Chapter 5

After returning to his room, Zeik dug through his memory to research as much of the world he was currently in as he could. While he was able to recall all the important races, kingdoms, and the general sense of technological advancement, since Prince had not been allowed outside since he was young, Zeik knew nothing but concepts and on-paper statistics about the world. He even made a trip to the mansion's library to pick out a few books on history, magic, and races, as Prince had hardly paid attention during his private tutoring sessions and only remembered the most basic of material.

"Seriously, what a troublesome guy." Zeik muttered, flipping through the rough, hand-bound pages of some historic records under the light of an oil lamp. It wasn't until he didn't have access to it that he realized how convenient the electricity he had been taking for granted really was.

Zeik submerged himself in the deep lore of this parallel world until a maid knocked on the door and pulled him out of it. He had expected a boring history textbook, like the ones issued at school written by various professors in monotone, boring language, but the records of magic, knights, and dragons made it seem almost like he was reading a fantasy novel, not the brief history of a world in which humans lived.

Placing a bookmark on the page where he left off, Zeik headed downstairs to the dinner table, one made to seat dozens of guests and gave the room an empty feeling whenever it was only the three people who lived there. Zeik didn't have any memories of parties, so he guessed that they happened when Prince wasn't around to mess things up, either when he was sleeping or during his classes.

Chelsea looked up as Zeik walked into the room. "Ah, Zeik. Are you finished with your thinking?"

"Rather than coming to an answer, I've dug myself a deeper hole." Zeik sighed. "It's hard when I can't go out and..."

Zeik stopped. Nobody stopped him from going outside, that rule was only for Prince.

"What the hell..." Zeik mumbled in English.

"Hm?"

"Ah, nothing." Zeik said. "I'm thinking maybe a trip around town tomorrow will help me out."

Duke flinched, and then loosened up a bit. It looked like Zeik wasn't the only one not adapting quickly enough. Hearing that his son wanted a trip outside probably gave the poor man a heart attack.

"That's a good idea, but we've nobody to accompany you." Duke said. "Nobody's seen your face before, but your hair is a proud trait of the Vincent family, and for a noble's son to be walking around alone..."

"That is an issue, isn't it?" Chelsea seemed to be just continuing the conversation out of obligation, without much interest in it. Zeik wondered if the relationship between the two was alright.

"I'm sure I can handle it." Zeik assured.

"We'll discuss this when tomorrow comes. Quickly, the food's getting cold." Duke waved the issue aside, eagerly eyeing the platter of roast (beef?) on the table.

---

Annabel was standing by his door when Zeik awoke, giving him a scare that definitely was not good for his heart, no matter what age he was. Further inspection showed that the maid was standing with her eyes closed, seemingly attempting to sleep standing up.

"If you're sleepy, why not head back to your room?" Zeik sat up. "Nobody's gonna blame you."

"But I was chosen to accompany Master on his trip outside today." Annabel said. "I'd feel terrible if I just left."

Zeik let out a sigh. He was never going to get used to the whole business of being a noble. "Then you could have at least pulled up a blanket or something and taken a nap?"

Instead of responding, the maid turned bright red and suddenly became very interested in the frills of her uniform. Zeik was confused for a moment, then realized what Prince used to do to his maids, especially Annabel.

"So she still doesn't trust me completely..." Zeik thought.

Annabel became fidgety and restless, unable to come up with a proper answer.

"I'm sure you had your reasons." Zeik chose to act normally. "As long as you don't pass out halfway throughout the day, I guess."

Zeik walked across the room to change into actual, outside-worthy clothing rather than some wool pajamas. As he was halfway through pulling his shirt off, he realized that Annabel was standing right there, and quickly slipped it back on, this time being his turn to turn the shade of a ripe tomato.

"Can you... Wait outside?" Zeik said, embarrassed. "I'm not really used to having maids around, so..."

Rather than that, it was more like he was so used to having them around, he didn't even question doing things such as changing in front of them. Zeik shook the thought out of his head, disgusted that Prince's experiences were affecting him.

Annabel silently left the room, shutting the door behind her. Zeik breathed a sigh of relief.

It shouldn't have been surprising, since the body did belong to Prince just a day or so ago, but Zeik wished for all of that to disappear quicker. Who knows what kind of muscle memory he still retained, if his mindset was still being influenced? Sadly, he knew that it wasn't going to fade overnight, but since he found no harm in wishing, he still hoped that it would.

Being from the modern first-world country of America, Zeik found the roughly-stitched shirts and pants extremely uncomfortable no matter how soft of a material it was made from, and underwear was even more so. To think that this type of stuff was the rich clothing that nobles wore, Zeik shuddered at the thought of what "commoner" clothes would be like.

"Whoops." Zeik pinched his own arm. "I'm thinking like a noble."

After studying his attire way too carefully in the full-length mirror in his room, intending to make it plain-looking and not at all suggestive of nobility, Zeik settled with a long-sleeved, white shirt and a pair of pants that resembled khakis, but rougher and stiffer. As for shoes, all he had was premium leather dress-looking shoes, which had no padding on the inside, and made a loud tapping noise on the floor for every step that was taken. He walked a few circles around his room, wincing at the pain of each step he took until he finally got used to walking around normally.

"People have to do this every day?" He felt bad for both the people of this world, and the ones in the bast of his old world. If they had to deal with this every day, why didn't they just run around barefoot?

"Mas- Zeik, are you ready to go?" Annabel poked her head back in as Zeik finished debating on which shoes were the most comfortable. They were all the same, of course.

"Yeah... Hey, are there any shoes that don't try to kill you around here?"

Annabelle tilted her head to one side. She didn't understand what he meant.

"Ah... never mind." Zeik shook his head. Of course she wouldn't understand. "Let's get going."

Annabel led Zeik out of the maze-like first floor of the mansion, as Prince was not even allowed near the outside after five years old, and his memory of that part of the house had been completely lost.

Unsurprisingly, the outside of the mansion was a well-paved cobblestone path that connected the mansion to the city. From what he could gather from his memories and studies, Zeik knew that the mansion was located near the capital of the kingdom, Azira, which was the largest feudal kingdom in the Empire of Humanity, which was not given a name for the fact that the debate over a name itself would start a war with the other kingdoms. Despite being listed as just a "Duke" on paper, Duke reigned over Azria and was a close friend to the Emperor. In fact, the entire Vincent family had been given permission to address him casually, just as "Azt," his first name. Of course, even Prince was given this privilege, even though he only met the Emperor once before. And even then, that was only something in his memory because it was the thing Chelsea had constantly reminded Prince in hopes of making him into a better kid.

Even with his shoes pinching at his soles with each step, Zeik found the walk to the city quite pleasant, as the chirping of the birds and the wind blowing through the trees formed an almost melodic rhythm. The light of the twin suns came from almost directly above, and provided a comfortable warmth to the fresh, clean air.

Zeik hesitated for a moment, and looked straight up, squinting at the two balls of glowing gas up in the sky until he had to squeeze his eyes shut and try to get rid of the two glowing outlines that were burnt into his retinas. There were two suns, alright.

"Zeik, you shouldn't stare at the suns like that." Annabel rushed over. "You can go blind, you know?"

"Mm, yeah." Zeik rubbed his eyes. "No kidding."

Annabel looked concerned. "Should we head back?"

"No, I'm fine." Zeik assured. "Let's keep going. There's a city to explore."

Annabel giggled as Zeik marched forward like a child mimicking the soldiers parading down the main street. To think that the abusive and mean-spirited Prince was replaced by such an innocent, kind person, Annabel found herself truly thankful to the gods, for the first time in her life.