“That’s clearly her,” Ceatri Beallette said to her shop aid who, for some reason, still refused to believe that the badly disguised girl moving back and forth in front of her store was the greatest and most prodigious royalty that their city has produced- well, maybe not the greatest or even the most prodigious, as throughout the history of the city, it produced amazing Everlasts that led the people against the brink of destruction.

With some even going as far as moving alongside their generation's Hero to fight against the Demon Lord despite not being a Prophecy but…

Princess Neophyte Astral Everlast may not be the greatest royalty their city has produced, but she is up there, alongside her ancestors responsible for making Everlast touch the clouds.

And right now, said person- who might as well be a walking myth because of all the things Ceatri has heard her do, - is standing in front of her store, walking back and forth in barely restrained manic while wearing a cloak that barely fit her tall frame- it stopped just above her knees, - sunglasses that did diddly squat to cover her silver eyes, and a badly worn wig that still had her silver hair poking out in some areas.

Whatever it is that’s going through the mind of the princess for her to do this, Ceatri didn't want to know.

Maybe the girl following around the princess like a tail would know the reason for why she's acting like this but Ceatri has been observing her too, and she's exactly as- if not more, - confused as Ceatri and her aid.

And it’s not like the princess herself didn’t look confused- well, the proper term to be used on Neophyte right now is that she’s confusing to look at because she herself didn't seem confused, just nervous about entering Ceatri's store, which in turn made everyone around her act out in confusion.

To Ceatri though, the scene didn’t make her feel confusion.

No.

It made her feel like her store was about to lose all of its customers because of the fact that the princess was possibly suspecting her of something, and if Ceatri felt that way then she couldn’t imagine the reaction of everyone outside who managed to recognize the princess and seeing her act out like this.

She wanted to go out there and ask her why she was doing this but since the inner workings of Neophyte’s prophecies are often hard to decipher- standing in their way is simply a foolish thing to do or worse, it would cause a repeat of the situation back when she was a kid, when she told her family about the Hero’s name and location years before she got him killed, which none of them believed.

Her prophecies shouldn’t be messed with- that much Ceatri agreed because if people believed her back then… maybe things would be different right now.

But unfortunately, such time has already passed and its sands rarely go back, if they ever.

Ceatri knew that there was no point in ruminating about past regrets- mourning it for a while after it happened is a good idea, get peace of mind from it, doubly so, but keeping the past close to one's chest is rarely, if ever, a good thing, and those that do often find themselves stuck at a local tavern or bar, drinking their regrets away using alcohol and beer.

Ceatri didn't truly know if the princess still had a small fragment of the past stuck to her heart like a particularly painful shard of glass but from the way she energetically acted, the old herbalist could tell that what happened back then didn’t bother the princess as much it would have- which is a good thing, for the world needs everything it could throw against the Demons and their hordes and push them back and Neophyte is someone capable of doing just that.

For now though… the stoic heroine who killed a Demon Duke is nowhere to be found…

… the princess kept going back and forth for a while before she eventually stopped directly in front of the door and with a resolute nod, pressed her hand against the handle and pushed it forward-

“Remember, don't call her out,” she said to her aid.

“It's not even her,” he said with a roll of his eyes, “and what's up with everyone just going along with the princess’ “joke” anyway? Some sort of noble thing? I've heard they can get pretty eccentric,”

Ceatri shrugged, “I have no idea.”

Personally, when asked about it, Ceatri would've just said to go along with the princess’ wants to keep her relationship and other secrets as well, “secrets” since there's no harm in doing so.

While at the same time, going along with them gives the princess- the same one who is training and will be one day fighting against the Demons in humanity's stead, - peace of mind, which will help her train more efficiently since she's not being held back by petty rumors.

All in all, playing along with the princess and not calling her out was beneficial and more importantly, didn't do any harm.

Those reasons were why Ceatri only smiled at the completely “unrecognizable” newcomer that entered her store with unsteady, fearful steps that, if Ceatri wasn't sure belonged to Neophyte, would've been enough to convince the herbalist that the person is just an insane noble daughter who wouldn’t be able to dress up even if her life depended on it.

Because the princess doesn't walk like this, she doesn’t walk like some spineless twerp- she walks confidently and reassuringly, as a proper, regal high-class should.

Her natural confidence was completely unlike her current chosen act of this meek, fearful, shy, and yet at the same time, insane looking woman.

The act was so believable that Ceatri herself wouldn't want to believe that this was the same person who defeated a Demon Duke with her Dragon.

Those (very confusing) feelings helped the old woman put on her own act, one that’s supposed to be of complete ignorance and obliviousness-

"Hello, young miss, how can I help you?” She greeted with hands held in front of her stomach, she didn't bow like she typically would to Royalty, as that would simply ruin the princess’ (badly done) disguise, the princess looked around, frowning, and Ceatri held back from talking using a terrified tone, she didn’t have poison within her shop- she made sure of it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The herbalist put on her best smile, “if what you're seeing around you is not to your liking, we have a catalog for our wares,”

Her majesty fixed her sunglasses and stared at Ceatri, the prior action revealing her silver eyes, “you do?” She sounded happy and so, Ceatri, as much as she suspected that the princess was here to inspect her store, nodded, “oh, that's great! I've been looking to buy some Iron Leaves, Meat Roots, and uh, Red Ginger? Do you have those?”

Ceatri nodded, so far, in all her experience as a herbalist, none of those plants have ever been used in hard drugs, quite the opposite in fact, these plants are typically used in prolonging lifespan as well as promoting vitality, or more commonly, drank as an after workout supplement because of the way they encourage muscle growth.

The fact that it was these three herbs that the princess asked for has made Ceatri feel hopeful that maybe she was just here to buy herself or maybe her… friends back in school a gift or two. Ceatri knew that much like Neophyte herself, the princess’ party also consisted of people who loved physical activities.

Idly, the herbalist's gaze landed on the crushed seed of a particular flower- one aptly called “Rabbit's Ears”, - which when consumed, turns the user into the animal that the flower is rightfully named after.

It is a very potent aphrodisiac that… the princess and her friends do not truly need, honestly the fact that they're not just Pledge Bearers, but have high chances of being Prophecies makes the need for enhancing their performance in bed unnecessary.

“Here you go, young miss,” Ceatri handed catalog at Neophyte with a smile as though she didn’t just have perverse thoughts about her and her team.

Alongside the catalog came the requested jars of crushed Iron Leaves, as well as powdered Meat Root and Red Ginger, “we have plenty of copies of our catalog so if you want, you can take your time in checking out the rest of our wares and buy anything that catches your eye,”

“I will!” The princess nodded and Ceatri watched as the princess’ eyes scanned the catalog up and down, after a while, she started buying things such as Honey Bark incense, powdered Blood Buds, Crushed Yellowsap, powdered Vitalitree Horns, and even Vine Snake extract.

If she wanted her exercise to yield better results over time, all of those were good choices, especially from someone that Ceatri has always assumed never knew anything about herbs but she supposes a prodigy is a prodigy and it seems that the princess didn’t just focus on how to be a Pledge Bearer, but other, more mundane pursuits such as herbalogy as well.

Most impressive.

The princess’ orders were quickly taken care of and it took everything out of Ceatri to not facepalm when she saw the princess casually take out her black and gold credit card- does she not know how to properly disguise herself?!

“I am paying? Hello?” Ceatri's eyes followed the black and gold card as it moved from left to right, “helloooo?”

“Right- sorry, but are you from…” Ceatri wasn't sure what to say… and what she’s saying is an obvious mistake-

The princess’ eyes widened and Ceatri resisted the urge to laugh in self-pointed mockery- “House Tequi?! You mean house Tequi right?” Neophyte asked twice and Ceatri… slowly nodded, how- how can someone be so smart and yet so stupid?.. “well I am!” Neophyte proudly said, as though her identity wasn’t already obvious, “that's why I have a gold and black card, just ask Mindy Whiskette over here,”

The quiet- if not tense, - girl suddenly flinched and with a squeak that wouldn't be strange to hear from a mouse, said, “y-yep! She's from the main branch!”

Wow these two are bad actors. Guess the princess does have a lacking talent and that's- whatever this is.

Not Neophyte soon finished her orders and when she took the bag full of herbs without fanfare or even a skeptical gaze, Ceatri felt tempted to ask her about the thing that’s been bothering her, she already knew the answer to her question, but just to be sure… “can I ask you something?”

“Sure, go ahead,” the princess nodded.

“Why bother with this disguise?” She asked.

“Oh, it's so that no one recognizes me for being a notable member of House Tequi,” Neophyte nodded, seemingly proud of herself.

So it is just a disguise after all… it's still weird that the princess went so far to do this but when it comes down to it, Ceatri supposed that this is on par for the course.

…

I can't believe that worked! I mean, I almost got caught by the end there but it's a good thing that the nice old lady already asked about me being a member of House Tequi moments before she questioned my disguise because if she didn't… Goddess I didn't know what I'd do and I would've just stood there like an idiot without realizing that she was asking me about being a member of Tequi.

Really, it's a good thing that things played out the way they did.

Grinning proudly at a disguise well done, I turned to my latest friend, Mindy Whiskette, who, just like that shopkeeper and her store earlier, wasn't a character ingame, let alone someone with a presence as an NPC but she was here and she did help me, making her as real as everyone else which for some reason never really clicked with me until I was about to enter a store that for once, wasn't familiar to me and my ingame knowledge.

It was… pretty odd, all things considered and I felt downright terrified about whether or not the herbal store would be like a glitchy area that hadn’t loaded properly when I was about to enter it.

Which was… wrong, making my panic pointless.

Eh, it’s not like I wasn’t scared of another thing, mostly about the fact that I didn't know what to expect- would the old lady I saw in the window glaring at me be scary? Would she be kind? Were there people in that store? Will they recognize me?

So many anxious thoughts just plagued my mind and the worse part is, I didn't need to pretend like I wasn't scared because I'm technically no longer Neophyte so my fear was out for all to see and they surprisingly didn’t react to it much.

“Uhm… why are you just staring at me like this your majesty?” Mindy asked and when I focused back on her, I noticed she was blushing and the desire to call it out and say that I didn’t mean it came to the forefront of my mind but just as quickly, it left because let's be honest here, she's just gonna think it's a joke like everyone else.

“Don't call me by that title when we're outside, okay?” She nodded, “no, instead, you call me by another name like…” Phyte obviously wouldn't work, and so will Eoph, Yte sounds stupid, then what about my other name? Tral is weird, Ast is… good, actually, Ast..er?

“Aster. Call me Aster when I'm like this,” I offered a raised hand to Mindy, “I'm Aster.”

“Mindy,” she introduced herself again with a bow, “now are we gonna?..” she trailed off and I hammered my fist into an open palm in realization, right, I completely forgot about that!

“Yep! We'll have to go to the mall and buy you a new change of clothes!” And hopefully for myself as well because holyyyyy is the current set I'm wearing very uncomfortable. I grabbed Mindy's hand and started dragging her away, “Okay, we need to get going if we want to catch the mall before it closes,”

“Uhm… can't we just ride a carriage for that?” Her words made me pause.

Huh, guess she's right, I chuckled, “sorry, it's just… I'm fast enough that I’ve only been running whenever I want to go somewhere you know?” After experiencing walking through the city in slow motion, I feel like unless it's super important like a ball or a noble gathering or something, I’d prefer to just use Maximum Speed and travel that way.

“I didn't really think that we needed a carriage,” I said wryly, “alright, let's go take one and then head for the mall.”

Me and Mindy got to the mall with an hour and a half to spare- and yes, I'm aware that I am spending a lot more time in the city but it's fineeeeeee, those three can take care of themselves without me for an hour or three, - and after standing in front of the doors, fearing for my life that the guards will stop me because of how suspicious I look, I decided that I should just take a leap of faith and simply walk in.

It would honestly be a miracle if I somehow managed to get past the entrance with how the guards were staring so… painfully at me.

No really, it feels like it- they've been staring at me weirdly for a while now and even when they try to look away they still can't stop looking at me and the same goes for the rest of the people walking to my side.

“Uhm… Ne- Aster? Are we going in?” I nodded at Mindy.

“Yeah, we should.” I started going forward and one of the guards, as expected, stopped me, but I'm not gonna let them cow me, I'm gonna show them confidence and anger from being wrongfully accused and let them know that just because someone looks suspicious doesn't mean that they are!

“Your-”

“Your what?!” I snapped, my what huh? My weird, suspiciously short cloak? My sunglasses? Are they suspicious- I swear- swear I prepared several comebacks in my head as he stared me down with a pale face (which may or may not have encouraged me to continue, am I sadistic?) and shaking hands, I shook my head at him, “my what?! Huh?!”

“Pr-”

“I- I think what my partner is meant to say here is that do you kn- know this person miss?..” the guard turned to my companion and I honestly didn’t know who he was asking (and he was staring at me so it could be possible that I was the one being questioned but I still don’t get it, is he asking that Mindy knows me to confirm that I’m not dangerous but is signing that using his stare or what?) and so I waited for my friend to answer for me and after a pregnant pause, she nodded.

“Yep!” She said happily, only a bit of her embarrassment for having to cover for me showing itself in her tone, “we’re actually here to buy me a new set of clothes,”

“Why?” Asked one of the guards skeptically and I stepped in before another misunderstanding happened.

“It’s my gift for her, that’s why I’m wearing this see?” This is totally not her clothes at all, nope. “So I can do it discreetly because I don’t want anyone to know about this. So if you will-”

In a shocking turn of events, the guard quickly stepped to the side to let us through, “R-right! Got it Maam! Please proceed!”