Chapter 10: Chapter 7 – First Night at the Inn

I might be dumber than I thought.

While it’s true that I’ve never been to a hotel, an inn or anything of the sort, I still should’ve realized that of course the cheapest rooms would have only one bed. And not a double bed or anything, but one for a single adult.

No wonder the inn keeper gave me a weird look. I would give me a weird look if I found myself checking into an inn in the middle of night with another girl and taking a room with a single bed like this.

Now, truthfully, I’m not actually too bothered. I may be attracted to her, but I’m also an adult. But Avilia? Well. I’m not sure she’s ever shared a bed before for any reason. And based on the expressions on her face, this isn’t quite how she imagined that to happen for the first time.

God, she’s adorable.

But beggars can’t be choosers. If all the money we have is what I have, it’s not like we have an infinite amount of it. I still think this was the right choice, even if it’s not exactly what we imagined. We just need to huddle up a little bit.

I need to do something about her.

First things first, though.

I hang the cloak and my coat on a coat rack. It’s one of those wall mounted ones, really handy when space’s a bit limited. I also take off my boots, and put them under the rack. No idea if that’s customary, but I don’t want dirt in the room.

Now, I turn back to her.

“Don’t worry, the bed doesn’t look that small,” I say in an attempt to calm her down.

“You did not tell me we would be sharing one! Was this your plan all along?!” she retorts.

Her accusation is hurtful, but I take it in stride. As if I’d do something like this on purpose.

“I told you, I’ve never been to an inn before.” I sigh and touch my neck. “How was I supposed to know that she’d even suggest a room with one bed to two people?”

She seems to accept my explanation and calms down, downgrading her obviously angry expression to a pout.

I’m relieved.

“I see,” she says as she puts the candle on a night table beside the table, “I think I will go clean myself first.”

I nod. “That’s fine, take all the time as you need.”

She disappears behind a wooden divider hiding the tub, and I sit on the bed. I have no idea if this room is small or large. Where I’m from, people would be quite happy with an apartment this size.

It’s fairly barren, though, as expected of a cheap inn room in an inn who knows where. There’s the bed, a small night table on both sides of the bed, a chest with a key in its lock, a couple of unlit sconces, a window, the divider and the tub with another small table next to it with what looked like towels and soap on top. No chairs or anything, so the bed is the only place you could sit on.

Oh, she lit the sconce on her side.

I walk up to the window and open it. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

The night air feels nice.

Exhale. I open my eyes and close the window back up. Wouldn’t want the room to get cold.

I turn and look at the divider. She’s placed her clothes over it. .Guess she’s actually going to bathe now.

I walk back up to the bed and lie down with my feet still touching the floor. The bed isn’t as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. My thoughts trail off.

Oh! I must've dozed off. I don’t know how long it has been, but I wake from my stupor as Avilia causes noise by moving the divider. She’s wearing adorable light blue pajamas, and holding her clothes in her hands. Something about it feels a little bit off… How did they make pajamas like that if this world is still stuck in the medieval period?

Oh. Magic. That’s probably the answer to most of the questions I’ll end up having about things not “feeling right.” That, and the other outworlders as she calls us. Who knows what kind of an effect they’ve had on this world. Hell, you could probably use magic to power things. It’d probably be possible to have a completely clean industrial revolution, but without the immediate social upheaval.

But none of that matters right now.

“You look cute.”

She blushes. In a vain attempt to maintain her dignity, she raises her nose and closes her eyes. “You can use the bathtub now!”

“Thank you.” I stand up and stretch as I start walking. We brush past each other as I walk towards the divider and she decides to, based on her direction, go for the chest.

I hope she doesn’t hate me.

Once behind the divider, I first check the water. It looks a lot cleaner than I expected. Did she use some sort of magic? I can’t see any taps or anything, just this wooden tub with some sort of lining full of water. And there's the bar of soap I noticed earlier.

I guess I’ll ask her about it!

“Hey,” I say as I peek from behind the divider while undressing. She’s crouching in front of the chest, placing her clothes inside. “Did you do something to clean the water?”

She looks at me and nods. “Yes, there is a rune stone attached to the bathtub that recycles the water. It should be easy to notice. It uses a bit of your mana, but you do not have to actually do anything.”

“Wow.” I’m pretty sure my surprise shows on my face. “That sounds almost too good to be true.”

“It does, does it not? After all these years,” she says with a melancholy sigh, turning her face towards the chest, “We never did find out how it all functions.”

Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

She looks at me again and smiles. “Do not worry. I just mean that magic is one of the great mysteries of this world.”

I smile back at her. “Thanks for telling me.”

“You are welcome.”

She goes back to placing her things in the chest.

You are reading story From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World at novel35.com

I finish undressing and get into the bathtub.

Huh. The water is a lot warmer than I expected, too. I was expecting it to be lukewarm at best. This is a lot nicer than I thought it’d be. Only thing that could make this better is if I had a book or something. Oh, and I’ll have to get some herbal stuff to put in the water. I bet they already have something like that.

I’ll just soak here for a bit before I actually clean myself.

I close my eyes.

This isn’t quite how I thought I’d spend this night. At this point, normally, I’d be sleeping in my bed, and in a few hours I’d be getting ready for work. That was my daily routine until tonight. Might’ve not been the most eventful life, but it wasn’t bad. Sure, I felt powerless, but it could’ve been so much worse. Now… So far things are working out alright. I have no idea where I would be without Avilia.

Obviously that wasn’t a chance meeting. I’m not naïve enough to think that she just happened to show up when I was at that sign. She was definitely waiting for me. But I don’t think she means me any harm. In fact, she feels like a kindred spirit somehow. She’s awkward and a bit immature, but that’s not a problem.

I wonder what she sees me as? She tolerates my atrocious attempts at flirting. And looks incredibly cute while doing it.

I really don’t get what she might need me for. But I’m not complaining.

“… Is everything okay, Irene?”

I snap out of it and open my eyes, sitting up from my slouched position. How long have I been zoning out!?

“Uh, yes. Think I fell asleep.”

“Good. I think it would be better to sleep in the bed, though.”

Her voice came from the bed. How long has she been waiting for me to get out from the bath, I wonder? I haven’t really been paying attention to my clock ever since I realized that the times weren’t matching up.

Ah well. Time to stop just lying here!

I grab the soap and within a few minutes, I’m as clean as I’m going to be. I wonder what I’m supposed to do with the rune stone? I should at least switch the water, right?

I decide to touch it lightly, and absolutely nothing happens. I raise my hand and look at it, feeling a bit confused. I thought she said I had to only touch it to have it do its thing? Or, could it be because….

Time to put this theory to the test!

I lightly headbutt the rune with my forehead instead, and the rune stone activates.

I figure I’ll check if it does something to the strange particles I noticed earlier, and notice that a small amount of the ones which had converged on me were being absorbed by the rune stone, leaving through my forehead.

That settles that mystery. I have a name for those particles. I change the name of the particles from “unknown” to “Magic Particles” in my software. I filter them out once again. But this could be bad, it’s possible I can’t use magic with my hands!

Okay, time to dry myself. I take my travel brush out from my shoulder bag that sits on top of my clothes. There are some things I don’t leave home without. Force of habit. I undo my ponytail and go for a quick brushing. Once I’m satisfied, I put the brush back in my bag, and put my hair back to a looser ponytail for bed. Also, before I forget! I take my travel sized face cream from my bag, apply some on my face, and put it back.

Some routines I won’t compromise on until I have to. I hope they have skin products here, too. I might not be huge on things like make up, but I don’t like having my skin feel dry and constricted.

And I didn’t bring any body lotion with me. Wish I did! I wonder what Avilia uses for her skin care routine?

What should I wear to bed?

It’s not like I had any night clothes with me. I doubt Avilia would love it if I was in the nude. And I really don’t want to sleep in my daywear, even if it’s all I have. Bah. Underwear it is. Not a big fan of wearing a bra to bed, but I’ll have to make do. Have to buy some pajamas or something tomorrow. Surely this village has a clothing shop or something… Right?

I pick up my things and emerge from behind the divider. I feel embarrassed. Not only have I been alone for a long time, but she’s also the first person in ages to see my cybernetic connectors, to really see how artificial my body is.

“Sorry about that, I…”

“What are you wearing?!” She screeches while also trying to keep her voice down, her face an exquisite shade of red. in fact. She sat up from her lying position the moment she noticed me.

Uh oh.

“Um, my underwear?” I calmly proceed to walk over to the chest. Seems like I misplaced my embarrassment!

“Why are you wearing it?!”

I incredulously turn to stare at her with my stuff still in my hands.

“What else would I be wearing? Would you rather I was nude?”

“No! That is beside the point!”

I sigh, turn and place my clothes on top of the chest, and then put my shoulder bag next to them.

“Don’t worry,” I say as I start taking steps to my side of the bed. “I’m going to buy nightwear tomorrow.”

She looks at me suspiciously, until she relents. I’m not sure if that’s the look of relief or disappointment.

“You see,” I continue as I reach the bed and slip under the cover, “I just wasn’t carrying pajamas with me when I got transported here.”

An innocent smile.

She smiles back at me, but her eyes… I must be seeing things.

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

I’m so tired…

You can find story with these keywords: From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World, Read From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World, From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World novel, From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World book, From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World story, From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World full, From a Future Dystopia to a Fantasy World Latest Chapter