"Emi?!"
The girl in front of me looked exactly like Alexandra. Her clothes were different, and the cat ears on her head were genuine, not just some childish parts of an accessory. The other girl beside me looked similar too, but her skin and body felt artificial, pure white. I had to take a look at my own body as well. It felt strange but was the same as it looked just a few moments ago.
"Are you Nathan?" I asked, still a little confused. And what was this place? A bunch of monsters in a medieval town center, with half the buildings still under construction. Some of the creatures were green, one was like a classic dwarf from a fantasy movie, and a few of them were human-like, but with some animal features, like ears or horns and whatnot.
I didn't get an answer, I got a tight embrace instead. The Alexandra clone dashed at me, then hugged me so hard I struggled to breathe. Yes, I doubt it was customary to greet strangers like this, whatever world I was in now. So it could have meant only one thing, the weird chick with the screw loose told me the truth.
"Emi, wait, did you die too?" She asked once she let me go. It didn't happen immediately, maybe a minute or two have passed. And somehow I could tell, it was my brother hugging me, even if he or she looked completely different. I could only shake my head for now, I was too confused to talk, and I felt tears rolling down my face.
"No, she did not, I took care of her. Although you guys have serious issues when it comes to self-preserving instincts." Alex complained, I mean the white one this time. It was difficult to figure it out.
"What are you doing here? How?" She asked, the one with the real body. It didn't help that their voice was the same too. I could not say a thing, just kept weeping like a kid. It was my turn to throw my arms around him, or her, or whatever, and restart our embrace timer. "I missed you so much, sis. I'm so sorry that I died."
"I missed you too." I managed to say something, and we remained like that for a long time. The others in that courtyard, whoever they might have been, were nice enough to give us space, and the white Alexandra went with them to discuss some things.
"What do you mean they got killed?" I heard her yell after a while, and I couldn't help but raise my head curiously. "And who are all these new faces? I thought we made a deal, so what is going on?"
"So it's true after all. This village is under the protection of the Goddess of Luck." A short green guy claimed, looking surprised. I didn't know what their deal was, but it looked like Alex didn’t calculate things right. My brother turned his head for a moment, and I took a good look.
It was Alexandra's body, the freckles were in the same place, and those hazel eyes were impossible to miss. The torso seemed a bit thicker though, but since she was wearing leather armor, it could have been that too. It was so weird. My brother was a stunningly beautiful girl now, but I could still feel his presence, buried inside this shell.
"Wha... How?" She asked, tears rolling down that beautiful face too. "I thought I was never going to see you again. You look just like in the last photo you sent me. So is this your school uniform? How's school?"
"Ugh, I hate it. I hated everything without you, I hated this uniform too, I have no idea why I wear it?" I asked, raising my voice more than I thought I would. The white body of the supposed Goddess turned towards me for a moment. Even in that heated discussion, she did not forget about me, but her usual grin disappeared.
"I told you I'd make an exact copy of you, that you can use in this world. That's what you have been wearing under the bridge." She explained while the others waited for her. "It only looks the same though, I couldn't use the exact materials for it, so I figured, I'd make it out of something durable. Consider it as your armor or something."
"Armor?" I asked, surprised. Well, my brother seemed to be wearing one too, and the creatures as well. "I guess school uniform armor kind of sounds badass. Fine, I don't mind it then."
"Copy? She made a copy of you?" Nathan asked looking me up and down in the meantime. I couldn't tell if he was happy or jealous. "She had me possess her own body, and you get yours?"
"Hey, I told you I can make you another body too." The other copy interjected, distracted from the other discussion again, and things became too confusing for everyone involved. "Okay, you know what guys? Let's just all sit down and go over what happened here. I have someone to introduce to you all anyway, it will help her get to know all of you. I see new faces that weren't here last time."
"Please, Goddess, let us continue in the embassy's meeting room." A big, muscular green woman offered, waving towards the building next to us. "And I welcome Nati's sister in Nateaser as well."
"Nati? Nathanshell?" I raised an eyebrow. My brother rubbed his temple, before trying to explain it. "Are you some kind of a celeb here?"
"You could say that." He seemed rather embarrassed. "Since I'm in a girl's body, they call me Nati here, and even though I tried to protest it, thanks to Fenna, they started calling the village Nateaser too."
"All right, let us start with the introduction then." The big green creature proposed. We sat down around a large round table inside that so-called embassy. "For those who haven't met her before, this is the Goddess of Luck, Alexandra, and the defender of our humble village."
"Are you all serving the Demon Lord?" The Goddess asked, looking at a certain portion of the table. The dwarf shook his head, but the others did not protest against it. My eyes opened wide, hearing that word.
"What? A Demon Lord? It's like the final boss of this world?" I asked, probably out of line. My brother couldn't help but rub his forehead, I managed to embarrass him again. "Sorry, I just got here so didn't mean to offend anyone. Um, I'm Emily, Nati's little sister."
"Right. My bad, I should have explained a few things to you before transporting into this world." The white Goddess scratched her head and pointed at the green creature. "This is Charlotte, the village’s chieftain, and she is an orc. I'm a Goddess, like, an actual deity, and Nati is in my original body, as I have told you before. The Demon Lord is not evil or anything, at least I hope so. It's more of a class, describing his power level, and his real name is Alpha, but practically nobody uses it."
"The Demon Lord is the absolute ruler of all the Lesser Races on this continent." A human-looking guy explained, but he had a horn on his head. Was he a demon or something? And why did he only have one horn, when it wasn't in the middle? His claim was contested by the orc woman almost immediately though, as she started to argue.
"Only the New Order. We do not belong to the Demon Lord, and aren't planning to do so either." Charlotte stated firmly, then continued the introductions. "The new arrivals are Gorgon, deputy chief of staff of the Lord's army, and he is a beastmen, by the way. And this is Avalon, Captain of the same army, and a goblin. The Lesser Races mean practically any sentient beings, that are not human."
"Oh, thanks, it makes more sense now." I similarly bowed my head as they did earlier. "I hope you don't mind a human like me."
"Not, Emily." The chieftain smiled, flashing her large tusks at me. "We welcome anyone here, that doesn't mean harm to us. I understand that Nati used to be a human too in her previous life, and we had another human here until recently, but he got taken away."
"If I may add, I'm a dwarf too, the name is Gomel, and also recently arrived in this village. I'm a smith, lady Emily, in case you need something, just let me know." The man with the large beard introduced himself too. That was nearly everyone at the table now, with only a smaller orc girl remaining. She was curiously watching me the entire time.
"Right. With that out of the way, what happened here, while I was gone?" The Goddess asked now, starting to lose her patience. I could tell the people here were both fearing and respecting her. It felt strange to see her treated like that, considering what kind of personality she had. "So you say the Elder attacked you with the Inquisitorias, and thousands of lizardmen at the same time, then she took Lambert?"
"Yes, that pretty much sums it up." Charlotte nodded, before expanding on the story. I still couldn’t remember all the names and who was what, so most of it made no sense. "The Demon Lord sent a full company to investigate what happened to Omerta, and we were attacked no more than an hour later."
"And our camp we set up at the crossroads was attacked by the lizards themselves." The horned man added. "It was a bloodbath, we lost more than half of our men, fighting nearly ten times our numbers."
"And the Elder attacked us personally. She killed my brother, and I'm going to murder her in the most brutal way possible." The orc girl noted, the only one that haven't introduced herself so far. But I could already sympathize with her. If someone hurt my brother, I would also want to kill them for sure. For now, I squeezed his hand while reminding myself that he was still in a girl's body. It was so confusing. "We must free Lamber too, somehow. She took him with her, which is our pact’s violation, but our scouts still haven't found him."
"Indeed, as Omerta explained, we suspect the Elder was behind both attacks. And her goal was to kill Nati, thinking it was you, and she almost succeeded." Charlotte summed it up, and I felt my hand close to my brother's even stronger. What? This stranger wanted to kill him? Sign me up too, I wanted to harm that bitch as much as possible. "It seems when she found Hana and their sister, she altered her plans slightly."
"Just where were you all this time?" My brother suddenly asked, aimed at the Goddess too. He seemed upset, even with me right beside him. "I thought you would protect the village, and me, but if Lambert and Charlotte didn’t save my skin, the Elder would have killed us all."
"Well, um... I'm sorry, Nati." Alexandra looked upset too. "I could not be in two places, and your little sister needed some protection too. But I'm here now, and I'll bring Lambert back."
