In that moment, I was glad that my heart no longer beat, for if it had, it most certainly would have given me away. I see now looking back– and so too do the readers, most likely– that I was not as subtle and inconspicuous as I thought I was. In fact, my attempts to appear so might have been what made me stand out even more.

  “A-about what?” I asked. This time the stutter was not faked.

  “About your relationship with that man,” he nodded over at Rafael.

  “Wh-what do you mean?” Again, nothing faked. My confusion was genuine.

  “Are you his slave?”

  “...What?!”

  “It’s alright miss, you can tell us anything,” said the other paladin with a look of genuine concern in his eyes.

  “I am not enslaved to him,” I said.

  “Is he coercing you to follow him in any way?” asked the first paladin.

  “No? What-? Why do you ask?”

  “Miss if there is anything at all bothering you about that man, feel free to let us know,” said the second. “He won’t be able to do anything to you with us around.”

  “I said I was fine,” I snapped. “Is this because of my clothes? My clothes got torn up and I lost my bag, so he lent me some of his until we get back to the city and I can get some better fitting ones. We’re traveling together voluntarily. If anything, I’m the one coercing him.”

  “Sorry to bother you miss,” said the first, bowing his head. “We take the possibility of slavery very seriously, so we had to be certain.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “Thanks for worrying, but I’m fine.”

  “It is our duty,” he replied. “No need for thanks. If there is anything else that you find yourself in need of, feel free to ask us. We would be happy to help.”

  “I will. Thank you.”

  I later learned in more detail the reasons for their concern about my freedom. Apparently, in Johann, their home country, there had been a recent rash of nobles arrested for slavery, and many had fled with their slaves to escape the justice of the church. Their suspicions were based not just on the fact that my clothes did fit, but also that they were of high quality, as well as the quality of Rafael’s own clothes. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they thought that my violet eyes and pale skin (I lost my tan when I died) meant I had some form of albinism, making me something of a valuable collector’s item for a wealthy and morally deficient noble.

  All-in-all, the whole situation was a misunderstanding, and was resolved without issue. For the rest of the day, I still felt the occasional, uncomfortable gaze of the paladins keeping an eye on me in case I had lied to them, but I guess I didn’t raise anymore red flags, because they did not talk to either of us again until we reached the city and said farewell as we parted ways.

  It was an hour or so before sunset when we entered the city of Bizet, and Rafael and I separated from the rest of the caravan. We waved to the paladins, and said somewhat more personal goodbyes to Jean and Arman, then I followed Rafael through the streets as he wandered at random until we reached a relatively deserted area, and he turned to me with a serious expression on his face.

  “Did you really lose your memories?”

  “...No,” I said.

  I considered trying the same lie on him, but since I still needed to stick with him, at least until we exchanged our clothes again, he would probably realize that I was not as amnesiac as I claimed. Instead, I opted for a different lie.

  “However, I have been asleep for so long that I might as well have. And even before I fell asleep, I didn’t go out much. I don’t know much about the world.”

  Based on how easily he had accepted my ignorance defense of being out in the sunlight, I correctly assumed that he knew almost nothing about vampires, and even if they did not enter long slumbers like the ones in stories from Earth, he would not know that.

  “How long were you asleep?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “At least a few hundred years.”

  “Oh. That’s a long time. What was the world like back then?”

  “I don’t know. Like I said, I didn’t go out much. All I really knew was my house.”

  “Oh. That sucks.”

  “Yeah. But let’s not talk about that anymore. I’d like to find some clothes that actually fit me.”

  “Oh. Good idea. Except… I’ve never been here before… I don’t know where to go.”

  “Then let’s just go back to that main street,” I suggested. “There will probably be a good shop around.”

  “Ok,” he said.

  He turned around and started walking the other direction, which was not the way we had come, and when he reached an intersection he hesitated.

  “Where are you going?” I said. “It’s this way.”

  “Oh. Sorry. Uhhh.” He scratched his head and walked awkwardly toward me.

  “Just follow me. I memorized the way back.”

  A few minutes later, we were back among the crowds of people filling the main street leading in from the city gate. The shops were all marked by pictures rather than words, and it didn’t take long to find one with a painting of a dress on it. I was hesitant to enter, since the shop looked too high-class for what I needed, but Rafael was not, so I had no choice but to follow him in.

  The bottom floor of the shop was just a large lobby, with couches and low tables and a few catalog books and wooden coasters. There were two groups of three women, one young, possibly even teenaged, and the other gray-haired. They were chatting on the couches and sipping on tea while casually flipping through the books. When we walked in, a few gave us curious glances, but for the most part, they ignored us. There were a few women in simple, red and white uniform dresses, and when they saw us, one approached.

  “Hello, welcome to La Fleur Boutique, how may we serve you today?” she asked pleasantly.

  “She needs new clothes,” said Rafael gesturing to me.

  I tapped him on the shoulder. “This seems a bit expensive,” I said. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

  He shuffled uncertainly, then spoke again to the attendant. “Uhh, how much are the dresses here?”

  If the maid thought the question strange or out of place, it did not show on her face or in her voice.

  “All of our clothes, even the casual dresses, use high-quality fabrics imported from all over the world. However, we also make sure to keep our prices affordable, so we can cater to all people of all statuses. Brand new casual clothing can be had for as low as five silver, and we have ballroom gowns starting at two gold.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Rafael shrugged. “Yeah that’s fine,” he said.

  I did not believe him, because he was rich and naive, but he had already said, out loud, that the price was not an issue, so it would have made me look bad if I still tried to back out. I was worried about how much I would have to pay him back, but with paladins around, I was more concerned with appearing normal as soon as possible than I was with making money.

  “Alright then,” I said, trying not to let the apprehension reach my voice.

  “Right this way, then,” said the attendant, turning to walk toward a staircase in the back of the room. “We’ll take your measurements first, and then give you some time to look through the catalog. The owner is currently busy with another- Oh, nevermind.”

  I followed her gaze up the staircase to a woman in a simple white and blue dress and a mask shaped like a lioness. Behind her was an armored man wearing a plain black mask. The attendant gestured at us to step aside as they descended and walked through the lobby toward the door. Though I couldn’t tell, since their masks didn’t have eyeholes, I felt the uncomfortable sensation of being watched from beneath the plaster lioness. I was ready to write it off as it just being my unusual appearance until she stopped in front of me and turned to face me.

  “What is your name?” she asked, her voice soft and smooth as silk.

  “Lucille,” I said, confused.

  “You have lovely skin, Lucille,” she said. “I know it’s a strange request, but would you mind letting me in on your secret? How did you get it so pale and smooth?”

  “I was just born this way.”

  “Ah, that’s unfortunate.” She held up a delicate hand. “I’ve spent a fortune on my own skin, but it still can’t compare. Well, sorry to bother you. Have a wonderful day.”

  “You as well.”

  At the time, I resolved my confusion at the encounter by just assuming she had been genuine. It was a very strange conversation, but everything I’d seen off the world up till then indicated that societally and technologically, it was around the same time period that noblewomen drank arsenic to make their skin pale. Of course, that was not the true reason, but that is a detail for another time.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” said the attendant. “She came here a few hours ago and asked to see our nicest clothes. You could ask the owner, though if the client wished to keep their identity a secret, she won’t tell you.

  “Anyways, sorry for the interruption. Follow me upstairs and we’ll take your measurements.”

  The rest of my time in the boutique was unremarkable. The owner was a middle-aged woman with a thick layer of makeup to make herself look younger, and she was very good at upselling. I caught myself almost agreeing to her suggestions multiple times when she tried recommending more expensive options. By the end, she was disgruntled and disappointed, and didn’t even bother to bid us farewell, but I was only one gold and three silver in debt to Rafael, rather than the forty or fifty that the owner would have had me in.

  In addition to the wool dress and hooded shawl I was wearing, we also purchased a pair of fur-lined gloves and boots and a purse-like satchel in which I put my original dress and shoes and a few borrowed coins. The purse didn’t really match the dress, but it was the only one large enough to hold my things that didn’t cost a fortune, so I didn’t have a choice.

  When we re-emerged, the sun had set, and the streets had almost fully emptied, save for a few stragglers. There was a cold breeze blowing through, but it felt more nice on my skin than anything, now that I was no longer concerned with freezing. It was not the most elegant, or practical piece of clothing in the world, but it was usable, and it made me look much more ordinary. My eyes and hair still stood out, but now I looked more like a young lady with a unique appearance than a runaway slave, which was a major improvement.

  Rafael and I walked a block from the boutique without a word between us before I stopped and turned to face him.

  “What will you do now?” I asked. “I still need to repay you, but we don’t need to travel together anymore.”

  “I uh. I actually don’t know,” he said. “I actually ran away from my home, but I didn’t really have a plan for what I would do after that. I just kept going as far away as possible.”

  “You could become a chef,” I suggested. “Your cooking is certainly good enough.”

  “Maybe…” he said, not looking at all excited about the prospect. “I kinda- I dunno- I thought maybe I could become an Adventurer?” His head was angled to the side, but he looked at me out of the corner of his eye to see my reaction.

  “Like, fighting monsters and stuff?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I just think it would be cool. Like Niccolo the Delver. Have you heard of him?”

  “Never,” I said.

  “Well, he’s basically the greatest adventurer of all time. He was a beastman from the tiger tribe, and he made it his mission to conquer every Dungeon in the world. He almost did it too. He even conquered two Sealed Dungeons! Everyone in the world knew who he was, and whenever he went to a new country, the kings would offer their daughters to him in marriage. There was this one time…”

  He launched into a long-winded and poorly-told story of how the legendary adventurer had once gone into a dangerous Dungeon with no gear, not even clothes, in order to win the favor of a king and marry his daughter, only to laugh in the king’s face and reject the marriage proposal after he emerged. He tried to tell me another story after that, but I held up a hand to stop him.

  “Alright, I get it,” I said. “You want to be famous and have a harem.”

  “No, I-!”

  “I’m just kidding,” I said. “But I don’t need to hear any more about Niccolo. So, you’re going to be an adventurer. Where can I find you so that I can pay you back once I get my money?”

  “Well, I was kind of thinking of staying here,” he said. “Bizet has a Dungeon nearby. It’s a weak one, but I’m not very strong yet, so that’s okay. This will be my starting point.”

  “Good. I will be staying here for a while as well,” I said. “How can I contact you once I get the money?”

  “I guess through the Adventurer’s Guild?” he said. “I don’t know where I’m staying yet, so…”

  “Alright,” I said. “I’ll come find you at the Adventurer’s Guild, then. For now, I want to explore the city. Alone.”

  “I could go with you if you want,” he suggested. “If we went together, you would know where I’m staying.”

  “True, but you’re probably going to eat first, and I’m not interested in that.”

  “Oh.”

  In truth, I was interested in eating. My Satiety had dropped down to 50, and I was worried about where I would find blood, but I needed time to myself and some privacy before I could make any real decisions. I hadn’t been alone since the forest, and then, I was more worried about freezing than I was about finding information. Now, I was finally in a city, I had clothes that helped me blend in (the dress had a hood to hide my hair), and I wasn’t in immediate danger. All I needed was to lose the dead weight.

  I know that sounds cruel, but in reality, dead weight is all he was at that point. Sure, his money was nice, but he seemed like the type more likely to create trouble than to solve it. Plus, he was still too cagey about his background for me to trust him as much as I would need to. He was kind, but he was also naive, and stupid, and there was no way his running away was going as smoothly as he thought it was, and I didn’t want to be anywhere close when whatever rich family he was from came to pick him up. I would pay him back for what he did for me, and then I would move on.

  At least, that was my plan when I said goodbye to him on that street in Bizet. But as you’ll come to learn, very few of my plans were ever successful.

  After we parted ways, I went on a casual stroll through the streets. Because I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, I noticed many things that I might not have if I had been tunnel visioned. Like the fact that all the architecture was distinctly French (I didn’t actually know much about architecture, but I had been to France a few times with my father, so I was familiar with the style). Or that all the street lanterns were neither fire, nor electric, but were instead glowing stones. Or that the streets were all one solid piece of earth with almost no cracks or holes. Or that there was a man who smelled like garbage and feces following me at a distance.

  That last one I found mildly concerning. Back on Earth I simply would have confronted him. I always carried weapons in my purse, and usually the mere threat of their existence was enough to deter any strange stalkers. However, on Astraeus, I was level 3 (I leveled up once more while staying with the paladins for reasons I do not know), and the homeless man had lived there his whole life. Even if he was weak, he would be stronger than me. So, I started looking for a place to take shelter.

  There were a few taverns and inns, but I didn’t want to go into one of those if I could help it. I didn’t have any money, and if the owners realized that, they would kick me out, and I would be left no better off than before. I quickened my pace, glancing around for something to help me. Soon, a sign caught my eye. It was not large, or flashy, but it stood out among the rest because it was one of the few in the city that had a word written on it, rather than an image. The word was “Books” and it was written neatly, but plainly in gold on a green wooden background. Many shops had closed their doors and windows for the night, but this one still had light streaming through the window.

  I made a beeline for the building, and confidently opened the door. Fortunately, the door was unlocked, and the bookstore was indeed open. There were only three people inside, but all were notable, two from familiarity, and the third from his unique appearance. The first two were the lady and the knight that I had run into the boutique. Her lion mask was sitting on a desk in front of her, but she was looking at the third person behind the desk, so I still could not see her face.

  The third person was an elf. A true, tolkienian elf. He was seated, but I could tell he was tall from how he still nearly matched the lady’s height, and he was very slender, his arms looking no thicker than mine. His hair was long, straight, and platinum-blond and had pointed ears the size of kitchen knives poking out parallel to his skull, and his eyes were a metallic gold.

  The two men stared at me when they heard the bell above the door ring, the elf with a grin on his face, but the lady took the time to put her mask back on before turning around.

  “Lucille?” she said. “What a lovely coincidence.”