Thirsty, feverish, exhausted...
Under the intense discomfort, Lynn slowly opened his eyes.
A ceiling covered in cobwebs met his gaze, and the unfamiliar surroundings made his mind go blank for a moment.
It was a room of less than thirty square meters. Perhaps due to years of disrepair, the wooden walls looked terribly rundown, their grayish frames covered in dust and traces of insect damage.
The room's interior was equally chaotic. All sorts of clutter and rubbish had been carelessly piled into the corners, while dozens of coverless book pages lay scattered across the floor, leaving only a narrow path to walk through.
Where was he? Had he been kidnapped?
Lynn rubbed his aching, muddled head and struggled into a sitting position, unease filling his heart.
He was certain this was not anywhere he knew, so Lynn had no choice but to prepare for the worst—he had most likely been kidnapped!
"071, display my current location!" Lynn instinctively asked in his mind, yet several seconds passed without any response.
Even the auxiliary intelligence had been blocked?
Lynn's heart sank. He instinctively rolled out of bed, intending to look for a way to escape, only to discover a sharp shortsword lying beside the bed and a crumpled parchment scroll clenched in his right hand.
Lynn instinctively gripped the shortsword, finally feeling a little safer. After hesitating for a while, he unfolded the crumpled parchment. It was covered in complicated symbols and scribbles, but what confused him even more was that he could actually understand the words written on it!
[There is not much time left. The Tribunal's Priests have discovered our trail. Meet at the agreed location in Ur Town before Moon Radiance Day. Bring seventeen Secas Copper Coins and follow the markers... Be careful—Joanne.]
The moment he understood the message, an inexplicable wave of fear surged into his heart. Then, a fragment of memory vaguely surfaced in Lynn's mind.
[A noisy crowd had gathered in a vast square, their expressions fanatical and excited as they endlessly shouted something.
A gigantic platform stood in the center of the square. A Bishop dressed in a white silk robe stood before it, raising his scepter high amid the crowd's frenzied cries.
The next instant, crimson flames shot into the sky. Several figures could vaguely be seen twisting and struggling desperately within the sea of fire, their agonized screams unending...]
What was that? Filming Movies?
The brutal scene that had appeared in his mind made Lynn shudder.
But why did his mind contain such inexplicable memories? And who was this Joanne mentioned at the end of the letter?
All of a sudden, as though he had thought of something, Lynn rushed to the large water vat in the room. Staring at his reflection on the water's surface, his pupils contracted sharply.
His fingers trembled slightly with agitation, sending ripples across the water, yet Lynn could still clearly see what he looked like now.
He was a youth of about eighteen or nineteen, dressed in a patched linen robe. He was somewhat thin, his pale face caked with dust. His unkempt brown hair was a mess, and his pitch-black eyes were filled with terror...
Had he transmigrated?
Lynn sucked in a cold breath as this absurd thought arose in his mind, yet he could find no other explanation.
Before his transmigration, the Federation had already made remarkable achievements in brain development and neuron research, and neural chip implantation technology had become extremely advanced. But implanting consciousness into a second body to achieve rebirth was pure fantasy.
Nor did he think he was important enough for someone to go to such lengths to deceive him.
Once he realized this, Lynn no longer harbored any wishful thinking. He dropped to the floor, and as shock overwhelmed him, a vast flood of chaotic memories surged into his mind once more.
It took Lynn half an hour to sort through the memories that had suddenly appeared before he could barely understand his current situation.
He had transmigrated to a place somewhat like medieval Europe. Many nations stood side by side and fought one another endlessly, and the most powerful among them was the Secas Empire, where he currently was.
Above mortal imperial authority stood an entity known as the Holy Church. It worshipped a deity named [Ella], a bona fide monotheistic religion whose doctrine was all about divine creation.
Besides spreading its faith everywhere and fooling people, another major doctrine of the Holy Church was hunting witches and wizards!
What made Lynn feel especially uneasy was that the youth whose body he had taken over seemed to be a wizard.
No, to be precise, a wanted Wizard Apprentice!
Lynn looked at the crumpled parchment in his hand with a headache. What kind of mess was this? Transmigrating for no reason was bad enough, but he had not even been given decent circumstances. Right from the start, he was being hunted, and for all he knew, he might end up tied to a stake and burned alive one day.
Come to think of it, the previous owner of this body had really been asking for trouble.
He had been the illegitimate son of a Viscount somewhere in the Secas Empire, named Karl Sidelan.
Though he had not been treated particularly well in daily life, he had at least never lacked food or clothing. In this chaotic world where nations were constantly at war, having enough to eat and clothes to wear was already a blessing!
With that status and a relatively stable environment, along with the knowledge of another world in his mind, he could probably have made a name for himself within a few years. It might not even have been impossible to launch an industrial revolution and overthrow the Holy Church.
Yet this fool had been sweet-talked by a wizard named Coru. Instead of living a good life, he had insisted on becoming the man's apprentice. Not only had he been forced to travel everywhere, he had often gone hungry as well.
Just four days ago, his mentor Coru had actually tried to abduct the Duke's daughter. Unfortunately, he failed to fool her this time, so the Tribunal received word the following day and captured Coru before he could flee.
After learning this, Karl had hidden in this secret hideout, living in constant fear every day.
Over the past half year of following his mentor Coru from place to place, Karl had personally witnessed Wizard Apprentices being burned at the stake. Terrified that the Tribunal's Priests would suddenly burst in and take him away, he had not dared sleep for several days. In the end, he lost consciousness amid despair and fear, and then Lynn transmigrated into his body.
"This is going to be troublesome..." Recalling this, Lynn muttered with a headache, even considering whether he should simply switch sides.
Besides him, Coru had six other disciples, who should not have been caught yet. Lynn happened to know their names and appearances, so perhaps becoming a cooperating witness could be a way out.
At worst, he could pretend to convert and repent later...
But after thinking it over, Lynn decisively cast aside that rather despicable idea. He simply did not trust those people who preached doctrine all day and wished they could capture and burn every wizard alive. Even if he voluntarily surrendered, there was a good chance he would still be arrested and tortured.
Forget betraying his companions...
He was not that kind of person!
Casting aside those unrealistic fantasies, the calmer Lynn suppressed the turmoil in his heart and focused entirely on figuring out how to escape the Tribunal's pursuit.
In an ancient world without cameras, where criminals were identified solely through drawings and vague impressions, disguising himself and fleeing might be a good option. As long as he left this Duke's territory, capturing him again would become incredibly difficult.
Fortunately, the previous owner of this body seemed to have practiced some swordsmanship. A few years ago, he had earned the attention of his Viscount father and had even dealt with several bandits harassing the territory on his own.
Of course, that was assuming he kept a low profile and did not casually reveal the magic he had learned, lest he attract the Tribunal's pursuit...
Wait... magic?
Lynn suddenly froze. He then concentrated and searched through his memories again and again, his expression gradually growing stranger.
Because he discovered that the person in those memories seemed to know magic!
This was not the usual sleight of hand used by ancient charlatans, nor some trick meant to fool people...
It was real magic!
Before you continue