The Enchanted Rebirth

Chapter 3 - Another World

Luther found himself lying in a bed surrounded by old, rustic furniture and decor that seemed utterly out of place in the modern era he had known. The room was filled with objects that belonged to a different time, and the unfamiliar setting filled him with a sense of unease. He struggled to piece together what had happened. The last thing he remembered was falling from the 18th floor of a high-rise hotel, his body crashing into the pool below, and the stark certainty of death that followed. Then, there had been that blinding light, engulfing him completely. Beyond that, his memories were fragmented, like a dream half-forgotten upon waking. He had no recollection of the strange void or the ethereal figure he had encountered—Ollie Wilde.

But one thing was certain—Luther was supposed to be dead. No one could survive a fall from that height. As the realization struck him, a searing pain shot through his head, and a flood of unfamiliar memories surged into his mind. He groaned, clutching his temples as the onslaught of visions threatened to overwhelm him. Faces, places, and events that were not his own flashed before his eyes, and when the pain finally subsided, Luther was left with the unsettling suspicion that he had taken over someone else’s body.

The term *reincarnation* came to mind, something he had only heard in passing, perhaps from his younger stepsister. But this wasn’t reincarnation as he understood it—this was more like possession, a complete merging of lives. The memories he had received told him that the young man whose body he now inhabited was named Ollie Wilde. Ollie lived in a modest village called Cleiv, far removed from the bustling cities Luther had known. He had a reputation in the village, though not a good one. Despite his humble origins, Ollie had been determined to rise above his station by gaining admission to Goldenwing Academy, an elite institution that trained the kingdom's most capable individuals—royals, nobles, mercenaries, and even commoners.

Ollie’s ambition, however, had been met with repeated failure. For five years, he had taken the entrance exam known as 'The Test of Fate'—and for five years, he had failed. This string of failures had earned him an infamous reputation, a cautionary tale of someone whose dreams were crushed despite all his efforts. Luther could feel Ollie’s frustration and despair as if they were his own, yet the details of Ollie’s life remained hazy, shrouded in a fog that Luther couldn’t quite penetrate. And there was no trace of what had happened to Ollie, the original owner of the body. Was he truly gone, or was he still somewhere deep within?

Determined to confirm his suspicions, Luther scanned the room for a mirror, needing to see the face that now belonged to him. He tried to stand, but his limbs felt weak, almost foreign. Gripping the edge of a small table beside the bed, he managed to steady himself and spotted a small cabinet with a mirror on top. Slowly, he made his way toward it, his steps unsteady. When he finally held the mirror up, the reflection staring back at him was both familiar and alien—Ollie’s face, not his own.

As he struggled to reconcile this new reality, Luther’s legs gave out beneath him, and he fell to the floor with a loud crash. The mirror slipped from his grasp, shattering into pieces around him.

Just then, the door to the room burst open, and a woman rushed in. She was instantly recognizable from the memories that had flooded Luther’s mind—Mrs. Wilde, Ollie’s mother.

“Ollie!” she cried, her voice a mixture of shock and overwhelming relief. She hurried to his side, wrapping him in a tight embrace. Her tears fell freely as she held him close, her sobs echoing in the quiet room. “You don’t know how happy I am to finally see you open your eyes again,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion, the bittersweet tones of a mother who had feared she might never see her child awake again.

Luther, still grappling with the truth of his situation, could only let himself be held, the weight of Mrs. Wilde's love and relief pressing down on him. In this moment, he was not Luther De Vil—he was Ollie Wilde, and the life that awaited him in this mystical world of Terra had only just begun.