Legends: The Emerald World

The carriage stopped inside the blue manor's front yard, and Shin jumped out of the driver's seat. He immediately went to close the gate while Ase released the horses, taking them into the stable on the left side of the yard.

Mary headed to the front door and found a large poster nailed beside it. It explained that the house was already rented and that the magical imprint to open the door was already set. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a golden card. It was her merchants' guild card. She put it on the door's handle, and it opened up.

The guards have rented the house in her name. The bill would fly right into her guild account. She can't check how much the house costs, but the guards won't set her up for something too expensive.

She looked back, "Ase, sorry, but can you bring the luggage inside?" She pushed the door open, "The house should be furnished. Drop them beside the door and take the special bag into the cellar."

Mary rushed inside and inspected each room using her guild card. The whole mansion was magically enchanted to prevent any of the furniture from being stolen or damaged, a typical spell but one that she must dispel.

Shin helped Ase carry the bags inside and looked around, seeing Mary standing in the kitchen inspecting a large white metal box. "What is that?" He approached.

"Never seen a fridge before?" She closed the fridge door.

"No, but I can sense some strange magic in it." He approached and touched the metal box.

"It uses a magical crystal to cool the space inside the fridge. It keeps food nice and cool, making it last a bit longer." From the fridge, she pulled a glass bottle filled with water. She poured a nice cup for Shin and looked at him, "The goddess of ice and fire, East Death, invented it."

"East Death? She lives in the east and kills?" Shin tilted his head, "No," Mary shook her head, "Some spell it Es-death, and some use the ancient language and write it as I-S-D-I-S. But that doesn't matter for us."

At that moment, Shin remembered something that the weird system mentioned. "Who is AO?"

Mary froze, "Did you hit your head?" She glared at him, baffled, "Are you joking?"

"I've spent weeks starving while chained still in a cell. I can barely remember much from before that." Shin shook his head, "I don't know if the starvation messed something in my head or that one of the prison guards might've bashed my head in."

She sighed, "Don't ask that question again. People might take you for a fool." She looked at him, "AO is the overgod of this world, the god of the gods. While we mortals answer to the gods, the gods answer to him."

She walked over to the sink and opened the strangely shaped faucet, pouring water out from the magical core planted beneath the house. "Go over there." She pointed at a wooden door, "Take a shower, I'm curious. There should be some spare robes inside. Wear one while we get you some new clothes." She looked around, "I'll go with Ase to the bath upstairs. We'll talk after we're cleaned up and rested. This trip wasn't partially easy."

Shin looked toward the shower room and smiled, "Well, I do indeed need some cleaning." He opened the door and looked inside. The whole room was made of pure white marble with a strange metal faucet on the wall. Such a thing never existed in his previous world.

What stood before Shin was a modern shower, but with magic crystals supplying hot and cold water, a floor made of self-heating marble harvested from the fire mountains, and a light shard illuminating everything from the ceiling.

Mary looked inside, "Turn that knob over there for hot water and the one beside it for cold water. You can mix them by opening both at the same time. Try playing with them. Find what suits you best." She pointed at the closet, "The towels and bathrobes are stashed here, so get some."

She closed the door, and Shin looked around. 'What a strange world… I thought it might be similar to mine. But this is far different.'

"How different." Char asked, crawling out of his hair.

"You're here? I thought you went with Ase?" He asked with a surprised face, and so did Char, "Yeah…I could swear I was in her hair." She jumped down, landing on the sink. She crawled aside and reached for a long bottle, "This smells nice; check it out."

Shin lifted the bottle and sniffed it, "Smells like lemon…is this soap?" He looked inside the bottle, "And it's liquid, never seen such a thing before." The soap he remembered was hard, stale, and smelled quite strange.

"I hate water, so I'm staying away. Have a nice shower." Char crawled on the wall as Shin looked at his image in the mirror.

Young but ghastly, the bones on his face showed up like he was a skeleton, a malnourished hairy skeleton with a bird-nest black beard and bushy hair filled with dust, branches, and Char's webbing.

He slipped beneath the show, relaxing for the first time in ages.

On the other part of the house, Ase had just finished moving the last one of Mary's bags and headed with her upstairs to the second floor. With Shin taking a show on the lower floor, the two got all the freedom they could hope for, choosing and picking the rooms.

Ase piked the room with two windows facing the north-east and north-west so she could get the best sunlight throughout the whole day. Mary chose the room beside her, the one with just a small window looking west with the least sunlight in the morning. But Mary had something else in mind when choosing her room.

Throughout her whole time with Shin on their short trip, her wealth didn't change that much. That meant he didn't trust her yet. Of course, he wouldn't trust a stranger. But she also noticed that Ase's wealth quickly grew the more time she spent around Shin. She was at almost eight million when their trip started; Now she's at fifteen million.

Mary had also found one thing. Shin trusts Ase a lot. Whenever Mary tried to get close to Shin, Ase wouldn't like it, and Shin would get even more distrustful of Mary, causing her wealth to drop.

Mary can't get close to Shin and avoid Ase, in fact, if she wants to get close to him she must get close to Ase first, having her be the bridge between the two. Mary walked out of her room and approached Ase's room. She knocked on the door and walked inside. "Ase, are you here?"

The moment she walked inside, she saw Ase scratching the drapes with her claws. Ase froze and looked back at Mary, "You just walked in?"

"I knocked."

"Wait until I allow you in!" Ase cried and stood, but Mary sighed, fine, "I'm going to take a bath, want to join in?"

"No, I'll go on my own." Ase replied with a tense face. "Why would I go in with you?"

"Fine, I'll speak from the end." Mary approached her, "You won't get anywhere near water if I don't force you." She grabbed her by the head, "You stink, cat. Come, it's the time for a bath." She dragged Ase into the bath while Ase cried, holding her to the ground with her claws.

"Cats don't need baths! I can lick myself clean!" Ase cried and Mary stared at her, "You're half-cat, but half-human as well, have some decency and take a proper bath!"