It was Clare who had called out to him and Rose followed behind her.

“Hi there!” Alex greeted.

Clare was wearing black plain robes. Rose was wearing same clothes as Alex but only there was a mask attached with her top.

Clare, “Where’s Merissa? I thought I saw her just now.”

Alex, “She left with Nina just now for some shopping or something.”

Clare, “Oh and she left you here alone? That’s thoughtless of her.”

“Yeah, she didn’t even give me lunch money.” Alex said as he shrugged.

Clare chuckled at Alex’s response.

“So, what are you going to do now?” Clare asked.

“Oh, since it’s my first time …without being a fugitive I guessed I might take a tour here and there.” Alex replied.

“Well, if you want R-1 here can be your guide. She’ll take good care of you.” Clare said as she slightly pushed Rose ahead.

Rose, “Wh-what me? I have other plans and stu—

“Are you disobeying master’s order?” Clare asked with a slight eyebrow raised look which sent a shiver down to both Alex and Rose’s spine.

“No master, I’ll take him around.” Rose replied as she bowed her head once.

Alex, “It’s alright I can look after myself here.”

Clare, “Nonsense while you are here, you’ll have good hospitality.” After a little persuasion by Clare, Alex accepted following which Clare left.

Alex, “I guess you are stuck with me the next 3 hours.”

“Yay lucky me.” Rose said unamused. While she didn’t particularly disliked Alex, he had caused her a lot of legwork when he was here in Emerald the last time.

Rose, “So where do you want to go first? We have the museum, aquarium, magic observatory, the valley market…” Rose gave him a couple of options.

“Woah there’s too much to cover.” Alex said surprised. He never thought that half the things Rose said were similar to earths and some half he didn’t even knew what they were. Alex was contemplating where to start when Rose pitched in, “We’ll start with the aquarium come on, you are taking forever!”

With that decided Rose and Alex travelled by a cab. Rose straight away booked one for 3 hours. Alex, “Say who was the person who developed this kingdom? Like was he a human?” Alex asked when they got in the cab.

Rose, “Yeah how did you know?”

Alex, “I kind of read it in a book, plus the way things are here, they don’t seem much different than those on earth. So, I thought it must be a human right.” Rose remembered Alex was constantly reading books about Emerald. Even Rose didn’t know why those books were kept there, since many of them were literally talking about the history of Green Tales the person who developed the world to such a great extent and was regarded as God of mages.

But in the end, she thought who would believe them anyway since they were only kept there if some student with any interest in fiction and fantasy would want to read them.

Alex had been reading the books in the library. Green Tales the person who built the school had apparently also somehow travelled to Emerald and unlocked his powers. His books said that he brought a great deal of development in here.

Alex and Rose visited the aquarium for around 40 to 45 minutes. Alex found it a truly amazing experience. He was like a child exploring a new world. Rose found it hard to believe that this was the boy who held the legendary soul stone. There was much more to cover but Alex decided to change locations since the whole 3 hours would be barely enough to cover the whole aquarium and look at each fish.

Rose, “Okay where to next?”

Alex didn’t respond as he noticed a cable line in the distance. “Wow! you guys have things like this too!” Alex exclaimed as he watched the cable line taking people to top of the mountains.

Rose, “Yeah, we do, not everyone can fly even if they can use magic you know.”

Alex, “Let’s go then.”

Rose, “You sure? There’s a long line of people, we’ll have to wait at least 30 minutes.”

“Well, is the view from there great?” Alex asked raising his eyebrows.

“I don’t know, I’ve never been there.” Rose said.

“Don’t you live here or something, you should get out more.” Alex said spreading his hands around. Rose only gave him an unsure look.

“Okay I get it you’re mean.” Alex said sighing.

…

After some 30 minutes Alex and Rose’s turn came for the cable line. As they went up Alex could see the beautiful green sky as the sun’s warm rays fell on his face. The atmosphere of this world and earth differed greatly. Around roughly after 5 to 10 minutes they reached the mountain top. Alex got even more surprised as he found stalls there. Food, clothes, some other worldly things, you name it, the business was thriving. There were couples too, sitting together on a bench and some nearby mountain edge. It looked like the top of the mountain was a small town in itself.

“Hey are you hungry?” Alex asked.

“No.” Rose replied.

“Come on I’ll feel bad eating all by myself, give me some company.” Alex said as he rubbed his hands together. Rose looked at him for a while before reaching for her pocket and giving Alex a small pouch.

“What’s this?” Alex asked.

“You can go eat by yourself, if you’re done looking around, I’ll meet you here. That’s a dimensional pouch it has some money in it, feel free to use it.” Rose replied.

Alex, “Oh oh…k. But you sure you don’t want to come with, don’t tell me later I never asked you to come along.” Alex said as he took off. Rose only waved her hand as she turned around.

Alex somehow had the feeling that the reason Rose wasn’t coming with him was because of the people around here. The moment they got here many people started staring at them and whispered among themselves. Alex knew he was somewhat well known in this kingdom but he even heard them mention the “council’s demon”, who Alex knew was a pointed towards R-1. He didn’t want to dig his nose where it didn’t belong. So, he didn’t question the stares and obliged with Rose’s offer.