Blinding light pulsed across the grand ceremonial hall as the summoning ritual reached its peak. The air reeked of burning incense, old magic, and beast musk. The marble beneath the summoning circle still hummed with raw energy.
And at the center… the body of a boy now lay, pale, fragile-looking, blood-stained.
His uniform was torn — foreign fabric the nobles didn't recognize. His frame was small — far younger than the fifteen-year-old prince they had expected. His black hair clung to his face, damp with sweat and faint trails of dried blood.
The room fell silent, save for the crackling of fading magic.
"Wh-What… happened?" whispered one of the royal summoners.
"This… isn't Prince Kael…" muttered another, their voice trembling.
The Beastmaster King, seated high upon the throne, rose slowly, eyes narrowing.
Before anyone could react further… the boy's eyelids fluttered.
A sharp, shallow inhale broke the silence.
Grey eyes opened.
Cian Archdemon was awake.
His vision was blurred at first — the tall ceilings, the ancient banners, the glowing sigils overhead — all unfamiliar, all irrelevant.
His body felt different. Lighter. Weaker. But functional.
And yet… his mind…
It never stopped.
"Cognitive assessment… Environment: unknown. Lifeform proximity: high. Body: foreign. Injury status: minimal compared to previous trauma. Hypothesis… dimensional displacement via ritualistic summoning confirmed…"
His scientific obsession devoured the fear ordinary children might have felt.
His eyes scanned the hall — rows of armored knights, robed summoners, beast tamers clutching chained creatures at their side. Towering banners of roaring beasts. The circular summoning sigils still faintly glowing beneath him.
He was somewhere else.
Another world.
A different body.
But alive.
And his mind — his most dangerous weapon — intact.
"Impossible…" one of the court mages whispered, stepping forward, eyes wide. "That's not the prince… that's—"
"—An intruder soul," another finished, voice shaking.
Cian tilted his head faintly.
His pale lips curled… into that same faint, unnerving smile. Bloodied, crooked, empty of childish fear.
"I see…" His voice was hoarse, quiet, eerily calm for a boy who'd just died and awoken in an alien world. "This… explains the anomaly."
The nobles exchanged uneasy glances.
The king descended from his throne, his beast-like aura pressing down on the room.
"Boy," the king's voice boomed. "Who are you?"
Cian's mind raced through possibilities — but his obsessive need for understanding overrode caution.
"My name is Cian Archdemon," he answered simply, still seated within the fading summoning circle, blood staining his school uniform. His grey eyes gleamed with cold intelligence. "I died. You brought me here. Curious."
The room went utterly still.
The summoners paled.
Whispers rippled through the court.
"He… remembers dying?"
"Anomaly…"
The king's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What are you?"
Cian's smile widened, faint but unsettling.
"I am… an overthinker. A scientist. A mistake you've yet to understand."
His heart thudded with excitement, not fear.
New world.
New variables.
New hypotheses to test.
And for the first time since his parents' death, since the endless bullying, since his obsession devoured him… Cian Archdemon felt… alive.