Season 1
001
SHIT, THAT'S COLD.
I sprung up from a cold metal bed.
"Where the hell am I."
***
It seems I have returned to being...alive?
After checking my surroundings, I am in a purely metallic prison cell with nothing but a bed, toilet, and thick walls surrounding me.
There is a metal door that blends right in with the walls. You wouldn't have noticed it at first glance if it wasn't for the thickness of the door.
I know this place...
That door can only be opened on one side. This...is a place that ensures whoever is trapped in this cell stays trapped. Prisoners can not escape easily.
Which would be me.
There is only one source I have to see the outside environment. That one small crevasse at the top corner of the wall where I can roughly tell the time of day outside. The smallest sliver of sunlight breaches through the crack.
...but it won't be enough for me to break out.
I've tried.
Despite being alive, I am in a worse state than ever before.
I examined my body.
Nothing but skin and bones.
There is practically no muscle on this body and if my friends saw me, they would have thought I was anorexic.
My hair had grown wild, dropping down to my eyebrows in the front and reaching just past my neck at the back. Its disheveled state bore evidence of an uneven trim.
I caressed my hair.
"Likely done with a tool lacking sharpness."
I tried to circulate my mana inside my body.
There was nothing.
"Okay, fine. Be like that."
Wow, my voice isn't as deep as before. What happened after the battle?
Did the Emperor's sword in my chest make me sound like a child? What a strange side effect...
I tried to circulate my aura inside my body, just to make sure.
There was nothing.
"Okay, fine. Be like that."
...what the fuck.
I'm still wondering why I'm alive. There is no way that an attack from the level of the Emperor wouldn't have left me dead a few times over.
Plus, I am in the same wretched and cursed prison as when I was younger.
"Is my life flashing before my eyes?"
No, that's not possible. This is too vivid to be simple flashbacks. This-
"It's something else entirely."
Wait...
In my previous life, I was 14 years old when I was in this prison. Just before this...
"Oh...fuck..."
Here's a little bit of background information, I spent my childhood as royalty.
That's right, despite not personifying the ideology of a "royal" individual, I am the crown prince of the Eastern Kingdom Yujora.
Prince Jun Yujora. Living life growing up with a golden spoon in my mouth. What I meant to say was how spoiled my childhood was.
Ever heard of yin and yang? Harmony and balance?
Perhaps it was fate that something had to happen to balance out all the happiness.
A few months before I arrived in this prison, the kingdom should have been demolished by the Northern Empire.
We put up a decent resistance, reassured by my father, the king, who went to the frontlines personally. As strong as he was, the Northern Empire was still much more powerful. The Emperor didn't even need to attend this war.
A week after the war began, the Empire's forces completely overwhelmed our army and stormed their way into the capital. The people I knew growing up were either captured, missing, killed, or enslaved like me currently.
Maybe due to being regressed at a major turning point in my life, the memories of what happened in the capital descended into my mind.
I saw my mother, the Queen of Yujora, a normal person untrained in magic or martial arts, resisting the Empire's decree.
Several knights, obviously belonging to the Northern Empire, used force to get my mother to comply.
No matter how much I shouted for her to listen so she could live, she resisted until the very end. Due to her defiance, nothing but her own death awaited her.
These vivid memories felt so surreal. But, I KNOW that this is indeed reality. All my senses are working just fine.
I can feel, see, hear, smell, and even taste the dryness inside my mouth.
It would appear that I have regressed. And to one of the worst times of my life. The beginning of my desperate struggle and fight to simply survive to live another measly day.
I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions. For several hours I was either crying or sobbing, depressed and having an existential crisis, or in a pathetic attempt at self-reassurance.
Somehow, one way or another, I managed to calm myself down and set myself straight.
If I had more breakdowns then I would have probably shit myself. I'm joking.
In and out...Deep breaths...
"Alright."
Now that I've calmed down and my mind is clear, I began to slowly process everything. Instead of refuting regression and the theory of reincarnation, I simply chose to accept what it is.
I was thinking to myself. How cruel could fate be if I'm a witness to my own mother's demise?
Well, fate is like a sword with no eyes. It will strike anyone, regardless of who they are.
Full of dissatisfaction, I clicked my tongue.
"What a useless regression."
Seriously...
Not only did I return to when I had no strength or power, but I also returned to the point in time where I couldn't save my parents.
Why play around with my life? Why throw me back to the start of when everything begins going wrong?
Tears built up in my eyes from pure frustration and annoyance.
"It must be raining in this cell."
I have already gotten over the death of my parents in my previous life, but being regressed to this moment again makes me feel...not good, to say the least.
In my previous life, clusters of enslaved individuals managed to riot and rebel against their captors, the guards, and the knights of the Empire and orchestrated a daring escape.
Although we were all confined and contained in different cells, certain captives among us were once skilled intelligence agents specializing in gathering information and reconnaissance. I am not sure if they were once under the Yujora Kingdom, but utilizing their expertise, they devised a method to communicate through Morse code, subtly tapping on the thick metal walls that isolated us.
Albeit, that method was but a slow and painful process of communication. However, to ensure that there would be nothing suspicious to alert the guards, they deemed this method the most effective.
Twice a day, the guards come to each cell and distribute food. It is guaranteed that we are eating two meals a day. No more, no less.
Using the distribution of meals as an independent factor, the intelligence agents made use of the consistent time we get meals to craft a strategy to escape.
When I first went through this experience, within a little over a month and during the second meal we received at night; as soon as the door slightly opened to allow food to be thrown in, the slaves would all retaliate simultaneously, making it hard for the guards to handle everyone at once and be overwhelmed.
Some agents have confirmed they could slip outside to steal the cell keys and pass them along to the others to break everyone free. The plan mainly revolves around them and the others were tasked to make noise and cause commotion to confuse the guards.
Some idiots might ask, "Why can't you use just Aura or Magic?"
Well, in this prison, there are several high-class magic spells cast to work simultaneously 24/7. The magic formula ensures that aura and mana utilization is heavily restricted. The only exceptions are for the Empire's dogs. Which is to say, the guards and knights.
"If I remember correctly, those stationed in this prison receive a special necklace that resists the spell's effects."
Normally, with these thick walls, subtle taps wouldn't even be audible in the cell beside you. However, the intelligence agents seemed to have some skill as they were capable of mustering a small amount of aura for a split second to strengthen their fingers to send Morse code sufficiently.
The time I have until the rebellion would be a little over a month.
"Just one month..."
Until then, I must reform my body and gather my powers-
The metal door slid to the side ever so slightly and a paper bag filled with food was thrown in. The paper bag landed on the floor and the bits of cooked animal fat and meat fell over to the ground.
Leftovers, once again.
"Eat it, fucking slave," the guard says with a rough voice, "I don't even know why we bother feeding you when you're going to die either way."
He spat on the paper bag and closed the door.
The metal door shut tightly.
I rushed over to the paper bag of food and grabbed it off the ground. I went to the opposite side of the wall from the toilet and sat down, leaning with my back facing the wall.
Luckily for me, I have a secret trump card that the guard would never have suspected me to have.
"Five-second rule."
I first need to bulk up a little.
If I want to gain some weight, I'll need to eat everything they hand me. If I focus and utilize the knowledge and experience that I've gained from my past life then I can change my foreseeable future.
After eating every little piece of food in the paper bag, I sat in the lotus position to increase circulation in my body. I closed my eyes and concentrated on what transpired inside me
The feeling of my blood flowing in each of my limbs. Consistent and relaxed breathing resupplies me with oxygen. My heart was beating like drums.
Everyone has mana. It is up to them to feel the presence of mana and take control of it.
Mana, before being dubbed as "mana", was known as a life force by the very first mages. It is present in all life forms and fills the atmosphere. The production of mana comes from the core of a life form, the heart.
If I want to cultivate mana and develop myself in magic, it has to start with the creation of a mana circle.
Like the aforementioned, everyone has mana in their body. We, as humans, have smaller amounts as compared to other races.
From previous experiences, it won't be hard for me to advance quickly.
What needs to be done is concentrating on feeling my mana, and then moving it to forcibly weld it together to create a circle of mana that revolves around my heart. Just like an electrical circuit.
If one intends to improve on their magic, it is essential to create mana circles. Each circle itself is simply an extra storage capacity and generator for mana in our bodies. Mana circles always revolve and replenish itself beside my core, my heart, where mana is most dense in my body.
A mage from my first life shared a straightforward analogy to emphasize the significance of a mana circle.
I quote, "Imagine you, as an individual, are carrying bags of food in each hand. Let's equate the food to mana in this scenario. Creating a mana circle is akin to adding a backpack or storage compartment, allowing you to carry more food. Additionally, think of a mana circle as something more autonomous. Mana is unique as it automatically recycles and replenishes itself."
Those were the words from the man, the myth, and the legend himself.
I must create my first mana circle.
Thanks to my previous life, I am already used to the feeling of mana inside my body. It was just a matter of time and effort to find the small amount of mana I have right now and create it.
Thanks to the food given to me, I got some energy from that and seemed to have absorbed some mana inside my body from the atmosphere.
My heart rate started to spike up and continuously increased at an alarming rate. Conceivably, I should have expected that since I didn't have much mana in the first place. If I don't become a 1st Circle, I am most definitely going to experience mana exhaustion.
When you use up all the mana in your body, it causes your heart to panic and go haywire. Nine times out of ten, you will feel uncomfortable pressure in your chest. Similar to suffocation when your lungs fill up with anything else but oxygen.
Many stumble or fall over as they struggle to keep themselves afoot. It is not uncommon for one to fall unconscious or even pass away, depending on the level of mana exhaust.
My heart beats well over 200 times per minute.
"I must endure it-"
I feel my mana joining together, slowly forming a ring of mana that surrounds my heart.
After pushing through and tolerating the pain, I felt the ring of mana around my heart.
My heart starts returning to its normal pace and steadily goes back to what it was before.
I exhaled.
"I did it..."
This feeling of pleasure is like when you finally managed to finish a really tough poop.
I'm joking, anyways-
I successfully reached the 1st Circle. With this, I've laid out my foundations to grow even further. I can become even stronger than I was in the past.
I went to my bed and collapsed out of fatigue. My body is nothing but flesh and bones. The muscle mass I have is a whole lot of nothing.
I fell asleep soundly. Despite the bed being incredibly hard and uncomfortable, I found it relaxing.
During the last bit of my previous life, there was no such thing as a comfortable sleep. Especially not while you're on the frontlines of war. This is already a blessing to be able to sleep on a bed.
--
For the first time in a long time, I had a dream.
As if connected to my past, I saw myself standing in a space of nothing but a pitch-black void. The surrounding terrain suddenly changed and shifted about. Then, I saw myself on a snowy mountain peak surrounded by a wide and endless field of snow and infinite blizzards.
And there I was, just idle...and naked??
Was I always this type of person? An exhibitionist?
Maybe you don't carry your clothes with you when you dream. But I wouldn't advocate for that theory.
The terrain all around me started to glitch and flow like static, they blended into different forms of material and altitudes. From the snowy peaks to a grand desert oasis and suddenly to a beautiful grassy plain full of life.
My head stung, I felt as if it was overloaded with information but despite the urge to grab my head from the pain, I was nothing but a spectator.
A witness to a naked me doing nothing but standing still as all the chaos around me unfolds.
Could this dream be some clue to my regression?
For what reason did I reincarnate? To this time specifically?
Despite my questions, my dreams are not whatsoever a conscious being to have been able to answer my questions.
However, despite never seeing these sceneries before, I knew that I was going back in time.
My body started to move, and it became no more than just a dark silhouette. It began performing a series of dances akin to a ritualistic worship session.
-No, it seems I was wrong about that. The way it moves is peculiar but is undoubtedly a form of martial arts.
Thank god I'm no longer naked though.
As if the silhouette's movements and the environment were in sync, it seemed to tell a story. I heard my voice in my head...