Whatever Aarick might have wanted, he still needed to finish out his etiquette lesson. That dragged on less than he would have normally expected, but having the lesson accompanied by magical holograms would do that.

He would probably get used to them, eventually, but he was happy enough to relish the wonder while he had it.

There was a slightly distracting chorus in his head that repeated “Magic, Fuck Yeah!” or some variation every few minutes. Usually when something small would take him out of the presentation and he would once again remember both that: one, personalized magic was being performed in from of him, and two, there was a decent chance it was also an option for him.

If it weren’t for the presence of others he would have rolled his eyes at himself.

Yes, yes, shiny shiny. Now shut up and pay attention brain.

Soon enough, however, Lamne was apparently finished for the day, and she left after an achingly perfect bow.

I could probably use that bow to calculate angles…

Sadly, with cultivation’s increased level of bodily control, he fully expected people to be even more demanding of perfection.

Increased health and function versus a larger degree of social bullshit. I guess cultivation is worth it… if only barely, once I include magic.

He wanted to grin again. This was a real world, and just based on his limited experience so far, it was obviously not all sunshine, but the thought of magic still made him a bit too happy.

Maybe I’m hyper-focusing? I mean it’s magic, so… it’s hard to tell.

He just shook his head. Sadly, ADHD meds didn’t last very long. Some of it would remain in his system and help for a while, but the major impact had likely already faded.

Stupid short term medications. If cultivating does help…

He tried to put it out of his mind, but it was difficult.

At least ADHD has potential combat applications.

He didn’t really know what to think about this world, but the training room’s inclusion in his suite suggested a significantly marshal bent. Even assuming, socially, he would never be expected to engage in real combat, and nobles only engaged in performative or competitive actions, it was obvious that he would need to become much better trained.

And, he didn’t remember exactly what Lurona had done when he arrived, but Aarick suspected that some form of violence had occurred. Plus, there had been mentions of demons and eldritch abominations.

I don’t think I am lucky enough to have come to world without violence.

Though, to be fair, it wasn’t like Earth was completely without violence, either. Especially in some areas of the world.

His mind was briefly drawn back toward the train he had seen. At least there was some mechanical technology, as well.

His thoughts were soon interrupted by Reodan, who led him out of the room and into the meditation room. The wood of the floor flexed slightly underfoot, before it was masked by the plush rugs creating their own islands. Or maybe lakes considering they were predominantly blue.

Reodan lit incense in a small silver burner, which emitted a sweet scent into the air. The incense was lighter than Aarick expected, closer to a gentle perfume than the more stifling experiences he had dealt with, rarely, in the past.

Is that a question of quality, type, or are they just using something different on this planet?

It wasn’t really a question that he could answer, nor did he expect it to be useful even if he could, so it was discarded like most of his constant thought barrage. He attempted to sort through it, plucking out whatever details might be important.

Well, it’s meditation… Too many potential implications, sadly. Is it for cultivation, religion, rituals, general mental health…?

His first assumption was cultivation, especially with the way that qi was heightened in the room. Sadly, that only made mental health less likely, leaving any of the three others. Qi, which he was more or less labeling magic until he knew better, could easily supplement both religion or rituals.

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

For all he knew he was going to learn some entirely different aspect of the local magic system, and the qi would help with that.

Just so much I don’t fucking know yet.

Reodan hadn’t bothered to say anything yet, or maybe he had and he hadn’t heard him. It was too late to ask now, because Reodan has left the room while so he was lost in his thoughts.

Not like I don’t have plenty of thoughts to fill up the time.

His lips quirked slightly at the eternal battle of being ADHD. He would always have enough thoughts and curiosity to fill any amount of time, and he would easily grow bored of any one distraction.

Wonder who would teach meditation?

A few more moments passed as he distracted himself with images of ancient old men with excessively long beards or ageless women with placid voices and equally long hair, though obviously focused on different place. His brain had just started to combine the two with that thought, his mouth smirking slightly at the thought of bald sagely women with ageless faces and very long beards, when a tiny woman with brown skin swept into the room.

“Hello, hello,” she gushed as she fluttered about, seeming to exude energy into the air; her was voice deeper than he would have expected, a throaty contralto. “Sorry, I might be a bit late.” For the briefest moment she turned toward Reodan who was trailing behind her, “Am I late?” She didn’t bother to wait for a response, her words continuing on without fail. “Oh, well, doesn’t matter anyway…”

Her demeanor threw him off. Though it wasn’t so much the words as the body language, and accent.

Her accent was similar to all the others he had heard so far. He wasn’t sure if that was due to the structure or education of the Empire, something local, or if the more educated adopted an accent of their own. Honestly, with the way she spoke he was expecting “don’t you knows” to start cropping up at any minute.

And, despite the rambling of her speech, her body language was still rigidly controlled.

“You were just with Lamne, weren’t you? So stiff, isn’t she? I know she teaches etiquette, but still…”

Aarick shook himself out of his surprise enough to respond.

“Yes,” he said, with a smile. “However, speaking of etiquette…”

He bowed slightly, having practiced with the aforementioned Lamne shortly before.

“I, Aarick Perdita, welcome you into my service.”

For a moment, peace descended as the small woman stopped and responded to the ritual, the bow leaving tresses of curly brown hair to frame and partly conceal her face.

Her name turned out to be Bet Owinga.

Other than her diminutive size, which was even smaller that he had gotten used to, only her skin seemed slightly odd. The brown skin occasionally glittered with faint lines. Almost like pattern of gold lay beneath the skin, or some fey creature was waiting for her to shed a false exterior.

Fully normal human is the outlier here.

It was a funny thought, but he didn’t express it, paying attention to Bet as best he could.

“Sit down on one of the rugs, dear. My, you are a tall one, aren’t you? Even when I teach teenagers, they are usually closer to my height.” She tittered lightly, and the rich sound echoed off the walls, seeming to fill up the entire space.

Even more than the qi, it felt like her presence filled up the room.

No, that wasn’t quite right.

The qi resonated with her voice as well.

She is doing something with the sound.

He didn’t know enough about qi to know what that might mean.

Well I suppose if you really like to talk, you might gain some affinity with sound qi. Maybe it goes deeper than that. Perhaps she has mastered the Dao of small talk.

Internally he rolled his eyes at himself, before he considered further. While he doubted there was an exact power of that type, he would not be surprised to find that there were social powers. After all, humans were, almost without fail, more dangerous to each other than anything else.

Of course, putting someone at ease would also be a very useful skill when teaching meditation.

Well, guess I will need to be mindful then, won’t I.

Satisfied with his pun, he attempted to resume his concentration.

Unconsciously he had followed her instructions and was now cross-legged on the floor. The rug was so plush he felt almost buoyant.

He had missed some of what she said, but it didn’t seem likely that she had said anything of great import just yet.

“…oh, Torasa, he always had such a hard time with meditation. Almost impossible to keep that child still for any length of time. I told his parents that he was still too young, but they wouldn’t listen to me. I mean, I’m only the expert, right?”

Bet continued to talk as she moved another rug directly across from him, and then proceeded to sit down herself.

Finally, once they were both facing each other, Bet started to actually teach.

“Now, I understand there was some kind of incident, is that right?”

He failed to answer for a moment, half expecting her to continue speaking without waiting for a response.

“Ah, yes. I wasn’t conscious for most of it,” he said. “Lady Lurona only gave me the barest overview of what happened.”

She nodded her head with a faint smile, looking sympathetic.

“Of course. More relevant for our purposes, I don’t feel anything from you at all. They took your cultivation, somehow?”

It was tricky, but he formulated a truthful response.

“Honestly, I am not entirely sure what they did. When I woke here, I knew almost nothing of cultivation. Based on what I do remember, Lurona says my family has noble status. At my age, I should know a lot about cultivation, but I know almost nothing. And, obviously,” he gestured toward his body, “my cultivation is what it is. Or rather, I don’t appear to have any. Lamne just finished examining my etiquette. She said I was from one of the other empires.”

Bet’s eyes practically glittered.

“Really, how exciting!” She paused briefly, before she seemed to gather herself. “Ah, not for you, of course, dear…” She trailed off for a moment, before rallying. “Well, not to worry, I’ll get you back into cultivating before you know it.”

As she finally started to teach, he resolved to ask Reodan a question later.

Who, exactly, had decided that Bet should teach him after etiquette lessons. It was either a terrible oversight, or a brilliant test of his ability to practice everything he had just learned.

Sadly, I suspect it was done on purpose.