Most of our trip at the museum was filled with Anna’s ramblings about Anna’s visits to the estate her relatives owned. We continued walking through displays of yellowing clothes and old nick-nacks as Anna was searching for something to ramble out. Anna wasn’t exactly from this area of Ukraine, but most rural slavic people lived very similar lives.

“This plaque says something about the second wave of Greek migration? Like, from the Ottoman Empire.” Said Anna.

“Where’s that?” Christian, along with everyone who didn’t care about maps or history, wouldn’t even know where their own country was on a map, nonetheless an extinct country that hadn’t mattered since the eighteen hundreds.

“Turkey and arabia. Greek people were there way before Turkish people though.” I said after seeing Anna thinking for far too long. I only knew what I knew because of my brief historical fantasy phase. Historical fantasy was often misconstrued as ‘alternate history’, which I personally thought was a stupid name.

“Oh, yea, I went on vacation there once.” Said Christian, trying to naturally continue our conversation before Anna cleared her throat to bring our attention to her.

“Yea, good for you, anyway,” Said Anna before looking back at the recreation of a historical art piece. Russia had burnt every cultural art piece they could before retreating because nationalism bred spite. “This work by Taras… Shevchenko?” She clearly didn’t pronounce it right, but who was I to judge? I’d have butchered it way harder. She checked the spelling again before speaking. “Yea, Taras Shevchenko. This was apparently meant to convey the life of a common farmer.”

“Looks… very old.” I wasn’t one to have very insightful commentary on art. It just wasn’t my specialty. It would’ve been in an ideal world, but I didn’t have the time nor the willpower to actually learn how to draw.

“Wow, thanks captain obvious. Taras Shevchenko suffered and toiled for hours in the agonising Ukrainian summer just to draw that, and all you have to say is ‘Looks very old’?” I knew Anna was deliberately acting dramatic and wasn’t actually angry at me. I normally wouldn’t enjoy her belittling me, but if she enjoyed herself doing so, then it was worth it. It had been far too long since I had seen her genuinely have fun.

“What do you want me to say? You’d normally have an anecdote to go along with everything. We can leave if you ran out of them.” It felt like we were visiting this museum for far too long and far too little at the same time, but we could visit other places. We didn’t have to stay in this museum all day.

“Yea! We’re leaving!” The demoness said before picking me up and running off. I could tell she was bored every time Anna started talking about village life, and I had to glare at her several times to stop her from grabbing me and running off. I just let her do it this time because I already wanted to leave, and putting the blame on her was easier than facing the consequences of my actions.

“Ugh, fine. It’s getting late anyway.” Said Anna before I pulled myself off of the demoness and waited for Christian and Anna to catch up. “Did any of you actually even listen to my ramblings?” Said Anna before going back to her emotionless state. She wasn’t like this before, but she probably had to invent some sort of coping mechanism after failing to achieve her goal of sword casting or whatever the official term for infusing a sword with magic was.

“Yea, obviously. I mean, I kinda zoned out after you stopped talking about your family.” Said Christian. Of course he’d stop listening there. He cared not for history nor farm life. What he cared for was people.

“Uhm… what? You actually paid attention to all that?” Said Anna as they caught up with us and started walking towards the exit of the museum. I could already see Sam waiting for us, reading one of the many tomes he stashed under his cultist robes.

“Hey, Christian, could you do me a favour?” I said before Christian could continue his conversation with Anna.

“Sure pal. What is it?” I needed to secure Sam’s loyalty to the party, and making him hate me just so he could be better friends with everyone else would hurt me in the long term. I couldn’t turn back time and stop myself from arguing with him, so I had to call in an expert when it came to talking.

“So… I might’ve fucked up and made Sam hate me just so he would stop being hostile to you guys. I need you to repay the favour and have a talk with him later.” Christian nodded right as we reached Sam. Sam was far too distracted to notice us, or even faintly hear what I said, or that was what I hoped was happening because he wasn’t looking up or even paying attention to us.

“Hey, Sam, get your face out of that book. We’re going to a tavern.” Said Anna as I looked outside. The air felt crisply cold, akin to how a mint tasted. The sun was setting as Christian was checking for the brochure, only to see it in Anna’s hands again. “Let’s see… These are all too high class for us. We can’t afford much without the Scarlet Emporium guild card. Alright, we’ll just go over to the closest one we can find. We’re not eating much either way.” We followed Anna as she took charge. I couldn’t decide anything right now because I didn’t know how much money we even had. I’d let Anna have her fun by pretending to be the leader. I’d be back in charge soon anyway.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Shit. Robot, we can’t cook anything this time!” I was really contemplating turning the nano-chatte on so it could take away my hunger, but my gnawing sense of guilt over using the nano-chatte as a crutch stopped me from waking it up. I had forgotten how I even woke it up in the first place.

“Is that your main worry right now? I don’t know how much food we can even afford. Anna, how much money do we have?” I said. Anna quickly grabbed our money pouch and took a quick look inside.

“Ninety ish gold coins.” It seemed about right. The bag was already bursting. How did mediaeval people store more than one hundred coins? The new world people had magic bags, but I was actually curious about how normal mediaeval people did it. A bag couldn’t store more than a couple hundred coins… right?

“No. It’s one hundred and fifty.” Said Sam after taking a brief look at the pouch.

“How would you know?” Said Anna.

“I have more experience using pouches, and know how big a coin is instinctively. You modern people use that useless paper currency that takes away your intuition about true currency” Sam really did sound like an old guy in a young man’s body. He was probably holding back his more old-timey lingo ever since I was in charge. He did have a brief moment where he didn’t hold it back after we got pulled out of death valley’s dungeon.

“You think you know better than me?” I immediately got in between Sam and Anna after she pulled out that card.

“Alright, that’s enough. Sam clearly knows more new world money than you do. Let him take charge for once.” She glared at me for daring to get involved. “Oh, trust me, you don’t want this fight. Keep your controlling self in check. You’re gonna take charge again soon anyway. You’re the de facto leader outside of combat or negotiation. Let Sam have commerce.” I was clearly the leader when it came to combat strategy, Christian should’ve been taking charge of negotiations if people didn’t view me as the leader, and Sam would have commerce. Anna was a jack of all trades, which meant she could fill in where we couldn’t. The demoness didn’t need to be a leader. She felt happy just being the brute force.

“Fine.” She tossed the pouch at me, and I gave it to Sam. Everyone got out of the way as Sam hesitantly took charge. He walked through the now emptying town centre and walked towards the open air tavern. I could already hear the nearby mosquitos, and see the many pieces of yellow sugary tape stuck to the ceiling that were meant to make the mosquitos get stuck and die on them.

“Alright, there’s no table with five chairs. Who’s taking the log?” Said Sam before the demoness immediately grabbed the nearby log that would act as her seat and put it next to the table we’d sit around. “Why did I even ask?”

“Come on pal, don’t beat yourself up. You’re just being polite.” Said Christian as a waitress immediately walked to our table, unimpressed by our appearance.

“Pay upfront for what you’re buying.” The menu was comically small. They literally only had beer.

“What do you mean she rejected him again?!” Said the demon king of pain as his imp informed him about news about his daughter.

“T-The demon p-prince t-t-tried talking to h-her through a w-warlock, and she j-just beat him up before the w-warlock took control back.” The demon king raised his eyebrow before laughing heartily.

“Really now? And do pigs fly too? Do fish climb trees? Do mules give birth?” The demon king couldn’t believe that not only had someone on that planet beat his daughter (even if she was holding back for a challenge), but they also overpowered a demon prince’s mental influence? It was laughable to even suggest such a thing.

“I am not jesting my lord! T-The emporium confirms it.” The demon king stopped laughing almost immediately.

“So you’re telling me that my daughter doesn’t have a plan? Or that she legitimately let herself get married off to a mere insignificant human?! What is she thinking? It’s always about who’s technically proficient to her. She’d rather marry a human who knows how to fight rather than a demon who can beat her in terms of power.” The whole palace shook with the demon king’s anger. “I might actually have to get involved if she doesn’t ease off the human. If she hasn’t done it by the next time you inform me about what she’s doing, I’m going down there myself.”