"What the hell was that!" Clara said as the villager stormed back down the hill, running into their saviour's arms, almost suffocating him.
"Please don't hug me," Fishy said. "I don't deserve such praise."
"Oh, I think you do." The elder said. "Didn't I tell you that you were strong."
"Haha…" Fishy laughed at the elder as the triplets jumped and climbed on his back, forcing him to the ground.
"That was awesome," Tim said.
"What did you do?" Tom said.
"Did you speak to it?" Tam added.
"I don't really know. I felt as if I could understand it. It was as if I knew it's pain and struggle."
"Heroes intuition." The elder said. "That's what I call it."
"Haha…" Fishy was still filled with uncertainty as well as adrenaline after what he went through, he felt as if he understood more about the world but less about everything.
"Either way," Clara said. "Good job." She gently hit him on the arm trying to hide how amazed she was.
By the time the villagers went back to their house, night had already fallen. Fishy went back to stay in the elder's house where he continued his conversation from before. As much as he wanted to collapse on his bed and sleep to remove all the remaining stress, he was forced back into it.
"Do you understand your magic?" The elder asked.
"Nope," he replied quickly. "I thought it was beast magic but I guess I was wrong."
"There are some types of magic that do not have names, you know." The elder explained. "Unique magic that is for one person only, a skill of sorts. Perhaps you are one of those people."
"But what could it be?" Fishy asked, falling back on his bed.
"Magic isn't just one thing. It's many things." The elder kept saying random wisdom in hopes Fishy would understand. "You'll figure out what you can and can't do eventually. Just keep at it."
The elder left Fishy alone to stare through the usual hole in his ceiling. That night, he fell asleep quicker than usual and woke up to everyone waiting outside the elder's house for him.
He looked into the crowd of villagers and counted around 20 people, which included, Clara and her grandad, as well as the 5-year-old triplets and their mother. He even saw some faces he had never seen before.
"What's going on?" Fishy dared to ask.
"Fishy," The elder said. "It's no secret that I'm beyond my prime. We need this village to strive. That's why we all got together and, for the first time in the many years we've been doing this, unanimously decided on the next leader. We believe it should be you, Fishy."
He looked at the crowd that bowed down to him, something he had never experienced before in his life. Coming from a place where he would never experience anything like this. The power he got from people bowing in front of him. The evil thoughts that filled his mind were mostly replaced with confusion and anxiety of the people's expectations.
# # #
Several tens of miles west and a little bit north, a city by the name Va rested and had recently received news about the Destroyer.
"Your majesty!" A messenger rushed into the sacred church where the king was spending his time praying in front of a giant stained glass window depicting the hero told in legends. Not like the one the elder described, a female with long straight black hair, and a sword buried in the ground, staring at the amalgamation depicted in the sky.
"What is it?" the king asked getting disturbed from his daily prayer.
"The Destroyer nest that was underneath that no named village created by travellers. Reports say it was seen flying around the skies with its children."
"You mean it's moved?" The king said striking fear in the messenger with only his voice.
"Y-yes, your majesty…"
"Do we know why?"
"No, we assume it just moved. Is this something we should be concerned with?"
"Interesting…" The king thought to himself looking up and at the beams at the roof of the church. The messenger stood unsure of who the king was referring to. He looked up with him to see if it was god the king was speaking to or himself.
"Let's see," The king said standing up. "We have a whole new area of land to play with…"
# # #
"So you were travellers, that much is obvious," Fishy said to Clara who was explaining everything to him. "And you managed to survive on what little rice and wheat you managed to grow?"
"Correct," Clara said. "You said you'd rebuild this village and as the chief, you must live up to that. For the first time, all of us agree on something."
"Sigh…" Fishy swung back in his chair, hoping it wouldn't break, unable to carry the large burden that was placed upon him. He thought of hundreds of ways to govern a village but had no idea about politics or even the world he lived in.
"Alright." He said, "Bring me every book this village has. Everything about this world, the monsters, the magic, the nations, maps, past monarchs, kings, queens, anything. Give me all you've got."
"Understood," Claire said hoping to find something in the village to live up to the order she was given.
"Let's see here…" Fishy said making a plan in his head as he paced around on the creaky floorboards of the elder's house. "My priority should be about finding more about this world. Forget about my magic for now… I need to know where I am and what I can and can't do. There are several minor things that are also important. Should we become big enough we need a name, we also would then need an army. But with so few people an army isn't important, we aren't a nation we are a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Clara said something about the city of Va being the closest, a bunch of religious weirdos… either way, if we become big enough we may get attacked by them and then we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves. So then I should try and use my magic for defensive reasons… plus… I need some executives… I've always wanted to have executives, kinda like out of a cool anime or manga. But we don't have people, which means our first priority should be…"
"Pleasure to meet you, cough cough, I'm Tin… Thanks for putting up with my three triplets."
Fishy went to the first place he thought of that would help him with his first invisible checkmark. He needed food to motivate the villagers to work, and according to Clara, the mother of the triplets did all the baking.
"I would love to help you, cough cough, but I'm very ill." Tin said covering her mouth as she spoke.
"Mum's always been ill," Tim said climbing on his mum's back and playing with her hair.
"That's just how it is," Tom said.
"It's not life-threatening," Tam said.
Fishy looked closer at the young silk black-haired human that was in front of him and thought to himself that the father must be the one that is a cat-human. Except he wasn't sure how they the triplets took after the mother so much whilst still being cat-humans.
"Alright, I read in one of the magic books about healing herbs," Fishy said. "Magic and beasts, Chapter 8 the magical environment. Tim, Tom and Tam, go and receive that book and bring it to me, I'll tell you what to get and you must go get it for me, but don't go too far. If you can't find it before sunset, tell me.
"ROGER!"
Fishy felt strangely good about giving his first order out. He had always wanted to live a fantasy life. All the stories and fiction created by others in his past life were now a reality. His excitement at the thoughts of what could be and what would be new kept him bouncing on the spot. Wanting no time to waste with his plan to rebuild the village. He reached back to his university mindset that got him the highest grades, and put every last breath he had into working.