Aron wakes up before the sun rises the next day, now fully rested. The room is almost pitch black with some of the sunlight rising and seeping through. He looks over at Cierra and sees that she’s still asleep… and snoring loudly. He sighs, gets up off of the floor and gets dressed for the new day. As soon as he does, Cierra wakes up and yawns. 

‘How is she awake already?’ Aron sighs. 

“Morning, Aron. How’d you sleep?” She stretches and gets up.

“I slept okay, what about you?” He asks and smiles, thankful that he gets some normalcy in this weird world.

“I slept good too. You snore, though.” Cierra laughs.

“I snore? I could hardly sleep with how loud you were” Aron chuckles and falls into his soft bed. A knock is heard from the door. Aron frantically waves Cierra away.

“Go hide somewhere, I don’t want you to get caught.” He whispers.

“Got it.” She smiles and hides under Aron’s bed.

“Come in.” Aron sits on the bed as Trish comes in, looking worriedly at Aron.

“Hey Aron… you ready to take a walk around the city now?” She says, trying to smile but clearly hiding something.

“Uh… you know, I just threw up in the bathroom not too long ago and my tummy really hurts, so I don’t think I can go out right now.” He sighs, looking anywhere but Trish’s eyes. 

“Oh, that’s unfortunate… well, if you feel better let me know.” Trish begins to leave the room, but a small cough is heard from under Aron’s bed. Aron’s eyes fill with dread. 

‘Why now, Ci Ci?’

“What was that?” Trish asks, very confused.

“Uh… nothing. That was me. Told you I was sick.” Aron coughs into his arm repeatedly.

Trish’s eyes narrow. “Oh come on, I know what your coughs sound like. I had to deal with it all the time when you had that cold when you were four. Is there someone under there?” Trish goes further into the room and looks around the bed.

“No one under here.” A muffled voice comes out from under the bed.

‘Dammit Ci Ci.’ 

“Oh, okay then,” Trish pretends to walk away and rolls her eyes. “Wait a minute…” She immediately walks back over and pulls the bed skirt to the side and finds Cierra. She sighs and looks back at Aron with a stern look on her face.

“What were you thinking, Aron? This girl-”

“She needed a place to sleep… I didn’t know it would be such a big deal to let her in.” Aron shrugs and crosses his arms, almost ready to cry again. He sits back down on the bed.

Trish sighs. “Well… we don’t even know where she comes from. Her parents are probably looking for her right now, or someone else…”

Aron shrugs. “Probably… but I’m not gonna turn someone’s place to sleep down just because of a chance of danger.”

Cierra butts in from the ground. “Can we just get some food? I’m hungry.” Both Aron and Trish look at her, then each other and smile. 

“What a great idea, let’s go.” They say at the same time. Cierra gasps.

“That was so creepy. I love it. Anyway, let’s go.” She says excitedly. She gets up off of the ground and goes to the door. “Come on, what are we waiting for?” She questions, looking at the Headmaster and Aron with narrowing eyes. A grumble is heard from Aron’s stomach.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.” Aron gets up and pulls Trish to the door. She relents after a while and the three of them go out into the city. 

Aron looks around, amazed at all of the bazaars in the city, going up to each booth and trying to bargain with the sellers. Trish pulls him away from the booths and sighs.

“Okay, listen up. Both of you,” She eyes Cierra. “You both stay close to me and you don’t go around talking to people. Just keep a low profile, got it?”

“Yes ma’am.” The kids salute. The three of them take a walk around the city. The roads are made of cobblestone and there are maybe thousands of people just in the bazaar alone. The sound of a strange music fills the air as they pass through the booths. A group of people are playing instruments that Aron had never seen. 

‘Woah. What are those things? So cool looking.’ The instruments have a wide body with what seems to be sinew strings. The neck of the instruments are topped off with a place for the mouth. Some in the group strum the strings while others blow into the mouthpiece as Aron stares in awe at the group. Ci Ci and Trish look back at Aron.

“C’mon Aron. We gotta go. I wanna see the rest of the city,” Ci Ci says, frustrated. “What’s so special about music anyway?” She pouts.

“Y…you’re right, sorry.” Aron says apologetically. “Let’s go see what the rest of the city has to offer.” He smiles at Cierra. 

“You talk like an old man.” Cierra laughs and keeps walking with the Headmaster. Aron catches up with them.

“Only ‘cause I feel like one.” Aron says proudly. ‘Also because I got reincarnated, but oh well.’

“What’s that mean?” Cierra asks, confused.

“What does what mean?” Aron asks, a bit nervous.

“Rein-” Aron covers her mouth.

“Don’t worry about it, okay?” He laughs nervously. ‘SHE CAN READ MY MIND?’

Cierra shrugs and continues walking, not paying much attention anymore. The Headmaster finally stops in front of a booth that has sorted assortments of arcanic amplifiers. Aron steps onto a box in front of the booth for small kids to look inside the booth and sees wands, magic imbuement swords of all four elements, and even some magic amplifier rings. The man running the booth comes out from the back, presumably from his lunch break and talks to the Headmaster.

“Oh, hello Headmaster. This your kid? Finally got hitched?” The man laughs heartily and shows his teeth, or lack thereof. He was an old human man and had clearly seen better days. His grey and white beard had food stuck in it, possibly from a week ago, maybe longer. 

“Hey Don. So good to see you again. No, I’m just looking after my sister’s kid right now.”

“My mom’s your sister?” Aron looks at Trish in disbelief. “Why’d you leave the castle?”

“Half sister, I’ll tell you about it later, okay kid?” Trish whispers and laughs, returning to the conversation with Don. “Kids. Just the sweetest. How-” Aron has tuned her out and is now looking for Ci Ci. 

‘Where’d she run off to?’ Aron looks around and jumps off the box, knowing that Trish won’t notice. He goes to the next few booths, some run by old humans, some by young ones, selling a variety of items. He spots Cierra a few booths over and runs to her. While running, he bumps into a masked figure who drops an interesting but off-putting book. 

“Oh, sorry.” Aron looks up to the figure.

“Just watch where you’re going kid. I need to be somewhere.” The figure says in a familiar distorted voice. Aron freezes.

“Y…yeah, sure thing. Sorry again.” Aron says quietly as the person walks away. He stands in place for a while and notices the book still on the ground. He picks it up and runs over to Cierra, awkwardly stashing the book in his shirt. 

“Hey, Cierra, guess what I got?” Aron says excitedly.

“What? Something that’s edible?” Cierra looks at Aron with hopeful eyes.

“No… I forgot that’s what we came out here to do to be honest.” Aron shrugs.

“Oh.” Cierra pouts.

“But no, someone dropped a book, so I’m keeping it.” Aron smiles with excitement.

“Woah, so cool,” Ci Ci says sarcastically. “I need food, not some book.” 

“I’ll get Auntie Trish to get some food for us. Did you know she’s my actual Aunt?” 

“It was kinda obvious, and I didn’t even know that you called her that.”

“Oh. Well, let’s go over there and get some food.” Aron smiles at Ci Ci and takes her hand to run over to where Trish is. They find Trish still talking with Don and pull at her cloak.

“We’re hungry Auntie Trish.” They both say, synchronized. She kneels down to talk to Cierra.

“I’m not your Aunt, only his. But alright, we can go I guess. Don, make sure to get that sword of mine done” She pats her head and leaves the booth.

“Will do, Headmaster.” He gives a toothy smile to them with all three of his teeth and waves bye to them. Cierra, Aron, and the Headmaster go to a food booth in the bazaar. The essence of meat immediately filled all of their senses and their stomachs growled simultaneously.

“Looks like we’re all hungry.” Cierra giggles.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just get something and go.” Trish says, wanting to get out of this place as fast as possible. “I feel like some people are watching us.” 

“I get that feeling too, but it’s okay, you’re big and strong. You’ll keep us safe, right Ms. Headmaster?” Cierra looks up at Trish with a look of confidence but also worry. Trish kneels down once again.

“You’re right about that, I’ll protect you. But you can’t rely on just me, also look to Aron.” She smiles at Aron.

‘I’m hungry, when are we getting our food?’

“He’s just hungry right now, Ms.” Cierra pouts.

“We all are.” Trish pats her head once again and a man in a chef’s hat brings out the food. 

“I hope you enjoy our patented ‘Dragon Quest’ meat, only available because of those adventurers over there. As the name implies, they hunted a dragon” He points to the adventurers, smiles, and walks over to their table.

‘There are dragons in this world? This world is getting more and more awesome.’ Aron and Cierra look at the adventurers in awe.

“I wanna be them someday.” They say in unison.

“Sphinx,” Cierra calls out. “Can’t say anything ‘til someone says your name.” Cierra laughs.

‘I can just think thoughts then and apparently you can still hear them. Does that count?’

“Hey, I said no talking, Aron.” She covers her mouth.

“Well now I can talk.” Aron says smugly. “Plus, I wasn’t talking, I was thinking.” He hushes his voice to where Trish can’t hear him.

“Wait, what? Then how could I hear you… I can read anyone’s mind.” She says excitedly, but in a hushed tone. Aron puts a finger to his mouth.

“We can talk about it later, okay? Just not here. Like you and the Headmaster said, there might be people watching.” 

Cierra nods slightly and promptly shuts her mouth. They all take a big bite of the dragon meat. It tastes surprisingly a lot like steak, but has some elements of bacon in it as well. Once they finish eating, they thank the chefs and leave to go back to the university. They pass through all of the booths in the bazaar once again, seeing all of the people slowly disperse in different directions. Aron looks around, and for once in this crazy world, he is at peace. All sounds seem to disappear as they keep walking toward the university. Each step he takes is a step with a clear mind, focused, precise. Once they get to the university, Aron and Cierra go into their room and Trish goes into her office. Aron collapses onto the bed and takes out the book.

“Today was so fun.” He says excitedly while looking at some of the worn and possibly burnt pages.

“Yeah. Do you do this every day?” Cierra asks curiously. Aron shakes his head.

“No, that was the first time I went out in about three years. I’ve really only been outside twice in my life.” Aron sits up.

“That’s sad. Why have you only gone out twice?” Cierra looks at Aron in a pitiful manner and sits next to him.

“I dunno, but I don’t mind. Wanna read with me?” Aron asks and smiles.

“I don’t know how to.” Cierra chuckles. “And are you sure you don’t mind? It’s awesome out there.” She smiles.

“I know it is, but… there’s so many things that can go wrong.” Aron fights back tears as his memory flashes back to his mother and Malleus. Cierra comforts Aron.

“It’s okay. Don’t cry, Aron.” She hugs him. “I won’t let anything go wrong, okay?” She smiles as Aron cries into her shoulder.

“I wanna learn how to read, let’s focus on that.” She smiles at Aron and lifts his face up.

“You do? Okay, I’ll teach you then.” He sniffles and smiles through the tears.