Alice set herself up by the chair next to the balcony where she could get a good look at the comings and goings of various Law Enforcement classers. The Fire Brigade had arrived and done their job admirably. Soon the trees and bushes were only smoldering.

Hopefully, the hotel would hire a Nature Mage out to fix the damage.

However, Law Enforcement continued to swarm all over the rest of the courtyard, which made Alice nervous. She watched for signs that the Workers had been arrested, or that Tom and the little girl were caught. But there was nothing.

Mostly, the officers poked around and interviewed anyone coming and going late into the night.

Alice began to get drowsy. She blinked, and it seemed the next moment she woke with the sun in her eyes. The courtyard below was clear. It was over.

Prim slept in her lap under the form of a large cat. A very large cat. Alice didn't realize until now that her dragon had continued to grow. She had been so preoccupied over the last couple of days that she hadn't really noticed it.

Numi and Iggy both slept on the bed.

Where I should've slept, she thought ruefully. Carefully, she rose from her chair with Prim in her arms, and settled the dragon down on the mattress before stretching and yawning herself. She'd had quite an eventful day.

Looking around the room, she found that she was growing tired of it. Besides, she was supposed to be an Apprentice Merchant, wasn't she? Or she would be, once she fixed the Visible Class again.

Oh. Had she gone out looking like a Nobleman but with the tag of a Maid?

Alice winced, but remembered that the Hotel Attendant had automatically called her a Lord. It wasn’t a wonder that the false Workers had realized something had been amiss, however.

It only took a moment of concentration to change her visible class back to Apprentice Merchant. There. Done. She should go out and...

What exactly does an Apprentice Merchant do? she wondered. Probably some form of shopping, which she wasn't unhappy with. She needed more clothing, and a new place to rent.

The dragons were stretching and yawning, coming out of their slumber.

"Numi, be a dear and please collect all of the coins into your storage space," Alice said, "and try not to eat anything. I'll be ordering breakfast for us all, and I would like you to try real food."

"But I don't like real food, it's gross. It doesn't taste anything like coins," Numi whined.

"One would think that would be an advantage," Alice muttered to herself, "at least try it. It might do wonders for your scales."

"What's wrong with my scales?”

“They're kind of green," Iggy replied, shimmying to the side to flash his red scales in the morning light. For a brief moment they looked like dancing flames.

"There's nothing wrong with your scales,” Alice said firmly, “and I want that to continue to be the case. You need a balanced diet.”

Numi grumbled for a moment, but Alice sensed that she would acquiesce.

Then she took a double-take at Iggy. Her fearsome little man had grown at least a hand-span in length since last night.

Swiftly, she checked on his status:

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Aspect 3

“Igcendiorum”

Level: 1

Skills: 3/3

Fire Breath (Permanent skill: Locked.) : Level 3

Burning Claws: Level 2

Ultimate Armor: Level 0

She frowned in thought. Clearly, Iggy’s Fire Breath and Burning Claws skills received some experience from last night. Enough so that his primary skill actually reached level 3. However his overall level was at 1.

Was this because his Ultimate Armor skill was still at zero?

She suspected that was the primary reason, and was determined to keep a closer eye on her dragons stats to understand how they worked so she could help them grow faster.

Though… she couldn’t be sorry his Ultimate Armor was still so low. It told that last night’s fight had been so one-sided he hadn’t been required to use it.

She just wanted to keep him safe… though she doubted Iggy would appreciate her trying to protect him.

Setting that aside for now, Alice then went to the vanity to try to do something with her hair. Luckily, the fancy room came with the basic supplies: a hairbrush, hair ties, and some device labeled with a 'drying charm', which she didn't quite understand until she glanced at the bath. It was still empty.

Oh yes, I could order a bath, for a fee, she thought, having heard that as a done thing from snippets of conversation among passing Noble Ladies. Then, afterward, she would follow it up with the drying charm.

A bath. A real bath with hot water and all the lovely soaps arranged in a row beside the tub. She wasn't sure why she hadn't taken advantage of that before now. Except that in her old life as a General Laborer, bathing was usually done only at need, scrubbing from a cold bucket which was never pleasant. And there were no charms but an old rag to towel herself off with – hopefully clean, but usually not.

Or perhaps she didn’t have to order a bath at all. She was perfectly able to fill the tub, herself.

Leaving her dragons to squabble among themselves, she shut herself in the bathroom and turned on the spigot. There was nothing to be done with her clothes, which were starting to look rather wrinkled. Especially compared to people she’d seen walking in this district. Luckily they were not too dirty.

She set them aside, and realized ruefully that she would have to buy something new today, Apprentice Merchant or not.

She exited the bathroom half an hour later, feeling cleaner than she'd ever felt in her life. The only downside was that her clothes had gotten a bit damp from the humidity. She made a face as she pulled them over her clean skin.

I've become so fancy in just a few days, she thought to herself, amused. A real proper lady who worries about a bit of honest dirt.

She had just gone to the vanity to see how she could best pin up her, lank blonde hair when a sharp knock came at the front door.

Instantly, everybody froze. Iggy and Numi, who were wrestling on the bed, and Prim, who had been preening her wings in the early morning sunshine.

"Prim," Alice hissed, then jerked her chin towards the window. "Hide them outside."

Instantly, the three dragons obeyed. Iggy and Numi dashed over to Prim's side, who extended her large wings as if to shield them. A moment later, they were hard to see, as they had been safely tucked under Prim's Concealment skill.

However, they weren't entirely invisible. All three took on the appearance of a ripple in the air as they scuttled together to the outside balcony where they vanished entirely. Hopefully, Prim had put them under her Illusion skill to give them an extra layer of protection.

But how long can she keep that up? Alice fretted. She had an instinctive feeling for Prim’s skills and knew that the more creatures she hid under it, the more difficult it would be to maintain.

The knock came again. Alice swallowed down her first impulse, which was, of course, influenced by being a General Laborer all her life, to rush to the door and apologize for the barely perceptible delay.

"No, I'm an Apprentice Merchant now," she reminded herself. "I won't apologize to anyone."

"One moment. I haven't called for room service," she said, making her tone sharp to cover her nervousness. She momentarily worried if she had just made a hardworking Hotel Attendant or Maid cringe.

Alice quickly pinned up her bangs away from her face and strode to the door.

She opened it a crack, and her heart froze inside her chest. A burly Law Enforcement officer stood in front of her.