They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die.
But for me, it was the blaring horn of a truck and the realization that I wouldn't make it across the street. One second I was a salaryman late for a meeting, and the next—I was staring at a starless sky, the air thick with the scent of blood and steel.
When I woke up, I was no longer in Tokyo. I was no longer me.
I was Aren Von Ashenlance, the eldest son of a noble knight family in a world of swords, magic, and monsters. A world that was on the brink of war. My memories from Earth came with me—history, strategy, economics, all the tools of civilization. In this world, that knowledge was fire in the hands of a god.
They sent me to war at sixteen.
I came back a hero, a general, a strategist feared even by the enemy. And then I lost my sight. My last battle cost me my eyes—but not my mind.
The Emperor rewarded me with something far more dangerous than a blade: a pen.
Now, at twenty-eight, I sit as the Fifth Pillar of the Empire, head of the Imperial Economy, commander of wealth, law, and ruin. Where once I wielded armies, now I wield budgets and decrees. Noble families rise or fall on the weight of my signature.
And yet, this morning, an imperial summons arrived.
The Emperor is calling me to the Imperial Academy.
Not as a guest.
As a teacher.
Strange, isn't it? That the man who sees nothing is asked to guide the future of the Empire.
But I know this Empire better than anyone. Its truth. Its decay. Its ambition.
And I, the blind bureaucrat, may be the only one left who can save it.