I seem to now be in that half awake half asleep state. Despite how much I wanted to wake up earlier, the covers feel so comfy that I want to continue to sleep. While I think such, I hear voices whispering. There’s also a slight buzzing sound in my ear….a fly? A Bug?!

The thought of such a disgusting thing wakes me up. My gaze is a bit hazy as I see the ceiling in front of me. The covers feel a bit itchy now that I’m awake. When did I even drag myself to my bed anyways.

I nudge my ear with my shoulder, and the buzzing stops. But as I do that, I hear an alarmed female voice “He’s awake!” ring in my ear. The hell. I’m shocked because there was a female voice…and the only people living at home at the moment are my brother and I. 

I have the personality type to be calm in pretty much any situation just like in my dream. But there is one exception, well two. One is being surprised at something that shouldn’t be there. The other is…bugs. But I guess you might know that by now. 

In my jarred state I quickly sat up. But arghhh, it hurts. What is this pain in my back. Shit. Back pain is the worst of the worst. If there is one thing I want to avoid, that is back problems! 

During high school, my parents decided to renovate our apartment. While the apartment was being renovated we stayed in a smaller make-shift place where weren’t enough beds, and I slept on a cheap blowup mattress. We didn’t expect to be staying in that type of environment for too long, so it shouldn’t have been a problem, but of course, like all renovations, this one took a lot longer than anticipated. The horrid blowup mattress ended up taking out my back, resulting in my having to go to back therapy for months to recover.

But holy shit, this hurts more than any back pain I’ve ever had in the past. Like someone gouged out my back. 

Ugh. With no energy in me, I flop back down on the bed. I am now lying on my back with my head resting slightly higher on a pillow so I see forward rather than towards the ceiling.

Looking clearly ahead, I see the woman from my dream. Okay, this is weird. Very weird. Standing next to her is the priest. I’m okay with the woman, sort of, but why is that incompetent priest here. 

“How is it?” the woman asks nervously while looking towards the priest.

“Let’s see…” he says, while having a calm smile on his face. 

Please stop smiling Mr.priest. It makes me think you are up to no good. …Of course I’m right. He reaches his hand out and shines a small light beam in each of my eyes without warning. This freaking priest. How many times is he going to blind me!! So I say in my head…but I do know that he’s just checking if my pupils contract with the light. Glad all those years of anime taught me something. Not like college did much.

But more seriously, I think I'm taking the situation well by not panicking. Maybe reading all those stories about people transported to other worlds prepared me for this...no, I guess I'm just a calm type of person in the end. It doesn't matter how many stories you read in the end; nothing like that can prepare you for something like this. 

Mr.Priest then placed his hand on my neck and checked my pulse. I know he’s just being doctor, but I still can’t shake off a creepy feeling. He continued to check my temperature and breathing. 

In a way, I’m glad that I seem to be passing the tests. I don’t know what I would do if he checked my eyes and then said something like “Your left eye doesn’t seem to be working.” As someone who has had a concussion before, that’s one of the scariest lines you can hear. It ended up fixing itself…but I can’t begin to imagine what being disabled is like…more so, isn’t it usually the disabled person who gets sent to another world to live without the disability. Not the other way around.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Also, although it hasn't been long since I woke up, I feel this state I'm in is...well... real. Maybe because it's a first-person view now? No...not just that, it's the feeling of each breath I take. What I sense with touch and sight. I'd like to think more about it, but I don't have the luxury.

“Everything seems good. But to be sure, How many fingers am I holding up?” Mr.Priest said while raising three fingers up.

“Three” I replied.

Though I almost choked on nothing after I said that. Wait. My voice is not only not mine, it sounds like a guy’s?! Although I seem calm on the outside, now I truly am freaking out on the inside, and am in a daze. The woman’s frantic words that startled me earlier start to register. Although the 'in a new world' thing felt okay, to be a guy...that's truly a shock. And then, while completely out of sorts came the surprise attack. 

“And do you remember your name?” He asked.

Boom, what a question! What should I do. Should I give my real name? A fake name? Or…? Breathe. I can do this. I told myself while feeling my heart beat faster. I had already figured out what my name should be. It wasn’t all that hard really. There was only one person I could be in a situation like this, surrounded by these two people, with a voice like this. But should I give the name of who I am, the one of who I really am, or lie completely. 

To stall for time I nod my head, but quickly regret it as I feel pain radiating down my neck due to the back injury. ...Ugh...That was a poor strategy in hindsight. Although my tolerance for pain is quite decent, I'd rather not be in pain. Now in pain, and really with no time to spare, I went with the safest option of the three.

“Road” I replied.

I think I said it with a slightly different accent than they had been using, but it seems to have been conveyed correctly. I can always say who I really am later. But I think I have only one chance to maintain this pre-existing identity of the mage who kicked the bucket during the goblin raid. In a way, I’m happy that Rhode was in such a perilous situation. It was only because of hearing his name repeatedly so many times that I was able to remember it. It seems like I’m safe for now I thought while sighing in my head. I’m really glad I have this talent of appearing calm on the outside even when frazzled inside.

The priests eyes seemed to smile as well now as he continued, “And do you remember who I am?”

Ahhhhhhhhh. I thought I was safe, but then he threw another curveball. I’ve just been calling him Mr.Priest this entire time. But no, I’ve heard his name before... what was it. Should I just take the stance of having memory loss? I remembered my own name so they should still think it’s me. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to remember his name.