Greetings everyone! A new version of the story is released!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95038/empire-rewritten

Michael Jameston, a 55-year-old American book sales executive and former silkscreen craftsman, awakens to an impossible reality: he now inhabits the body of Constantine Palaiologos, Despot of Morea and soon to be the last emperor of Byzantium. Initially questioning his sanity, Michael quickly embraces the extraordinary opportunity before him. Armed with his expertise in silkscreen printmaking, a passion for medieval battle reenactments, and a fascination with alternate history, he possesses knowledge of inventions and strategies centuries ahead of his time. Determined to survive and make a lasting impact, he sets out to reshape a world on the brink of monumental change.

Join us on an epic journey as Michael crafts a new destiny and transforms the future of an empire!

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

### Chapter One: Awakening

A sharp, piercing noise shattered the quiet void of my mind, yanking me from the depths of sleep. Pain throbbed behind my eyes—dull yet persistent—as if someone had driven nails into my skull. I groaned, instinctively squeezing my eyes shut, hoping to push the ache away. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

The dense, cold, alien air brushed against my skin, sending a shiver crawling up my spine. Where was the gentle hum of the air conditioner? The familiar scent of last night's chamomile tea? My bed felt too firm, and the sheets were coarse, scratching my skin like sandpaper. Slowly, cautiously, I opened my eyes.

What greeted me was utterly foreign. Above, dark wooden beams stretched across the ceiling, polished and gleaming—not the smooth plaster of my bedroom. Stone walls loomed around me, the kind you'd expect to find in a medieval fortress. Panic surged in my chest as I pushed myself up, my muscles protesting in a way that felt off, wrong, foreign. I looked down at the hands in my lap...