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Sometime after he slipped into unconsciousness, though William was not sure if it was seconds or any longer amount of time, William regained a sense of consciousness. However, not in the way he had hoped, waking up injured, or even preferably healed. Instead, he just got a sensation he had felt once before. It wasn’t really something that could be described, but he could name it. It was the feeling of death. William had hoped his injuries weren’t that bad.
The second time, death, or really the sensations immediately following death, were again more eventful than expected. In fact, it was almost exactly the same as the first time he died, and still not oblivion, or really… deathy. He again sensed a cramped room, and a floating sensation. William couldn’t recognize any of the words being said, again. At this point, he thought he might be dreaming in his bed, or in a coma. In the past, after stressful situations, he had occasionally dreamed of this. It was a unique feeling. However, it dragged on, and it was slightly different, and certainly more real than his dreams. Finally, he knew for sure.
The light blinded his eyes. He saw a new set of giant-but-actually-normal-sized humans. He was a baby again. He… probably shouldn’t remember anything. His research suggested that he should have lost all of his memories. Unless… perhaps there had been an emergency situation, with a world needing souls? That would be highly unlikely, since the transferred souls would have probably not included him again. On the other hand, he only really had the records of one time, so maybe the same souls were prone to world-hopping? Man, death and reincarnation were complicated. William mentally tossed away about a quarter of his notes on reincarnation that he no longer had. Not that he had ever been sure of any of it being right.
This time, William was even less sure why he’d kept his memories. After all, he’d basically gotten his wish. He’d been a pretty famous wizard, and helped advance the country greatly. He’d even come to terms with the fact that he couldn’t do magic dozens of years before. The only thing he regretted was not being able to help people prepare more against the Demon King. That wasn’t something that could be accomplished in yet another world. Then again, maybe his reincarnation was completely unrelated to his regrets.
This time, it was simple for William to accept his reincarnation. He didn’t know why, but he had a lifetime to find out why he was here, if there was even a reason. What exciting things did this world have to offer? Maybe he could finally really be a wizard here? The rules of magic could be different, after all. Whoops, that made it sound like he wasn’t content before. Honestly, though, magic was pretty awesome. Who wouldn’t want to be the one to personally do awesome things?
William would miss those in his last world, and the country of Ostana. His parents, who had still been living. Marius, Gerald, and Chris. Those who had died before him… such as Professor Pierce, and even Professor Farman. There was also Lila. She’d probably been the closest one to him, like a sister. He was sad that she had died, since she could gone on to have a greater impact on the world. As for himself, he obviously wasn’t sad at his death. He’d already had a second life, and that had been plenty. Now, apparently, he was getting a third.
Then, there was one more figured he wished to see again. William couldn’t exactly say why. It was the demoness. One reason, certainly, was that she had been intelligent, and he’d enjoyed having discussions about magic with her. On the other hand, William was pretty sure she was evil, or at least amoral. It was possibly because she was the only demon he ever talked to, something different. William would have much preferred to not have to fight and kill the demons at all, but that was the way his life had ended up.
There was one more thing, though. William. Certainly, that had been his name. However, he’d thrown away his first name… what about his second? In the end, he decided he liked William. Maybe he would begin to think of himself by whatever his new name was as time went on, but he wouldn’t intentionally cast away his name this time. It was his only connection to those he cared for in his second world.
—–
If William had to use one word to describe his new surroundings, the word would be “asian”. Even though there hadn’t even really been an Asia in the last world, old habits died hard. He’d seen pictures of asian places when he was on Earth, but he’d never been to Liaoyang, which he gathered was filled with somewhat similar culture and architecture. Though, that was actually still quite a few different cultures and styles. Either way, the architecture most closely reminded him of asian architecture, maybe more Chinese than Japanese, and the facial features of the people he’d seen and the furnishings did as well. He wondered if there were some kind of multi-universal influence that caused these things to go together. Maybe it was just a massive coincidence, or people just realized these styles went together. Goodness knows William would never understand style.
Not that he was William anymore. Instead, he was Hui’Lam. He wondered if the multiverse was pulling some kind of elaborate prank on him. Well, although he hadn’t been too fond of his first name, he’d really grown attached to William. His determination to not give that name up was made much easier. There was no reason to stop thinking of himself as William, and it sounded similar enough. However, though it would be easy to accept his “new” name, William doubted he would perfectly adapt to this new life right away. He was… going to be a very weird child, again. There was very little he could do about that.
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Author Notes:
I know at least one of you saw this coming. It was decently strongly hinted at, at least indirectly. Some of you were hoping William wasn’t dead, but if anybody had directly asked, I would have totally said, “yep, he’s dead”. And it would have been true until this chapter came out.