Reborn And Remade: The Mind Reading Queen

Colette Lawson POV:

The sharp, sterile stench of antiseptic filled my lungs, and the biting chill of a metal dissection table pressed into my spine. My heart hammered like a trapped beast against my ribs, suffocating under pure terror. Then came the pain-a white-hot, agonizing tearing of my nerves as the researchers severed my core.

I gasped, my eyes flying open.

A sharp, stinging impact cracked against my forehead, sending a dull shockwave through my skull. A half-used piece of enchanted chalk clattered onto the wooden desk before me, leaving a powdery white smudge across my skin.

"Lawson!" Professor Vance's screech cut through the air, shrill and dripping with disdain. "This is an introductory spell theory lecture, not your personal bedchamber! If you cannot keep your eyes open, drag yourself into the corridor and stand against the wall. Out! Now!"

Ripples of snickering erupted across the room. My vision swam in disorienting waves as I pressed trembling fingers to my temple. The pain was real, but it was not just from the chalk. Beneath my hair, a swollen, vicious contusion throbbed with a sickening rhythm.

My gaze shot to the wall calendar. The date printed in bold, black letters was ten years in the past. This was my time at the preparatory academy for magically gifted individuals, my high school years in the mundane world before entering the true magical realm.

I was reborn.

The memory rushed back like ice water: during recess before this class, I had been cornered in the stairwell and shoved brutally against the stone steps. The past me had dragged herself into class, concussed and terrified.

I pushed back my chair, ignoring the mocking whispers that trailed me, and walked into the drafty stone hallway. Standing against the cold wall, I raised my hands before my eyes. Smooth, pale skin. No chemical burns. No jagged, blackened scar from the Chimera Project where they grafted alien magical cores into my flesh.

This was my preparatory academy in the mundane borderland, the holding pen for gifted youth awaiting entry into the true magical realm.

I had crawled back from hell.

Ten years ago, this was the exact week my father's trading consortium was framed for an artifact leak, buried under ruinous Magic Council penalties that doomed us to destitution. In my previous life, I had broken beneath the weight of it. I had let them strip away my dignity, let the guilt crush my parents into an early grave, and sold myself to underground laboratories as a human subject just to pay off the debts.

A cold, ruthless stillness settled into my chest. The gods had given me a second chance, and I would not waste it on tears. My enemies had not finished their feast, and my parents were not yet dead. If fate demanded blood, I would make sure it was not mine.

The dismissal chime rang, echoing through the vaulted corridors. Class was over, yet I remained where I stood, waiting.

"Well, look who it is," a mocking voice drawled from the doorway. "Our little academy princess, exiled to the corridor like a disgraced mongrel. Didn't your father's gold buy you immunity from Vance's chalk today?"

Jessica stepped forward, flanked by three girls whose faces I knew all too well. Only last month, those very same girls had carried my bags, flattered my heritage, and begged for invitations to the Lawson family's estate. Now they clustered around Jessica like ravenous hyenas, their smiles dripping with venom.

"Haven't you heard, Jessica? Lawson Mercantile filed for bankruptcy yesterday," one of them chimed in, tossing her hair. "She's not a princess anymore. Her family owes hundreds of thousands to the Council. She's poorer than a mundane beggar."

"Good riddance," another sneered. "She only held the top academy ranking because her father sponsored the library. Time for someone with actual pedigree to take the crown."

Jessica preened under their fawning, taking a slow step toward me until she blocked the light from the window. She reached out, her manicured fingers flicking the lapel of my uniform where my family's silver crest brooch rested. "You know, Colette, since you're destitute, you won't be needing this. Hand over your heirloom brooch. Perhaps I'll take pity on you and hire you as my scullery maid once we enter the Keep."

In my past life, their mockery had shattered me. I had bowed my head, surrendered my pride, and let them trample me into the dirt.

This time, I did not flinch. I did not blink.

I looked directly into Jessica's eyes, letting the chilling weight of a soul that had died a dozen times in a cage bleed into my gaze. The laughter in the hallway began to falter. The girls behind Jessica shifted uncomfortably, the silence stretching taut like a bowstring.

Jessica's smug smile twitched. "What are you looking at, you bankrupt freak?"

I took a slow step forward, closing the distance until I was whispering directly into her ear, my voice flat, hollow, and freezing cold. "Enjoy your little victory, Jessica. Because in exactly seven days, the Magic Council auditors will raid your manor. Your father will be dragged away in chains for embezzling three hundred thousand glowgolds from his clan's vault just to buy you that custom Starlight racing broom you've been bragging about."

Jessica froze. The breath caught in her throat, and the color drained from her face so fast she looked like a freshly drained corpse. "Y-you... what did you say?"

"Savor this week," I murmured, stepping back with a thin, sharp smile that made the hairs on her neck stand on end. "It is the last week you will ever walk these halls as nobility."

Without sparing her another glance, I turned and strode down the corridor, leaving her paralyzed in terror while her sycophants whispered in frantic confusion. I did not have time for petty bullies. Retribution was best served swift and lethal, but my priority was survival.

I walked briskly down the winding stairwell toward a quiet, arched gallery overlooking the academy grounds, needing space to calculate how much time my family had left.

The memory of what unfolded ten years ago burned in my mind with sickening clarity. Back in the mundane capital, creditors would already be surrounding our townhouse, banging on the reinforced mahogany doors while bailiffs prepared their liens. My father, David Lawson, would be sitting among scattered ledgers in his study, drowning in self-blame and trying to protect the wages of eighty craftsmen who depended on him. If left to face the storm alone, Uncle Richard's vulture-like promises would soon corner him, breaking his spirit until he plunged from the office terrace into the abyss.

I had to intervene before it was too late.

The clock was ticking. In less than thirty days, the Council bailiffs would freeze every warehouse and seize the ancestral estate. To amass the fortune needed to clear our name, I had to leave this mundane preparatory academy and enter the Keep of Myriad Races immediately. Only in the true magical realm could I exploit my knowledge of hidden ruins, rare reagent spikes, and forbidden markets.

A sharp, deliberate tapping echoed against the stained glass above me.

I looked up. Perched upon the stone sill was a silver-feathered Starling messenger bird, its beak tapping the glass with rhythmic urgency. Tied to its leg was an obsidian parchment scroll sealed with the glowing crimson crest of the Keep's High Admissions Board.

I pushed open the latch and took the scroll, breaking the wax seal with a flick of my thumb.

The text within was crisp and authoritative: *Due to an unprompted, severe surge of mental pressure and latent precognitive resonance detected during the recent corridor incident, the candidate Colette Lawson is hereby granted emergency authorization to bypass mundane preparatory graduation and sit the early entrance trials for the Keep of Myriad Races.*

My fingers tightened around the heavy parchment, a dark, vindictive smile curving my lips.

They had mistaken my foreknowledge and killing intent for awakening mental gifts. Fate had tried to crush my family into the dirt, but instead, it had just handed me the keys to the grand arena.