The man who just opened the door of the carriage has grey hair and looks to be in his fifties.
He's wearing a white tunic with a green sash, and smiles as he speaks.
"Hello there."
"You must be Aurelia."

"Mh."

"Good!"
"My name is Marius, I'm in charge of the lord's honored guests."

Huh? Wasn't Lia bought as a slave?
Pretty sure that's what her class said too.

"Now, why don't you come out so that I can show you around your new home while you stay here?"

"Mh."
Lia nods and gets up, holding me to her chest with my back towards her.

As we leave the carriage I realize that we're standing on a big space tiled with white stone in front of a large villa, surrounded by a garden that would make any I've ever seen in my previous life look like a growth of weeds on the side of the road by comparison.

The architecture of the villa is dominated by pillars and finely crafted statues made of white marble.
There are polished stone stairs in front of the impressive looking entry portal that leads into the house.

I say house, but I guess palace is the better word. This thing is huge!
All in all it looks like it belongs to a king.

Lia looks around with an astonished expression.
I guess even for someone who grew up in this world, seeing something like this must be a first.

"Impressive, isn't it?" The man asks.
"The lord, praetor Caius had it built a few years ago when he was given governance of this region."

"But enough of that. You must be tired by the journey, right?" He smiles at Lia.
"Follow me, I'll show you the places you should know for now."

He walks towards the entrance, waiting for Lia to follow.

After a moment of hesitation she comes after him.
I can understand not trusting someone just like that but it's not like we have a choice right now.

...

He leads us through the luxurious looking ground floor onto the second floor of the three story palace.
We're shown some fairly interesting rooms like a library and a magic study but aside from that the only important places for now seem to be a dining room, the toilet, bath and finally Lia's own room.

Lia's room is fairly large, much bigger than her room in the slave house. It contains a big four-poster bed made of a dark wood, with transparent cloth hanging from the canopy.

There's a desk, a drawer and some bookshelves as well as a couch like piece of furniture and a small table in front of it with a small bowl of fresh looking fruit on top.

"There's a change of clothes in the drawer."
"If you need anything later on you can ring the bell towards the door and one of the maids will attend to you.
"That's all for now."
"Feel free to ask me if you have any further questions."

"No questions." Lia answers in her typical monotone fashion.

"Very well, then have a pleasant evening."

The man closes the door behind him and we are alone.

Wasn't he awfully friendly for talking to a slave?
Is this usually how they're treated?
No, that can't be. There's no way a slave would be attended to by a maid or get a luxurious room like this.
I get the feeling that  something's not quite right here.

I look up to Lia who... doesn't seem particularly concerned.
She's smiling as she looks around the room before walking towards the drawer, opening it and taking out a white silk nightgown.