The day passed silently, and evening fell.
The night brought a cold, dark, and chilly atmosphere along with it. Feuer woke up, felt dizzy, and his vision was somewhat blurry.
After a few moments, while his sense of sight was still returning to normal, he began contemplating.
"Did I just... reincarnate? At least, that seemed to be the case, but..." He started checking his body for some oddities or anything he might have missed.
"If I DID reincarnate, where's that 'golden finger' I've always read about in my past life?! Where are these so-called 'cheats' of mine? And... damn! Did I have to die that way?!" Feuer thought out loud as he shook his head in dismay.
He desperately wanted to forget about it; if only that were possible. That nightmarish memory of the flames that slowly devoured his body as it continuously and every so slowly burned him alive.
The pain was already unbearable, but it only increased exponentially as each second passed.
His breathing became labored, but upon realizing so, he began to stabilize it as soon as he calmed himself down some more.
When his thoughts settled, Feuer's old memories started to flood the young man's mind at a slow and steady pace.
The youth needed to accept that he was no longer who he once was and made a firm decision.
From this moment onwards, he referred to himself as ‘Feuer.'
He continued to recall some memories of ‘his’ past life.
His mother gave birth to him while she was already of frail health. After three years had passed, her illness came back with a vengeance, and she eventually lost her life.
Since the day of her passing, the occasional smile his father used to show had all but disappeared.
Even though he remained by his father's side all these years, he had not seen it even once. Little Feuer started to wonder if he'll ever be able to see it ever again at this point.
Feuer sighed as he thought about the new, and yet familiar memories that he had been passed onto him.
The little boy had also remembered what had happened to him the day before as well.
"I guess that means I'll have to live like an ordinary human again, huh…" He said weakly with great disappointment.
Well, not that he wanted to be ordinary. Throughout his past life, however, he had only felt empty.
He did have a lot of money and all, but, so what?
Feuer always thought that it'd be a lot more exciting if he were to enter a world with cultivation or magic despite the dangers that came with it.
His body and heart felt heavy and lifeless. His memories only served as a painful reminder despite finally living in a world that he had only dreamed about.
Instead, he'd been sentenced to live a life full of discontentment.
He had no idea why he kept getting the short end of the stick. Not being able to cultivate or use magic still shook him to his core.
In his previous life and until now, he still hadn't understood how a meteor landed RIGHT where his house was located.
Set the entire forest and his home on fire, which eventually led to his death. And even by the small off-chance that reincarnation was actually real, he ended up in his dream world, only to be without the ability to even cultivate or control magic.
Stolen novel; please report.
The door to his chambers opened, and Feuer looked towards it.
His father's head came to view first, and he entered silently into his room. He walked at a consistent pace and sat on his bed as he continued to stare at his son the entire time.
After some time, Heinz opened his mouth and said, "Son… even though you wouldn't be able to cultivate or use magic, please don't worry. Even if it brought shame to the clan or even to me. Know that your father wouldn't EVER let anything happen to you…!"
Feuer met his father's firm gaze. He nodded slightly and responded, "Um… I understood, father, just… I wanted to make you proud, but… that doesn't seem to be possible anymore…"
This was what the previous owner of the body had wanted. His true desires were nothing more than a modest wish for a young boy to gain approval from his father.
Heinz saw just how much his son simply wanted to make him proud. He only realized how his disappointed gaze must have hurt the young boy's heart.
Despite the father's cold facade, his eyes showed all the guilt he had felt for his little boy.
For once, a sincere and honest smile had appeared on Heinz's face as he hugged his son.
Neither of them said anything, and after some time had passed, Heinz assured him before going away, "It doesn't matter. Just the fact that you're here, in front of me right now, already made me feel very proud. I'm sure that your mother would also feel the same way if she were still alive!"
What was this feeling? Did my soul feel… lighter?
No.
Was this the regret that the previous owner had, and it had vanished just like that? Feuer thought to himself and also wondered how easy it was to get rid of one's feelings of regret.
He imagined that this is a good thing, after all.
"Though I would be unable to cultivate or use magic. I should at least follow the clan's training and make my body stronger. I never wanted to have a frail body." Feuer muttered with a sullen expression that looked somewhat comical on his young, childish face.
The clan started training the new generation tomorrow.
Though Feuer knew that he'd be ridiculed, he still didn't want to be completely clueless or helpless when it came to this kind of thing.
The cold, dark, and chilly night passed rather quickly as the sun rose proudly against the orange-kissed sky.
It made people feel its warm and gentle rays as always.
Although his soul had belonged to a 21-year old young man, Feuer couldn't help but feel excited.
Though he wouldn't be able to use this small body as efficiently as his peers, he would still learn martial arts from a different world.
In his previous life, he was a fanatic reader of fantasy novels, and for this kind of thing, he learned how to fight just for the sake of it.
Feuer then went towards the direction of the 'Flake Clan Training Ground'.
It was basically inside a massive courtyard with training dummies and other props that allowed the new generation to use for their training.
Some kids that belonged to the same clan were already present. They sat on the ground and waited for the teacher's instructions.
Some of them looked to Feuer in obvious disdain before they turned to look towards the teacher again.
The boy that once had their attention, decided to ignore them. Why would he, the one that had the soul of a 21-year old young man, care about these little brats?
As he sat a bit far from the rest of the kids, Feuer quietly paid attention as the teacher began his lecture, "Our Flake Clan was created hundreds of years ago by our ancestor, Ílio Flake. He single-handedly established the clan and made a name for himself. Our clan was known for our offensive techniques. Most of our mages or magicians had the fire element that normally possessed such a strong offensive power!"
The kids quickly grew bored when they realized that their teacher was just giving out history lessons.
Feuer, however, paid attention the entire time, and the teacher noticed it.
He nodded in satisfaction while thinking, “Though he can't cultivate or become a mage, at least he's paying attention to our lessons still!”
He then continued, "For our cultivators, they wouldn't have required the use of elements. Cultivation was all about strengthening the body, after all."
It also had a very aggressive style of Martial Arts. Here's another piece of advice: Kids, remember, in this world, only the strong were given the right to speak. So all of you had better work hard!"
The teacher then explained that they would have lessons about the basics for a week. After this week has gone past, he will make them spar.
Feuer wasn't particularly excited about this, but he still smiled at him.
This was just the start.
Despite not being able to cultivate or use magic, he'd be sure to enjoy the full extent of the martial arts his clan had to offer.
Which in this case, this was where he began his journey.
[This chapter was edited by Nurie - 30/03/2020]