"You are the best brother that anyone could ever ask for."

"Best brother!" Blizzie says echoing my sentiment.

"I'm glad you feel that way. I can tell how much you care about me by the simple fact that I am able to hear Sir Blizzard speaking. You have to really care about someone to have them be able to hear your familiar's words." he tells me. He can hear Blizzie? That's actually really wonderful.

"Blizzie like Benny. Benny good person. Benny can pet Blizzie anytime. My fur so soft. So nice." Blizzie tells him. I think he is just the cutest ever!

"I am honored by that Sir Blizzard." Benny tells Blizzie.

"Can call me Blizzie!" Blizzie tells him.

"Why thank you." Benny says.

We all talk comfortably with one another as we make our way back to my room.

"Do you think that Poppy is going to be in your room?" Benny asks me, looking a little bit nervous. Does Benny have a crush on Poppy? That is too cute. I don't think she would give Benny a chance because of the age difference.

"Probably." I tell him. "Did you want to talk to her for a bit while I take a bath? I give you permission to be in my room to speak with Poppy while I am not there." I tell him.

"Thank you, but I'm not sure if I am going to do that." he tells me. I guess Benny is the type to be shy around his crush. I love that. Some people can become really pushy when they have a crush and make everyone around them feel uncomfortable.

"If you ever change your mind just let me know." I tell Benny.

We arrive at my room and I give Benny a hug. "Thank you for walking me to my room. I am glad that I have you in my life little bro. I feel like no matter what happens I can always rely on and trust you." I tell him. I really mean that as well. I hope that he doesn't end up being like Alex. I can't really see that happening though, not with the way our relationship has always been.

"I'll let you know." he tells me in response. "Here is that salve. Use it every night before you go to bed. It might sting a little but it will help you heal in just a few days. It is imbued with light magic so you know that it really does work."

"I am so happy that you were able to convince him to give you a jar." I tell him.

"I think that some small part of him feels bad that he made you bleed."

"I think that he made me bleed on purpose. I can't image what he would have done if you weren't there Benny." I tell him.

"I know it is hard to believe because of his past treatment of you, but I don't think that he ever really means to hurt you."

"I will keep that in mind. Goodnight Benny." I tell him.

"Goodnight sis." he responds.

After we say our goodnights I walk back into my room. As always Poppy is sitting in the corner chair reading.

"I'm just here to grab my pajamas and bath stuff." I tell Poppy. I consider leaving the balm in the room with Poppy but decide against it. There might be some places that are harder to put balm on once I am dressed.

Poppy sets her book on her lap so that she can meet my eyes while she responds to me.

"Okay. I have your bathing things and pajamas all picked out." Poppy tells me. She then looks me over and her eyes widen slightly. "What happened to you?"

"Irick ended up being in the indoor training room." I tell her. "When he told me to leave I threw out the idea of sparring. He actually took me up on the offer though and we ended up sparring together." I explain to her.

"That would explain bruising, not bleeding." she says, chiding me. I can hear concern in her voice though as she speaks to me.

"I think there might have been a defect in the training sword that he was using. I wouldn't be able to get him to trade swords though. He wouldn't change swords even if I asked. He gets so focused on the duel that he tunes everything out. Anything that would interrupt our sparring he would ignore." I tell Poppy as an explanation.

"Yeah, I can see that being a part of his personality." Poppy says.

"Well go head on to the baths and I will get started on making up some stew. I bet the kitchen staff will have some stew ingredients already prepped. They seem to just know what I will be needing. It is like they are psychic or something!"

This is a fantasy world. It wouldn't surprise me if the kitchen staff somehow do have the psychic ability to predict what food I will be wanting. That would be an interesting ability, though not useful for anything outside of cooking.

I grab all of the things that Poppy had put together for me and make my way to the baths. I hear Poppy shout out the door before I am out of earshot "start with a cold bath! It will help some of the swelling go down!"

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I don't know if that is the case but I am willing to try it. I never needed to do something like that in my last life. There was an event that I could have used that advice after, but for the most part I didn't really end up with bumps and bruises.

When I get to the bathroom I set my pajamas in a clean bin and put the clothing that I am wearing in a dirty bin. The dirty clothes get collected at the break of dawn by the washerwomen that work in the castle. There are many of them and none specifically assigned to me. Maybe the king would be worried that I would befriend them and go back to making soap and washing clothing.

I walk out into the baths and am relieved to see that it is empty. I don't like being naked in front of others. I know that I have to be naked in front of Poppy so I am actively trying to not let that make me uncomfortable. I also have a relationship with Poppy. I don't have a relationship with the others that would be using these baths.

I walk around the room and dip my toes into the different baths. Too warm, too hot, lukewarm. Ah here we are, a cold one. Instead of slipping into it a little at a time to try to get used to the felling I just slide my entire body into the water in one swift motion.

"Eek! It's so cold!" I complain to Blizzie who is laying down next to the water. I wouldn't have blamed his if he had staying in my room, but I am really glad that he is here with me. I am really glad that he seems to never leave my side. This world is so different from the one I lived in before.

I let my mind wander while I try not to let the cold get to me. It jumps topics and doesn't stay on any of them for any real amount of time. I end up thinking about the last birthday that I shared with friends. It was very uncomfortable but I know that my friends had good intentions. I guess birthdays are on my mind with me deciding to help put together my birthday bal.

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You work too hard. Don't you think that you deserve a break?" Lucy asks me. She gets average grades but is still doing enough to pass. Even though we are in med school she believes that it is important to have fun as well as work hard.

"What is the point of working so hard all the time. You will stress out your brain. A stressed out brain makes a lot of mistakes. You don't want all of your studying to go to waste." she tells me.

"Yeah. Come on girl. It's your birthday. Let's go dancing! Let's hit on boys that buy us drinks!" Emily says.

"I don't know about that. We have finals coming up. And you know for my birthday I like to have a small group of friends over to eat a lot of junk food, play video games and watch movies." I tell her.

"You can't do the same thing every year. You have to get out there! Put yourself out there and see what happens. I know you love romance. Maybe you will find someone who will want to romance you, someone who will make you swoon."

"While I love the thought of that I don't have time to fall in love." I tell them.

"What do you mean you don't have time to fall in love? Is there ever a good time to fall in love?"

"Umm... Yes?" I say unconvincingly.

In the end my friends win out and I end up at a dance club. I am wearing a tight fitting short dress, something that I wasn't altogether comfortable wearing.

"Wow girl, you are smoking hot. Do you want to go get nasty on the dance floor with me?" a random guy asks me.

"No thank you. I am here with my friends." I say. I am scared to reject people. I don't know how they will react. I don't have any real experience with romance or men hitting on me like this. The only things I know about romance are the things that I have learned in dating sims.

After we get home from dancing we decide to sneak into the campus pool. Lucy invites some guy friends including Zerrick. He makes me really uncomfortable, trying to rub up against me and say that it was an accident.

The water is freezing as it is still April and hasn't warmed up completely yet. I am also just super uncomfortable. I tell my friends goodbye and leave. They barely notice.

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"I have dealt with some uncomfortable birthdays before, this one can't be that much worse, can it?" I say to Blizzie. The thoughts of the outdoor pool didn't help me feel any less cold. If anything I was feeling even colder. I wanted to try talking to see if that helps any.

"Not bad. Stay with Blizzie. Stay with Benny. Stay safe. Jasper okay too. Ignore others. Party will be fine." Blizzie says and it is clear to see that he is trying to comfort me. Somehow it is actually helping.

"You're right Blizzie. As long as I stay with people that care about me I should be fine." I say. "Okay I have been in this stupidly cold bath long enough. I'm going to go soak in my normal one now and actually get clean" I tell Blizzie.

I slip into the bath and begin to wash myself. I take my time though, wanting to warm up.

"Oh! Maybe we should look and see who actually likes me so we can know who to spend our time with."

"People may like you more before then. We have time. Everyone should love Aria!" Blizzie says. That was a very clear sentence he just said. Look at my smart familiar. Blizzie is the best.

"That's true. Let's see how we are doing right now though." I tell Blizzie.

"Okay." he says. I wonder if he can see my status screen too. Well, even if he can see it that doesn't mean that he can read it.

Irick Glassel

Friendship: 15/100

Suspicion: 5/100

Romance: 25/100

"Why did his romance score go up? Is it because we had that cliché moment where I fell on top of him? Okay, noted. Do not have cliché scenes with the OG males leads. Or maybe Irick is just a creep. Who is to say." I say outload to Blizzie.

Bennett Glassel

Friendship: 79/100

Suspicion: 0/100

"I am so glad to see that Bennet likes me and that I haven't raised his suspicion. I guess my personality matches the one that Aria shows to Benny. He does like her more than anyone and she is more honest with him that anyone else."

"Benny good boy! Like Benny lots!" Blizzie says. I am glad that he likes Benny so much. Animals are a good judge or character. They seem to sense things that humans don't.

Jasper Stone

Friendship: 55/100

Suspicion: 0/100

Romance: 37/100

"Oh my! Look at that romance score. Alias said don't let the OG male leads romance score get too high. He never said anything about the potential true route boys. I am guessing that if he didn't warn me about them then I should be fine if it raises. I was almost expecting Jasper's friendship score to be higher. Maybe we just don't really spend time together outside of his shop?"

Samuel Redding

Friendship: 23/100

Suspicion: 0/100

Romance: 26/100

"Oh! Samuel's points increased. I wonder if the affection scores get higher if you buy things from shops. I would like people more if they bought things from my shop. Well, that may not be true. I wouldn't like them more if they were a jerk while in my shop. At that thought I get another memory, an Aria memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Look at that Blizzie. We have our new shop set up! There isn't a lot of variety in here yet but I think that the potions and charms we made are really good quality. I hope that they sell well. I want to make a living on my own and not rely on the king."

"Our shop great! People should love!" Blizzie responds.

"I agree with you, but people do not like me. Maybe that will affect the opinions of the people that come in to buy things."

"Nope! Good potions! Pretty charms!" Blizzie says encouragingly.

"You're right Blizzie. I think we are ready. Let's open our doors!"

I open the door to my shop to let people know that we are open. I don't have an open/closed sign yet so I feel that this is a good way for people to know that my shop is open.

It takes a while for the first person to come in. It actually takes so long that I had begun to fear that nobody would come in at all today.

"Hello! Thank you for stopping in to my shop. Is there anything in particular that you are looking for today?" I ask the customer.

"No. I just wanted to see what crap the weirdo fake princess would be selling in her shop."

I try not to let his words get to me. People don't seem to know that their words hurt me. They see me as less than human.

"Well then Feel free to look around. If you have any questions feel free to ask me!" I tell him. He huffs and begins to look around.

"What is this garbage? Potion of water walking? Who would use that? Oh and potion of sweet dreams? You think you can really control that. You really are a stupid false princess."

"If you don't want to buy anything then you are welcome to leave." I tell him.

"Are you really going to be rude to a customer? Your shop isn't going to last." he says. He then takes one of my potions and throws it at me. Luckily I catch it. Because I am so focused on catching the potion I don't notice the second one he throws. It narrowly misses me and shatters against the wall beside me.

"Get. Out!" I tell him. It seems that there is something in my tone that causes him to leave. "And don't come back. If I see you again I will curse you!"

I am worried that because of the way I treated that customer no one else will come into my shop. I am wrong though. People slowly start trickling in and almost all of them ended up buying something. It gives me warm feelings towards the people that are nice when they buy my items.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well then, when we go back to searching for the hidden route we have something new to try."