Hiryu Town, Kingdom of Fiore.
"So, I am completely fine then?"
The doctor looked at me with a smile at those words.
"Indeed, Mr. Arc. You are completely fine. Except for that anomalous reading that the Lacrima picked up momentarily, everything else says that you are a perfectly ordinary 13-year-old."
The slight pitying look on the man's face was something that I did not miss. But it made sense.
From his point of view, I was the sole survivor of a shipwreck that only survived because of luck, just like what the old man in that village had assumed a few days ago.
Unfortunately, even for this kind of a fantasy world, my real circumstances might be a tad too much, so I decided to shut up and keep that particular secret with me for the rest of my life.
"Thank you. How much do I owe you?"
"Don't worry about it, Mr. Arc. All we did was give you a bit of a general checkup, so it only costs about 10,000 Jewels. A paltry sum. Not to mention the fact that old man Greyson already paid for it before he left for his village after dropping you here."
10,000 Jewels, which roughly converts to a hundred dollars or so, according to what I've managed to understand thanks to reading all the books that the old village head, Jaimy Greyson, had with him during the few days I stayed with them because a storm rolled in that night, making it impossible to travel between the village and this town.
While not a significant amount, even for these remote parts of this kingdom, from what I understand, it is still a kind gesture that made me feel grateful to that old man.
Seriously, if this were America, or rather anywhere on Earth in modern times, even if a kid was dying on the streets, nobody would even bat an eye at it and simply go about their day, not even bothering to provide even the smallest gestures of kindness.
Shaking my head to get rid of those thoughts, I took the prescription that the man made for me, which mostly consisted of a diet made of a few creatures whose names made absolutely no sense to me, and started walking out of what passed for a hospital in this world.
It did not take me long after washing up in that village to realize that I was no longer on Earth.
The abnormal strength of all the people in that village. The strangely attractive features despite the hard labor that they are used to. The map that I was provided which made zero sense. The strange names and customs of these people. The unfamiliar currency and weirdly paradoxical technological levels. And my sudden transformation into Jaune Arc, albeit de-aged, along with a jumbled mess of a memory that implied a lot more than I am comfortable acknowledging. All of it clearly pointed out that I am no longer on Earth.
However, the most damning of evidence of all is the existence of magic.
It is such a common thing for these people that magical objects are openly sold as if they were common objects instead of the mindboggling things that make the laws of physics cry in a corner.
'Not all that different from Aura and Semblances'
I shuddered as my mind went back to that little tidbit of knowledge.
Ever since that night when I crashed into the bed, I've been struggling to understand what truly happened to me.
I died when that roof collapsed. That much, I could confirm.
However, the thing that truly confused me is how I ended up here instead of going to heaven or hell or whatever else awaits us after death.
More importantly, why I woke up as the character that I was cosplaying as when I died, with all of his memories and skills to boot.
During my investigations of my own body and mind in the past few days, I have come to a single conclusion that still makes me shudder in discomfort and awe in equal parts.
For all intents and purposes, I am Jaune Arc now.
Raising my hand slightly and looking at it as my Aura flashed a beautiful golden light, as if water rippling along my skin, I felt a tiny, giddy smile form on my face.
I mean, who doesn't want to wake up one day and become their favorite character ever? With all of his powers and skills to boot?
It's just that I wish it had happened in a better circumstance, like when I grew older and was ready to die, instead of this abrupt thing where I left behind everything midway.
I died before I could write a will, which meant that I never managed to set things properly for my nephew to inherit my house and my possessions, and my little brother to inherit my share of our parents' property. Hopefully, James, my best friend who was also my lawyer, would help them out with it as he always knew that I wanted my nephew and brother to inherit everything should something ever happen to me.
I also left behind a bank account with all of my savings. What will happen to that, I wonder?
And most importantly, what about Arthur? My little menace to society? That orange cat cannot live without me ever since he walked into my life as a kitten nearly ten years ago. Who will take care of him now?
And what happened to Trevor and John? Did they make it out alright?
I felt my heart ache a little as I remembered all the people and loved ones I left behind, but before I could do anything, I felt a headache as emotions and memories not my own started to surface again.
I saw the memories of Jaune Arc and felt his emotions as his loss meshed with my own. I saw through his eyes as he lost his loved ones one after another.
Arguably, this is honestly the most dangerous part of my current situation.
Unlike me, who led a mostly normal life for three decades on Earth, Jaune Arc has memories and emotions worth more than a century of hardship and conflict, which are far more overbearing compared to my own.
Fortunately, whatever happened to bring me here and put me in this situation also made it so that Jaune and I are the same person, with no distinction between us. This meant that there was no such thing as a conflict between 'Jaune Arc' and me for control of the body or whatever stupid plot that could have happened.
However, this also had a downside, in that I could feel the raw emotions of Jaune Arc and see his memories as clearly as my own, sometimes even better.
It is one thing to see a character suffer in a web series and sympathize with them, it another thing entirely to feel what the character feels.
The raw anguish of losing his partner, the anger, desperation, and self-hatred for nearly losing another friend because he was not strong enough, the loneliness of living in a wonky place like the Ever After for nearly a century. Things like these can easily drive a normal person mad.
Fortunately, it would seem that I have also inherited the mental fortitude of Jaune Arc along with his body, mind, Aura, Semblance, and possibly his soul. It was this mental strength that allowed me to soldier on despite my situation.
Taking a deep breath and bringing my emotions under control, I continued walking towards the local magic store, intent on getting some money for myself and starting to find my bearings in this situation.
Since magic is such a common place in this world, you would think that nearly everyone would be able to use it. However, as it turns out, Mages, people who are truly able to use magic on their own without the need for tools, are relatively rare.
Supposedly, only 10% of the total population in this world is born with the ability to use magic, while the rest must make do with Lacrima or tools.
Now, I find that percentage to be rather unreliable because of how the population changes based on the time period, not to mention the fact that the few books that the old man had in the village were from decades ago, during some kind of conflict called the Second Trade War. However, I understood the point that the writer was trying to make.
Actual Wizards are a rare breed. Hence, the rest of the population uses magic tools that are imbued with one type of magic for their daily necessities and technological abilities.
And as befitting such a fantastical world, monsters are also a common place.
Creatures ranging from weird but manageable things like flying fish (I still don't know how that is even a thing) to downright terrifying things like Wyverns that I read about.
Now, in a world with such dangerous creatures roaming the wild, how does the common man protect himself from such situations?
They hire Mages from an organization called a Guild, not too dissimilar from what people from my world would expect from that word.
It is a place where mages go to find work and get paid. The work itself is basically the requests made by someone to the guild to get something done for him or her.
In other words, an Adventurers Guild equivalent.
Isekai 101, ladies and gentlemen.
However, there is one caveat in all of this. To accept a job from a guild, a wizard must be a member of said guild. And from what I learned from the books, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of guilds both big and small across this kingdom, let alone the entire continent, each guild holding a different set of values and ways of getting mages into their ranks with various different benefits given to those who join them.
It is a complete mess, from what I understand. Honestly, I cannot understand how this kind of system even came to be in the first place.
The point I am making is, since there is no centralized structure or authority that oversees the distribution of these requests, the Magic Council not counting as one since they are mostly concerned with overseeing the law side of things, it is not uncommon for people to have their requests go unanswered due to various reasons.
Sometimes, because the reward offered does not justify the work, sometimes because of a lack of proper information, and sometimes because the magnitude of the task is so low that even a low-level mage is uninterested in taking them.
It is such requests that are rejected or neglected by guilds that end up being spread across every place in the kingdom where Wizards usually visit, such as magic stores, taverns, train stations, docks, inns, and other such places.
That is why I am now heading to the local Magic Store to see if I can take any low-level requests to earn some money.
Because I am broke right now with nothing to my name, and I desperately need some money.
With the skills and powers I inherited from Jaune Arc, I think I might be able to pass off as a mage and earn some money to get a room in an Inn and some food on the table for the time being.
As for the future? I already had a plan in mind.
Since I am in a fantasy land, it is imperative that I learn magic and learn how to blow stuff up for shits and giggles!
I don't know if my current child body and mind are responsible for this, but I felt giddy at the prospect of living out my childhood fantasy of blowing stuff up with something as cool as magic.
So I grinned like a loon and started moving faster.
Get ready, ya fools! Jaune Arc is going to rise in ranks by blowing shit up!
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