I… have made a mistake. Well, objectively, I have made a lot of mistakes across both of my lives. That being said, it is very rare that one has time to reflect on such things during the mistake itself; yet as the carriage I was on careened past the waiting line leading into the McGrave estate I had ample time to reflect on everything that had led to this exact moment.
Today had started out relatively normal. Which means that both Riley and I woke up far too late, a side effect of our hermit like lifestyle I am sure. And though normally it wouldn’t have been a big deal to wake up at noon, today was Angela’s ball; an event my sister had insisted I come to no matter what, and as such, my morning routine had been… extended.
Not by my choice mind you, no Riley insisted that under no circumstance will I be attending the ball in anything but a dress. That was the first hint that today was going to just be one of those days, as Riley, with surprising ease, captured me and stripped me down to my under armor. Seriously, I get that I don’t have mana at all, but I should be able to fend off a single maid!
And just when did she have time to order me a dress anyway? I am… mostly sure that I have never seen the deep blue dress I am wearing before, and now that I think about it why does Riley keep dressing me up in blue? Then again, as the carriage took a far too sharp turn to avoid the line of servants Infront of the house, I found myself unable to care what color the dress was given I am pretty sure its about to be a mix of green grass stains and red… maybe a little yellow.
After wrestling me into an “appropriate” dress, an activity I purposefully made as difficult as possible to prolong our play time, Riley went to work attempting to make my hair presentable. I know Riley doesn't much care for my half-shaved head, not that she would ever just come out and say it, but after several attempts to braid the long side of my hair I had to admit she really has an eye for style. The loose braid that runs down the shaved side really complements the difference in length super well.
As the carriage began to tip, leaning heavily on the two wheels I could feel more than hear the wooden wheels groaning in protest before giving way. As I was flung from the driver seat, I had time to think about how much of a shame it was; Riley had put so much work into my hair, but there was no way I was going to come out of this with it intact.
Riley had lamented about the fact my “nice” shoes had gone missing, not that I would ever tell her I had burned the unholy demon’s hell bent on destroying my toes. She had thankfully conceded that my long dress would be more than enough to cover my much more comfortable leather boots along with my under armor. I was surprised she hadn’t put up more of a fight about my armor honestly, but I wasn’t going to fight it. I think she knows how uncomfortable I feel now without it to protect me, and given I now have several sets, I really have no reason to not have it on all the time. I am very squishy after all!
Honestly when all was said and done I looked… well, cute. I have long since accepted I would never be a tall, refined beauty like my mother; though if that was due to genetics or from that white demon’s tampering, I don’t know, but I can pull off adorable really well with Riley’s help.
Standing barely five feet tall with my lopsided silver hair that brushed my slim shoulder on one side I had a look to me for sure. That look might be “trying too hard” but it was definitely memorable. I wasn’t by any definition of the word large, though I was rather toned now if I do say so myself.
I really just didn’t have the frame to become bulky, not that I ever wanted to, but after years of hard work I had decent definition on my arms and legs, and despite how embarrassing it was to be caught by Riley I sometimes can’t help but admire the way my back looks when I flex. She doesn’t understand though, in my last life I had never gotten into “shape”, and though I won’t be winning any awards there was something just immensely gratifying to see yourself in a mirror and actually be able to admire something.
Sure, I wasn’t “shapely”, with a large chest or big butt. But that wasn’t important to me really, my modest breasts were more than enough, and a couple thousand squats had given me a very firm backside that I was more than happy with and… holy shit I am vain aren’t I? Then again, in the grand scheme of things I guess it makes sense. I was a healthy man before, and of course if I was going to become a girl, I’m happy I am attractive. But if that’s the case Riley was much more my taste than myself, with her tall shapely figure that she keeps toned through our morning workouts…
Wow, the ground is coming up fast. My mind flashed forward to the present, not that it helped any. Having been thrown from the runaway carriage I was well and truly fucked in terms of things I could do. Feeling a tingling in my arms I managed to look up just in time to see a crowd of people in an array of shock. Several of them held hands out towards me, the air and ground around me rippling with power as probably half a dozen spells flew towards me.
Well now. I have no one to blame but myself huh? I thought as the bracelets on my arms flared to life, “shielding” me from any spell that tried to manifest too close to my body, the mana stones draining quickly under the weight of the spells.
Again, Riley’s face flashed through my mind wearing a slight pout as I explained to her that one of the main points of me coming to the ball was my enchanted bracelets, so with that in mind of course I would wear some myself. Of course, I didn’t need to wear six of them, all with slightly different patterns and sizes so they covered my forearms like wooden bracers. Nor did I really need five separate spell shield rings as well, having learned through trial and error they won't all just activate at once.
It was a trick with the arrays themselves actually, by adjusting them slightly one can change the activation range of the shield meaning I was effectively standing behind 11 different shields when someone fired a spell at me. That of course also means that even helpful spells would have to overpower at least one of my enchantments, a fact that was made obviously clear to me as the ground beneath me turned into mud everywhere but a conveniently “me” shaped patch of grass that was moving at very high speeds towards my face.
It goes without saying that breaking one of my shields wouldn’t actually be too difficult for a fully trained mage. A barrage of spells or a sustained one would make short work of my defenses, which is why I felt the need to layer them on so much. Even these hastily thrown spells managed to break though one or two of them if the growing heat on my arm was any indication, but I was moving very fast, and the mages simply didn’t have time to do anything more than fling mana at me in a hope to slow me down.
I personally blame the suicidal donkeys. I mean sure, I’m the one who skimped on horses for the carriage once it was given to me, but I really didn’t think I would actually need to use it before I had time to enchant it. That’s really coming back to bite me in the ass.
Riley had insisted I use the carriage despite living less than five minutes away from the house. Something about proper etiquette and being a lady and all. I really wasn’t paying that much attention at the time, annoyed at the fact that though Riley was also going to the ball we couldn’t go together. She was being called to the house as a kind of “all hands-on deck” situation for the party and I was a guest, so she needed to leave once I was ready so she could help with preparations where I needed to arrive with other guests in a few hours.
She had told me she would send one of the other servants to drive me given she didn’t actually know how to drive a carriage, but… I had gotten bored waiting around doing nothing. So I did the only thing I could think of; I mean I drove a car in my last life. How hard could it be?
As it turns out, very. Now, I didn’t know at the time that I had made several large mistakes, such as attaching two suicidal donkeys to a carriage that was designed for full sized horses meaning the harnesses were likely very uncomfortable to the untrained animals; not to mention not properly attached anyway. The other was buying fucking donkeys to begin with, but that was completely my fault. I thought they were just small horses, and way cheaper too! I thought it was a deal ok, how was I supposed to know the moment I hit a pothole in the unused road leading to the guest house the sudden jerking motion was going to send the two asses into a fucking death sprint!
I did manage to miss the elderly butler who was making his way up the path at least, though we both likely lost a few years off our lives as my apparently missile propelled carriage nearly bowled over him before breaking out onto the main road, again nearly colliding with several carriages that were lined up at the gate to my family’s manor.
I guess I could consider myself lucky the two pack animals had turned towards the mansion instead of veering off towards town, meaning I get to die on my familie’s front steps in a twisted final fuck you to them, I guess. Small victories and all.
My under armor flared to life surrounding me in a bubble of wind causing me to violently bounce off the ground, knocking the wind out of me as I skipped across the dirt like a stone. The uncontrolled activation of my armor mixed with all the commotion sent me tumbling ass over teakettle, until an eternity of swirling green and blue slowed enough for my armor to deactivate.
Now, my armor, amazing as it is, is rather… dumb. It activates as a reaction to either my will (which is a complete lie, there's a small activation spot on the array in the middle of my chest), or if something enters the area with a certain amount of speed. So, in theory one could crush me under a boulder even with my armor on if they laid it on me slowly.
As it turns out that speed is just a little slower than the tree I slammed into, who would have guessed. If I had to guess the actual speed, it was right between “holy fuck I just dislocated my shoulder” and becoming a blood smear, though all things considered I guess that’s a decent safety zone for my armor to operate in.
I was… vaguely aware of people shouting around me as I laid there, pressed against the tree with my face firmly planted in the dirt and all I could do was let out a long wheezing breath. Glancing to the side to see someone rushing to the overturned carriage something in my mind must have snapped.
Watching the man rush past the two suicidal demon donkeys, who freed from the their bonds have decided Gabrella’s flower garden would make a nice snack, I couldn’t do anything but laugh. It was a wheezing, nervous laughter; but I could tell it unnerved the first person who made it to me as they stopped a few passes short.
“Well then,” I hissed sitting up, my nervous laughter not subsiding as I saw the throng of concerned people surrounding me. “I really should learn how to drive that thing next time huh?” I asked with a smile, though the sudden taste of iron in my mouth probably explained why several people stepped away. No surprise, I probably busted my lip when I finally stopped… I really hoped I didn’t knock any of my teeth out.
“Are… are you…” a lanky man knelt before me, though I noticed he was much too far to really be of any help to me. His eyes locked onto my exposed shoulder that was clearly injured.
“I swear to god, if you ask me if I am ok, I will hurt you.” I rolled my eyes weakly before looking down at my limp arm.
I had dislocated my shoulder several times in my past life, an unfortunate accident as a child having left me with a weak joint. So, I can confidently say that this was indeed not a broken shoulder but a dislocation, thankfully, and having dealt with it several times in the past I knew exactly what to do… kind of. I mean, normally you set it and go to the hospital, but as far as I know those aren't a thing here so… Setting it will have to do.
Again, I found myself weakly laughing, I had always been a nervous laughter so I guess it wasn’t too strange, though it was likely really creepy given the current context. I quickly went through the motions, bringing one of my knees to my chest, a difficult task in a dress but I managed, and wrapped my arms around it.
“What are you doing?” The man asked as I locked my fingers together.
“Well, you're all just standing around gaping,” I chuckled as I tilted my head back looking at the sky stretching my neck out to pull on the shoulder muscles. “So, I’ll just take care of it myself.” I leaned back, using my knee to pull my arms forward and was rewarded with a nice “pop” as my shoulder fell back into place.
It… still hurt like hell, but hey my shoulder was at least back in its socket.
The man looked unhealthily pale as I slowly got to my feet, still cradling my injured arm. I tentatively went through a small range of motion with it. “That should do it.” I smiled, “well then, not that this isn’t fun, but I believe the party is inside.” I tried to play it off as I limped past the stunned onlookers. I needed to find Riley and her bag of healing balm… and bandages… and maybe a hug if she isn’t too mad at me.
I couldn’t help but grimace at my overturned carriage as I passed it. it would be… expensive to get it repaired. Maybe I should add a few shield enchantments to it once I get it fixed. But that was for the future, right now… Well, just showing up had proven to be a hell of an event, and I now couldn’t help but wonder just how the rest of this party was going to be like. I really hoped that this was the height of the night’s festivities.
