I must have thought too hard because a sudden thunderous rumbling from my stomach shattered the painful silence between us.

Perfect! I clasped my hands together and innocently tilted my head to the side. “Oh, that’s right! I haven’t eaten anything at all today. Or literally ever, here. Do you think we could grab something to eat?”

Ciedrich's face softened back into his familiar pleasant smile. “Of course, where are my manners? Helga!” he shouted. “It’s time for lunch!”

***

The next room he led me to was a massive dining hall outfitted with an obscenely oversized dining table. It felt strange experiencing just the two of us seated at a table that stretched the length of the room and could probably fit at least fifty other people. Before long, Helga brought out a tray bearing a large platter of assorted cheeses and fruits, and even a basket full of pastries! I could get used to this.

“I hope you find this to your liking,” Helga said to me with another creepy soul-piercing gaze.

For some reason, it… didn’t seem like she was talking about the meal.

Ciedrich waved her off with a dismissive gesture. “That will be all for now. Please help yourself, my lady!”

Don’t mind if I do! I had to catch myself before I undignifiedly scarfed down too much of the delicious food at once. Damn, do nobles have it good!

After we had eaten our fill, Ciedrich leaned forward and asked me, “Well then, what are your thoughts of this world so far?”

This was a great opportunity to get back in his good graces if I could suppress my own urge to vomit. “I had no idea what I was going to do when I first arrived here, but it’s been so much better since I met you, Lord Ciedrich!”

I might have gone a bit overboard with that last one, but he smiled all the same. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that.” He paused, mulling something over before continuing. “Lady Beryl, never before have I met a woman quite like you. It must be difficult for you adapting to a new way of life so soon, and I would like to offer you my aid however I can. My home has plenty of spare guest bedrooms; you may stay here as long as you would like.”

Hook, line, and sinker! I’ve secured fancy food, luxurious shelter, expensive gear, and magic training, all in a day’s work! My ‘shortcut to the top’ paid off yet again—I definitely picked the right path to victory in this world!

“Hell yes! Ah, that is…” I cleared my throat. “I must thank you once more, my lord. Your generosity knows no bounds!”

His smile twitched again! I definitely saw it this time!

***

Fortunately, Ciedrich excused himself to ‘attend to certain matters,’ and I now had the library all to myself. If I could just keep my distance from him while practicing, this would work out fine!

Now I needed to master this teleportation spell. If I ever wanted to reliably use this spell outside of practice, I would have to be able to pull this off without any glaring mishaps, and I was willing to spend as many hours as it took to perfect this.

I stood in front of that familiar point on the library’s carpet and cast the Recall spell. Over and over again, I ran through the motions of channeling my mana into that symbol and traveling forward with frustrating results. I landed on my stomach, on my side, on one leg teetering forward at an incredible velocity until I fell down, on my stomach again. Even once I landed hard at just the wrong angle to pull the top of my dress down, exposing my breasts. It’s a good thing I was able to shake Ciedrich off after all since I had actually encountered a wardrobe malfunction.

I covered myself back up with a sigh of exasperation. He had made it look so easy, but now that I was actually practicing it, the spell just wouldn’t work right!

I paced back and forth trying to figure out what I should do next. A feeling of apprehension I recognized all too well abruptly made my hair stand on end. I turned around and gave a start when I noticed Helga eyeing me from the library’s entrance.

“Can I help you, Miss Helga?” I asked with growing irritation. I could have sworn she was some kind of undead creature of the night if I hadn’t previously witnessed her walking around in broad daylight.

She remained silent for an unsettling amount of time before speaking up. “Lady Beryl, the correct path is not always the quickest.”

Unprompted esoteric one-liners from creepy maids were just about the last thing I needed right now. “Yes, quite. Is there anything else you require of me?”

Helga stood there for another discomforting minute as if debating whether to speak again. Ultimately, she chose to bow her head and departed the room.

That untimely distraction had interrupted my whole prior train of thought. However, I had to admit that I might have been going about my practice the wrong way; if brute forcing this wasn’t going to cut it, I would have to work smarter, not harder.

I sat down in one of the reading chairs and studied the Recall spell scroll again. Had I been tracing the symbol incorrectly? No, I had a good memory from my years of memorizing ability descriptions in games; it was more likely I could have been going about it too hastily and blurring the lines together.

I figured the biggest problem demanding my attention was my control over the direction of the spell. The entire concept of teleportation was completely foreign to me, and Ciedrich hadn’t exactly done an adequate job explaining how to cast this part of the spell. Damn, was that on purpose? I really wanted to master this spell now so I could rub it in his face!

Regardless, it had initially made sense that casting the spell correctly would require closing the distance from origin to destination as quickly as possible, but I felt a completely different sensation when I tried casting Recall compared to when I tagged along with Ciedrich’s cast. Perhaps instead of accelerating myself forward with the spell, the correct direction might be… displacing my body through physical space.

The thought made me shudder. My mind wandered to every fictional example I could recall of teleportation going horribly wrong to deadly effect. I shook myself to clear my head; if this spell were that dangerous, even Ciedrich would have some qualms about casting it so freely.

“Once more unto the breach,” I said to psych myself up. Here goes nothing.

Channel the mana, trace the symbol, direct the outcome, and… don’t leap!

I fought back the fear of my innards teleporting out of my body as I suddenly shifted myself forward to my Recall point, materializing off-balance on my feet. After a moment of steadying myself, I stuck the landing.

I… I nailed it! I freaking nailed it! Screw your ‘simpler’ magic, Ciedrich; now it was my turn to boast! Although was he the type to get insecure if he thought a girl had more talent than him at this? Whatever, I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face!

I raced out of the library as quickly as I could, lifting my skirt up so that I could take longer strides. “Ciedrich, guess what? I did it!” I called out into the hallway, but I received no reply.

The mansion’s windows let in the rays of the setting sun, bathing the marble walls in an ominous red glow that made me shiver. I must have spent far more time practicing in that library than I had realized. At the far end of the hallway, I noticed a pair of grand ornate doors that were slightly ajar. Wary of provoking him if he were inside and busy with something, I slowly walked down the hallway until the doors were in reach.

Gently pushing open the doors revealed a giant bedroom fit for a king, replete with a stylish canopy bed and gilded furniture. In the middle of the room, Ciedrich stood facing slightly away from me with a dark cloth held up to his face.

I started to call out to him, but the words caught in my throat. Something was very... not right. The more I looked at the cloth in his hands, the more it looked... just like the tunic I had been wearing earlier.

And he had been sniffing it.

What the fuck?

“Ah, Lady Beryl,” Ciedrich said after noticing me staring at him. “It is said that all materials that come through the Gate are from a heavenly realm. I was merely appraising this garment for any divine properties.”

“Uh, right. That’s… that’s…”

That’s bullshit! Prince Charming, my ass—he’s a fucking creep!

He began leisurely stepping toward me with my tunic in his hands. “What’s the matter?" he asked as if nothing were out of the ordinary. "Would you like me to show you to your bedroom now?”

I found myself frozen on the spot, crippled by a storm of emotions at what I just witnessed. Before I had time to even begin processing what was going on, Ciedrich was right in front of me.

I struggled to force the words out. “I… I have to go right now!”

With one swift motion, I snatched the tunic out of his grasp and turned around, bolting for the door.

“Beryl stop—please!” he called after me.

I only made it two steps away before I tripped on the edge of my skirt with my high heels, crashing down hard on my side. What the hell was I doing here? What the hell had I been thinking?! I never wanted to wear any of this!

“Just let me explain!” Ciedrich yelled.

I rushed to stand back up, but I wasn’t fast enough. I nearly screamed when I felt him tightly grip my arm.

“Stop, that hurts!” I cried as I struggled to break free. “Let go of me!”

A shadow fell over his face. “It will all make sense if I show you something,” he said in a bone-chilling voice.

He started to reach his other hand into his suit’s front pocket. Something about the way his expression darkened terrified me like nothing else I had ever experienced.

In a moment of sheer panic, I stabbed a heel downward with all my might onto his foot. He howled in pain as the heel broke off upon him with an almighty crack before he released his grip on my arm.

I quickly kicked off my high heels, retrieved the tunic, lifted my skirt, and bolted for the entrance hall once more as fast as I could.

I reached the entrance doors, threw them open, and kept running all the way down the short path from the mansion to the street. I only stopped to catch my breath when my bare feet had once again touched the brick pathway of the Upper District’s streets. I looked back at where I had fled, watching for a pursuer who never came.

I felt my connection to my Recall point evaporate as if there were some magical teleportation defenses in the mansion. In that moment of panic, I had forgotten all about my new ability. Would that have gone any differently if I had managed to teleport away sooner? I suddenly felt even more vulnerable than I already did in this cumbersome dress now that I lacked a means of magical escape.

I don’t think I could forget the sight of that mansion even if I wanted to. I found myself casting the spell to set a Recall point in the safety of the street.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the shadowy silhouette of Ciedrich staring at me from a window in the mansion. When he noticed me watching him, his figure quickly vanished.

Yeah, it’s time to go.

***

I stopped at the first merchant selling footwear I could find. My gloves alone weren’t enough, so I also ended up trading my necklace for a pair of quality leather boots. I was probably getting ripped off, but I was in no mood to haggle and even less of a mood to continue on barefoot.

With the sunset at my right, I walked in the direction I could only imagine to be south. Eventually I was rewarded with the comfortingly familiar sight of the river running through the city and the bridge I had crossed earlier. I began the crossing in the other direction, stopping halfway across the bridge. I leaned over the edge and stared down at what I could make out of my watery reflection, instinctively wrapping my arms around myself in a hug to ease the turmoil in my mind.

“John, what the hell have you gotten me into…” I said to no one in particular.

I gazed out onto the river until I heard a man cough to my side as if trying to get my attention. When I turned to look at him and recognized his stupid hat, I nearly lost it all over again.

“Well you look like shit.”