Suffocating.
I could not breathe.
The first thing I saw was water. Dark, cold, and swallowing everything. I tried to reach the surface, hoping to escape, but my body felt foreign. My movements were slow, as if they no longer belonged to me. Am I drowning? The question echoed in my mind, faint yet urgent.
From afar, I heard a woman screaming, but I could not see her. My lungs burned. I clung to the last breath I had left as my consciousness slowly faded.
Then, within that darkness, he appeared. A man was swimming toward me, his face filled with panic. Handsome. Extremely handsome. Even more so than anyone I had ever seen, perhaps surpassing even the celebrities I used to see on screens.
That was my final thought before everything went black.
I woke up to the blinding light of the sun.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I realized was how unfamiliar this place was. Curious, I scanned the room. It was neat, containing nothing more than a wardrobe and the bed I was lying on.
One thing stood out immediately. Everything was made of wood. It was nothing like the modern buildings I was accustomed to, which were mostly constructed from concrete. I turned my head toward the open window beside me. Outside, the weather was bright, and lush trees surrounded the area.
I tried to recall how I had ended up in the water. No matter how hard I tried, the only memory that surfaced was going to sleep after taking my medication. Sleepwalking was impossible. My sleep quality was not that poor. Besides, as a heart failure patient, I was always careful about maintaining my condition.
"Oh, Kael. You are finally awake."
My thoughts were interrupted by that cheerful exclamation. If I remembered correctly, this was the same woman's voice I had heard while drowning. But who was Kael?
The woman I had never seen before had black hair and blue eyes that made me pause for a moment. She was very beautiful. Strangely, I felt a sense of familiarity toward her.
Anxiously, she rushed over and pulled me into a tight embrace.
"My sweet child, could you please stop making your father and me worry?" she said, holding me close.
I froze. In my memories, I was an orphan. Why was this woman calling herself my mother? Besides, I was already an adult. Being hugged by a stranger felt deeply unsettling.
When I tried to raise my hand to push her away, I froze again. My hand was incredibly small. Not only that, my point of view was much lower than usual.
Shocked, I could only remain silent, unable to process what was happening. The woman who claimed to be my mother noticed my reaction and released her embrace, smiling gently.
"You must still be very scared. It is all right. You are safe now, Kael. Get some more rest. I will cook your favorite food later."
She gently stroked my hair before leaving me alone.
I tried to calm myself.
Perhaps this was a case of transmigration, like the ones I often read about in online novels. A very clichéd genre. Usually, transmigrated protagonists were chosen ones, or at least people who had read the original work of the world they entered.
But why me? Had I ever read a novel like this? I needed to confirm that first.
Slowly, I climbed down from the bed. My movements were awkward because my body was now much smaller. Seriously, how old was I for my body to be this tiny? I stood on my tiptoes, struggling to reach the door handle that felt impossibly high. After managing to open it, I stepped out cautiously, scanning the area for my mother in this world. She was nowhere to be seen.
Outside my room, the atmosphere remained the same. Everything was wooden. In the center of the main room was a fireplace, currently unlit, likely used for heating.
I walked through the small house. Aside from my room, there were only three others. One was the kitchen, located beside the main room. I was certain of that because of the old fashioned cooking hearth and the dining table with fresh fruits neatly arranged on top.
The other two were bedrooms with their doors tightly closed. I assumed one belonged to my parents, given its location right next to mine. Across from the kitchen was a slightly open door leading outside. Without thinking, I ran toward it to take a look.
The scenery outside matched what I had seen from the window. A dense, tranquil forest stretched before me. In front of the house was a small vegetable garden surrounded by a wooden fence.
"Kael. I told you to rest. Why are you running outside instead?" my mother's voice rang out, her hands on her hips.
I turned toward her voice, still not accustomed to being called by this name.
"But I am fine, Mom," I replied, my voice slightly lisping.
She tried to suppress her smile, but failed.
"My child, why are you so adorable?" she said before kissing and hugging me tightly.
I froze completely at the affection.
"See? You give in to Kael far too easily, dear. If this continues, he will become terribly spoiled," a man's voice sounded from behind me, resigned yet warm.
Curious, I immediately turned around.
It was the man who had saved me while I was drowning. So this was my father. His expression was filled with affection, though there was a hint of helplessness.
He approached and lifted me into his arms.
"Kael, if you want to play again, stay away from the lake. It is very dangerous. You do not want to drown again like yesterday, do you?" he said gently.
"Dear, Kael just woke up. Do not make him remember something frightening," my mother scolded softly.
"Look, you have scared him stiff," she added with concern.
My father sighed, but his eyes remained filled with worry.
"Are you still scared, Kael?" he asked.
I was not scared.
I was simply overwhelmed by how close I was to an extraordinarily handsome man. Was the word handsome even sufficient?
I examined him closely. Long blond hair. Green eyes as fresh as young leaves in the morning, soothing to behold. But there was one detail that stunned me.
Pointed ears.
Was my father a cosplayer? But did cosplay even exist in this world? To be sure, I reached out and pulled on his ear, wanting to see if it was fake.
No matter how hard I tugged, it stayed firmly in place.
"Ouch, Kael. Do not pull your father's ears," he exclaimed, wincing.
So they were real.
That meant I was truly in a fantasy world.
Was my father an elf?
But my mother's ears looked completely normal, just like a human's. I touched my own ears. They felt normal too. Not pointed. Nothing unusual.
Then my father was an elf, my mother a human, and I was a half elf.
That might explain why I did not have pointed ears.
I lost myself in speculation until my father interrupted.
"Come on, dear. Let us go inside. Kael might be quiet because he is hungry. After all, he has not eaten anything since yesterday."
I snapped out of it and nodded enthusiastically. Seeing my reaction, my parents exchanged relieved smiles. My father carried me back inside, holding me close.
After eating, I spent the rest of the day trying to learn more about this world. I searched for answers through books.
It turned out that this house had a library, located in one of the rooms whose door had been closed earlier. The room was much larger than my bedroom, occupying an entire side of the house, directly across from my parents' room and mine.
I entered after my father left for the forest to hunt and my mother went to the city to buy daily necessities.
Taking books from the shelves felt impossible with my small body. The shelves were tall, and my arms were short. Fortunately, they were sturdy enough to climb.
I picked several books that seemed useful based on their covers and opened them one by one, hoping to find something important.
But something was wrong.
The language was unfamiliar. I could not understand a single word. The characters looked foreign no matter how long I stared at them.
I tried to read them anyway, forcing myself to recognize patterns or meanings, but it was useless.
Usually, transmigrated characters were granted the ability to understand the written language of the world they entered. I could clearly understand my parents when they spoke and respond in the same language without effort. Yet I could not read at all.
Disappointment settled heavily in my chest.
In the end, I searched for illustrated children's books instead. Fortunately, I managed to find a few.
I studied the pictures one by one until my head began to ache, but I managed to gather some useful information.
This was truly a fantasy world. Magic existed. So did sword energy, alchemy, and many other supernatural phenomena.
There were many unique races living in this world. According to the books, only three sentient races were mentioned. Elves, dwarves, and giants.
Dangerous creatures such as goblins and orcs were also described, though they were clearly labeled as hostile beings.
Among neutral sentient races, only those three were listed. Perhaps there were others that I had not read about yet.
I picked up another book, this one with an illustration of a small elf on its cover.
According to it, the history of elves was deeply tied to the World Tree. Elves were said to be born directly from its fruit. When a fruit fell to the ground, an elf would emerge from it, usually already in an adult form.
Then why was I still a child?
Perhaps it was because I was a half elf, born from a human body. It was only speculation, but it seemed like the most reasonable explanation.
I decided not to dwell on it and continued reading.
Elves were described as a neutral race. They neither allied themselves with humans nor stood against them. Because the World Tree was the source of their existence, elves tended to isolate themselves from the outside world. However, during times of great crisis, they would step forward to assist others.
That was why they maintained a neutral stance. They were not friendly, but neither were they hostile.
After finishing the books about elves, I moved on to others.
In short, I learned that I was currently in a small kingdom founded by a swordmaster who had once defeated a dragon. In this kingdom, multiple races lived together in peace. Its abundant natural resources often made it the target of envy from neighboring kingdoms.
From everything I had learned, it seemed clear that I had not transmigrated into a novel I had read before. The setting was far too unfamiliar. Besides, there was no way I was a chosen one.
I decided to stop thinking about it.
Whether my body in the original world was asleep, missing, or already gone, I did not know. What I knew for certain was that I wanted to live happily in this world, according to my own wishes.
I returned the books to their shelves and left the library. Then I sat in the yard, quietly gazing at the small vegetable garden while waiting for my parents to return home.
As I thought about their gentle expressions and warm smiles, hope slowly began to take root in my heart.
In my previous world, I had never had parents. Perhaps here, my fate would be a little kinder.
But then, a question surfaced.
Why had I transmigrated?
Was there something wrong with my medication?
Why were my memories so unclear?
No matter how hard I tried to remember, everything remained shrouded in darkness. The only image left was of me falling asleep after taking my medicine.
Was it exhaustion from working too much?
Wait. Had I even been working?
No. Something felt wrong. Very wrong.
I knew I came from another world, yet I could not even remember my own name from there.
Did that make any sense at all?
I remembered being an orphan.
I remembered having a few friends.
I remembered going to the hospital often.
But their faces, their voices, even the reason I went there, all faded away like smoke.
My head began to ache. The more I tried to remember, the more suffocating it became. My vision blurred.
I stood up, trying to return to the house, but the pounding in my temples grew stronger, as if my skull were about to split open from the inside.
Slowly, my vision faded.
And everything sank into darkness.