Chương 1: The Worst Body Imaginable

It took the young man about half an hour to realize he had probably isekai'd to another world. He woke up in a luxurious, vintage-style room complete with a grand chandelier, a king-sized bed, and a crackling fireplace. Outside the window, a heavy blanket of snow was falling, but inside, the room was comfortably warm. For the first few minutes, his mind was a complete blank. He couldn't remember who he was or where he was. The only thing bugging him was the snow outside; it just felt wrong.

Where I used to live, I don't think it ever snowed. That was when pieces of his memory began to trickle back. He had been on his way home from a part-time afternoon job. While walking past a familiar river, he spotted a young girl being swept away by the raging current. Without a second thought, he kicked off his shoes and dove into the water. He had always been a confident swimmer, but the current was vicious.

After a desperate struggle against the current, his strength finally gave out just as he had managed to get the two of them within sight of the shore. So, not only did he fail to save anyone, but he had managed to drown himself in the process.

"Master? You're awake?" The bedroom door swung open, snapping him back to reality. A maid walked in. She was beautiful, except for the fact that she stood well over six feet tall, had a massive, scaly tail peeking out from under her long skirt, red slit-pupil eyes, and a three-clawed left hand.

"That bastard Hale Wallace is still alive?" Trailing behind the giant maid was a boy around eleven or twelve years old. The kid looked like a perfectly normal human, except for his mouth.

"And here I thought you were a goner this time, you evil devil mage. I guess it's true what they say, evil really does run on spite!" Well, they definitely weren't Hale's wife and son. The young man now known as Hale felt a throbbing headache coming on. He tried to raise his hand to rub his temples, only to realize he couldn't. His right arm was gone. On top of that, his face felt incredibly tight and restricted. Testing it with his left hand, he felt thick layers of gauze wrapped around his head.

He couldn't even open his mouth to speak. Only now did the sheer, agonizing pain racking his entire body finally register. As a twenty-first-century citizen who had consumed his fair share of pop culture, he quickly pieced it together: he had been reincarnated into the body of a man branded a wicked dark mage—one who was missing his right arm and disfigured his face. Fantastic. Unable to handle the sheer shock of it all, Hale blacked out again.

Just before losing consciousness, he caught a faint, mechanical sound... [Redemption System Activated.] By the time Hale woke up again, the snow outside had melted. The fireplace was cold, but the room itself had warmed up significantly. The bandages on his face were gone. Touching it now, he could feel a thick, jagged scar running from his temple all the way down his left cheek. As for his right arm, it was completely amputated from the biceps down.

There was no pain, just a jarring void whenever he tried to move it, only to remember it wasn't there anymore. Hale propped himself up on his left arm, sat up on the bed, and took a moment to seriously question all the choices of his life. His last memory was jumping into a river to save a stranger and drowning. Now, he was awake in a broken, disabled body, tended to by a giant lizard-maid and a kid with a major attitude problem. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road.

Support the author by reading it there. In his past life, he had read some of webnovels about isekai and reincarnation, and he used to wonder what it would be like to wake up in another world after dying. But in none of his fantasies did he ever end up in a body this thoroughly ruined. This was even worse than his old life. Back then, he had to juggle three part-time jobs just to pay for college, but at least he had all his limbs and a future ahead of him. Hale tried to get out of bed.

His legs were shaky, but he managed to stand. He had read somewhere that bedridden patients suffered from muscle atrophy to the point where they couldn't walk. It seemed this body hadn't been out cold for as long as he feared, or it was just incredibly resilient. The view outside the window was grim. Looking down from the second floor, he saw a neglected garden overrun with weeds and barren, skeletal trees.

Still, the paved stone pathways, intricately carved statues, and a massive fountain suggested that this place was once a grand estate. Beyond the estategrounds, there was nothing to see but thick fog and a dense wall of tangled branches. A mansion in the middle of nowhere? Hale opened the door and walked down the vintage hallway to find the stairs. He hadn't gone far before he ran into the bratty kid from earlier, who was carrying a food tray.

"... Hey," Hale initiated the conversation. The kid's lips pressed into a tight line, his eyebrows knitting together and relaxing in a wave of sheer awkwardness. Hale pointed at the bowl of porridge on the tray.

"Is that for me?"

"... Yeah. So you better get back to your room and eat it. Stop wandering around."

"Where's the maid with the big tail?"

"You mean Maddie? She went out."

"Where to?"

"How the hell should I know?!" The metal tray clattered loudly against the floor, sending the bowl spinning. A dollop of porridge splashed onto Hale's trousers. He frowned.

"Hey, what's with the attitude, kid? What did I ever do to you?" The boy's eyes flared with rage.

"You killed my parents and burned down my house! One day, I'm going to kill you with my own two hands!" Hale paused to process this. Even without the original owner's memories, that statement made zero sense. Nobody keeps a kid around after letting them know you murdered their parents.

"Then why didn't you just stab me while I was unconscious?"

"Because... because I'm going to learn all your magic first, and then I'll use it to destroy you!"

"Oh? Well, bad news, kid. This guy forgot all his magic."

"... What?"

"To be honest, it's not just the magic. I've lost all my memories."

"You're lying!"

"I'm really not. Now, are you going to clean this up and get me a fresh bowl? I'm going to stretch my legs while you do." The boy's face flushed bright red with fury. Hale decided to ignore him and continued exploring the mansion. The place had at least three floors—though Hale skipped the third, not wanting to push his aching body too hard. The second floor housed two bedrooms and a massive study. The kitchen, dining area, bathroom, and restroom were all on the ground floor.

Everything was neat and dust-free; it looked like the lizard-maid took her job seriously. There was only one thing he couldn't find anywhere. A mirror. He really wanted to see what his face actually looked like now. Hale pushed open the main doors on the ground floor and stepped outside. The outside air was much colder than it was inside the mansion, making him shiver. Just walking around like this had completely drained his energy, and he desperately wanted something to lean on.

But as he reached out to steady himself against a nearby pillar, he remembered all over again that his right arm was gone. He lost his balance for a split second, but still managed to prop himself against the pillar. Right then, a sudden gust of wind swept down from above. Looking up, Hale saw the peculiar maid he had met earlier. Except now, she had a pair of massive wings protruding from her back. They looked exactly like... Dragon wings. It finally clicked in Hale's mind. She was a dragon-maid. Fantastic.

Maddie, the dragon-maid, touched down on the ground, cradling two large bundles of food in her arms. Her wings gradually shrank until they completely vanished into her back.

"Master, why are you out here?" Setting the bundles down, she stepped forward to support him. Although her actions showed genuine concern, her face remained completely expressionless. However, what shocked Hale more than anything was that one word: "Master." Hale blurted out, "I'm your master?" Maddie raised an eyebrow.

"We've already been over this. Why are you bringing it up again?"

"... Been over what?"

"About me quitting being your servant. When I want to leave, I'll leave. You don't get a say in it." Well, this master-servant dynamic feels a little backward, doesn't it? Hale reached up to scratch his head, caught himself trying to use his missing right arm, and switched to his left.

"To be honest with you... I've lost my memory." Maddie froze for a brief second, then asked, "What did you forget?"

"Everything...?"

"Do you remember your name?"

"No. But the kid called me Hale Wallace or something, didn't he?"

"So, you've also forgotten that you are a traitor to Berula, who then became a commander for the enemy nation of Seki, once led an invasion against Ember, and are a loathsome, feared Necromancer who was just defeated and presumed dead by Sword Master Ellias of Berula?"

"... Yeah."

"Then I suppose you've also forgotten claiming to be some kind of 'transmigrator from another world'?" Hale's jaw dropped. Was the previous owner of this body also a transmigrator? And he actually admitted it to someone else? Wasn't it an unwritten rule of transmigration never to reveal your true identity? A gust of freezing wind blew past, making Hale shudder and sneeze. Maddie sighed.

"Let's get you back to your room first. We can talk inside."