“Well then, missies, hand over your valuables and you won’t get hurt!” a man leading a group of three, including himself, threatened.

A few hours after walking in this look-alike of the Leyfallan capital, inadvertently, we ended up in a less than nice part of the city. By the time I realized that it wasn’t such a nice place, from a corner in between the wooden houses, this group of men popped out, carrying knives in their hands, with the one leading even carrying a gun.

I glanced towards Nicole, but she didn’t appear that much concerned about the event. In fact, she appeared to be somewhat curious as she placed a finger on her chin and tilted her head slightly.

“This seems rather familiar…” she said, tapping her chin a couple of times.

I turned to look at the three bandits and wondered what she was talking about, since we’ve never been to this city before, nor did we know them either.

“It’s just like how we met!” she exclaimed with a bright smile.

Right. She was being robbed by three men when I first appeared in this world. Only that back then, she was terrified of the situation, but right now, she appeared to not even be annoyed by it.

“We ain’t playing games here!” the man with the gun shouted. “You Earthans know what this is! It’s a ‘gum’! and if I pull this thing here, you’ll be dead in a second! So hand over your shit!”

“Do as the boss says!” followed up another one that only had a dagger.

“Eh…” Nicole replied, tilting her head from one side to another in an apparent confusion. “But you’re not strong enough to do anything to us.”

“What?!” exclaimed the one with the gun.

It was true that despite being armed and having some form of magic, just by looking at them, and sensing what their magic powers were, we could tell that they weren’t important criminals, and that they probably just target tourists from this world to get an easy payout.

“You were warned not to play games with us!” the one with the gun shouted, pulling on the trigger right after saying that.

Nicole moved before I did, lifting her hand up to make a barrier. It was a Fire Barrier that looked similar to a normal Mana Barrier, only that it was orange in color, emitting heat, and with burning fire all over its surface.

The bullet fired from the weapon, but bounced back while melting after making contact with the barrier, leaving behind nothing more than a red clump of metal on the ground. The men were surprised, taking a couple of steps back from the fire.

“You deal with them now, Althea!” Nicole exclaimed, letting the barrier down and pointing at the surprised men.

Without thinking about her command, I lifted my left hand, and from the ground, rocks popped out to cover the men up to their necks, immobilizing them on the spot. I turned to look at Nicole afterwards. “Why did I have to deal with them?”

“Well… you know what Asteora warns me about all the time. If I were to try to stop them with my magic, they’ll just be set on fire, so it’s better if I avoid doing that, right?” she said as she thoughtfully looked up.

“What the hell is this?!” shouted one of them, glaring at us. “Earthan mages aren’t supposed to attack Arretians! Guards! Someone call the guards!”

There were hardly any people in this place, so his voice was only being heard by us—or at least I thought so, until from the corner of my eyes, I saw the same child that tried to steal Nicole’s phone earlier. He looked at us from behind another building’s corner for a moment, before taking off running.

“Eh!?” Nicole exclaimed, turning a worried look my way. “I-I didn’t know we couldn’t do that! They attacked us!”

The young girl tried to run, but I grabbed her by the arm, stopping her as she looked at me with worried surprise. “If we run away, the guards are going to think that we attacked them for no reason, which will probably make us look guilty. We should just wait for them to get here and make our case.”

“A-are you sure that’s a good idea…? I don’t think they’re going to place us over one of their own people…” Nicole said, anxiously looking at every corner of the road.

“We’ll make them understand. And if we can’t, we’ve got Asteora’s support if we need it. We have to meet with the Emperor tomorrow, after all,” I replied, as I calmly crossed my arms under my chest and looked at the men that were struggling until just a moment ago.

“A-Asteora…?!” one of them whispered.

“The Emperor?!” the other followed with just as much fear.

“Well… if you say so…” Nicole said, and stood by my side, fidgeting while we waited.

“Listen,” one of the men said, a pleading smile on his face. “W-we’re sorry, okay? There’s no need to involve us with—”

“What are you begging for?” another one interrupted. “Do you think that they’re really related to those people? Do you think that someone so important would be walking around on the streets and even willing coming to these parts? These are just stupid Earthan tourists, and when the guards get here, we'll get out of this no problem.”

After the man said that, the other two suddenly realized that what he said made a lot of sense, so their expressions changed to a grin, and ominous chuckles.

Seeing them act that way got Nicole even more anxious. I even heard a low whimper coming from her as she softly grabbed me by the arm. “Maybe we should leave…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll solve this,” I said, and soon after, from the same corner that the child had run off to, a couple of guards appeared.

They were dressed exactly like how a capital city guard was usually dressed, with a silver armor that had a pair of white wings on the chest, which were representative of the power that the Holy Gods bestowed upon their warriors to fly over the land and make sure that no evil was being done on it.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Besides the armor, one of them carried a sword, strapped on his side, and the other had a spear strapped on his back.

The child was leading them as he pointed our way. Once the guards noticed what had happened, they drew their weapons and approached with a deep frown.

“What’s going on here?” one of them asked, looking between the trapped men and us.

“Sir Knight!” one of the men exclaimed, giving him a pleading look. “These Earthan mages attacked us for no reason! We were just minding our own business over here, and before we knew it, we were trapped inside these rock bindings!”

“Yeah! Yeah! They probably thought that we were bandits! You know how these Earthans are! They think that our people are nothing more than fantasy characters, and that just because we don’t look like they do, that they can do whatever they want!” another one quickly followed up, making as much of a pleading face as the last one.

“You should apprehend those girls and give them what they deserve!” the first one to speak said with a grin.

“That’s not true!” Nicole shouted, her voice having a higher pitch than usual. “We were just walking here and these people just jumped us, demanding that we hand over our things! Look! Look!”—Nicole pointed at the cooled down piece of metal from the bullet—“They even shot us!”

“Bah!” one of the men trapped in the rocks scoffed. “You can’t possibly believe that a random piece of metal on the ground was from a ‘gum’!”

There was some hesitation from the guards as they looked between them and us. It appeared as if they weren’t sure who to believe, but after a moment I sighed and pointed at one of the men.

“How about this? If I release them, and there’s a gun on one of them, you’ll believe our claims,” I said, and the men trapped in the rocks widened their eyes.

“Very well…” one of the guards said with an unwilling tone. “Please remove the rock bindings.”

With a swift movement of my hand, the rocks on the one man that had the gun fell back to the earth. At that moment, the man scrambled to look around the floor, quickly finding the weapon and kicking it our way.

“Look!” he said, pointing at it, “They were the ones that were armed all along!”

“Hah!?” Nicole exclaimed, incredulously as she looked at the guards. “You can’t possibly believe such a childish act! You clearly saw how he kicked it our way!”

“I kicked it their way because they threw it in there before you got here! Sir Knight, we’re of the same kind—from the same world—and these are just outsiders trying to take advantage of us!” the man shouted, pointing a finger at us. “Go take them in!”

“Yeah! And you know that our people don’t have those kinds of weapons. They’re all created by Earthans, so there’s no way that one of us had it. They’re trying to set us up!” another one of the men trapped in rocks followed up.

One of the guards looked at the released man. He had a complicated expression on his face, and it seemed like he either knew these bandits, or he was leaning on believing what they were saying.

The other guard, an older man, didn’t seem to think too much about it as he nodded. “Well, that is true. Our people don’t use those kinds of weapons.”

“See? Even you agree with us—honestly, I don’t understand why we’re even wasting our time here. Just save us already,” said the last one trapped in the rocks.

“Fine, fine, we’ll take them away…” the older guard, who didn’t think too much about it, finally relented and made his way to us.

“What?! You can’t be serious!” Nicole exclaimed, turning then to look at me. “Lets just call Asteora!”

I had to agree that I didn’t expect for the guards to take the words of such obvious-looking bandits over ours, but Nicole was right. By this point, it was better to just inform either Asteora or Oliver about what happened.

However, by the time I pulled my phone, the guard was leaning closer to me.

“Don’t worry about it,” he whispered, and I stopped to listen. “We know that those guys are probably lying. We’ll just escort you out of here and forget about it.”

“Hey! Get her to release us too! What are you waiting for?!” shouted one of the other trapped men.

“Right,” said the same older guard, turning around to fire a couple of small Holy beams—nothing too powerful, but strong enough to just break the rock restraints.

The men grinned and chuckled in victory, and I couldn’t help but feel angered by their smug attitude, so much so that I felt like ending them myself. However, I restrained myself and directed the glare towards the older guard.

“Why are you letting them get away with this?” I asked, and Nicole quickly nodded along.

He sighed, but just shook his head as he gestured with his head. “Follow me, please.”

“Hey!” one of the men shouted, “I think we deserve some compensation for what happened here!”

“You’ll have to talk to someone in the barracks if you want it,” the older guard said, turning his attention to the remaining guard who was still hesitating about the whole situation. “Come on, help me take the ladies away.”

“Right away!” The guard followed and stood next to Nicole as we walked behind the guard.

“Hey!” shouted the bandit once more, but we were already leaving them behind.

I half-turned to give them one final glance, and all I saw was one of them carrying an annoyed expression while the other two were just grinning as they looked at my lower back. Feeling annoyed by that stare, I decided to use a little trick I learned from Igladith.

The power of Darkness traveled from my body down the ground, where a shadow stretched to touch the shadow of the wooden houses. After a couple of seconds, the shadow reached the three men, who were still looking at me, and with a swift move, the darkness jumped to the back of their heads. Their eyes turned black for a moment, and their mouths opened as if they were going to shout, but no sound came out.

Once the darkness had done its job, they all dropped to the ground, falling like puppets that had their strings cut. They weren’t dead, but they would remain sleeping for at least a few hours. Whatever happened to them during that time, however, I didn’t care.

* * *

After a few minutes of walking, we were finally back on one of the main roads of the city, where I stopped to question the older guard who simply relented to the demands of those bandits.

“Why did you act like you believed what they said?” I asked, frowning as I looked him in the eyes.

He sighed and shook his head. “I’m not going to lie and say that I like whenever you Earthans come to our city. Mostly because what the man said wasn’t all complete lies. There’s a few of you that see us as nothing more than fools, as if we’re not part of this world, so they think that they can treat us like we’re below them.”

“Wait, huh?” Nicole followed up, blinking a few times in confusion. “But I thought that everyone looked up to you because of magic.”

The man nodded. “Yes, that happens. But there’s still some that think of us as—what is the word? Enpeesees?—something like that. So if they see someone that looks like a bandit, they think that they can just kill them.”

The image of James popped in my head when he said that. Despite his foul mouth and how rude the man was, he was someone that didn’t like evil doers one bit—especially common criminals that roam the streets, like the ones that killed Steven.

“What?! Has that happened a lot?” Nicole asked with her eyes widened.

“It used to happen until a few years ago. The emperor has managed to get that under control… somewhat, but it still leaves a bitter memory when outsiders think they can do whatever they want simply because they think they’re right,” the guard said with a sigh, before giving us a serious look. “Please refrain from walking into shady areas like that. Other knights might not be as kind.”

“O-okay…” Nicole said with a worried smile.

There were still some doubts in my mind, so I pressed. “Is that the only reason why you stood up for those bandits?”

The man clicked his tongue and looked at the surrounding area. “Some things never change, regardless of the kind of world you live in, and there’s certain powerful people that control other parts of the city—if you know what I mean.”

“Ah, I think I understand,” I said with a nod. “You don’t have to say anything more.”

“Thank you for your understanding,” the guard said, standing straight as he secured the sword on his hip. “If there’s nothing else, then we’ll take our leave.”

“Goodbye,” I replied, and Nicole waved her hand in a short motion.

I turned to look at the area where the bandits had attacked us. That last bit of information meant that they were probably under the control of some bandit boss—or worse: a noble—so the other likely reason for those guards to hesitate was likely that they might suffer consequences if they protect outsiders over the citizens of Leyfall.

“Where do we go now…?” Nicole asked with a tired voice.

“Let's go back for now,” I said, and turned to go back to the place we would be staying.

It seemed that despite being in another world, the Capital of Leyfall was still the same.