The Life, Death, and Relife of the Mushroom Mage

Chapter 13

The bell jingled as Mally stepped into the shop, freshly dried off and clean, and they walked towards the counter, which the old bookseller was wiping down with a cloth.
"Good afternoon," they said, and he looked up and blinked.
"Oh! You came back!" he said, and Mally nodded.
"I told you I would, didn't I?"
"Do you have another fetch quest?" he asked, and they shook their head no.
"No, I actually wanted to see if you had a book on the constellations."
"Astrology or astronomy?" he asked, and they hesitated.
"Just something that includes the mythos behind each constellation," they replied, and he nodded a few times as he tottered around the counter.
"Hm..." he said as he walked between the stacks, and Mally followed along behind him. "Ah! Here it is!"
He pulled out a book, and they took it and looked at the cover. It looked like an expensive book. Leather bound and embroidered, embossed, and the title was The Stories of the Constellations.
"That one covers multiple cultures, which is superior in my opinion," the old man said. "Let me go ahead and ring you up. You get the adventurer guild discount."
"There's a discount for that?" they asked, and he winked at them.
"You'd be surprised at how many of the adventurers are bookworms," he said as he went back behind the counter. "When commoners learn how to read, they devour any book they can. Nobles just collect books and rarely touch them. Three silvers, please."
So, about thirty dollars. That wasn't bad, they thought as they counted out the money and handed it to him. He took it and put it in the till, and they leaned on the counter.
"Are you going to the festival?" they asked, and he laughed a creaking laugh.
"Oh, no, that's for the young ones," he said, and they hummed. "I assume you're going?"
"No. I'm staying at the inn to read," they replied, and he blinked a few times.
"Are you sure? They say you can meet your soulmate at the festival," he said, and Mally grinned ruefully.
"Not my thing," they said, because the last thing they needed was a romance subplot.
"Well, why don't you come in for tea?" he asked. "We can read together."
"Like a book club?" they asked in surprise, and he laughed.
"Reading together is a fine activity, if you ask me," he said, and they hesitated. Should they? Well, there was a low chance of them coming across a main character that way.
"Alright. Can I meet you at six?" they asked, and he beamed at them.
"Of course!" he said, and they pushed off the counter and clutched the book to their chest.
"Alright," they said, and turned for the door. "I'll see you tomorrow at six, then."
"Excellent!" he said, and he kind of struck them as a lonely old man. They would have to swing by more often. He was probably bored. They had a feeling the majority of his sales were just orders for nobility, and no one came in all that often. They wondered how he was staying afloat.
"I'll see you!" they called, and he waved after them.
Well, how he was staying afloat was none of their business, they thought as they walked out onto the street and crossed it, heading back for the inn. They walked down the street in silence, looking around at the preparations for the festival. Street vendors were setting up booths, and they were constructing a stage in the middle of the square. It was going to be a lovely time, but they had a feeling they would do better with the old man for company.
They really needed to ask him his name. Names were important.
They continued on down the sidewalk, and made their way out into the main square. There were a lot of squares in the city. It was really set up well, designed to be walkable and that was so weird to them. They weren't used to walkable cities as an American. It was weird.
Sometimes, they missed driving, but Rat was nice. Rat was really nice. They enjoyed Rat. It was like driving, but your car had a brain and wanted to stop and snack all the time. Or riding a motorcycle. Or something like that. Even so, it took so long. Oh, well.
Someone bumped into him from behind, and immediately, his alarm bells went off, thinking he'd been pickpocketed, but when he turned, there was a girl there, looking startled. She had curling brown hair and soft blue eyes, and he recognized her in an instant.
Daisy Aldova, dressed in a soft yellow dress with a hat on her head, looking just as startled as him to see him standing there.
"It's you!" she gasped, and his eyes widened, because what did that mean? "You're that adventurer that the---the priest said killed twenty bandits!"
Oh. Oh, okay. Whew. He was about to panic.
"Oh, I... Sorry," he said, because he wasn't sure what else to say, and she stuck out a gloved hand.
"Daisy Aldova!" she said, and he slowly shook her hand.
"My lady," he said, awkwardly, and she beamed at him.
"Can I buy you some tea?" she asked, and he stared at her.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I just have so many questions for you," she said. "I always dreamed about adventurers, and here you are! An adventurer, in the flesh!"
He didn't remember that, and he opened his mouth, shut it, and flushed.
"I, uhm, don't think that would be appropriate, my lady," he finally said, because what was even going on right now?
"Oh, I don't worry about having tea with commoners!" she said. "I like it! You're always such interesting people!"
"My lady... No," he said firmly. "I'm not sure who you are, but you're being rather forward."
Daisy flushed at that, likely having not even realized she was being a bit much, and Mally turned to walk away.
"Wait! Then, can I walk with you at least?" she asked as she scrambled to follow after him, and he inhaled slowly.
"My lady, I don't know who you are," he said, and she blinked at him with big, blue eyes.
"Well, I'm Daisy Aldova," she said, like it was obvious. "What's it like to be an adventurer? Do you have a good time? What did you do today?"
"I killed thirty frogs," he deadpanned.
"What rank are you?"
"C."
"You're rank C and you killed twenty bandits?? How hard is it to get to A?" she demanded, and he grit his teeth.
"It's merit based, and it's my first time in this city," he said, and her mouth formed a little 'o'.
"Ooohhh," she said, like it was only occurring to her now that she didn't know much about adventurers. "So, are you A quality?"
"That remains to be seen," he said, and continued on down the street.
"What kind of magic do you use?" she demanded, and gods, she was annoying. How did Artesia even like this girl?
"Fungal."
"Like, mushrooms?" she asked, and he stopped and turned to her.
"My lady, walking with a commoner without even a guard with you is very scandalous. People will talk. Your marriage prospects might even be harmed," he said, and she stopped, looking...
Oh.
He didn't like that expression on her face.
"Right," she murmured. "My marriage prospects."
With that, she turned aside and walked away, just like that, and he watched her go as his stomach twisted in his gut.
He remembered when he had to worry about shit like that. Life was unfair. She probably didn't like it anymore than he had, at one point, before he decided to grow a body and escape that way. The poor girl. She was under a lot of pressure to marry well to save her family. They were being affected by a drought and contamination right now, and they were begging the church for help, but the church never sent anyone.
It was a problem.
He continued on down the street, his heart feeling weird and a little tight. Really, he got too invested in the story. The story didn't affect him anymore, so he needed to stop worrying about it. A quiet sigh escaped his lips, and he shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked, the sword heavy on his hip. He needed to figure things out. It was good that he was in the capital, so he could keep an eye on the plot, but...
He didn't know. He felt weird and uncomfortable. He felt really weird and uncomfortable. The main characters just kept showing up, and he didn't know why. They were a plague on his life, honestly. Oh, well. Daisy would soon forget about him, now that she was reminded of her position as a young woman of marriageable age.
This was fine, right? Everything had to be fine. He didn't know what he would do if it wasn't. But, honestly. He didn't remember any mention of Daisy being interested in adventurers. That was new. That was very new. He didn't know how to feel about that one.
With a sigh, they looked up at the sky as they walked. Caesar would probably search for them for a few weeks before he gave up on it. He had never really loved them. That much was clear. He had made it very obvious he found them a disappointment. They were boyish, more concerned with learning the way of the sword and how to ride a horse than anything else. But, really, they needed to figure out a backstory so their lies didn't get mixed up. They hadn't honestly put all that much thought into it.
So, they were from the south, and they could just avoid naming a town, and they had a bad home environment. They were partially raised by an old knight missing an arm, which was why he had retired. They had been an adventurer, not guild affiliated, for six months before they decided to move to the capital.
There, backstory. The key to believable lies was not giving too many details. Too many details could easily be contradicted, especially when they got them mixed up.
Yes, that was their story. They could let people draw their own conclusions on what kind of parents they had. So long as they didn't bleed in front of anyone, they would be fine.
Yes.
It would all be fine.
Even so, it was a bit disturbing that the main characters kept finding them. That wasn't going to be a problem, was it? They hoped not. They really did not want a problem.
With a groan, they rolled out their neck and wondered if anyone was ever going to get close enough to realize their neck didn't pop. Probably not. They didn't intend on getting close to people, or their lies would unravel. On the other hand, they could just be fucking hilarious and give a different backstory to every person they met.
That would be amusing, but it would also get them attention, and that was the last thing they wanted. What was the old knight's name? How about... Wes? It rhymed with Tres, so it would be easy to remember. They felt bad about Tres, honestly. They felt really bad about him. He would mourn their death. No one else would. Augustus and Marcus would probably toast to his demise. They were like that. Caesar would probably lose his shit for a bit, but then he would calm down. He mostly just didn't like the idea of something being taken from him. That was it.
Ah.
They needed to eat something, they thought as they looked down at the book. Maybe they would stop at a restaurant on the way over. Or a bakery. Fresh baked bread sounded nice right about now. They also needed to keep an eye out for housing. Housing was important. They needed to rent a room somewhere. Inns were expensive. And they wanted to cook for themself. They missed cooking. They never got to do it as Georgina.
There was a lot of things they didn't get to do as Georgina.