3 Gale Windsoar (2)

Two years ago, Feng Liu had been mysteriously transported over to this new world in the year AC 498, after having had a rather ugly falling out with his girlfriend of four years the night that he was scheduled to return to the People's Republic of China from his international studies in the United States.

Ordering one too many drinks to drown his sorrows away at a local bar, Feng Liu, he had inexplicably found himself on the Celtioca Continent in the juvenile body of a minor noble, Gale Windsoar of the Windsoar Familia, after recovering from the hangover.

When Feng Liu caught the glance of a youth that had light silver hair, languid amber eyes, a muscled body composition and pale complexion in the reflective surface in his resting quarters, it didn't take long for him to realize that he was indeed no longer on Earth.

Unfortunately, Feng Liu had to figure out the status of the strange new world that he had been dropped in by himself, as he realized that he ended up possessing only Gale's body, but not his memories. It was fortunate that by this time, the old Gale had already been a tenured professor at the Saint Gaon University, starting his third term. Through the rich resources of the institution's library and his own personal inquiries, Feng Liu had come to grasps with the general information of this new world within two months, and now possessed the standard level of knowledge that a native of this world would have.

This was a world of might and magic, swords and sorcery, dwarves and giants – a world that held the common traits of high fantasy, which made Feng Liu apprehensive as this meant that he could be unreasonably killed at any given moment since this world obviously had different social and cultural roots than those of Earth. The only thing that Feng Liu wanted to do after realizing this was to find a way back to his home planet, and apologize to his girlfriend for how he had lost control of his anger and lashed out at her.

While any other hotblooded youth might've rejoiced at the opportunity to carve out his own legend in a world of martial arts and magic like they have read about in novels, Feng Liu remained uninterested. He personally thought that these desires were childish, and were only served as a method for people to escape reality. He had a successful future laid out for him as the future heir of a Fortune Global 500 Company, and didn't want to jeopardize that through his absence; he didn't want to stay in this strange new plane of existence any longer than he had to. Above all, he was afraid of getting hurt and suffering pursuing this particular path of power. Feng Liu believed that the strongest form of might was related to how economically sound one was and how many assets they controlled, instead of one's physical or arcane prowess.

This outlook on life was exactly the reason why Feng Liu had trouble in the monthly teacher's evaluation, though, as he wouldn't train his physical body or temper his mind's mana-storing leylines. He found the process too arduous, and since the only two ways to become stronger were through cultivation or drinking precious medicinal elixirs, his strength stagnated. After all, medicinal elixirs were much too expensive for him to afford, and he didn't have the patience or perseverance to train, due to having been brought up in a life of luxury on Earth free from most physical and mental exertions. Perhaps studying economics and finance at a prestigious institution could be considered a form of "mental exertion", but that was fundamentally different from practicing magicks, since trying to recite spell structures or tempering his mind's leylines caused Gale to feel as if his head was splitting apart. In short, trying to dip into magic was on a whole new level compared to studying hard mathematics courses. Gale knew that without the help of medicinal elixirs, he wasn't going to advance in physical or magical prowess anytime soon.

The reason why Headmaster Joanna had given Feng Liu such precious medicine was because the old Gale had, during his two terms at the Saint Gaon University, created six Gold-ranked, unique spells for Warlocks that were exclusively given to the University to add to their library. Spells in the Celtioca continent were ranked according to precious metals, going from Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Mithril, Orichalcum, Adamantium, Dragonsteel, and Godmetal in order of ascending value and power. Most Universities only had a handful of Gold-ranked spells, so handing over six new spells of the Gold-rank was undoubtedly a major contribution to the University, and was the main reason why the Headmaster had done so much to help Feng Liu retain a position at the University during the last two years. The old Gale was also a combat genius, but of course, when Feng Liu possessed Gale's body, he was unable to keep up the good record that the old Gale had maintained during the monthly Teacher's Evaluation since he had no hands-on knowledge about fighting techniques. The only thing that Feng Liu retained from the old Gale was his sturdy body.

The other instructors at the University saw Gale's fall from prodigy to trash as nothing else but a gem losing its luster. Although their disdainful gazes made Feng Liu uncomfortable, he gradually got used to them. Feng Liu made sure to focus studying on the theoretical parts of magic, so he wouldn't be at risk of getting kicked out of the University and be completely on his own in this foreign world. Unfortunately, Feng Liu's theories and knowledge on magic were far below Gale's level, and within two years, he hadn't even begun to grasp how to create his own Gold-ranked unique spell.

Although Feng Liu did not retain any of Gale's old memories, his brain still somehow managed to recognize and understand Flauiaos the official language of the Flauian Nation-State. Feng Liu theorized that this had to do with his new body subconsciously recognizing the characters and words due to the development of Gale's left hemispheric cortex. After all, while Feng Liu's soul claimed Gale's body, the brain contained inside the body was naturally Gale's, not Feng Liu's. As to why Gale's brain seemingly only managed to retain language functionality and not his old memories still remained a mystery to Feng Liu, however.

How did Feng Liu end up in possession of Gale's body? From what Feng Liu could see and feel, Gale's body was perfectly healthy when he had come to possess it, ruling out the possibility of suffering serious internal injuries or being poisoned. This meant that Gale most likely was still alive when Feng Liu had come to possess this vessel, leaving him all the more confused. Did both of their souls somehow get swapped? Was Gale's soul currently residing inside his body on Earth? How was Janet doing after a year of not hearing from him? These questions plagued Feng Liu's mind, eating away at him incessantly every day.

Despite Feng Liu's thoughts, when all was said and done, he currently had no other choice but to live out his life as "Gale Windsoar", embrace his new namesake for the time being, and look for clues on how to get back to Earth.

The only lead that Gale had received so far ever since his transmigration was the appearance of a strange, eldritch tome clad in bloodied, ancient leather that he found next to him when he woke up in this bizarre new world.

The appearance of the tome was peculiar, not to mention the fact that when Gale had opened the tome out of curiosity, he recognized the characters contained within the scriptures – the contents of the book were in English! How did this language of Planet Earth even show up in this world?

The contents of the tome, or at least the parts that Gale were able to see when he had first decided to read it, made him even more confused. Apparently, according to the first part of the scripture, there was a hidden story to the Era of Calamity that the Celtioca Continent had faced 500 years ago. Gale was somewhat familiar with the story given that it was a major event located in almost history textbook that he had found within the University's library, but other than a general overview about the events that had occurred at that time, he was unable to locate any more detailed descriptions about that particular Era, almost as if someone had purposely blotted it out of the annuls of history.

So it was no surprise that Gale was a bit skeptical about the claim presented by the tome, but the story that he had read in the tome's first chapter about the truth of the Celtioca Continent's near destruction greatly scared him, so much so that he could feel his heart threating to leap out of his chest. Most importantly, the author of the tome was someone who had stumbled into this world just like him, and also originated from Earth. Within the two years that Gale had spent in this unfamiliar new world, this was the only clue that he had found regarding how he could return to Earth.

It went without saying that he couldn't let any others know anything regarding the contents of the book, because the Holy Knight Order would consider the words inside the tome was the highest order of blasphemy against the Pantheon of the Righteous Gods. If he was to be found in possession of such scripture, the Order would spare no costs at eliminating him and destroying the tome.

However, the other parts of the tome remained locked, and no matter how hard he pried, Gale was unable to open them. It seemed as if the other chapters of the tome would remain locked forever, so it caught Gale by surprise when now, as he took the tome out of the drawer for the first time this year, the final chapter of the tome unlocked with a resounding, loud click.