Later that night, after I’d settled into bed, a nasty feeling came over me. I violently threw myself to the right side of the bed and there I puked again. All of today’s dinner.

I killed someone.

I fell.

And as I supported my weight on my knees and palms on the hard wooden floor, I replayed that scene over and over in my head, seeing the guy fall on his head.

I got up slowly, worming into bed again.

My hands trembled as I pulled the scratchy cloth covers over my head. My chest was pounding. My forehead was dripping with cold sweat. I wiped my cheeks, feeling a spell of dryness in my throat.

There’s no turning back, is there?

The power these spellcards afforded me—it was so easily available. I’d felt like I could walk over anyone I didn’t like.

But a burning ache in my chest was telling me I’d been wrong.

No.

I shook my head.

I did what I had to do, right? This kind of thing is what’s needed to protect the village. From thieves. From lowlives who’d destroy someone’s property for a cheap thrill.

I hardened my heart against any more feelings of guilt and went to sleep, as I needed as much as I could get.

After all, tomorrow would be my big debut as a new big player whose name everyone would commit to memory.

* * *

“Line up!”

I walked side to side as the villagers of Big Tree scrambled to follow my instructions. Standing at attention were Elfindor’s assistants, while he looked to me for what to do next. From how I was acting, one might think I was the chief. Trent was acting on the chief’s orders to let me do what I needed to do, but even he couldn’t make sense of this.

The villagers of Big Tree were lined up, shoulder-to-shoulder, in corn rows like a military battalion unit, files of thirty. And I, their commander, was not pleased. There was grumbling inside the ranks, grown men asking why they had to listen to this brat.

“I will now explain the purpose of this exercise.”

Steely looks of anticipation fluttered through the crowd.

“I hope you, the villagers of Big Tree, haven’t forgotten that Little Rock was kind enough to take you all in during your time of need. Up to this point, we’ve shared our food, given you a roof over your heads, and asked for nothing in return. However!”

My shouting the last word opened the eyes of some who were drowsy from sleep. After all, I’d made the chief wake everyone up to an emergency meeting.

“Yesterday, a few of you committed an act of attempted robbery. On the chief’s home, no less.”

Gasps broke out among them.

“Is this true, Alster?” Trent immediately questioned. From the look in his eye, I could see my words carried weight. An immediate suspicion arose from his eyebrows.

“Yes it is, Father. I saw them on my nightly walk yesterday. And I know who did it.”

Low murmurs spread, as Big Tree villagers turned to their neighbor, hungry for answers.

“Robbery?”

“What in tarnation?”

“Who would do such a thing?”

“I’ll tell you who would!” I shouted, returning all attention toward me. I walked over to a group of three who by this point had chattering teeth, shaky hands, and desperately looking away from me. I said nothing as I stood in front of them, only staring cold-faced. But with so many people hanging on my next move, I had to act.

“Well, are you going to explain yourselves?”

Shakily, one of the long-haired guys said, “H-he’s lying…. We wouldn’t do that!”

“Yeah!” the other came to his defense. “Why would we do that to the ones who saved us? He’s obviously making it up.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “There was a fourth person who joined you. Care to explain what happened to them?”

They glanced at each other quickly but maintained the charade as long as they could. “We were asleep. Everyone saw us going to sleep. I won’t put up with being falsely accused. Now, I’m leaving—”

As he tried to step out of the line, one of the old chief Albert’s assistants came forward and pushed him back in line.

Albert rubbed his hands nervously. “Mr. Alster, was it? I don’t mean to doubt you. But these claims are a bit hard to believe.”

I’d put on enough theatrics. “Let me get straight to the point. These three and another one, a young man with short black hair and a solemn face, went to the chief’s house with stakes and weapons. There they climbed the porch of the chief’s home. The young man had an accident and was assumed to be dead, so they hid the body. That body is now at the bottom of the lake. And I can show you where.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Trent, Elfindor, Albert, and some others followed me to the lake while the others stayed in line. I pointed to the point where the body landed in the water and presumably sunk. Trent jumped in and swam to the bottom with his eyes open. We waited for a little while but soon his head popped out gasping for air with a thumbs up.

“There’s a body down there! Alster’s telling the truth!”

One of Albert’s assistants got in and verified it for himself, relaying what he saw to Albert.

When we got back and my story was confirmed true, shit hit the fan. There were some Big Tree guys so angry that with those three for putting the entire village in jeopardy they tried to slug the perpetrators’ faces. Trent and others had to hold them back.

“Everyone calm down,” Elfindor said with a big voice. People stopped and looked. “Since Alster is one of my assistants and the one who uncovered this plot, I will allow him the opportunity to decide what comes next. Your fate hangs on his mercy.”

A big grin spread across my face, while hundreds of eyes looked my way with trembling fear. I wanted to laugh, but that wouldn’t be a good look for me. Still, I could feel myself getting drunk with power. Yeah, I could get used to this.

“First,” I started with the biggest voice I could manage. “I want these three expelled from the village. They are not fit to live here. Second, I do not intend to punish the ones who did as they were told and followed our rules.”

Sighs of relief spread across Big Tree folks.

“However, the fact remains that you’ve broken our trust. Because of that, you will work to regain it. I want the strongest men to work our fields for the next week on top of preparing for your first hunt the following week. The field master you get assigned to will be in charge of your progress, but I will help in supervising. That’s all. People of Big Tree, prove that you have what it takes to become a part of this village!”

A merciful act. People expecting severe repercussions for what happened hugged their neighbor out of sheer joy. There were loud cheers and people shouting thanks at me and the chief. Trent came over and placed his hand over me like a proud father.

With some final words from Elfindor, people walked off quickly, returning to the barns, hoping the chief wouldn’t change his mind. Some of the men stayed behind as we got them ready to be assigned to farms and work. I was spared from the work and told to go relax.

My plan was already paying off, but I hadn’t expected it to bear fruit so quickly. Laughter was practically pouring out of me as I walked the homely trail past the lake to Trent’s house.

I had not only gotten out of doing chief’s assistant duties for the day and next week, I’d also wormed my way into becoming supervisor of the new villagers. I would be sitting on my ass just like Arthur had and he wouldn’t have a single thing to say about it.

And… there were at least several cute girls from Big Tree who were looking my way.

It was time to put my authority to good use. I headed to Trent’s house to freshen up. I gave myself a cold bath with water from my spellcard. It sucked that I couldn’t modify the water’s temperature so it always came out cold, but it was still handy. I then asked the maids to do my hair and make me look spiffy. Granny Eleonore gave me a pair of clothes and shoes to choose from. Her combination style was actually good even by Earth standards. I picked some brown leather shoes, a straw hat, a long-sleeve beige button down with rolled up sleeves, and some brown slack pants. While she started ironing my shirt, Matilda got to work on my hair.

“Who is the lucky girl, Master Alster?” Matilda asked with naughty eyes as she parsed through my hair with a rat-toothed wooden comb.

Lucky girls, you mean. I counted at least three.

“I’m an important person now, Matilda,” I replied cheekily. “I should always look presentable.”

* * *

Once I was in my outfit, it didn’t feel complete. I needed a pump to make my muscles look bigger. There wasn’t exactly a gym with free weights or machines around, so I got on the ground and did pushups.

New Skill Acquired: Physical Training

My deck dashboard opened up and when I went to the General Skill Mastery card tab I saw that I’d picked up Physical Training and it was at level 1. For some reason, just gaining this skill made pushups way easier.

I did thirty in a row without breaking a sweat but decided to add more sets and recovery time. I’d done about two hundred in total when I started feeling slightly damp under my clothes so I stopped.

Can’t meet girls all sweaty.

My quick workout was enough for a pump. Physical Training had jumped up to level 2 but there was no notification, unlike when gaining a new skill.

Is this really a pump, though?

I stared at the outline through my shirt that my muscles were now making. I looked physically bigger than before, and was starting to look a little like when I was Joey. Except this body probably had zero physical conditioning or weight training experience. My results, at least for a complete beginner, were like being on steroids and having an elite coach training me. It was then I decided that even if I lost my water card, I’d never give up the General Skill Mastery. Its effects were OP.

I soon discovered a downside, though. Suddenly, I was starving. I was so hungry I went to the kitchen and started eating raw stuff without even thinking of heating it up. I tore through enough raw meat to feed the whole family for three days before I realized what I was doing. Thankfully, Matilda and Granny Eleonore were in their rooms, so no one had seen me do it. I just needed to replace the meat before dinner. And that could wait until I met a girl or two.

Having returned to my senses, I puffed up my shirt collar and left Trent’s house. I walked around the lake to the workers district and some people started waving at me. I’d recognized some of them, as they’d participated in throwing rotten tomatoes at my face. But now, their faces and waves expressed clear respect.

I took a detour and visited Ernie’s place, where I found Elsa shearing some animals. I continued walking to the trail leading up to his front door steps. I had just come by to check on Ernie and remind him to keep silent about my spellcards, after all. Not to talk to Elsa.

So I sort of cringed when she called out to me. “Hi!”

Her face was giddy and she quickly fixed up her hair.

Fuck.

“Hi, Elsa. I see your shearing’s in good form. That’s good. Keep at it.”

“Of course! I’ve been practicing just like you showed me. Chief’s assistant.”

She said that last part with a hanging grin and lustful eyes. I knew right away that if I wanted to, I could get her butt-naked against the backwall of Ernie’s cabin. But I was a new man. A reformed man.

I humored her with lustful eyes of my own. “I’m glad to hear it, Elsa. Keep up the good work ‘cause hard workers get rewarded.”

She grinned excitedly and I pointed her back to her station and she nodded. I’d hinted at something happening between us, but truthfully I didn’t mind if I never saw her again. It was a shame she’d gotten Arthur to transfer her somewhere where she was doing little exercise, as she desperately needed to lose weight.

Shoving Elsa out of my mind, I knocked on Ernie’s door and he was less than enthusiastic to see me.

“What can I do for you, chief’s assistant?”

“I just stopped by to see how you were doing. To be honest, I got put in charge of supervising the new villagers’ work.”

“I heard.”

“So you need any guys to come here and help with the shearing?”

His face softened and for once looked at me with gratitude. “You’d do that? Could I pick who works for me?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can have it arranged.”

He blushed. “Oh… in that case. Thank you, Alster.”

“No problem. Oh, and I just wanted to remind you to stay quiet about you-know-what. I’d rather us have a good working relationship.”

“Right….”

I told him I’d swing by the barns and recommend some dexterous workers to come by his place later after getting the okay from the chief. He could pick the best from that lot. Big Tree guys numbered almost one thousand, so there were plenty of people to choose from. I forgot to tell him he’d only have the men for a week before they started hunting, so it was probably better to choose among women. Whatever. I’d tell him later.