Chapter 88. Streets of the Imperial Capital

There had been a strong desire for me to stop the car and walk the city myself, since everywhere I looked, it reminded me of the original capital, even if the streets were slightly wider, and the buildings didn’t look exactly the same, since the setting and the attitude of the people here was all just like in the past. However, Oliver insisted that I at least settle myself in the hotel we’re staying in before I go out ‘touristing’, so I waited until then.

The building we were staying in was just like the normal buildings of this world, which stood out for having a glass door entrance, and smooth walls, full of the normal technology that one could see such as TVs, lightbulbs, and even an elevator; quite unlike every other building we passed to get here.

“Before you go,” Oliver said with a wry smile on his face, standing by the door of the current building, “the people of this place might still remember who you were back in the past. I’ve done everything I can to separate your image from the woman that you used to be, but whether or not people believe it when they see you is something that I cannot control.”

“So what are you suggesting? That I don’t step outside?” I asked, one hand on my hip as I looked beyond the glass doors.

“No, nothing of the sorts,” he replied, waving his hands in the air. “All I’m saying is that you should be ready for people to take notice of you.”

“I see… then thank you for your concern, but I think I’ll be fine,” I said and walked past him to the glass door.

“Hold on!” I heard someone behind me shout, followed by quick steps approaching.

I turned to look at Nicole hurrying. She was wearing a light red summer dress with a pair of simple shoes, a wide vanilla colored hat that covered her from the sun, and a pair of dark sunglasses. She also carried a small bag on her side, and another hat like the one she was wearing.

“Here!” she exclaimed, presenting the other hat to me.

I looked down at it for a moment, but I didn’t see the point of wearing something so cumbersome. “What is the point of that?”

“Well, you can see it’s hot and sunny outside, so that’s going to protect you from getting burned,” she said, pressing the hat to me.

I sighed and took it. I could understand her feelings, but such a large thing would also block part of my view. “I don’t really think it’s necessary.”

She chucked with a smirk, and from her bag, she took out another pair of sunglasses. “Here, these are for you as well.”

“I don’t need them,” I replied and turned away from her, but she pulled me by the arm with a confident smile on her face.

“You need them,” she said, and placed the pair on my face, before grabbing the hat and placing it on top of my head. “There. Now people won’t be able to easily tell who you are.”

I stood still for a moment, processing what she just said, but after a while, I looked around the lobby of this building, locating a mirror to look at myself in it. The things that she passed me on wouldn't really hide my identity from people that knew me, but… if it was common people, it could probably make it harder for them to know who I was, and mixed with the common clothes from this world that I was wearing—a plain white shirt, tight blue jeans, and comfortable sports shoes—people from the capital might not recognize me.

“Okay. Then let's get going,” I said, and with a firm nod, Nicole and I stepped outside.

I looked from left to right, trying to take in the city. It was different than in Arretia, since the roads were slightly wider, but everything looked almost exactly the same. Even the people were all wearing the same clothes they would wear back in my world. The only people that stood out were obviously myself and Nicole, and the few other people that looked similar to us—tourists as they were called.

From the expressions of the citizens, I could already tell that they didn’t take too kindly to the tourists, as they were giving wary looks and expressions of annoyance. I could even see a person from the city arguing with someone that had a car parked near his store, telling him to move that ‘infernal artifact’ away from it.

“It all looks like it’s from another world…” Nicole said, her phone in her hand as she pointed it in every direction. “Do you think we can go around the castle?”

I turned to look at the building standing on top of a hill, with talls walls, and high towers, but ultimately shook my head. “No. We’ll have plenty of time to be around it when we meet with the emperor.”

“Eh… okay… then where shall we go?” she asked, putting her phone away and looking in every direction.

I still wasn’t sure about that, as I simply wanted to walk around the city and see how a piece of my world was doing in this new world, so with a small shrug, I turned to walk on the streets. “Nowhere in particular. I just want to ‘look around’.”

“Oh… okay! I’m cool with that!” she said as she walked next to me. “But it really is hot, huh.”

It really was, but it wasn’t anything compared to the heat of fighting with Salrak, or the pains of being burned alive, so I was able to take the summer heat. Still, I wondered if there was some sort of drought with how hot things were in this place.

“Well not to worry! My special powers allow me to take in any amount of heat!” Nicole said with a confident smile. “But if you need water, I brought a few water bottles with me.”

“I could’ve just used magic for that,” I replied, turning to look around a corner at all the people that were coming and going.

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“Sure… but that tastes weird… I’d rather have water bottles at hand, and then use your magic if we need it,” she said with a wry smile. “There sure are a lot of people in medieval outfits.”

It was usual for people of this world to refer to the modern way of dressing in my world as ‘medieval’. For me, they looked like common people dressed in common ways, while the way that we were dressed and the way people dressed in this world dressed for me was something completely unknown; like something that a bard or a storyteller would come up with.

“They look normal to me,” I said and walked on to the busy road.

“Really? Huh, that’s curious,” Nicole said, her eyes glued on all the people passing by. “Wow! Look, that guy’s selling weapons!”

She pointed her finger at a small stall on the side of the road with a burly man standing by it and a few weapons displayed on it. Just from the place we were standing, I could tell that they weren’t particularly good weapons, but there was no harm in having a closer look, especially when Nicole was so excited about them.

Nicole skipped a few steps and stood in front of the store, with the store owner giving her a strange glance. “Welcome… miss… Interested in my weapons? These are top of the line, perfect for any situation, but… I’m not sure that Earthans like yourself would have any use for them.”

“Oh, um… well I just wanted to have a look at them,” Nicole replied with a wry smile. “Besides! I am a mage myself!”

The store owner raised an eyebrow at her response. “Yeah…? Almost everyone here is…”

“R-right, I forgot about that, hehe…” she said, scratching her cheek. “S-so how much is one of these?”

With an eyebrow raised to Nicole, the man pointed down at a particularly shiny sword. “This one’s one gold coin. It’s the best kind of sword you’ll find in the city, enough to cut down any demon, and kill any Dark Beast.”

“Oh…!” Nicole exclaimed with awe, then turned to look at me. “What do you think? If it’s from here, then it must be really good at doing that, right?”

It took hardly a glance for me to know that that store owner was trying to take Nicole’s money, as that piece of steel was not special at all, and in fact, was worse than even the kitchen knives in my room.

“It’s not good,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Huh!?” the store owner quickly replied with a frown. “And how would an outsider like you know?! You’re clearly wrong about our equipment. As people who are born with magic and are masters of fighting all sorts of monsters, we know what’s best, and this weapon right here is the best kind of weapon that any fighter could have!”

I nearly scoffed in response, since if it was such a powerful weapon, it wouldn’t be sold on a small stall by the side of the street and it wouldn’t be worth just one gold coin—something that was outrageously high for such a common sword as well, at least from what I could remember in my youth.

“Then, should we buy it?” Nicole asked, stretching her hand to the blade.

I stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at me with a questioning expression. I shook my head and pulled her back slightly. “No. It’s not worth it.”

The store owner clicked his tongue and waved his hand in a shooing motion. “If you’re here just to talk bad about the things that I have, then you can go away.”

“Ehe… okay…” Nicole replied with an awkward smile. “Let's go, Althea.”

“Althea?” the store owner asked as we were turning to leave, frowning as he did. “I can’t believe that you outsiders are even using such a sacred name already.”

I stopped on my step and half-turned to face the store owner. “Sacred name…?”

“Huh?! How can you carry Her name and not even know the importance of it?!” the man exclaimed, leaning over the stall. “She’s the one that was supposed to bring peace and light to the world; to rid it of all the terrible things and give us eternal bliss under the light of the Holy Gods!”

There was a strange feeling hearing something like that once more from someone that looked like him, but… I couldn’t help but feel bad about it, because the words that he was saying were nothing more than the lies that I helped spread and believed in as well.

“But she was defeated in the end… and the world was washed over by darkness…” the man said with a sigh as he looked down, before turning a glare in the direction a car parked some distance away. “We even have a corrupt emperor that allows the creations of darkness to roam on our streets—and look!”—he pointed to the Imperial Palace—“There’s those demonic buildings littering our city!”

“Um… but… didn’t you get this city because a country from this world granted it to you…?” Nicole asked with a forced smile.

“Heh,” the man replied with a smirk. “That’s only proof that the Holy Gods are still looking over us, and it’s just a matter of time before they rescue us.”

“I-is that so?” Nicole asked back, giving me a worried glance.

“Aren’t you living better now than before in our—in your old world?” I asked as I looked around the city. “Everything seems just as peaceful as you could want it.”

“Bah, you outsiders wouldn't understand!” the store owner said, leaning back to cross his arms. “This is nothing more than the last bastion for humanity. It’s just a matter of time before the evil forces of the darkness come knocking down our door.”

“Hm…” I considered his words.

He sounded no different than how people in my world spoke. There was a desire within me to remove the hat and the glasses, and let them know how wrong I was about the Holy Gods… but as long as they’re not causing any trouble, it wasn’t necessary to cause it myself, so with a sigh I turned to leave.

“Oh! Um, thank you for your time!” Nicole exclaimed, giving the man a wave, who dismissed it as she went after me. “That was a bit awkward…”

“It was to be expected. As long as only a few people know what actually happened and what the real nature of the Holy Gods is, they’re still going to believe in the things that I used to spread back then,” I said, walking back on the busy street of the city.

“But… wouldn’t it be good to just come out and say that you’re the Hero and to let everyone know that the Holy Gods are evil?” Nicole asked, and I noticed a few people giving her a frowning glare.

I shook my head and quickly walked further away, Nicole following right after me once she realized her blunder. “Without the powers and the authority, anything I say is going to be seen as nothing more than the words of an impostor, or just some girl who carries the Hero’s name.”

“Huh… I see… then do you think that that’s why we’re going to meet with the emperor? So we can—”

A kid suddenly bumped into Nicole, pushing her aside as he did.

“Hey!” she exclaimed and the child tried to take off running.

It was obvious what the kid did, so before he took two steps, I was already gripping him from the arm. He stumbled and nearly fell down from me grabbing him, but I just looked coldly at him.

“Return what you took from her,” I commanded, pulling him closer.

“W-what? I didn’t take anything! Let me go!” the child screamed, causing some people to look at us.

“Huh?” Nicole exclaimed and touched her dress in a few places. “Hey! My phone is gone!”

“Ughk!” the child grunted, and with another jank, Nicole's phone fell from one of the ragged pant’s pockets.

I picked it up with a recall spell and passed it back to Nicole, before letting go of the child. “Be careful with who you target. They might not be as kind as we were.”

The child seemed to want to argue, but after giving me an uncertain glare, he tightened his lips and took off running into the crowd. Nicole secured her phone and sighed as she did. “Thank you for that. I never expected such a thing to happen in this place! You’d think that such a fantasy city would be nicer than that…”

We kept on walking, and Nicole gripped her things more carefully, even avoiding people with side steps and hops.

“It has always been that way…” I said, looking at the faces of the people that were passing by as we went further into the city, the Imperial Palace looming in the horizon.

“It feels… like I’m back to my world.”