“You are no longer in danger. Sorry for any misunderstanding by guards may have caused. My name is Princess Al Donna,” she said with a look of shame across her face. She seemed to have become visibly uneasy while broaching what had just happened.

She’s a princess, a real princess. My heart fluttered from all the stories I read. So many knights in such shiny armor saving so many beautiful princesses. She is a real life royal, not just in one I read in a book. Sure various royals, nobles, and such had visited the library. Most of them were just fellow bookworms or researchers. The bears would banish anyone flashing their status around. I tried to piece together a decent enough reply. “This is all just some big misunderstanding, Princess Al Donna. I thank you for saving me.” I totally nailed it!

She tilted her head at me with a look of confusion.

It looked like she couldn’t understand what I said. Had I messed up? Immediately I slapped my hand to my face, feeling like such a fool I’d forgotten to cast the auto universal language speech spell. I recited the incantation in my mind. Since the previous spell had laid the groundwork, it took mere moments to take effect. Hastily, I repeated myself.

Princess Al Donna took off her headgear, revealing her entire head. She shook out her rust-colored hair swaying from side to side and blinked turquoise colored eyes. She said, “Wait, I can understand you now. How did you do that?”

“Oh, it is just a trick I learned, Princess,” I said, straight faced. I had a feeling telling her I could cast magic would be bad when everyone was using gems.

“Donna is preferred. Call me Princess if you feel uncomfortable. That is a trick I would like to learn, though I suspect I cannot.”

My mind raced for an answer. Graciously, it came up with a great reply. “Well, it’s like loading a gem spell into you. I don't know the process, but some people did some tests on me,” I said, trying to look disheartened. When I actually had agreed to the tests so that we could expand my memory and reading speed. There may have been some other ones but I’d have to check my records. 

“Oh, Now I have also brought up a terrible memory, sorry again!” she sputtered apologetically, looking sullen about her mistake

Slowly guilt crept over me. I had just trespassed on royal land in her kingdom. If things spiraled out of control this could become a very big issue. Like an international one. I really didn’t feel comfortable fighting a nation either, even with all this mana from the library coursing through my body. There had to be a remedy for this. I said, “Don’t worry Donna, you couldn’t have known. We should just keep the past in the past.”

“If you could, please wait a few moments for my retainers to arrive. I am very interested in you; you have nothing to fear.”

“That is fine, thank you,” I said, feeling relieved at her words. I wanted to meet some of her retainers. My memobrary called to me, so I split my focus again. I had searched for a book on historical royal habits so that maybe I could figure out how to act. Apparently, I had little time because a few moments later, a group of seven older men and women sprinted up, including the soldier from earlier. They were wearing deep blue gold-trimmed robes and tired looks on their faces.

They scuttled up behind Donna, gawking at me as they caught their breath. Several started giving each other confused looks. They whispered to each other in hushed tones. I could listen in by magically enhancing my hearing, but that felt rude.

“Let me introduce you to who just arrived. The large captain has a new name; we shall call him Irresponsible. His full punishment will happen later. The others are my top professors from the noble academy here in my kingdom. They shall introduce themselves one by one,” said Donna waving a hand towards them.

Irresponsible spoke, “Yes, your highness.” He walked away to the other guards, realizing his presence wasn’t wanted.

The professors did not reply, only looking at me every so often, quickly returning to whispering amongst themselves. This continued on for a minute, the two minutes, then ten.

The princess smiled at me again, looking annoyed, and said, “May I have a moment to discuss some things with my attendance?”

“That is fine, Donna,” I said, trying really hard not to let my curiosity overcome me and sneak into their conversation. I smiled internally at the idea of going to the noble academy. I just had to find a way in. They must have such an enormous library, but nothing compared to mine.

They talked amongst themselves for several minutes, looks of confusion, reverie, and wonder exchanging amongst their faces. Even Donna joined in on the gawking at me occasionally. Even a look of pure shock crossed her strong face.

It seemed like the Princess was trying to treat me like a friend. I wasn’t sure why yet, but this probably meant I would meet with more nobles, or worse, royals. So I went back into my memobrary hunting down a book I needed “King Kovenar’s Guide to Dealing with Stuffy Royals”. The title made me giggle out loud a little, causing looks of confusion from the group in front of me. I quickly got a hold of myself and began flipping through the book. Just as I finished the book, the group stopped talking.

Donna turned on her heels with her brightest smile yet and said, “Would you like to stay with us for now? It would be no trouble at all. I would love to get to know you. We have many questions for you. It is the least we could do after all the trouble we have caused you.”

Oh, I wonder if guests may go to their private library; they should have one, being royalty. I don’t really like the idea of answering a lot of questions, but as soon as I get the chance, I will return to the library and collect some needed spells. I smiled back while, “That would be fantastic! Do you have a library I could go to?” My hands clasped together in an almost praying motion.

“That is great. I will have the maids prepare a room for you. Yes, we have a library. We could go there if you wanted. Before that, though, should we get you some food? I’m sure you’re famished from having just arrived. My father would like to meet you.”

“Uh, your father, as in the king?” I asked, with my mouth agape. I shut it, being thrilled I just got done reading the mannerism book. Meeting the king will be exhausting.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be respectful. There will have to be more guards in the dining hall. They have been told not to shoot this time though,” she said with a grin.

“I am worried that I may say something improper.”

“Don’t worry about anything you say leaking out. The table is laced with sound damping gems so that no one near the table can hear what is being discussed. We don’t want anyone listening to our business, either.”

“Yes, that would be good. Thank you for your consideration.” The phrasing she had used was odd because of the king needing to be respectful of me. I wasn’t really sure what was going on, but I suspected something was off. I had my shield on which brought me comfort since it seemed to work against their weaponry.

The way some of the last visitors of the library made it out to be was that this world had everyone casting magic as if it was routine. Even children could cast high-level spells supposedly. Though that sounded ridiculous; maybe they were feeding me a load of pig feed. There was no way children could cast grand level magic.

“Walk beside me. I shall show you the way and escort you personally. The professors at my school would like to join. Would you mind if they came with us? They would never forgive me if I didn’t ask if they could attend.”

“No, that would be great. Maybe we could discuss my attending your school. I love learning new tricks,” I said, walking up next to Donna, the squishy grass bouncing beneath my feet.

What I said must've been exciting because there were shouts of “Yeses” from the professors.

Donna threw back a look at them, causing them to go silent. She took a slow pace and chatted with me as we headed towards the large mansion.

Now that things have settled down, I could take a better look around. The mansion seemed very businesslike. It more closely resembled a merchant’s store than an elegant mansion or castle. There were large gems at the corners of the home. They must really rely on gem magic. Once we rounded the corner, I saw a large grey stoned pathway leading to a pointed front entrance. It still kept its feel of being a shop with two visible double doors.

“Isn’t it beautiful, my mansion? It’s the nicest in the dome. We have the top-of-the-line protection across the entire domain,” Donna merrily said to me. Her saying dome threw me off, making me wonder what she meant. Maybe the translator was just off? 

“It looks very nice with very interesting building designs. I am excited to meet your father. What’s his name?” I asked, trying to figure out more about the king.

“You must’ve come from far away. Everybody in the region knows his name. His name is King Al Don, but he would prefer it if you just call him Don.”

That is really informal. He must have a relaxed leadership style. Maybe royalty isn’t treated as special anymore? I wanted to stick with what I knew, but didn’t want to be rude. “Are you sure it’s okay that I call him with a shortened version with no recognition of his title? I mean, you and I are the same age, but he’s the king.”

“No, it’s okay. He likes it that way. His power is limited anyways. We had to cede some of it away generations ago, just like most other areas. We gave up a lot less to the corporations than others.” 

Maybe Royals aren’t stuffy as the books titled had implied, but more things felt off. How much has changed since I’d last been around?  What are these corporations, how do they have so much power? There wasn’t any record of kings ceding their powers unless another kingdom completely took them over. When that happened normally though, they would get turned into a Duke or be completely stripped of all ranking and turned into commoners.

“So, is my clothing good enough? Is there anything I need to know? I don’t want to embarrass you because I am your guest,” I asked, feeling anxious.

“You look absolutely fantastical. There’s nothing to worry about. I’ll be the one underdressed. I had just come from my nightly training when you arrived.”

“Oh, what kind of training did you do?”

She threw fast punches in the air as we walked while saying, “Combat practice, gotta learn how to defend my people. I don’t want to be a damsel in distress.”

“With the looks you gave your guards, you should be fine,” I said, giving a small laugh.

We walked up to a large set of aged wooden doors that felt like they had more personality than the rest of the house so far.

“Welcome to my home,” she said, pushing open the doors. Inside was much more eclectic than the outside. The moon white walls were filled with paintings and every table had hand sized bust marble statues. A long red gold trimmed rug split in many directions, including up a set of bifurcated stairs that led to different sides of the mansion. Small glowing gems embedded in the walls illuminated the entryway.

“So much art around. I only see art this nice in books,” I said, looking around the room. A scent of cooking wafted through the air, tingling my nostrils. Fresh cooked meat and vegetable smells lured me further into the house.

As we made our way through, a particular statue grabbed my attention, causing me to linger and stare at it. It almost looked exactly like me. The facial structure matched me exactly, though I looked slightly more mature. Maybe someone famous had been born that had a similar face to me. This statue must be old or maybe a new set of people moved into the region and found it. No matter what, this was added to the list of things I needed to learn about the current world.