[ELFINDOR]

It worked! I can’t believe it!

The Goddess had placed me in the body that had caught my eye when I was looking through the Orb of Remote Viewing. He was a handsome, tall man with the face of a leader. My new body had been peacefully napping against the bark of a tree facing a lake.

I stared down at my hands. These were obviously hands forged over years of hard work. They were firm and strong, and though they had callouses, I felt great strength as I curled my fists. Way more than I’d had as Elfindor.

I immediately got down and did fifty pushups. It was easy.

Ha… Hah hahah!!!! YES!

The fact that I didn’t break a sweat doing something the old me would have found impossible filled me with indescribable joy.

After I finished my pushups, I noticed something sparkling on the ground. It was some kind of glass. It looked like a special-edition card from some trading card game. When I stared into the glass, words began to appear over the glass, and a drawing of a river appeared inside it.

“What the?!”

I blinked. The image and text disappeared as I took my eyes off it. I tried peering into it again and they returned. The title was Card of Water. And it had a description on its effects.

[The wielder of this card may call forth torrents of water as they see fit.]

Card, huh?

I tried to imagine water. Nothing happened. Was there a trick to it? Out of everything I’d seen so far, this card clearly screamed magic. I was so excited I put on the voice of a white-bearded old wizard and said, “Come forth, water.”

Nothing.

I sighed. I put the card in the shirt pocket I had on. I spent half an hour going over my cover story of amnesia while I resolved to find someone nice to fill me in with stuff I didn’t know about the person I now was.

Thankfully no one had heard all this yelling. It looked like I was transferred to a village of some sort. It would bum me out if the card I had in my shirt pocket wasn’t actually magic but some electronic gizmo. I needed to gauge this world’s level of technology. The people a bit further away were dragging hoes through the dirt. When they saw me pass by, they took off their hats and pressed them against their chest as a sign of respect.

I made a mental note of that detail. Was I someone important?

I walked with an air of confidence. If I was someone important, it was important not to show any weakness until I knew more.

A slow-moving cart drawn by horses with a round, bearded man at the reins rolled beside me.

“Morning, chief!”

The man’s eyes were looking at me.

“Morning!” I managed.

I put my hands around my throat. I’d sounded more commanding than I wanted. I guess some people just have that kind of voice.

Soon, I passed more people working on fields around the homestead. I counted at least five barns, lots of chicken coops, stables, and wide-open grassy fields where cows and other livestock grazed.

That man called me Chief. Could it be I’m the chief of this Amish-looking village?

The thought of it freaked the hell out of me. I’d wanted to be a nobody. Someone reasonably strong and good-looking with whom I could make a fresh start in this new world. How’d I end up as the village chief?

I shook my head.

Don’t panic. It’s not certain I’m actually the chief. Maybe ‘chief’ is a word of greeting around here.

I let out a deep breath and resumed my stroll. Around a small settlement of about five big-looking houses, clearly different from the huts and cabins on the other side of the lake I’d woken up next to, a young girl, about five years old, came running out of one of them with arms open wide.

“Papa!”

I froze.

She was coming straight for me.

No way.

Please, Goddess. No!

I can’t be a father!

Another wave of panic kicked in. The little girl crashed into my legs. I felt like a clingy animal had just attached itself to me.

“Papa! Woosh me awound!”

Woosh?

“Uh, s-sweetheart. Papa’s kind of slow this morning. What does Woosh mean?”

“Pick me up! Like you always do!”

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Oh, like she’s flying. I guess kids do like that.

I picked her up and made rocket noises. She was extremely light. Waving her around almost felt like flying a kite. I knew I was strong, but I didn’t imagine I’d be this strong.

“Weeee!” the little pig-tailed girl shouted as she slashed the air.

I gave it another thirty seconds before putting her down and shuffling her hair. “Papa’s going to go meet someone. Go back inside.”

“Can I come?”

“Uhm. No. Papa’s gotta go alone.”

“Okay!”

She ran back into the house. I bolted out of sight. If I had a daughter, that might mean I had a wife, too. And meeting her like this would be disastrous. I was gone before anyone else could come outside.

As I was running, a flood of memories came rushing back. The last moments of the transfer. The weird words in my vision mentioned another person, and when I thought of Joey’s face, it said transfer accepted.

Does that mean he’s here, too?

Mulling it over, I realized it might be better to have another person to confide in. Gathering information would be much more efficient with two people. It would probably be best to find him soon. Worst case, if he started freaking out and making a scene, things could get ugly for him. It was my fault he was here. I ought to at least help him out.

I kept my eyes peeled for anyone who might look confused. Like before, anyone who saw me showed great interest—waving, bowing, and smiling soon became something natural to expect. No one looked out of the ordinary on the homestead side.

Finally, a man came up to me. He had on a tight-looking vest.

“Chief! Glad I found you!”

“Uh, yes. Me too.”

He looked at me strangely. “You alright?”

“I’m just not in good spirits this morning. I think I may have hit my head and not realized it.”

“Hm. Well if it gets serious, you could always see the village nurse. Anyway, I need to talk to you about the shipment for the margrave today. Can you look over the report?”

The report was a piece of rectangular glass. The man handed it to me and as he spoke the words on it started to change.

I dropped my jaw, and nearly, the glass.

“W-words appeared on the glass!” I blurted out.

He smiled wryly. “Well, of course. It’s one of the margrave’s inventions. It uses an empty spellcard to inscribe messages. Jeez, you must have hit your head harder than I thought.”

“Sorry, go on.”

“Yeah, well. What I was saying is… you know what. Let’s start with the headcount report. That might jog your memory. All the village workers are accounted for. I thought we’d lost Alster to more of his shenanigans, but someone found him this morning in the barn sleeping. He’s still knocked out. As his father, I apologize, but I hope you’ll find it in your heart to just issue a warning for being late to work. The boy’s probably acting out because of… well, you know.”

His gaze sank to the ground.

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. It’s already been over a month since she passed. Let’s move on to the crop report.”

I finessed my way through the conversation, picking up on the guy’s name, and other important details. He was Trent, apparently one of my right-hand men. I was indeed the chief of this village, Little Rock. Today was a special day known as Delivery Day, when the entire village would get together to ship off the food and goods that had been recently inspected and shipped to the lord’s estate as tax. Apparently, this village was among about thirty other villages and big cities inside the domain of someone known as Margrave Toulum. The only detail I wasn’t able to figure out was my own name. I mean, how could I? Hey, Trent, could you remind me what my name is?

That said, I did find out something interesting. Trent had a son named Alster. Alster had been acting weird lately, so I took the opportunity to ask Trent to describe his appearance and if anything had changed. I made up some BS about how you can tell if a person’s going through a lot of stress by small changes in their appearance.

He shook his head. “No, he’s still the same adorable boy I’ve raised. 18 years old, about a hair shorter than me, brown eyes, a baby chin, and perpetual bed head. If there was anything different I think I’d know.”

I thought back to the people I’d seen through the Orb of Remote Viewing. After checking out the scenery, I’d come to the conclusion that the Goddess only showed me this village. I doubted there weren’t other compatible candidates elsewhere, but I couldn’t guess why she’d narrowed down this spot. It did give me some clues, however.

First, there were only ten candidates in this village, and half of them were female. And out of those five, I chose this one, leaving four others. I remember seeing an average-looking dude with messy hair as one of the candidates. That must have been him.

That means it’s possible Joey got put into Alster’s body.

I asked Trent to take me to his son. I told him I’d give the boy a good scolding and get him pumped up for work. Trent looked about ready to cry. Tears of joy that is. I guess a punishment from the village chief was a big deal, and I’d just promised I’d let him off with a warning.

Trent and I must have looked really formidable, because I noticed the gaze of several women on me. I apparently had a wife, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate to entertain those looks, as much as I wanted to.

The village was divided into two parts. The homestead where the village chief, Trent and his family and other important villagers lived, as well as where most of the farms were—and then the residential area beyond the Lake of Little Rock. That’s where the majority of the villagers lived. The difference in housing was crazy. Trent and I practically lived in mansions compared to the shoddy constructions on the other side of the lake.

When we arrived at the barn, Trent said he’d start getting the workers together to load up the carts. It was a busy job that would take a few hours. I said I’d be right back and see if his son had woken up.

He nodded politely.

I let myself in past the large barn doors. The place reeked of shit. I stepped on nothing but hay, and I was so tall I had to watch my head or I’d hit the wooden support beams.

And just like Trent promised, there was his son, sleeping on a large bed of hay. It looked like the animals had been moved for the time being, so Alster was alone.

Alright, time to check if it really is Joey.

I rubbed my hands together and readied myself for inspection. But how to do it? Should I wake him up?

I started by patting parts of his body. There wasn’t anything unusual. I must have spent two minutes trying to come up with a way to check for other-worldness before I realized how creepy I must have looked, and how badly my reputation would suffer if someone saw me.

I guess I don’t have a choice. I’ll just wake him up.

So I thought, but as I was leaning in to wake the boy I noticed something sticking out of the hay. It was a piece of glass with a sharp edge. I rummaged through the hay a bit and rescued it.

A card. A card just like mine. The one supposed to summon water out of thin air.

I guess this confirms it. That’s gotta be Joey. I can’t think of why a random villager might have one of these cards. I bet the Goddess gave us these to help us survive in this world.

I peered into its depths, and sure enough a flash of bright colors erupted inside it and formed a picture and text underneath. Depicted was a bunch of tools like an axe, a hoe, and a saw and a few others. The card was called Card of General Skill Mastery.

[The wielder of this card learns physical skills at a faster rate.]

My eyes shot up. What a handy card! So all I had to do was hold onto it and I’d become better at stuff? That might work out for me given my position. I bet the villagers would expect me to be good at things like chopping firewood or making furniture and tools out of wood.

The card seemed to gleam in my hand, almost like it wanted me to have it.

Looks like I’ll be taking this with me.

I tiptoed out of the barn and went back to Trent.

“Hey Trent, I left your boy to sleep.”

“Really? You sure took a while, though.”

“Yeah, something caught my eye. But it was nothing in the end. I’ll be back. Got some errands to do.”