodgate breaking. Images of towering walls, a castle called Castle Duskbane, a family crest marked with a crescent moon and a roaring lion. Hidden corridors, secret lessons, hushed whispers: ‘You must never reveal your bloodline, young one. For enemies lurk in every shadow.’ I clutched my head, gasping. Two lives clashed inside me—Lincoln the college student, and Lincoln Lewis, the hidden son of Lord Aldric, ruler of Duskbane Castle. I felt my breath quicken. “No… no, this isn’t real. I’m just… I’m just some kid from Earth. I’m not—” “You are,” the old man interrupted, voice firm despite trembling. “You are Lord Lincoln Lewis, son of the House of Duskbane. Heir to the hidden bloodline.” He reached forward, placing a trembling hand over mine. “The gods have returned you to us.” Hours passed like minutes as he explained. My supposed father, Lord Aldric, had ruled the kingdom of Vaeloria with strength, but enemies struck from within. To protect me—the hidden child born outside the queen’s knowledge—I had been raised in secrecy, hidden in shadows of the castle until tragedy struck. I remembered fragments: poison in the goblets, screams echoing in the halls, a boy’s body collapsing before ever reaching his true destiny. That boy was… me. Or at least, the other me. So that was it. My death on Earth hadn’t been an accident. It had been… a transfer. A rebirth. Reincarnation. As night settled, I wandered to the balcony. The air smelled crisp, filled with pine and distant smoke from torches lining the castle walls. Beyond the stone battlements stretched a forest glowing faintly under the light of two moons. Two moons. “Yeah… definitely not Earth anymore,” I muttered. A voice behind me spoke, soft but commanding. “You shouldn’t be out here alone, my lord.” I turned. A young woman in dark armor stood by the doorway, her hand resting on the hilt of a blade. Her emerald eyes studied me carefully. “And you are…?” I asked cautiously. “Seraphine,” she replied, bowing slightly. “Your sworn protector. I have awaited your awakening for years.” Years? The thought rattled in my head. Whoever this Lincoln Lewis had been, his disappearance had left ripples in this world. And now… I was expected to take his place. That night, I couldn’t sleep. My Earth memories tangled with this new identity. My mother’s voice calling me to dinner. My professors scolding me for late work. My friends laughing at the café. All of it clashed with visions of knights, swords, and a father I barely remembered. I was nobody back home. But here… I was someone. Someone important. The weight of it pressed down on me. As dawn broke, painting the sky gold, I made a silent promise. “I don’t know why I was sent here. I don’t know if I deserve this second chance. But if this is my life now… I’ll live it. Not as the Lincoln who wasted his days, but as Lincoln Lewis. The hidden son of Castle Duskbane.” Somewhere in the depths of my heart, I felt it stir—power. A strange energy humming beneath my skin, waiting to be awakened. And for the first time, I didn’t feel ordinary anymore. I felt… chosen.