"What the hell was that?" I asked Llana who continued to sit quietly by the windowsill after the boys had all left the cabin. It stands to reason that they were hiding from Edgar but for what reason I couldn't quite wrap my head around. Come to think of it, it wasn't the first time that those other three boys had been behaving strangely around him. Other than Tetsu I couldn't remember a single time any of the boys had shown themselves in front of that monopoly man. Llana turned a page in her journal, seemingly haven finished writing the last one before she opened her mouth to speak.

"Go home, girl. Some things you're better off not knowing." She spoke in a cold and distant voice before returning to the pages in her notebook. Something was going on. Sure, her actions generally weren't any less strange than when I had first met her, but I could tell that somehow this was different. As I changed shoes once again for the day, and opened the back cabin door to leave, I heard her voice once more.

"I don't know if your whole amnesia story is true, girl." As she spoke, I froze at the doorway. "But if there's anywhere else you feel like you can go. Anywhere but here. You should go home." Her words echoed from behind me and although I wanted to turn around and ask her what she was talking about, in a strange way, I knew for a fact that she wouldn't, no, couldn't tell me anything. I closed the door behind me and set off past the garden gate back onto the unlit village path that led to Usra's home.

___________________________________________________________

It wasn't long until I arrived on the village grounds. The beaten path was clogged by wet mud, moisturized by the melted snow that had once been on top of it. I struggled to pull my legs through the sludge as I continued through the short aisle of path surrounded by humble cabins on either side. The village was made up of a about three and a half rows of cabins, with farms placed adjacent just outside the fence surrounding it. The pathway circled around and between the structures, allowing for convenient travel from and to any place within the village's boundaries. If you considered this ooze more convenient to walk through than snow, I mean. The Village Chief's cabin was of course the largest, it was the first one immediately right of the entrance to the village, boasting an extended compartment with a grand chimney that served as its spine, releasing black smoke evident of the fireplace's use.

I hurried to walk past the Village Chief's cabin, not taking any time to peer into the open window that exposed the lamp-lit room inside. The technology of the village was as primitive as you'd expect of a village this small and remote. Oil-lamps and candles were the only light source on the inside of the residences. For pitch black nights like this, torches were about the only light source one would have on the outside. But with the rarity of oil for this region it was only the village chief and a few of his close associates that were allowed to carry them. And the Village Chief was the owner of one of the less than five Oil-Lamps that existed in this little patch of nowhere.

As for how I was faring in this primitive landscape? Not too bad, surprisingly. Although I'm not at all aware of what this body of mine is at this point, I know it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. I've never been hungry since I woke up here. Although I eat sometimes to wave off the concerns and suspicions of Usra and Llana, I've never actually felt the need to do so. As for number one and number two, as one could assume based off a no-food diet, I never have to go. Which is quite the blessing in this backwater place where buckets and pits work as substitutes for toilets.

The clothes I arrived here with are also another special case of their own. The blue scarf and kilt that I woke up with have not the slightest scratch on them since I had arrived regardless of how many plant-based explosions they had went through. The same went for the black leggings and brown boots that I found on me. Aside from keeping me unnaturally warm the clothes never got damaged nor tracked any sort of filth on them. No matter how much mud I waded through, my boots would come out unnaturally clean. When I came to Llana with this knowledge she hurriedly 'collected' my clothes, telling me that nobody could know about them and that I should stick to a normal set that she generously provided me after stealing my mystical ones. At the time she was still quite scary to me, so I didn't have the guts to demand them back. But next time for sure.

I arrived at the doorstep of Usra's house, knocking three times as I had been taught was the maximum amount without being disrespectful by Llana. I was let off work pretty quickly every day. Since I was coming in every day there wasn't too much new work needing to be done besides a few routine inspections and repetitive maintenance involving the same dull actions every so often. I was usually let off after just a few couple hours but chose to remain with Llana for the remainder of the time, asking questions on the herbs in the garden and the magical medicines they could turn into, questions about her healing powers, the village, and everything else in between. Although most of the time I was left with the cryptic answer of 'You don't need to know' or 'You're better off not asking so many questions.' At the end of the day she would always come around and give me the answer to my questions.

- Crrrk -

"Elvi!" Usra exclaimed from the other side of the door, almost immediately running up to hold me in her embrace. "Come in, come in. Dinner is ready. We've been waiting for you to start you know!" She said with a smile as she herded me into the moderately-sized cabin. The place was big enough to fit at least two families not including her own.

I eventually came to learn that Usra was the head of all things financial within the village, keeping records of all the produce from the farms and merchandise sold to the merchants that would come by every so often to buy for their trade caravan runs. That was perhaps the reason she was able to live in such a grand place, at least it was for where she was. I soon found myself being pushed down onto one of the wooden dining room chairs where, yet another rare oil-lamp sat shining its glory from the center of the table in front of me. Usra quickly rushed back over towards the kitchen where I was sure she was heating up already cold food from the meal she prepared that her husband had already ravaged through before I'd arrived.

"Ah, I see dinner is starting ag- Err,... I meannn... dinner is starting now, huh?" A gravelly voice sounded from the other end of the room where a tall round-bellied man walked out of his bedroom door, clearly drunk. He struggled to take a few straight steps towards his chair before plopping down imbalanced onto it, the wood of the chair screeching under his weight. "So yer home now, ay Elvi?" The man said, his eyes starting on my face but quickly trailing down towards the rest of my body.

I cringed inwardly at his lecherous gaze, quickly looking at him straight in the eye with a glare. "Err! Ah, yer a feisty little one aren'tcha." The fat degenerate spoke once more. I cursed whatever god put me on here with such a body before standing up and excusing myself from the room. Usra apologized on her husband's behalf and asked me to stay but I refused her offer simply claiming I was too tired and that I'd eat in the morning tomorrow. As I entered my room, I saw Usra scolding her husband out of the corner of my eye while his gaze lingered on me the entire time. What I wouldn't give to get in a quick jab at his fat face.

I entered my room and changed quickly into the nightgown Usra had given me. If there was anything I learned about being a woman since I came here it was that the clothes were a hell of a lot more uncomfortable and harder to deal with. Things were much simpler when I was a man, and yes, I did confirm. There was no equivalent of a mirror in this place but from the gazes I've received since I've gotten here, and the lack of any perceivable flaw in my skin, it's safe to assume I'm an attractive woman.

My body neither smells nor blemishes no matter how long I go without a bath. The only real flaws are the bruises and cuts I get from work, but with Llana's help both are quite the quick fix. Although it's helpful for me not to have to worry about things like that, evidently, beauty brings a lot of trouble to a woman. Fate is cruel, taking away the chance to get the one thing I was unable to in my past life; love.

"HNNH" From my window I heard a faint grunting. "HAHH" "PHHH" The grunting continued accompanied by a rough breathing. I walked over to the window and opened it, sliding up the lower sash. Outside I saw the source of the rough grunting at such an odd time of night. In front of me stood Tetsu who sat down to take a short break from his incessant training before getting back up again to continue swinging his pole. 'He really is a training freak' I thought to myself. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he continued to swing over and over again in the same motion, regardless of the obvious stress he put himself under. 'What the...' My heart jumped and I was struck with a familiar sensation of excitement as I saw what was now in front of my eyes.

[Potential Student]

Those words hovered over the boy's head as he continued to swing. After about fifty more swings he finally stopped to fall back down on the ground again, his eyes moved around before randomly locking on me, squinting and looking me in the eyes as I stared back at his. "Hey." I said, waving my hand.

________________________________________________________

"So, he says you're not ready yet?" She sat with her arms wrapped around her knees that were pulled up to her chest. Her long, white eyelashes fluttered in the wind as she looked up at the moon with her glistening sapphire eyes. I never cared enough to give her face a proper look, maybe that's why only now I understood why Reltin seemed so infatuated with her. She definitely wasn't ugly.

"Yeah." I spoke curtly, whipping away my head and inwardly cursing my brain for having blanked out so long staring at her face. "I guess that means I'll just have to wait until wintertime next year..." My voice turned serious, and I grew restless at the thought of waiting another entire year to see him again.

"That's good." She said, turning her head towards me as she spoke. "I've barely just met you. Wouldn't it be too cruel for you to leave as soon as I got here?" Her voice was honest as her unwavering eyes stared directly into mine. "Er, mhmm. Unn." I said, feeling the blood rush out of my head as I turned my head away to look down at the snow below us.

"So, tell me more about what this whole 'frontline fort' thing is." She started again. "I don't see why the people up the mountain wouldn't be allowed to come back to the village once they get selected for the garrison there."

"There's not enough people there, they can't afford to lose even one man. That's what the village chief tells me." I replied, recalling what the old man told me earlier this afternoon.

"Well that hardly makes any sense. If they're short-handed then I don't see why Featherhead would be so against letting you go."

"Featherhead?" I had no idea what she was referring to.

"Yeah, Featherhead. The Chief." She seemed truly surprised at me not picking up on her demeaning pseudonym for our leader.

I snorted before breaking into a short laugh. "That's the first time I've heard that one. At worst, sometimes Reltin calls him bird nest." I joked.

"Oh, that's a good one! I'll keep it in mind." She replied, acting genuinely excited at the discovery of a new demeaning name for our Chieftan.

"So, what's got you interested in taking a one-way hike up there anyways? Maybe I'm missing something, but it sure doesn't sound like the most comfortable place to spend the rest of your life." She inquired.

"Yeah..." I sighed. "It sure as hell doesn't. You know, when I was a kid, I really wanted to see the capital. And not just that, but everything beyond it too. My father used to tell me stories about his time as a merchant when he traveled the world on his caravan runs across the world. He had all these different kinds of maps that he used to show me of all the different countries he'd been to, countries ruled by kings and queens, some by a group of them, and even countries that were ruled by immortal mages that had lived hundreds of years. Once my dad passed away, I was still too young to know how to read any of the maps myself. That's when my brother took my father's place and told me some of the stories that he passed down to him. He used to teach me how to read the maps that my father left behind and tell me all about all the places he'd take me once he saved up enough money to buy a carriage of his own."

"So... what happened? Why didn't you ever end up going with him?"

"He was chosen to join the troops at the fort. The day it happened my mother cried harder than I've ever seen her cry before, even worse than when my father died. My brother though was all smiles, he told me that he'd come back as soon as he was done taking care of all the evil trolls... and I believed him. It's been almost ten years now and I haven't seen him since."

"So, you want to go to the fort now to see him again."

"Yeah." I answered before starting to lift myself up. "And I won't be ready by wintertime next year unless I train twice as hard as last year." I said, steeling myself for another fifty swings.

"Next year, huh?" Elvi spoke from behind me as I grabbed my pole and got into stance. "You know a wise man once said: No man ever sank underneath the burden of today, it is only when he adds the burden of the coming days to its weight that it becomes too much to bear." The words struck me like steel as I froze up, wondering whether to take my first swing or not.

"Also, it's no fair for you to spout out your dreams and leave before I even get the chance to talk about mine." She pouted in an entirely separate tone, gesturing for me to sit back down beside, and I did.

"I want to build my own village." She said.

"Your own village?" I asked in surprise.

"Well, maybe not a village." She revised. "No that'd be wayy too much work. You're right. What I want is something more like... more like a school." She said, her eyes shining with expectation. "I've always been good at teaching people, you see. I can't quite remember my life before I fell down here but I have a vague feeling that a teacher of some kind is what I used to be." She said cryptically. "I'm really good at knowing what people are thinking, how they're feeling. And what they need to hear."

"So, you want to teach other people how to be healers?" I asked, confused on exactly what she meant.

"No no, they wouldn't have to be healers." Her eyes glimmered once again. "They could be anyone, really. Healers, warriors, magicians... a fisherman." She said the last jokingly as she raised her one eyebrow causing me to chuckle slightly as she did.

"You see, a good teacher doesn't need to know everything their students wants to know. Oh yeah, there's a saying about teachers I remembered just now. Wanna hear it?" She asked, to which I almost immediately nodded.

"A good teacher tells their student where to look, not what to see." She spoke, and I contemplated the deep meaning in her statement.

"Which is why you should listen to me when I say.. " She groaned as she stood up, stretching.

"That you should go to bed and starting thinking about whether you should be worrying about what you need to do for tomorrow, instead of what you need to do for a couple hundred days from now." She said with a smile as I watched her back retreating farther away from me back towards her cabin window. "There's a lot that can go wrong in a person's life, Tetsu. The point is not to not fall down and always stay standing. It's to get back up even when you do."