The Life, Death, and Relife of the Mushroom Mage

Chapter 10

Mally pulled to a stop outside a massive mansion. It was stately, with red brick and windows polished until they gleamed. They swung off the horse and unstrapped the chest, vaguely aware of everything they had given up to be an adventurer, and then they paused to take in the sight of it.

It was beautiful. Picturesque. They were sure the garden out back was perfectly pruned and presentable. It was perfect in every way, and they felt massively uncomfortable without a dress on. Like they needed their own armor to face this.

They paid for waiting, because there was the sound of clopping horse hooves and carriage wheels, and when they turned, a carriage was pulling up to the estate. Their eyes widened in sheer panic, and they turned to flee, but then they realized they still had the chest in their hands. They froze, not sure of what to do, and the door to the carriage opened.

"Mally?" Edwin asked, and Mally bit back an unflattering curse as they turned back to him.

"Ah... I was just dropping off some books. From the shop," they said, and Edwin stepped down onto the ground and approached them.

"I can take those," he said and held out his hands, and gods, why did they give this body the capability to sweat?

"I should hand it off to the butler," they said, and he stared down at them with an unreadable expression on his face. "What."

"Just give me the chest," he said and took it, and they let him. "We didn't get a chance to invite you for tea."

"I think you forget I'm a commoner," they lied, and he frowned at them.

"You saved the lives of all my men with your quick action," he said. "And the lives of the paladins. We didn't even lose a horse."

"I don't think I should be celebrated for being able to kill easily," they said, and bit back a curse at how abrupt they were. They shouldn't have said it like that. Fuck.

Edwin was quiet, and they turned and swung atop Rat.

"Have a nice day, my lord," they said, and spurred Rat on, leaving Edwin standing and staring after them in silence. Their heart was hammering in their chest, and they thought they were kind of an idiot for back-talking nobility like that. They needed to get better about that. They were no longer nobility, and they needed to act like it. As the daughter of the Marquis of DeVille, they had certain privileges, even as an illegitimate child, and a sharp tongue was one of them. They no longer had those kinds of privileges. They needed to seriously start acting like a commoner, or they were going to get into trouble. They knew Edwin was the type of person to let that slide, but they may end up brushing shoulders with other nobility, and they had to protect themself.

It was frustrating. They were well aware they had given up just about everything, but they seriously couldn't imagine going through life as a woman in high society. It was one thing to be a commoner woman. Being a noblewoman was a whole other story, and they couldn't...

They couldn't.

They just couldn't do it. Every etiquette lesson, every smack of the riding crop, every snide comment about their inferior birth... They couldn't do it. For the rest of their life, they would be treated as a dirty half breed, and if they had to choose between their commoner side and their noble side, they would choose the commoner side, every time.

Every. Single. Time.

Taking a deep breath in, they tilted their head back and squinted at the sun. It was shining brightly, but they heard the townspeople talking about a storm coming in. They would probably be stuck in the inn tomorrow. They hoped it was a nice inn.