2 New Life

Joseph finally calmed down and started objectively analyzing his situation. Somehow after having drowned in the pond, he had become a little child in an unknown place.

"Is this reincarnation?" He quickly reached an answer helped by having read numerous light novels, reincarnation after death being something very common in them.

"Who could I be?" Joseph looked at his new body. Blue hair would be rare in his world, but if this was a new one, it could be a normal thing here. He was a frail child with a wounded body that barely had any baby fat, his ribs being very exposed, being only bones and skin. That plus the dragged and plain brown clothes that he was wearing made it clear that he was quite poor to the point of famine.

Suddenly, Joseph's body shivered "It's too cold. First of all, I need to secure a heat source or I will die from hypothermia before even starting that possible new life."

He looked at his surroundings. He was over a concrete platform with numerous protrusions over the water, with some little wood boats anchored in them, making it clear that he was in some kind of dock.

On one side, there was the vast lake that now that he fixed more, there were some waves in it, meaning that it could possibly be the sea or an immense lake. However, that wasn't important now as he didn't have any intention to go in that direction, instead, he focused on the opposite direction.

A forest of what seemed to be of firs stood over it with a clearly marked paved path that cut through it. Looking at the distance, black pillars of smoke rose to the sky, surging from tall chimneys. That smoke seemed to form its own clouds, tainting the sky with a black color giving a sad and grieved feeling.

"It seems that there's a factory near." Joseph though seeing the black smoke "Rather than staying here freezing to death, it should be better to go there and try to find some help and information."

Having decided his next movement, Joseph pushed his weak and wounded body over, walking over the path, between the firs.

Now that he was nearer, he could see that the forest situation wasn't good. The trees were mostly dead due to the factory's contamination, a layer of soot covering them, tainting them black, containing them and preventing them to absorb the little light from the black sky, making it very difficult for them to grow healthy.

After a 20 minutes walk that seemed to have been three hours for Joseph, he was finally able to leave the forest, a new scenery opening in front of him.

He found himself surrounded by cheap wooden shacks placed without much planning in a disorderly way with speed and cheap materials and designs, making them barely enough to count as a ceiling over the head.

That view went over some kilometers, finally ending over a tall and imponent clear blue wall that hid everything behind it with the big chimneys piercing over the sky as the exemption.

"This is a slum" Joseph clearly recognized the situation. A walled city where the waste was thrown away, the waste being either materials or people. A den of filthiness, poverty and crime typical from an undeveloped period, being very typical in the past or over the third world countries.

"Mh" Joseph made a worried face. That made the situation difficult. Like himself, he could see people wandering over the place, wearing rags and with famine looks, there were even some kids of his age.

Even in his near-death state, Joseph wasn't anything special, not even receiving the attraction of his surroundings. That meant that his situation wasn't special and the body that he had taken was most probably part of this slum, meaning that he would be unable to obtain any help and if he were to try to go over the walled city, he would be likely pushed aside like a filthy rat.

"What should I do?" Joseph was thinking over his options while walking over the shacks being ignored by the passersby while marching around them without a course.

"Where I am?" Joseph finally took notice of his surroundings, stopping his track finding himself in front of one of the shacks that seemed completely like any other. However, something, a kind of intuition, was telling him that it was special that he had been guided here.

Following that feeling, Joseph stepped forward, but instead of entering the shack, he surrounded it, arriving behind it were some wooden boxes stood there.

His body moved automatically as if it was the most casual thing, setting the boxes aside and revealing a little opening over it about a meter wide, he crawled over it and found himself over a little room.

The room was an opening underground below the shack, creating a little area of about 10 square meters not even 120cm tall, making it just barely taller than him. Unlike the exterior, the little room seemed to be taken care of, being cleared spotless, and while it wasn't really full, all its interior was neatly decorated.

However, Joseph didn't have the opportunity to look at his surrounding, his view over the other side of the room, his eyes fixed over it, unable to look away from a straw bed with a young girl with blue hair laying over it, seemingly sleeping.

"Ellen" From Joseph's mouth this word slipped off.

The little girl reacted to the voice, slowly opening her eyes, revealing deep yellow eyes that turned towards Joseph.

"Allen" The little girl said with a low and weak voice that resounded over Joseph's mind.

"Hg!" Joseph clenched his teeth, putting his right hand over his forehead as he felt intense pain, seemingly to pierce his head as he experienced new memories.

After a second, Joseph was freed from the pain, quickly processing his new memories.

"Allen, are you okay?" The little girl's voice's volume increased showing a worried tone as she tried to put strength over her fragile arms, trying to stand her upper body.

"Don't worry, Ellen. Everything is fine" Joseph's body quickly dashed over the little girl, stopping her efforts of standing up and showing a reassuring smile that seemed to calm the girl.

Joseph had finally learned about his new body and his surroundings. His new body was called Allen and with his twin sister Ellen, they were orphans barely surviving over the slums. His situation was as he had thought, but it turned worse. Ellen had an unknown disease and frail body, barely able to move her body, Allen taking care of her and using his low resources and efforts to try to make her improve.

However, this wasn't what shocked Joseph the most. It was the fact that he already knew about, rather than knew, having listened before about the city and place where he stood now.

He was over the capital of the Snezhnaya Region in the Teyvat Continent. Meaning that he had reincarnated over the Genshin Impact World!