Chapter 16: The Little Princess

Al awoke to the sensation of being licked by his new best friend.

He had even been dreaming of the little thing, swaddled in the softest blanket he had. It was one of the remnants of his old life that had apparently been used to hold him when he was a baby, and just the fact that he had taken it out for the puppy meant that he had accepted it into his family.

In fact, that acceptance had come when the husky had moved to show its love in just their first meeting. He raised his hands to move it away, intending to wake up and leave the haze he found himself in.

He opened his eyes, and gasped when the veil of the dream world fell away.

A cobra's forked tongue was in front of him, lazily sampling his face. It had green scales that shone in the light, and its slitted eyes were a dazzling turquoise that seemed to be boring into him.

"AAAHHH!"

With a scream, he pushed himself back with his hands and got away from the scary creature.

For a terrifying instant, it seemed as if it was about to pounce on him, taking offense due to his action. Yet, thankfully, it just looked at him, unmoving, for a few seconds before slithering away.

That was when he finally looked up and saw that he was in a totally unfamiliar place. It was garishly decorated room with a gold chandelier, gold wallpaper that glittered as if it was inlaid with jewels, and a gold wainscot that was right in front of him.

His eyes wandered around all the gold, before eventually stopping on the only other person in the room.

Looking at her face made a flood of memories return, and he instantly remembered how he had been knocked out.

Getting to his feet, he raised both his hands and shook them, as if intending to shake away what he had done. The snake had curled up her like and was presently resting around her neck while she glared at him just as she had before. She was still wearing the green dress from before. In between all that gold, his eyes almost hurt as he looked at her, but he was too busy trying to form an apology to remark on anything else.

By the time he finally found his voice, she opened her mouth and her words echoed in the room.

"Nagin wanted to bite off your head, you know, when she felt how angry I was. I had to stop her… and she wasn't happy."

"But it was an accident! I swear I was just trying to get away!" He sputtered, finding his voice due to the insinuation.

"Get away? From who? Spit everything out, and I might be inclined to follow my butler's advice. He was the one who saved you and insisted that we bring you here, instead of leaving you to be trampled in that crowd. He was adamant that we are unlike other families, who go around killing whoever they please in this new world."

"Indeed."

This third voice made him jump. He had been completely sure that only the two of them were present… but from one of the corners of the room, a man stepped out, as if he had turned invisible until now.

Or rather… that was exactly what had happened. As Al replayed the image in his mind, he instantly correlated it with the description of the invisibility spell that he had read long ago.

'This man… is dangerous.'

As this thought came, unbidden, he studied him. He was wearing the classic suit of a butler, in the same style as the one he had seen in Eric's mansion before. He was broad of shoulder and not very tall, but his hair rose a few inches above his head, fashioned into spikes. His thin lips were set confidently, and he wrinkled his straight nose before saying, "Out with it, young man. Don't make me rue my decision, or the little princess will never stop teasing me about it…"

He looked between him and the young woman, wondering whether he had wandered into a different world. This room, their clothes, the snake… all of them felt strange, and as he racked his mind, he found no clue about who they might be. He prided himself on knowing all the powerful families in the world, so he was confused about how one that he had never heard of before was suddenly in front of him.

"Hisssss."

The snake made him snap out of his thoughts. It was clearly making the annoyance of its master known, so with a gulp, he recounted the tale.

He saw the young woman's fist tight and when he told them about how he had been kicked almost to death by the man and his cronies. As for the butler, he pursed his lips and studied the woman, as if he wanted to see what she would do.

After Al was done, she stood up with so much strength that the chair she had been sitting on banged against the wall behind her.

"Damn them! Assholes like these ruin the name of heroes! A hero should be just! These fake heroes should be weeded out! Come on! Let's go get them!"

Before he could say anything, he found himself being dragged out by the arm. The snake that was on her neck stretched towards him, and he was too busy trying to make sure that it wouldn't climb onto him to see where they were going. The door opened when they neared, and after passing through an equally garish corridor, they came upon a large room with multiple alcoves.

Al didn't have a chance to study this place thoroughly, but only one glance was enough to tell him where he was. This… was a saloon.

Men and women dressed richly could be seen getting all sorts of services done. It seemed to be an extremely affluent locale, as many of the services involved magic.

To his left, a man dressed in a blue uniform raised his hand. A globe of flame appeared above his palm, and after setting the head of his customer afire, he blew it away with a gust of conjured wind and began to use his scissors to fine-tune the hair that remained. To his right, a woman made a small whirlpool clean the hair of a customer and also set it in a spectacular design that made it look—to Al—like a pile of fresh manure.

But that was all he was able to see before they went out the door, and he once again found himself in the large crowd that was heading away from the odyssey station.

'Was I really just in one of the shops in the Main Enclave? The rest is supposed to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a month! Who are these people?'

As soon as he asked the question in his mind, he found himself shoved into the crowd after being given a command.

"Find him. We will be tailing you, out of sight."

He didn't know what to make of it, so he decided to obey, for now. Looking up and finding his bearings, he began to walk home. His hope was that the hero would try to target him again after he saw him going down a familiar path, but even after he reached the final teleportation station, no sign of the man could be seen.

He jumped again when the butler stepped out of thin air in front of him.

'Wasn't the invisibility spell supposed to have restrictions? How the hell was able to use it again, right away?'

With bewilderment, he stared as the man waited for the woman to appear. She stepped out of an alley nearby a few moments later, and her face was wrought with frustration.

"He must've been scared off by you, Barou. Why can't you be more discreet?"

The butler's only response was a shrug. He folded his arms behind his back after that and stepped back, as if waiting to be commanded.

The woman began to pace back and forth, and after a few seconds, she seemed to have arrived at a decision. Walking to Al, she held out her hand.

As he stared at it, baffled, she spoke, and made his jaw drop.

"Well, that's that, then. I apologize for overreacting. It was clearly an accident, and I am prepared to compensate you by carrying you through an odyssey. I've never been a villain, but I'm sure that I'm powerful enough to smash through whatever hero we come across. Oh, I almost forgot…let me introduce myself. I am Helena von Hogurder, granddisciple of Her Grace, Demigod Jorana, the Princess of Fire. Pleased to meet you."