Rebirth in Chains

“Landon? Little Landon, can you hear me?”

A frantic voice echoed through his mind as consciousness slowly returned. Confused, Chu Yi stirred, the fog in his head thick and disorienting.

“Whose voice is that? Didn’t I die…?”

Before he could make sense of the situation, a sudden stab of pain tore through his skull.

“Ahhh!”

The scream escaped him involuntarily. Clutching his head, Chu Yi forced his eyes open — only to be met with the sight of two figures.

The first was a woman who, despite her exhausted expression and worn clothes, radiated an elegance that no hardship could dull. Her soft brown hair framed a face that still carried the remnants of beauty fit for a queen — or a goddess fallen from grace. Life had clearly not been kind to her, and yet, she bore it all with quiet strength.

Beside her was a young girl who could only be described as stunning. If she existed back on Earth, people would have called her the kind of beauty that toppled empires. Long black hair, striking green eyes — she couldn’t have been more than fifteen, but her presence was arresting.

Both of them were in tears, frantically shaking him back to life.

“Aren’t I supposed to be recovering? Could you not shake me so much? I might actually die for real this time...” he thought bitterly.

Under normal circumstances, Chu Yi wouldn’t have minded their concern — but right now, his body felt like it was made of glass. Every movement hurt.

“I’m fine… Mom… Lucy… Don’t cry. I’m feeling better already,” he muttered weakly.

The older woman threw her arms around him. “You’re all I have, Landon. If anything had happened to you... I don’t know what I’d do.”

Lucy wiped her eyes. “Brother Landon, please never scare me like that again. You’ve been asleep for two whole days... I thought we lost you.”

A grumble from his stomach interrupted the reunion.

“Grhhhhh…”

His mother quickly leaned out the window of the carriage. “Driver, please stop for a moment!”

“Let me fix you something to eat, sweetheart,” she said, already climbing out.

“I’ll help Aunty so you can eat faster!” Lucy added cheerfully. “You just stay here and rest.”

“Alright,” Landon nodded.

As they left, he leaned back, trying to process everything that had just happened.

Back on Earth, he had been Chu Yi — a 26-year-old mechanical engineer with a bright future. He’d recently gotten a major promotion and was riding high... until a car crash snatched it all away.

“Unbelievable… Right after I got that fat raise, too.”

Now, somehow, he had awakened in the body of Landon Barn — a 15-year-old prince, but not just any prince. He was the illegitimate child of King Barn of Arcadina, born from a scandal the royal family would rather forget.

His mother, Kim Obley, had been a maid in the palace when the king — drunk after celebrating the birth of another son — forced himself on her. When the pregnancy became known, the king silenced the scandal by dismissing her from service and hiding her in a back corner of the castle. His wives, predictably, made her life a living hell.

And as for the king himself? He never acknowledged Landon. Every glance was one of contempt, as though Kim had tricked him — as though she were the disgrace.

Lucy had her own tragic tale. The daughter of Baron Gustav, she had been cast out after her mother’s death, left to scavenge on the streets. Kim, with a heart too big for her own good, took the girl in as a personal maid for Landon when Lucy was just ten. She had been family ever since.

Among the king’s six children, Landon was the last — and least — in everyone's eyes. There was Eli, the proud and cold first prince; Jennette, the polished and cunning first princess; Connor, silent and deadly; Cary, elegant but cruel; James, Landon’s arrogant older half-brother… And then there was Landon: the forgotten one, the servant in royal clothing.

It wasn’t much of a life. But things had taken a sharp turn.

One month ago, on his 15th birthday, the king gave Landon his ‘reward’: the city of Baymard. It sounded like a grand gift — until you looked closer. Baymard was a wasteland, ravaged by hunger and brutal winters. Though once the third largest city in the empire, it had long since become a place people fled from, not toward.

Worse still, the king had formally declared that Baymard would no longer fall under imperial jurisdiction. If war ever came to its borders — or starvation, or disease — no help would arrive. This wasn’t a reward. It was exile, plain and simple.

“Cunning old man... this is how he washes his hands of me.”

Chu Yi — no, Landon now — exhaled slowly. “It doesn’t matter. I have knowledge. I have skills. I can build something here.”

Then, as he was about to rise, something strange happened.

“Host detected…”

“System initializing…”

“20%... 35%... 71%... 100% complete.”

A digital voice rang in his mind.

Landon froze. “No way… Those system novels were real?”

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