Getting permission to go outside the manor had been surprisingly easy.

  “And you are absolutely sure you are ready for this?” My father asked, not for the first time nor the fifth. “You’ve only just gotten back on your feet. I don’t know why you’re doing this so suddenly, but don’t overexert yourself.”

  “Father, I’ll have my most loyal retainer with me. You needn’t worry.” I gestured towards Damian, standing right at my side. For once, he actually looked something other than sour. “Besides, I do wish to see the city. It has been so very long.”

  My father reluctantly nodded, before turning to Damian. “Keep her safe, Damian. There is honor in doing a role well, no matter what it is.”

  “I will try.” Damian sighed. “She is quite vexing sometimes.”

  There was no point in me saying anything to defend myself here.

  His gaze turned to me again. “I’ll have Estovan prepare a small company of guards. Let’s say…five or-”

  “Father. I wish to visit the city. Preferably while drawing as little attention as possible.” The last thing I wanted was to be gawked at even more than I already would.

  Duke Adrian opened his mouth as if to object, and looked at me. Guilt passed over his face. “Alright, Esra. If that’s what you wish. Take Anias with you and I won’t object.”

  “Anias?” Anias certainly looked imposing enough. However, she was still a maid. “You consider her enough?’

  My father smiled. “If she isn’t, then nobody short of I or Estovan would be.”

  A carriage was arranged not long after, and then we were being shepherded out of the mansion. Anias chose to sit with the coachman, leaving me alone with Damian. I would have preferred the opposite arrangement.

  The mansion slowly but surely faded away in the distance, the single large pathway out ending in an ornate black gate. There were a separate set of guards here. Anias answered their questions, while I just glanced out past the curtains.

  The noise of the city outside was much, much louder here. It was always a dim buzz in the mansion, something you could eventually come to get used to with time. Here, it was a much louder drone that randomly seemed to rise and fall every second. Just listening to it was enough to make me uneasy.

  Eventually, the gate creaked open, and our carriage rolled right through.

  The transition from the manor to the city itself might as well have been the equivalent of stepping into a brand new world altogether. Aelheim had buildings of every bizarre shape and size. Several of those buildings rose far into the sky, obstructed by the clouds. This city seemed an odd mix of one I’d find back home, mixed with the more traditional fantasy cities I’d always read about.

  There were more people in one street than I had ever seen before in this life. More than that, quite a few of these people weren’t human at all.

  Some of them had skin that made even my pale skin look almost dark by comparison. Some of them had large pointed ears that I knew marked them as Elves. There were more than a handful of people with reptilian features, though they were all still humanoid in shape.

  A few people had blue skin, standing a good two heads taller than everyone around them. The Karr, as they were called. Their height wasn’t interesting, not compared to the fact that they all had four eyes and four arms each.

  I was pretty sure there were even a few dwarves, though they blended in with the crowds almost as soon as I saw them.

  This was all something I had come to expect from all my reading. Seeing things however was always different.

  One building in particular caught my gaze. It was a building made of some kind of pure black material, so dark it looked bizarre in the light. It was three stories tall, wider than most of the buildings around it. It also had a very, very long line of people trying to get inside. The building had an inscription, but it was too far away to read.

  “That’s the Information Guild.” Damian must have noticed my gaze. “You don’t know about it?”

  “Didn’t think it would look like that.” Or be this close to home.

  There was silence for a time as we moved.

  “My Lady….”

  “I thought I told you to call me Esra.” I said without looking at him. My right hand was trembling, and I had to subtly try and hide it with my left.

  I’d heard enough My Lady’s to last me a lifetime. My attempts to have some of the maids use my name had not gone well. They’d all looked at me as if I’d committed the gravest insult. I understood why, that didn’t mean I had to like it. That’s why I liked the new maid, Lana.

  It just so happened that Damian was perfectly placed in the noble hierarchy to actually use my name.

  “Err…E-Esra. Why did you want to come here? I do hope this isn’t just pointless sightseeing.”

  “It is the most useless kind of sightseeing.”

  “You’ve…never been outside?”

  An oddly considerate way to ask from him. I almost didn’t taste the insult at all. I had read much about this world, but even a fool knew that reading and experiencing weren’t the same thing.

  “Not in a very long time. I wanted to see if anything is different, I guess.”

  I turned back to the window. Paused. “What’s that?”

  Most of the vendors were selling relatively normal things for this world. Magical implements, mostly. A square metallic box that could produce fire without wood. Clothing that granted resistance against one element or another. One vendor was advertising ‘imbued stone’, which I gathered were supposed to repel dirt and grime all on their own.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  These were all things I’d read about, and so none of those caught my eye. My eye was drawn to one stall where a vendor was waving excitedly in the air as…small animal figurines flew above him? Unlike most of the other stalls, most of the people who seemed interested in the wares were children.

  “Those are just puppet constructs.” Damian said dismissively.

  That didn’t explain much at all. My gaze lingered again. Fine. I hadn’t read about these before.

  I shouted out towards Anias in the front. “Stop here! I want to check something out!”

  The carriage drew to a halt.

  “Seriously?” Was that exasperation or annoyance? Was there a difference?

  Damian sighed, reached out to open my door before I could. I rolled my eyes and stepped outside.

  There had been a layer of abstraction that came from sitting in the carriage. That was gone now. Our carriage had more or less parted people to the side just by existing. Now, people crowded all around me.

  It was hard to take two steps without bumping into someone. Breathing grew harder and harder, my heart started hammering in my chest. My hands clenched and unclenched. I was sweating. This- this was a bad idea. I needed to get back insi-

  Anias was there then, standing in front of me. The air around her was heavy. She was channeling.

  People took one glance at her, and decided to move as far away as they could from her. Damian stepped in front of me a second later, decidedly not having the same effect as Anias.

  Some people looked on with more curiosity than anything else, their gazes drifting to me. Their eyes widened when they took me in, until a light buzz of unmistakable whispers followed my every step.

  “My Lady, if I knew you were going to actually step outside, I would have asked that you wear something different.”

  I looked down at myself. I didn’t see anything wrong with my frilly green dress.

  Oh.

  It had never occurred to me before but well, I did look rather distinctive. Most of the manor staff had either black or brown hair, and I hadn’t seen anyone with eyes like mine. Even my father didn’t look all that much like me, at least when it came to those two features.

  Damian’s hair was more of an auburn that would have stood out, if he hadn’t been standing next to me.

  It was all so obvious that I felt like an idiot. Note to self, wear a disguise next time.

  “Is this going to be an issue?” I finally asked Anias. “We can go back. It’s not like it has to be today.” It wouldn’t be hard to cover my hair with a wig or something. The eyes are a bigger problem, but there had to be a solution for that.

  “No, it’s fine,” Anias said. “So long as you make this short and return back to the carriage. We can still see the city, but you can’t step outside again.”

  Nodding, I turned to the vendor I had stepped out for in the first place.

  There was a small line, a line that got much smaller as the parents hurriedly moved their children to the side as soon as they noticed me. I hoped that was out of some strange deference and not fear.

  “Ah, forgive me if I’m wrong, but My Lady you are a noble, yes? Please, do tell me-”

  “Address her with more respect. Have you no manners?” Damian cut in next to me.

  “Of- of course.” The merchant said, staring down at the floor. He was a short, stocky Dwarf, with muscular shoulders that looked almost comical on his otherwise small frame.

  “Damian.” It was hard not to sigh. Now he cares about my status?! “It’s fine,” I turned back towards the man. “Please, treat me like you would any other customer. Your wares just caught my eye, that’s all.”

  The Dwarf nodded and looked up at me, just slightly less nervous than before. Come to think of it, this might have been the first time anyone had to look up at me at all.“These are just some small constructs, My Lady. Toys. Far beneath your notice. Why, just give me a few hou- no, a few minutes and I’ll have wares much more suited to your Ladyship!”

  A part of me knew Damian was about to say something, and I raised a hand to stall him. “No, that’s quite alright. Just tell me about these.”

  “Well-” The vendor looked confused now. He reached down, pulled something from out of view, and then set a small dragon in front of me. It was carved out of what looked like green rock, and had enough tiny etchings and markings to tell even me that it must have taken a skilled craftsman to make.

  “These are children’s toy’s, My Lady. You see you just-” He pressed down on the tiny dragon with his finger.

  Then, the dragon moved. It rose into the air, paused for a second, and then started circling above the vendor’s finger. It was…well, it was flying.

  A squeal of joy. Wait, had that come from me?!

  The dragon started moving faster, going from just spinning in circles to twisting and turning in mid air. At one point, it stopped right in front of me, opening its stone jaws. There was no growl. There was no fire. It didn’t matter. Finally, the dragon moved back to the wooden stall. The man tapped it with his finger again.

  “This is one of my finer pieces.” The merchant said proudly, much more confident now. “You just put in a bit of mana, and then you can move ‘em around however you wish. It takes a bit of getting used to, but nothing beyond Your Ladyship I’m sure.”

  I turned to Damian with bright, wide eyes. Damian looked decidedly less impressed than I felt. Was there no joy in this world?!

  “My Lady, please try it. Might not move the same just yet but you can try.”

  That was the most enticing offer I’d ever heard. “So how do I do it?” I had put my hand on the toy dragon already. I could feel individual scales underneath my touch.

  The Dwarf hesitated for a moment. “Just channel your mana and then I guess-” He struggled for the word. “-push it towards your fingers and then the construct. It should feel like…” The man paused briefly. “Like a connection in your head.”

  I channeled my mana, that familiar wellspring of power blooming inside me. The man took a surprised step back, though I didn’t look at him.

  Push mana to my fingers, huh? I’d already practiced a bit with this, so that part came easily.

  They weren’t exactly the most thorough instructions. Channeling, I willed it to go inside the Dragon. Nothing happened. I clicked my tongue and closed my eyes, visualizing the mana leaving my fingers and pushing into the toy.

  Crack.

  I opened my eyes, right as the dragon burst into a dozen stone pieces, some of them thudding harmlessly into my stomach before falling to the floor. Many of them just flew in every random direction.

  The Dwarf looked more horrified than I felt.

  “I- I see!” He said. “This flimsy little toy wasn’t- wasn’t near fine enough to contain your great power! I should have known that! I must be losing my edge in my old age. Of course I just need to-”

  “What he’s too polite to say is that you can’t control your mana very well, My Lady” Anias’ shadow settled over me. “You poured more mana into that thing than most people have in their entire bodies. I would be grateful it only exploded.”

  Well that was just lovely. I sighed, looking towards Damian on my left. No doubt he was giving me either a smug smirk or a condescending glare.

  A small stone turtle floated in the air in front of me. Damian wagged a finger, and the turtle retreated into its shell, only to pop its head back out a second later.

  Our eyes met. “See! It’s not that hard!” He coughed, his face turning a very distinct shade of red. He was embarrassed.

  Seriously?

  “Let’s head back, Anias. We’re drawing a crowd.” I paused, turned towards Anias. “See to it that he’s paid for the one I ungracefully destroyed.”

  This is why some people like staying inside.