Roderic opened his mouth, but no words came out. He glanced desperately at Lucian, as if pleading for some kind of support, but Lucian merely tilted his head, pulling a facade of obliviousness. Why would Lucian help him out, when he was just moments ago trying to extort him for money?

  “Well, regardless, I’m sure Lucian is perfectly capable of deciding where to place his generosity, if he so chooses.” Kaldor’s tone hardened slightly, his playfulness vanishing.

  “Yes, Professor…” Roderic mumbled, slumping his shoulders in defeat.

  He shot Lucian one last, baleful look before shuffling down the hallway, his steps no longer as heavy or confident as they used to be. He was mentally defeated, not only did he not get his hall tax from Lucian, but he’d also been reprimanded by one of the scarier professors of the academy. It seemed he’d have to keep a low profile over the next few days.

  Silence reigned in the corridor as Kaldor watched the boy’s retreating back, his expression was unreadable. Not even Lucian could guess what he was thinking at that moment. Then, he turned to Lucian, still with a blank look on his face.

  “You’re different.” Kaldor suddenly blurted.

  He stated plainly, as if he were just commenting on the weather. His eyes gazed over Lucian imperceptibly, like he was dissecting him with just a look. This was a skill Lucian quite admired, but it wasn’t pleasant to be on the receiving end of such a gaze.

  “Not the same meek boy I remember.” Kaldor spoke again, doubling down on his suspicion.

  Lucian blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the man’s perceptiveness. He wasn’t expecting to be suspected so early into his transmigration.

  ‘Have I been caught out as a transmigrator already?’ He thought to himself, unsure whether to reveal the truth or not. It would be a huge risk if he did so.

  For a split second, Lucian felt the urge to break into a full smile at Kaldor’s comment, and he almost broke under his own pressure. It was amusing how quickly people noticed changes when they actually paid attention. He could almost see the gears turning behind the Professor’s piercing gaze. Like there was an intense and complex clockwork going on behind those piercing eyes of his. But it wouldn’t do him any good to reveal too much.

  He might have inhabited the memories of the previous Lucian, but as was evident from his encounter with Roderic, he actually had to focus hard enough to be able to recall them. Lucian instinctively had a feeling that things would mesh together as time went on though, with the previous Lucian’s memories becoming his, with no need to siphon through them or decipher their meaning.

  And in the current moment, he didn’t quite understand enough about this world to go around revealing such a big secret. For all he knew, it could be like the middle ages in Europe where people even suspected of magic or heresy were executed. In fact, judging by the architecture and manner of speaking these people had, he had no doubts this might be the case.

  The distinct lack of anything electrical, or industrial was all the evidence he needed to see that this world was far, far behind his previous on. Right now, he didn’t know the customs of this place, so it seemed he had to tread carefully with his words and actions for a while, at least before he understood the laws of this land a bit more. But that was only while he still got a grip on things. His momentary lapse with Roderic would have to be the only time he could slip up for the foreseeable future.

  Once he learned more, understood more about this world and educated himself enough to call himself knowledgeable about this place… Well, he had no doubt that he’d continue his experiments from his previous life, just like they had never ended in the first place. And his job in his previous life wasn’t exactly… legal.

  So for the time being, he decided that he should start to act more like the previous Lucian would, and gradually make changes to his outside persona over time, rather than act like his real, old self, out in public.

  ‘This time with Roderic will have to be the last, a one off until things settle down.’ Lucian reminded himself.

  He mulled over his options, swiftly crafting up a response that would hopefully convince Professor Kaldor. He wasn’t particularly willing to out himself so quickly after transmigrating. He had plans — things he’d like to accomplish, and he wouldn’t let a small hurdle like this stop him.

  “Changed?” Lucian questioned.

  He shrugged lightly, sculpting his expression into a mild, uncertain face that his predecessor might have worn. For someone with so much control over their emotions like him, it wasn’t a difficult thing to put on an act like this.

  After all, he put on an act every single day for the first 25 years of his previous life — a few more years in this place was not a big problem.

  “I suppose I just… got tired of being a doormat.” Lucian finally spoke, revealing his reasoning to Professor Kaldor. He offered a lighthearted chuckle, like it pained him to speak about it.

  “I guess it was more like… a wake up call.” Lucian added on.

  Kaldor’s gaze lingered on him, uncomfortably sharp, as though it were peeling back each layer of his mind to examine it under a harsh, unforgiving light. He seemed suspicious, rightfully so, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why…

  Lucian swallowed, allowing his body to tense just slightly. A trickle of nervousness, something Lucian hardly ever felt, could sell the story.

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  He had to appear vulnerable enough to match the expectations of the people who were in regular contact with his body before he inhabited it, while showing just enough of his new resolve to satisfy the Professor’s curiosity.

  “A wake up call you say…” Kaldor muttered, more to himself than to Lucian directly.

  Kaldor’s tone was neutral, but there was something beneath it that Lucian was unable to place. It was almost like a spell, or a trick. In fact, Lucian started to feel like his mind was slowly starting to loosen up a little, and his eyes gazed into the deep abyss of Kaldor’s own, seemingly sinking deeper and deeper within the longer his gaze lingered.

  ‘What… is this?’ Lucian questioned.

  For the first time since he found himself in this place, this body, Lucian felt genuine confusion. Something was taking control over his own mind. Something he couldn’t contain. Something he couldn’t control. He had no idea what was happening to him — whether it was related to his transmigration, perhaps another influx of memories or knowledge was about to hit him — or if it was related to Professor Kaldor.

  One thing he knew for sure though, was that this was not a good moment for such a thing.

  ‘Get… the… fuck… out!’ Lucian screamed internally, pressing both his hands against his temples.

  Eventually, taking all his willpower, he managed to force whatever it was out of him. He was once again engulfed in a mind-pounding headache, but he was free of that controlling, deluding feeling that had just taken hold of him.

  It was hard to tell. But it seemed to have worked.

  Kaldor loosened up his piercing gaze, and a smile creeped its back onto his face.

  “Well, good for you then Lucian. You are dismissed, you can go back to class now.” Kaldor smiled. He walked away with his hands behind his back, not taking another glance at the short boy.

  ‘What in the world was that?’

  But he left a rather confused Lucian behind.

  Even when he awoke to find himself in a new world, with a new body, it wasn’t confusion Lucian felt, but curiosity. However, this time was different. Something had happened to him that not even his wealth of scientific knowledge could explain, and it annoyed him the more he thought about it.

  He knew he didn’t hallucinate what just happened, and he suspected that Professor Kaldor had something to do with it. It didn’t quite have the same feeling like he had when he transmigrated. But there was no way to go about asking about it, or searching for answers. For one, if he went back over to Professor Kaldor and asked what he had just done to him, how would he react?

  Would he simply just explain exactly what Lucian wanted to hear? Would he react with surprise but explain calmly? Would he reel back in shock at the fact Lucian was able to not only detect such mental stimuli, but also defend himself against it? Would he report him to the principal, or whoever was in charge? Or worse, just dispose of him himself right then and there?

  The answer was unclear, and that was precisely why Lucian did nothing. At least he would keep it that way for the time being. What he experienced was odd, and an uncomfortable experience even for him, who was so open to trying new things and gaining new knowledge. Preferably, he wouldn’t like to experience such a thing again, unless it was for his own experiments of course.

  When he learned more about that mysterious phenomenon that took over his mind, he wouldn’t mind taking another crack at it or two to satisfy his own curiosities.

  [Analysing external stimuli… Analysis complete! A strange existence was found to have invaded the host’s mind, but the host quickly took care of it himself.]

  ‘AI?’

  ***

  Lucian was rather startled when walking back to the classroom, as something he never expected to see again, let alone in this world, had appeared inside his mind after his encounter with Professor Kaldor. It was something he knew quite intimately, but he was also quite wary of it. The AI Implant.

  Back in his previous world, everyone had one of these, and if they didn’t, they simply couldn’t function as a normal human in modern society. The best way to describe them would be the next generation of technology that came after the handheld computerised devices, commonly referred to as ‘Phones’, ‘Smart watches’, ‘tablets’, ‘Laptops’ etc in the late stages of the fourth industrial revolution.

  They could do everything, from surfing the internet, analysing basic data, speeding up thought processes, enabling a deeper control and understanding of the host’s own body and much more unfathomable feats. But one of the things they specialised in was the analysis of the human body. This was why Lucian was so shocked when the the thing first appeared, as it could be the closest thing he could get to an answer of what just happened to him.

  The fact that it appeared after that strange appearance gave him more confidence that it would help him with this. Lucian found it a little hard to believe though, and even began to suspect that maybe he was hallucinating all along? He was 100% sure he wasn’t after that first strange encounter with Professor Kaldor, but this was not only the second strange encounter he was having that day, but also the second time he was genuinely confused in one day.

  ‘How is it here with me in this new world and body? Is this another unexplainable phenomenon, just like the fact that I transmigrated?’ Lucian racked his brain, but was unable to find an answer.

  ‘Interesting…’

  However his confusion and surprise at its initial appearance quickly turned into excitement. He was always welcoming to more interesting topics he could research. He fully intended to explore his previous research topics from his past life in this new world, but he wouldn’t mind some more new additions.

  ‘That’ll have to wait though, right now I have a class to attend.’ Lucian reminded himself, putting on his usual face.

  Pushing his rather exciting but distracting thoughts aside, Lucian strode back to the classroom, mimicking the movements his predecessor did after skimming through the memories a little. Walking was something people did daily, unless they were disabled, so he didn’t exactly have to search hard to figure it out.

  “Ahh Lucian, welcome back. I trust things are all sorted on your end now?”

  The teacher stopped his lecture and turned toward the back of the classroom where Lucian stood in the doorway. The moment he heard the door hinges start to creak, he turned to look at the returnee. Ever since Lucian’s little… episode in the middle of his class, he had been rather peeved with the boy for disrupting him mid speech.

  But as a good teacher, he was more concerned with whether Lucian was okay or not, and seeing as he was already back in his seat now, eyes facing the front and ears perked up to listen to the lesson, he assumed he was correct in this assumption. The nurse wouldn’t have sent him back already if he wasn’t.

  Unknown to him though, Lucian never even made it to the nurse’s office. First he was stopped by an old nemesis of his predecessor’s, and then Professor Kaldor directly after. Although his head still throbbed slightly, after the combined effect of his memories being reinstated, and his mind being invaded, some instinct inside of him told him that he was fine, and didn’t need any external help to recover.

  If there was something Lucian could place 100% of his trust in, it would be his instincts. Not even his AI could have his full 100% trust. At best he would only place 99% of his trust in it. On the other hand, his instincts had never failed him in his 35 years of life before, so he had no reason to suspect that would start now.

  Well, it was a new world and a new body, so maybe he would place 99% of his trust in his instincts instead of the full 100%. Even now, if that remaining 1% distrust turned out to be right, he was in the classroom, with the teacher at the ready to help him or call the nurse for him at any moment’s notice, so things weren’t all that bad.