Mally slid Rat’s saddle off and hung it over the branch. They needed to set up their tent, but that could wait. In the meantime, they needed to brush Rat down. They slid off his halter so they could brush him properly, and they got his brush out of the saddlebag. With smooth motions, they slowly began to brush the paint down, making sure to get his legs, neck, and face. There was a lot of hair coming up, but they didn’t mind it so much. He was just shedding.

“Can I help?” came a voice from behind them, and they froze up. Artesia. Again. They resisted the urge to drop their head against Rat’s ribcage. Instead, they turned around and forced a smile.

“No, that’s okay. I only have the one brush,” they replied, and Artesia looked a little disappointed.

“Well, then can I sit and watch?” she asked, and Mally nodded. She sat down on the rock and balanced her chin in her hand, and Mally continued to brush down Rat. “You take good care of your horse.”

“Thanks,” they said, and continued to brush. “Aren’t you supposed to be eating right now?”

“One of my men is making veal stew for me,” she replied. “So, I’m waiting.”

Veal stew sounded absolutely divine right now, but Mally could content themself with hard cheese and bread. They would have to pick up more provisions in the next town. They were running a little low.

“Mm. Sounds good,” Mally said as they brushed down the length of Rat’s back.

“Would you like some?” Artesia asked, and Mally gave her a smile.

“I’m not going to take your food,” they replied, and she laughed.

“Why not? There’s plenty for everyone,” she said, and Mally hesitated. “Come on. Just eat it.”

“I’ll be fine,” Mally promised, and Artesia pouted.

“Come on,” she said with massive golden eyes, and Mally hesitated. Should they?

“Alright,” they said, relenting somewhat, because they had a feeling she would be hurt if they continued to refuse, and she brightened up.

“Excellent!” she said, and Mally continued to brush down the horse.

“You’re going to the capital for the debutante, aren’t you?” Mally asked, and she nodded.

“I am, yes,” she replied, and Mally eyed her.

“Kinda weird that you’re doing that as a priest.”

“Ah… Well…” Artesia trailed off, and Mally wished she would stop being so bad at keeping secrets. It was a blessing in disguise no one would think to question her on if she came from another world or not.

“You’re fine,” Mally said with a snort, and crouched down to brush down Rat’s legs. “I’m sure you have your reasons.”

“I’m not looking forward to the boutiques to pick dresses,” Artesia muttered, and Mally internally winced. Yeah, they wouldn’t look forward to that, either. Thank gods they slit their own throat.

“Noble life sounds complicated,” Mally said, and Artesia flushed.

“It… it is,” she replied, and Mally moved on to the other leg.

“I’ve heard dresses are your armor,” Mally murmured, and Artesia was quiet.

“Not all of us are made for armor,” she said quietly, and Mally gave her a sympathetic smile.

“You’re right,” Mally said, and moved around Rat so they could continue to brush his legs. “But, I’m sure you’ll have a good time in all of those fancy dresses. You’ll probably feel beautiful once it’s all said and done.”

Mally had never once felt beautiful as Georgina. They hadn’t, no matter how hard they tried, and they had given up around age ten. That’s when they started growing their new body, and they used to stare at the dirt mound for hours on end as they willed it to grow faster. But, perfection couldn’t be rushed. And they were finally, finally perfect, in a way they could never be perfect as Georgina.

“I’ve never felt beautiful,” Artesia murmured, and Mally blinked at her.

“But, you’re gorgeous?” they said, more of a question than a statement, and Artesia gave them a sad smile.

“I just don’t feel that way,” she said, and Mally frowned.

“Why not?” Mally asked, and moved on to the final leg.

“Do you ever look in the mirror and see the wrong person staring back at you?” Artesia asked. “I’ve… kind of felt that way my whole life. All I see are the flaws.”

“You’d be hard pressed to find a flaw,” Mally said, but--- “But, yeah. I have.”

It had to be weird, waking up in a body that was not your own. It had to be very, very weird and uncomfortable. Mally always felt that way, so waking up as Georgina hadn’t exactly been a shock to them. They had just continued as always, and never questioned the different face, the purple eyes that stared back at them in the mirror, the picture perfect skin with a beauty mark right next to their ear.

The only thing they had missed was their freckles, which was easily rectified. They just had to put them on again. And, so, they did.

“I can only see my flaws,” Artesia said quietly, and Mally looked over at her.

“It can take time to find a body that you fit into,” they said, and tilted their head.

“Yeah,” Artesia said quietly, and there was the sound of boot steps in the grass. Edwin was approaching them, and Mally straightened up and walked back to their saddlebag to get out the comb for Rat’s mane and tail.

“I see you’re taking care of your horse,” Edwin said, and Mally hummed.

“I am, yeah,” Mally said, and Edwin looked down at Artesia.

“It’s a bit outside of etiquette to sit on the ground like that,” he said, and Artesia flushed.

“Well, I like it,” she said archly, and Edwin blinked down at her.

“Alright, then,” he said smoothly, and then he turned to Mally. “Are you going to pitch your tent soon?”

“Once I get Rat tethered,” Mally replied, and Edwin blinked.

“Your horse is named Rat?”

“Mhm,” Mally replied, and Edwin stared at them, more than a little scandalized.

“Oh,” he said, a bit stupidly, and Mally started picking through Rat’s tangled tail.

“What, you got a problem with Rat?” Mally asked teasingly, and Edwin flushed.

“No,” he replied. “He’s a very good horse. He was very calm during the attack.”

“That’s because he’s bred and trained for adventurers,” Mally said proudly. “He cost a pretty penny.”

Over a quarter of what was left of their allowance, but it was a good investment. They needed to get far away, and Rat made that possible. They would have paid their entire allowance if they needed to. Rat was worth every copper.

“I always thought horses bred for war were superior,” Edwin said, and Mally snorted.

“Nah. Too stubborn,” they replied, and continued picking out Rat’s tail. “I like em sweet.”

“Hm,” Edwin said, and Mally finished picking out the tail and moved on to the mane. Edwin was looking at them strangely, but Mally ignored that. Why did he always look at them like that? Those red eyes were weird. They were still unused to the variety of colors hair came by in this world. They had seen people with naturally pink hair. That was just weird. Ah, the rules of manhwa.

“I specifically told my paladin to make enough veal stew for everyone,” Artesia said, and Edwin looked down at her.

“Is that so,” he said coolly, and she nodded.

“So, there should be enough for everyone!” she said, and Edwin frowned at her.

“We have rations,” he said, and Artesia huffed.

“You can’t live off cheese, bread, and jerky for the rest of your life!” she said, and Mally wondered what was going through her head. Probably something along the lines of, ‘well, I can’t avoid the ML at this rate, I might as well make him like me and hope that saves my life.’ Gods, she was going to be in for a shock at the debutante ball. It was going to be the talk of the town. Georgina’s death.

Well, Mally was home clear to start their life over, and the two of them would be gone soon. They’d be married in a few years, and Mally was free to do as they wished. They would likely forget Mally ever existed before long.

Mally put the comb away and slipped Rat’s halter back on before leading him to the line where all the horses were tied up. Mally loosely tied Rat off, and then they made their way back to Artesia and Edwin.

“I’m going to pitch my tent now, so please excuse me,” they said and grabbed their pack. They intended to pitch their tent a fair ways from the main encampment, since they were getting all buddy buddy over there, and Mally had zero intentions on making friends with the paladins or knights. No, thank you.

Carrying over their bag, they dropped it on the ground and got to work setting up their tent and bedroll. It was together in a matter of minutes, and they contemplated taking a short nap, but the veal stew was nearly ready, so they made sure to hide the spatial bag under the bedroll and make their way over to the campfire, where the paladins and knights were all engaged in small talk. Edwin was with Artesia, and they sat down at the fireside and leaned back on their elbows so they could stare up at the sky.

They used to stare at the constellations when they were a kid. Pick out each one, but here, the stars were all different. Nothing was familiar. They hadn’t had the time to learn the new constellations, and they made a mental note to visit a bookshop when they got to the capital to buy a book about them. Stars had always been a comfort to them, and they wanted to know the myth behind each one.

Artesia would have to go on her tour of the contaminated lands soon. He remembered in the manhwa, she was praised for clearing them out in six months. That was her only task as saint, besides the yearly blessing ceremony. The contamination would return, of course, and she would have to go out and do it again, but she did a good job of keeping a stiff upper lip about it.

That would happen after the social season was over, in autumn. She would have a number of canon events to get through before that point, where she would fall in love even more with Edwin. Daisy was never canonically in love with Artesia, but it was pretty damn obvious. Daisy absolutely loved her, and Artesia would spend half the time paranoid she was a green tea bitch and she read the original novel wrong. But, no, Daisy was not a green tea bitch. She was just bisexual, poor thing.

How badly was it going to throw Artesia off when she discovered Georgina was dead? Probably pretty damn hard. Oh, well. She would have smooth sailing from here on out, and didn’t have anything to worry about. It would be fine.

Honestly, they had been rooting for all three of them to get together. Maybe the butterfly effect of him killing Georgina would do that. He didn’t know. It was a possibility. It would be nice to watch, but…

Nah. It was fine. He would survive without interfering. Besides, he was going to be an adventurer. He had always preferred the seinen genre over the shoujo. Sue him, he was a transmasc, though he read both. He was sure he would have plenty of entertaining things happen without worrying about the OG FL, FL, and ML.

Plenty of entertaining things.

“Do you like looking at the stars?” Artesia asked, and he blinked up at her.

“I do, yeah,” he replied, and she sat down next to him.

“I do, too,” she said. “They look so different out here.”

“I want to buy a book on constellations so I can learn to recognize them,” he said, and wondered if she realized how painfully obvious she was being. Ah, well. She would survive.

“Oh, I thought commoners couldn’t read,” she said, and he recalled she had to be taught how to read in the manhwa.

“Oh, I, uhm,” he stammered, and then flushed. “I was a curious kid. An old knight taught me how.”

“Oh, good for you!” she said. “It’s my dream to make it common for commoners to read.”

Right. That had been one of her ambitions. She even set up an orphanage and school in the slums of the capital, bankrolled by the church. She argued that if they could read the liturgy, they would be more devout. It was one of the more inconsistent points in her character, because she wasn’t supposed to be that smart. Georgina had gone into a rage about it, because it boosted her popularity among the nobles.

“Well, maybe you can make it true,” he said, and she smiled at him.

“I wish all commoners were as lucky as you,” she said, and he was quiet. It was gnawing at him that he was lying to such a genuine person, but…

New life. New backstory. He would have to follow through.

“Well, I believe you can make that happen,” he said, and she flushed.

“Thank you,” she said, and she sounded heartfelt.

Ah. He could not wait to ditch them both.