The next thing I knew, I was following right behind Alice again as she led us out of the alley and down the street.

The good news was that without that sleazy guard chasing us, I could finally take in the sights the world had to offer at a leisurely pace. Despite my prior experiences, at first glance this fantasy world looked surprisingly normal; humans were still the only bipedal creatures in sight. We passed a tavern, a clothier, a blacksmith, another tavern, a tannery, a public bathhouse, another tavern. Actually, I was starting to see a pattern here.

The bad news was that I grew further doubts of the practicality of my current coin storage—every step elicited a dangerously stimulating reminder of the foreign object lodged in my chest.

And this world was even less ‘normal’ than I had imagined.

“What the hell is that?!” I nearly shouted.

I pointed with my free hand at what looked like a lavish horse-drawn carriage clacketing down the street in our direction. The problem was, there wasn’t a coachman driving it, and the carriage was being pulled by something that was definitely not a horse. Instead, leading the carriage was a large skeletal creature made purely out of bones that were etched with strange, dimly glowing symbols.

Alice giggled again. “That’s a reanimated horse! Aren’t they marvels of magical ingenuity? They don’t need to eat or drink, and they never make a mess in the streets or get tired!”

Okay, now that I got a closer look, it did kind of look like a horse in size. It just lacked all of the usual identifying features that would create what anyone would think a freaking horse should look like. Was there some sort of open necromancy allowed in the city? Talk about culture shock.

And there was that other shocking matter at hand…

“Alice, you really don’t need to keep holding my hand like this.”

“What’s wrong? You weren’t thinking of ditching me, were you?”

“N-No, of course not! Why would I do that?!”

“Right!”

Alice gave my hand a gentle squeeze. Somehow this girl knew way more than she let on. Or she was just messing with me. Or both. I wasn't sure which possibility was scarier right now…

As soft as her hand felt, to my chagrin mine felt even softer, as if the fresh, feminine skin on my body hadn’t yet developed any callouses. The more I thought about how to escape this situation, the more Alice seemed to grip my hand even tighter. Not good.

We meandered onto a larger market street filled with street vendors hawking their wares. Shop stalls lined both sides of the road with everything from assorted equipment to all kinds of fruits and vegetables I had never seen before. All were labeled with signs written in a completely unfamiliar language, yet somehow I could discern their meaning.

Customers exchanged pouches filled with brown and grey coins in exchange for merchandise. I might as well get some information from her while she’s here. “Does this world have some currency system where a hundred copper coins equal a silver, and a hundred silver coins equal a gold?”

Alice nodded. “And one hundred gold equals a platinum coin! But I’ve never seen one of those before. How did you know?”

“Uh, lucky guess?”

Ugh. Who came up with this system, and why the hell would anyone want to carry around all these damn coins? If I ever get a chance to choose another fantasy world to reincarnate into, I’m going to ask for one with good old paper fiat.

“Do you see anything you like?” she asked.

My aching feet reminded me that I could really use some shoes, but right now there was something else grabbing my attention.

“Those cooked meat skewers from that stall smell pretty good,” I said.

“You have good taste! Giant rat meat is one of my favorites.”

Culture shock. “Let’s just keep going…”

***

After walking with Alice for a while, it was getting harder to tell how much she was exploring and how much she was leading us toward a particular destination. Occasionally she would stop to point out a stray cat or ramble on about a random topic.

“So, where exactly are you taking us?” I eventually prodded.

“We’re going to The Roach and Rat, of course!” she replied with a smile.

My heart sank. “That wouldn’t happen to be the name of the newbie adventuring guild you had in mind, would it?”

“Wow, you are good at this!”

Never have I felt less desire to be complimented. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a newbie guild wearing crappy starter gear like this!

“There’s someplace I want to show you first,” she continued. “We’re almost there!”

The market street emptied out on to a bridge spanning a river that stretched out in either direction as far as the eye could see. A small path ran alongside the river on our side of the bridge with a low stone wall resting above the riverbank. Alice led us along the path for a while until she finally let go of me and rested her hands atop the wall.

“This is my favorite part of the capital! Doesn’t it feel right at the heart of everything? The city was built many ages ago on the Eastwind River that goes all the way out to the sea. You shouldn’t go swimming in it, though; these days the downstream part here is mostly used for waste disposal.”

“Okay, too much information.”

Looking across the river, most of the buildings on the other side looked taller and more extravagant than the ones we had been passing. Above the buildings, a towering steeple-like structure loomed in the distance.

“What’s that over there?” I asked with a gesture.

“You can see the spire of the Church from here. That’s in the Upper District where all the nobles live. We should stay away from there.”

So that’s where all the gold and spells are hiding? I’m definitely going there next.

“Does that mean everything in the city north of the river is part of the Upper District?” I asked.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

How symbolic. All the nice, pretty things are just out of reach across the river. Maybe I’ll get to write a goddamn essay about it at the Academy.

I shifted my weight on my feet and suddenly winced at a sharp, stinging pain. I lifted up my foot to see what had happened.

“Beryl, you’re bleeding!”

Sure enough, there was a small trail of blood trickling out of a wound on my foot. I was surprised my feet held up as long as they did given how soft my skin felt.

“I think I have something that will help,” Alice said in a hurry.

She sat down her rucksack on the wall and quickly began rummaging through it. After a minute of clinking and clattering, she retrieved a thin glass vial full of dull red liquid and handed it to me.

“Here, drink this.”

Knowing her, I expected she would be trying something weird again. However, the more I looked, the more genuine the concern on her face appeared.

Throwing caution to the wind, I uncorked the vial and downed the liquid. It tasted slightly bitter and watered-down, but I soon felt a mild warmth spreading throughout my body. After a few moments, I could start to feel the cut in my foot begin mending itself, and soon the wound had fully healed.

That was… wow. That was surprisingly nice of her. Maybe I had the wrong idea about her, and she had just given me a bad first impression that she was a weirdo. Maybe… just maybe I could actually be friends with this girl.

“Hey, thanks," I said with a smile.

Alice took back the empty vial with one hand and held out the other, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “That will be one silver.”

What! Did she really just pull the ‘bait and switch’ on me? Just who is this girl?!

I let out a heavy sigh; there was no helping it now. “Sure, I probably needed that healing potion anyway,” I managed. “Just give me a second.”

That’s when I realized the problem.

Having a silver coin on my person to pay her with wasn’t the issue. Actually retrieving it to hand over was a whole other matter.

I stared down into my tunic again. Pushing down a coin between my breasts had been simple enough, but now that it’s come to nudging them apart with my fingers to retrieve it, all while not going crazy in the middle of the city and wanting to feel everywhere? I haven’t even been here a couple hours; I am so not mentally prepared for this!

Well, delaying the task at hand wasn’t going to make it any easier. I took a deep breath to steel my nerves…

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Alice’s head bobbing up and down with a hand over her mouth. When I turned to stare at her, she dropped all pretense and burst into another fit of giggles.

Oh, God. She did it again.

“I was joking!” she struggled to say through gleeful gasps. “Did you really think I would make you pay for that? I just want to be friends!”

This girl...! I don't know how much more my heart can take!