That night, Riya had a dream. She was with her parents and her sister and they were all at Nicco park, an amusement park inside Kolkata. They were having so much fun, buying overpriced food, riding roller coasters, taking selfies, buying overpriced food.
She thought the dream would never end. Everyone was so happy and were all smiling and laughing , her heart started to feel heavy. At the back of her mind, she just knew this was a dream, but she couldn't help but feel this was all real .
And yet…
Slowly, the feeling that all of this was a dream, became louder and louder, the world started to distort itself, her Mum’s face started to become fuzzier and fuzzier and fuzzier until she started to feel like she was floating… Floating or fallin-
Thud!
…Ouch… Her head? She looked around, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes, looks like she fell off the bed, her hand hovered slightly above her head, feeling the area which got hurt.
Yep, it’ll definitely develop a bump.
Riya closed her eyes, savouring the last few nostalgic wisps of last night’s dream with her family before slowly getting up to go to the washroom.
The bathroom was… Something…The washroom was divided into two parts, there was this ivory bath tub in the middle of one of the rooms while the other had a toilet with a slime monster in it.
Nice… Nice… It’s fine… everything is just fine… This country just does things a bit… Differently … She had forgotten about the slime monsters in the toilet, invented by some smart guy, before that the Nobles would have used chamber pots. Poor commoners probably still used chamber pots, from what she remembered about slime monsters in the manga... They were expensive things.
Despite there being no toilet paper or sprayer, atleast there was a large barrel filled with water... And had a mug... Riya shivered at the thought of what she could possibly have done if the mug and the water barrel weren't here (nothing, litterally nothing, she'd be stuck in the bathroom till someone would take notice and pass her a few peices of cloth or something).
Feeling a little pissed at the situation she was in (Ok Riya was very much pissed, she just wanted to go home.) She looked at the sink, it was just that, a sink, not even a tap, the sink did have a drain though that most likely lead to another sewer monster.
Nice…
They didn't have any toothbrushes or toothpaste sadly and her teeth started to feel a bit funny in the worst way possible. Feeling pretty annoyed with her situation, she decided to look through the bag she had gotten yesterday. Maybe there was a toothbrush inside?
Riya unzipped the trolley bag and started to rummage through it. Interestingly enough, she found books, her own books , books she used to read all from pre-nursery to books she had got for her first year of Bsc Geography for Uni. Books she never owned before, like university books for Masters and PHD level in geography, Fantasy books like Percy Jackson , Harry Potter and The Hunger Games as well as mangas and light novels she used to read and other mangas and light novels she had never read before as well as some other books like Jane Eyre (ok she read that one for English lit back in highschool) and Jane Austin books (never read them, but always wanted to) and the His Dark Materials Trilogy as well as a few others.
How the fuck did she manage to pull all of this before?! Riya started to unzip a few more of the zippers, changes of clothes, a water bottle, a stopwatch, an actual watch, a geometry box, a flashlight, 70 tubes of toothpaste and 60 toothbrushes.
Fucking Hell…
Well now at least She can brush her teeth?
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Riya got dressed and went to the living room.
“Did you get books as well?” One of the girls greeted her whose name she forgot.
“Uhh… Ya… Your name is?” Riya asked.
“Sally.” She said.
I nodded, “Sally…” Riya repeated, hopefully she would remember her name next time, “Uh… Ya… I got a bunch of books and a few other things…”
Sally looked curious, “What were the books about? The books I got were books about Chemistry.”
“Oh same! Except most of the books I got were Geography based.” Riya also got a lot of Fantasy books she used to read and write fanfiction about, but it wasn’t like she was going to tell her that . It was bad enough that her cousin found out she wrote fanfiction, never going through that again!
Sally looked like she was thinking something… should Riya say something? Would it be awkward if she said something? Would it be awkward if she didn't say anything? What if she said something so stupid that she didn't want to be her friend anymore?! Wait… Did she even want to be friends with her?! They've literally only talked for like, twelve seconds, is twelve seconds of talking enough to make friends? This was like the first day of Uni all over again!
“It feels slightly odd doesn’t it?” Sally asked, “To be here, Isekaied into another world, or have we been isekaied? For all we know we might be in a simulation, or maybe aliens have abducted us to study us.”
“Well magic exists here?” Riya tentatively pointed out, “So that rules out being abducted by aliens?”
“Maybe, or maybe the technology is so advanced, to us it looks like magic.” Sally said with a frown.
Riya sincerely doubted that, while it was true that these people had instant teleportation and Manarmour and high-pass, they also had Mana that was a magical fertilizer and gave 'blessings' and stuff like that. "Could be…" She said, she really didn't feel like getting into an argument, not on the first day, not with someone she'd most likely be stuck with for the rest of her time in this God-forsaken country… however long that was…
It was a few minutes after that that attendant that came yesterday (Margarita? Something like that) came to give us an invite us to a school carnival or something like that.
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Did something like that happen in Merchant of Antonia ? She thought for a moment. "[Oh ya! So basically there's this end-of-year carnival at the royal academy.]" Riya started to explain to Sally, "[The Prefectures show off their items or whatever that they would want to trade during the Archduke conference, right now, it's probably one of the only times they can advertise their products because Prefectures aren't… Well, the Archdukes of each Prefectures are rarely together nor do they have the manpower to showcase and explain their products]."
Margherita the attendant just looked at Riya like she was speaking alien when in reality she was talking in English, sure it was a bit different to German but it was a perfectly-
Wait a minute.
Riya looked at the attendant, she invited us to the Carnival… in German … Riya don't know German though? She only speak English, Bengali and bits of Hindi? Hmm… "Please give us time to get ready and escort us there once we are done." She was shocked! She spoke perfect German! How?!
Magenta nodded, Riya looked at Sally and they both walked to their rooms to get changed.
Riya started to look through all the cloths she had and found the lehenga she wore for her Uncle's wedding. Whatever God/Alien/Multi trillionaire who sent her here was a stalker if they knew the exact dress she wore to her Uncle's wedding three years ago… Good to know…
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d8/7d/aa/d87daa7ce946a30e0e262c3d7b937f7f.jpg]
The dress thankfully still fit her, Riya wouldn't know what to do if it didn't, she'd've looked like an absolute idiot if she wore a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans. Riya wore her watch and a few sprays of floral perfume and walked out of the room.
Most of the guys were ready, so were a few of the girls, including Sadie (Forgot her name again, was it Sadie or Sally?).
“Oh you look great~!” One of the girls said, “Aren’t you going to wear any makeup though?”
“I… Didn't get any makeup…” Riya admitted, “Only a bottle of perfume, what’s your name again? Sorry I’m really bad with names…”
“My name is Maria~! Say, If I let you use my makeup kit, can I use your perfume? I wasn’t given any perfume.”
I nodded, “Sure thing!”
“Is it ok if I also use your makeup and your perfume? I wasn’t given those, only hair care products and other stuff.” Sadie said.
Maria simply waved her hand, “It’s fine~ Both of you come to my room, Riya, bring your perfume and Sally? Bring the hair care products, my hair feels oily, it’s bad enough I was given toothbrushes but no toothpaste.”
“I was given toothpaste.” Riya blurted out, suddenly, all the eyes turned towards her, “Does… anyone need some?”
And thus, by the power of the Moon Communism, 'my' toothpaste became 'our' toothpaste and they all were sharing a tube of toothpaste like they were in Rome and had to share the communal sponge.
On the brightside, the hair care products were God sent and Valerie (Maria invited the other girls to her room so they could help each other get ready and get to know each other) had these pretty hair clips, headbands, rubber bands, necklaces, bracelets etc. Basically any and every accessory you could think under the sun or had ever existed, she had those.
“I love collecting little accessories.” She said, “Especially colourful ones.”
“Do you have any crochet flower clips?” Melissa asked, “Especially any red ones? They’d look good with my dress.”
“I do have a few,” Valerie said, “But I don't have any red ones, would pink be ok?”
“They would be fine, thanks.”
It took everyone a bit over an hour to be ready which left her a bit worried, “Aren’t we… Late?”
“Not late late.” Melissa said, “But fashionably late.”
“Besides.” Max said, “In the books it’s said that Nobles need an invite to anything at least three days in advance, any invite under three days causes Nobles to come late to whatever they’re invited to. Being late to something is usually seen as either your fault if you’re a lower rank than your host, or your host’s fault for sending the invite late if you’re a higher rank than your host. Since we’re ‘messengers of the Gods’ and hence, out rank everyone, it’s technically their fault that we’re late.”
Which was… Technically true actually… The invite only came like… two hours ago… “Well… as long as they don't look down on us or anything… sure we said that the Gods bound our Mana… But how many actually believe that?”
“True but how many people just randomly walk out of the long Staircase? The one where Minerva was said to have descended from to provide knowledge to the first Zent?” Max pointed out, “We’ll be fine, if they say anything just say something along the lines of ‘The Gods won’t be pleased hearing about this’ or something.”
And so they all walked towards the party with the attendant - Macadamia - as their guide.
The party/carnival was happening outside, Beautiful weather, not a single cloud in the sky, each Prefecture had a stall where they showcased what they had learnt this year or wanted to trade or simply show off for the sake of showing off (like that one Prefecture, Kritosia or something). That is basically where all the complements end.
Honestly, think of it as a school fair, but the parents were paying for all the decorations on the stalls to be done by experts and professionals so none of the children did any work other than setting up the stalls and magic was involved to make the place look decent and not falling apart because none of the students knew what a hammer and a pack of nails were nor how to use them.
“What an [amazing] display of [trinkets].” Valerie said, “A representation of what the next generation has to offer.”
“Indeed.” The Zent’s first wife (forgot her name!) said. “We hope you enjoyed the ambiance and continue to find the beauty in our country for as long as our threads are entwined on this plane of existence…”
Hmm… It sounded like she was trying to butter them up so they say all the good stuff about this country to the Gods so they don’t smite everyone here or perhaps cause flooding? Riya mentally shrugged. Merchant of Antonia had a very strange society and a stranger history which was a mix of Roman, German and Japanese societies.
Riya looked around and something felt a bit odd, but she couldn’t put her finger on it…
“I don’t remember if all the academy girls had medium to short hair like us.” Sally said, “Weren’t many of their hairs… longer?”
“The tresses of their hair did manifest a greater length, yet in observance of the brevity bestowed upon your Illustrious Self's own locks, as well as the modesty in the extent of your garment's hemlines, it is but just and seemly that we, in accordance with the contemporary inclinations borne from the celestial spheres, adhere to the prevailing modishness you graciously usher into our midst.”
It was true, Riya started to notice many of the Academy students had shorter hair than before, some even had shoulder length hair or even shorter (Like hers~!) and many students had skirts that reached their knees while women wore t-length skirts.
I always knew that trends started from the top and went downwards in this universe but seeing it in real life was just… Wow …
While drinking some of the extremely sweet tea (too much honey!) Riya started to notice something, the students… “Don’t those kids look a bit too old to be eight years old?” She asked Max when he was nearby, “Why is that?”
“Oh right…” Max said, “You haven’t read A Shrine Maiden’s Requiem have you?”
“No.” Riya said feeling a little impatient, “So why do they look older?”
“The calendar here is a bit different than Earth’s.” He said, “While both Earth and New Rome have twenty-four hours in a day, New Rome has five hundred forty-seven point eight seven five days in a year. For every three years that pass on Earth, two years pass here and a leap week is added after every eight years. It’s a lot of maths and the author was very specific.”
“So I’m like…” She started to do the calculation in her head, “Twelve? Thirteen years old?”
“Basically Yes.”
Her head started spinning, if the food was better she would have asked for another cup of tea...
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A few hours after the party, they received an messenger bird from the Zent.
“I’ve got a stomach ache.” Riya said, “It must be the sweets… they sure love to put honey in everything.” The food was extremely sweet yet somehow bland and all around disgusting to eat, so bad it made her feel nauseous.
Most agreed with her, so only the ones who weren’t affected by the bad food were going to go to talk to the Zent about whatever the Hell he wanted to talk about.
So with that, Shuu, Jayten (Jayden?) and Maria went with the attendant (Margarita) left to talk to the Zent.
“I’ve got some anti nausea medication.” Valarie admitted, “Anyone want one?”
“If you had some then why didn’t you say earlier?!” Leo exclaimed, his stomach made a funny noise, “Gah! Never mind that! Pass one here!”
Valarie passed around a pad of medicine, “So we wouldn’t have to go to meet the Zent, it was bad enough that I had to eat the food at the carnival, I wouldn’t want a round two with whatever ‘delicacy’ the Zent will give us and expect us to eat it.”
Oh… Riya nodded, “Ya that was pretty smart…” She popped a tablet and drank some water and passed the pad and water to the next person.
“But we’re supposed to be the Messengers of the Gods!” Deb exclaimed, “If we didn’t want to eat the food the Zent should be ok with it.”
“If we didn’t eat the food it would be seen as a slight towards the Zent.” The British boy said, “Say what you will, but we’re not messengers of the Gods, we’re simply a bunch of - What’s the word? Ah right… Commoners who somehow got Isekaied to this weird universe. These Nobles are patient but how long until their patience wears thin? What if they decide to fuck it and, I dunno, burn us at stake or something because we’re all too fucking annoying or uncivilised and decided that their Gods can’t have possibly sent prats that don’t have a shred of decency or respect for the system their Gods worked so hard to create!”
Ok, maybe British boy had a point.
They all sat in silence, contemplating what had just been said. It wasn’t like any of what he said was false… What do they do when they overstay their welcome? It’s not like they could live in this palace forever, they needed to live somewhere else… make a new life for themselves… but how? They weren’t citizens! Would they be allowed to perhaps buy a plot of land and make their house(s) on it? Or would they have to go the merchant route and sell wares for the rest of eternity or just until they’re able to buy citizenship papers for themselves?
The silence lasted until the others came back.
“Everyone.” Maria said, “We have news.”
“Good news?” Melissa asked.
“It’s news.” Maria repeated, “Whether it’s good or bad is up to you to decide.”
Everyone suddenly got tense, “Ok…” Riya said, “Tell us the news?”
“What would be a good name for a Prefecture?” Maria asked?
“Huh?” She was confused by that, “What do you mean by that?!”
“I mean.” Maria said looking slightly ill, “Due to ‘divine intervention’, all the losing Prefectures except for Aspectus have joined together and the Zent in his infinite wisdom decided that this was a ‘sign from the Gods’ and now wants us to rule over the entirety of it, so, What will be the Prefecture’s name?"