We left the Academy wearing our uniforms. Dressed the same way, the only things that placed Mirina as Royalty was the way she moved and looked at things. There was no way around it. The graceful [Princess] glided like a [Princess]. Back straight, eyes on the horizon. She at times seemed curious of things she didn't interact much from within her gilded cage, and most of the time disgusted at the commoner's proclivities.
Like emptying the god-damned chamber pots in the side alley. Seriously, you can tell a lot about people from the way they treat their own crap. That alone made me consider donning the Tabard, unlocking my auras, just to issue a law forbidding bad sanitation. And this was one of the cities with the greatest olfact-enable population in the world. But the common people grew used to the smell of filth. I had a Perk to tone it down. Mirina, however, was exposed to this gritty reality. I bet the carriage she used to travel across town had smell-canceling enchantments.
Our destination was, of course, the Great Bazaar. Everything in Windemere that was openly for sale could be found there, and most other rare articles both material and immaterial if you knew how to ask. The only thing people weren't stupid enough to sell here were other people.
The eleven of us reached the holy land of manufactured goods and groceries. Five commoner students, one Princess, three Knights, and one mage. Plus me. It was impossible to ditch Mirina's escorts even though she insisted.
The first stop was a shop where a bear-kin man sold hair, ear, and tail ornaments. Combs, pins, clips, rings, and beads woven on a string you could tie to your fur. Marisol picked one large wooden loop with tassels attached to one side.
"Haru, try this one on! You have the tallest ears among us!"
I didn't have a choice. Phyllis and Camilla grabbed an arm each and a grinning Melania took the ear ornament from Marisol's hands. The wolf-kin leaned close to me, "It's okay since we've already kissed, right?" She asked about touching my ears. It was a big faux pas among the Kin to touch ears and tails without a certain level of intimacy. The ring sat snugly over my scalp but pressed on my ear canal. Beastkin skulls have ear holes about the same place as other species, but the canal runs along with a small dent upward until it fans out becoming the ears.
Melania rotated it until a notch on the inner side fit over it. The tassels fell over the back and side of my head.
Mirina giggled graciously, followed by Jocelyn. The two ice queens seemed content on just watching our antics.
"Looks good on you!" Marisol cooed.
Fun trivia. How can one tell cat-kin, wolf-kin, and fox-kin ears apart? All of them have upright triangular ears. Depending on the individual, it is hard to tell, but as a rule of thumb, cat-kin ears are the shortest among them and usually point straight upward. I mean, the inclination on both sides is very similar and it looks like an equilateral triangle. Wolf-kin ears are slanted on the outside, with that side almost vertical they look. They look like right triangles. And fox-kin ears are the tallest. They are long and stand upright with both sides the same length and inclination, like an isosceles triangle. Furthermore, cat-kin ears usually have a single color, wolf-kin sometimes have a different color at the tip, but fox-kin ears always have black or white tips, and it is the same color as the tip of our tails. Mine was black.
"How long are you two clinging to me?" I glared at the lamia and cat-kin. "Because if you don't let go right now, I'm going home craft some ear and tail ornaments just for you two." Camilla snickered and almost lifted me when she held tighter. "I'm putting bells on you, woman!" I threatened. Lorna never let me put bells on her. "And a huge pink bow at the tip of both of your tails!"
Phyllis let go. Seeing she was abandoned, Camilla sighed, "Have it your way," and released me too.
"Good sir," the [Princess] approached the ornament seller. "We're buying all your stock. I'm afraid my companions will spend the whole day browsing your fine wares otherwise. Pack it all up," she asked but it sounded imperious. She turned to one of her knights, "Claudia, go hire two or three of these porters with hand carts to carry our baggage."
The round-eared furry salesman hurriedly stowed the ornaments in crates he had behind his stall. The porters came and they loaded the crates on the hand carts. One of the knights paid the merchant. We moved on.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
That became our M.O. for the rest of the shopping trip. Find a shop, mess around a bit, get everything packed up and loaded on the carts. The other vendors started to eagerly await our passage to unload everything on us. The young women were overeager to put a dent in Isengar's finances. Fabrics for sewing, new clothes, shoes, bedding, pillows, copper jewelry, fur brushes, but the line was crossed when Marisol bought a full-body glass mirror. Tall enough for a Ganeshin, the rare and almost three-meter-tall animal-headed elephant beast-kin.
The whole bazaar stopped to watch us splurge wildly. Some merchants even raised their mark-up moments before we arrived, but a bit of intimidation brought the prices back to reasonable levels.
"Oh, let's get some fancy dresses!" Marisol shouted as we passed in front of Fat Felix's shop. The girls squealed.
"Is this--" Mirina started but I interrupted her with my telepathy.
"We can come back another day. Look, the shopkeeper isn't even here to greet us!" The [Princess] pouted. "Let's go. I bet there are better places to get dresses."
Marisol wanted to say something but I looped my arm around hers and dragged her away.
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Mirina sent one of her knights back to the academy with the porter caravan. We'd split our loot whenever we got back.
"I'm parched!" Mirina complained. "Is there any tavern around here that serves good stuff?"
"Good for whom, Your Highness? I'm afraid there isn't any establishment in this part of the city that can cater to Royalty," I answered.
"I'm feeling adventurous," She grinned. "Surprise me."
I deadpanned.
"I thought it was extinct," She replied out loud. If I were paying attention as I should, I would've noticed Marisol eyeing us suspiciously.
"Well, let's see if they have dwarven brandy around here," I sighed. "Served with ice it won't give you a bad hangover."
Magic changed a lot in society, the biggest one was the depletion of thinking minds from fields like pure philosophy and mathematics. Smart people became mages. The Yznarian versions of Plato, Socrates, Newton, or Galileo became mages, studied magic, and left the woes of the common person unsolved, except where magic could be applied. One of them was the cooling of drinks with rudimentary Ice magic.
"Is it even allowed?" Phyllis asked.
"A dwarf believes that one has the right to poison themself any way they want."
Some of the passersby gave me hard glares for my statement. Dwarves weren't that well-liked at the moment.
We found a tavern and cordoned a corner table for ourselves with the two knights and mage holding the others around ours. We ordered our drinks, chilled them, Mirina gave hers to the lady knight test for poison.
We were on the second round when an argument broke out between Adventurers and townsfolk.
"I'm telling you, your precious Queen Lorna was a whore!" A drunk Adventurer in the 100's shouted. His level was the only thing that kept the townsfolk from piling upon him.
Mirina forgot to breathe and stared at me, pale. I believe she thought I would destroy half the city to punish the slanderer.
"You won't talk about the Mother of this nation like that!" Alas, alcohol was a peerless potion of bravery. One drunkard swung his mug at the Adventurer, who easily dodged and punched back.
"That's terrible! Why would he say that about Queen Lorna?" Camilla lamented.
"He's technically right," I said after downing my drink. "Lorna's rank-zero Class was [Prostitute] and both her and Eric were enslaved before being rescued by Rosewise Honorcoin and Locksley's adventuring party. She became Rosewise's apprentice in Perenneth and later Locksley's wife."
All the girls stared at me. "But he should show some respect."
"Damn Right," Jocelyn glared at the Adventurer, now cornered by a bunch of civilians. I shouldn't be surprised by her out-of-character outburst. Jocelyn was one of Locksley's admirers, as were most of the silk-folk. He was their weaver-creator and stuff.
With an illusion of me over myself, I became invisible and phased out to participate in the fight. The illusion would move and fidget but not answer or react to outside stimuli. I hoped it would fool the girls long enough for me to finish what I had to do. Before striking, I shapeshifted into an Eleon. Then I jumped on the Adventurer's back and grabbed the collar of his cloak. With a firm grip, I yanked him to the Ethereal.
One clean claw swipe and I had a disembodied soul. "What's your name?" I asked him and checked the answer against Torgo's list of hired Adventurers. Match. I bound him to a doll and returned to the physical world. My illusion was undisturbed because everyone was paying attention to the fact an Adventurer was dragged into a rift in reality, never to be seen again. Invisible once more, I overlapped with my illusion and dispelled it.
"Did you see that, Haru?" Marisol shook my arm and pointed. "Oh, you're back," she muttered under her breath.
Damn. Marisol noticed I was gone and Mirina was almost fainting.
"Guys, Mirina is feeling ill. Let's return to the Academy."
The knight gave the [Barmaid] a gold coin and we left the Tavern. On our way back to the Academy, I excused myself telling them I had to work on some metalworking projects. After I was sure none of them could perceive me anymore, I vanished in an alley and transformed into a housecat.
It was time to remove those annoying agitators disguised as Adventurers from the game board.