Chapter One: Generic Opening
Lacy Mathews watched a replay of her own death, kindly provided by a Deity who pulled her soul aside. The vision, or whatever, showed a bird’s-eye view of her car getting t-boned from the driver’s side on her way to work.
“Well…it was painless, at least,” Lacy slowly said to the Deity. Speaking while being formless was quite difficult. She was more thinking words through a cosmic medium that forced her to concentrate very hard to be heard.
“You don’t have to hold your feelings back for my sake,” the Deity responded. They had no form or gender of any kind. Lacy felt their presence to be akin to a star, but one that didn’t accidentally fry her with radiation.
Lacy hesitated before responding, “Thanks… I’m really disappointed, actually. Dying just as I got comfortable with my college classes and I got a sense of my future… It’s textbook tragedy.”
“Yep.”
Lacy focused on the vision for a little while longer, taking a good look at her wreck of a car and the lifeless, almost unrecognizable body that used to be hers.
“I’ll take you up on that offer,” Lacy finally said. “What you described isn’t inherently appealing to me, but…I finally feel like a whole person. Ironically. Even if I can’t follow the same path in the new world I still want to live a life I can be proud of. I want to work hard for something.”
“That’s what I like to hear!” the Deity bellowed, making Lacy’s soul tremble. It was an odd experience, but not unlike being at a live concert. “However, unlike the Deities who pull living people for temporary Quests or the Deities who traffic souls to the RPG worlds, I need extra confirmation. Are you absolutely sure that you’re okay being plopped into a far more primal world wherein you could suffer in any number of ways unimaginable to those fortunate enough to be raised in a technologically advanced country like yourself? It will be incredibly difficult, even with the boons I offer.”
Lacy didn’t think about it long.
“Yeah. I’m fine with that.”
“Rightio. Good luck.”
Everything went dark.
……
Lacy regained consciousness to a soft slap on her cheekbone. She gasped and opened her eyes, causing the man above her to also gasp before falling backwards. His flinch was so strong that he left her view entirely, and she was left staring at the bright blue sky. It was so familiar that she almost forgot what she’d just been through.
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She’d died. Her old life was over. It was time to rebuild herself in an alien world full of magic and mystery.
“Lady! Why would you scare me like that?” the man cried before rising and dusting himself off. “Or, did you just awaken? What happenings brought you here? Are you a local? I’ve never seen you before.”
Lacy found control of her new body difficult at first but she still managed to push herself up onto her elbows so that she could get a good look at her surroundings and the man standing just a few feet away.
“Are you a beggar? A succubus?”
She laid in endless, wet farmland of some sort, maybe rice, and there were mountains in the distance. Her simple robe-style clothes, skin, and hair were dirtied with mud. Curious, she reached up to hold a lock of hair out in front of her. It was black. On Earth she’d been a blonde.
“Lady, please answer, you’re frightening me.”
Refocusing on the man she took note of his unique face. His skin was dark but he didn’t quite look African. His eyes were a bit narrow but he didn’t quite look Asian. His hair was also curly, almost Mediterranean. Judging solely by his phenotypes—unless he was unique around here—she really was in a different world.
Finally Lacy donned a look of concern and feigned panic in her voice as she asked, “Who are you? Where am I?”
……
Lacy was guided through what felt like miles of rice fields to a large farm complex and situated in a guest room for the entire first day of her new life, where she was questioned and inspected for injuries.
The man who found her, who was actually a year younger than her, was Max. Onslapithuanegi Max, to be precise, but Lacy was happy to call him by his given name instead of his mouthful of a family name. The specific location she’d been isekaied to was a farming village loosely attached to a city called Yellowvine within the Ten-Jan Empire.
That was all she could get out of the family who took her in, when she asked, “Where am I? Where’s that? And where’s that? And where’s that? I’m sorry I don’t know any of these names.”
Though in her head she called them “the family” they weren’t all related. There were 23 members of the Onslapithuanegi family, including elderly and children, but there were also two dozen farmhands who helped with farming, cooking, and cleaning. It was Max and his aunt, Miya, who questioned her while the aunt checked for injuries.
Of course, they asked the obvious stuff like who she was and where she was from, but Lacy carefully played the part of an amnesiac. Miya was suspicious until they got creative with the questions and asked about the names of people in her life, names of places, her favorite foods, what skills she had, and what her favorite clothes looked like. The only consistent answers she gave were that she was 21 years old and her name was Mathews Lacy. She considered leaving out her family name but ultimately decided she was too attached to it. Her parents had raised her well, treating her like their princess, and she couldn’t bear the thought of not continuing their surname even if she’d never see them again.
Eventually Lacy won over some tentative trust, though it wasn’t like Miya went easy on her. When Max’s aunt served Lacy some supper before dusk she “slipped” and spilled some soup on her lap. It took everything Lacy had not to react much at that. She managed not to flinch and just stare at the hot liquid with a surprised expression, saying, “Oh, I’m sorry,” as if it was her own fault.
Lacy imagined that Miya was hoping she’d make a big stink about it so she could be kicked out, but with such a mild-mannered reaction Miya’s expression went from inquisitive to just straight-up apologetic as if it hadn’t been on purpose. However, that didn’t keep Miya from posting a farmhand on guard duty outside her room while she slept.