Spending time with Mom was much better than I expected, especially because this time it felt like we were spending time together as mother and daughter.

  Mom was the one who woke me up in the m, helped me wash my face, ged my clothes, and took me to breakfast. It was refreshing to be spoiled by her for the first time since...well, practically since I was born. Even the breakfast tasted better and the atmosphere felt much more cheerful. I had no idea how drastic this little ge in routine would be.

  After breakfast Mom stopped by to pick up some papers she left in a room and took them to Ki, after that, well, surprisingly she didn't have any more work than that for the rest of the day.

  Even though it was still early in the m, I thought we would go to the garden together or find a pce to be together, but it seemed she had a pletely different pn.

  “Seria, you get everything ready? Call Tina and Algoros to get the carriage ready.” She ordered, as Seria curtsied and hurried off.

  I looked at Mom, fused and curious about whatever she nning, but she just gave me a mischievous smile back without another word and led me by the hand to my room, where she opened my closet and began a battle with herself to pick out a dress for me. It wasn't until Tina and Seria arrived that she finally decided o ale lic dress with something simir to a corset and a fred knee-length skirt. It had some ce detailing on the nee and sleeves, and a satihat made it look elegant.

  To match, she put me in some dark gray booties. They had a small square heel and shiny buckles on the sides. They looked exquisite and, above all, were fortable to walk in. On top of that, Mom put a little silver headband oh a fabric flower on the left side. When I saw myself in the mirror, I couldn't think of anything but adorable, something I liked to feel about myself.

  SpoilerJust imagine her a little smaller

  [colpse]Once dressed, I was led by Seria to the hall of the mansion, while mom finished ging clothes. When she appeared, I couldn't help but smile broadly. While she usually wears simple dresses when she's at home, when she has importaings or heading to some event, she usually wears elegant dresses that show off her figure. This was no exception.

  Her dress rimarily white and made of a fabric resembling silk. The shoulders and upper chest were bare, and the sleeves, semi-transparent, reached to the wrist, held in pce by a silver-colored bracelet.

  Like me, a bck corset g to her body, making her chest and waist stand out. The skirt, ador the hem with small silver embroidery, tio a little above the ankle, where closed burgundy leather shoes with a low heel, and a decorative buckle at the top, could be seen.

  She doesn't usually wear accessories unless necessary, and this was no exception but, the earrings, the pendant, and the broo the ter of her chest, all made with blue gems, somehow stood out and enhahat image of high nobility she veyed with her current appearao say that I had been stunned was an uatement. The only time she had left me the same way was during Nini...my sister Zenya's birthday, and at that time, her dress was a work of art.

  Spoiler

  [colpse]Oh, and the most strikiail. Mom had gotten her vah back quite some time ago, and I had gotten so used to seeing it by now that I usually fot it was there. This time it was very noticeable, as it had some embellishment. A series s were set along the length of the vah, reag almost to where it came out of her dress. They were amazingly geous and eye-catg. They made me wish I could have something like that on my vah too when I could wear it.

  “Is everything ready?” said my mother, approag us with a bright and wonderful smile. Seria nodded and, with Mom taking my hand, we walked out of the mansion to the forecourt where a carriage was waiting, the same one I had long ago used with Ki when we went to the Nazzik mansion.

  U time, perhaps because that trip was much longer, only two Ekus were ready to pull the carriage. It was Kuria and Medris, both Mik's daughters.

  As roached the carriage, they both began to squaily, although, like well-trained animals, they held their positioe their cheerful attitude. I had to give my mother a pleading look to get her to let me approach to greet them, and fortunately, she allowed me to do so, as long as it was only for a moment. Happy, I walked quickly to both ekus, who greeted me by l their heads and allowio pet them to my heart's tent.

  Kuria and Medris are two of the ekus that are usually my “guardians” whenever I visit the nidarys, so they are among the closest to me, along with Mik himself and the chicks. I've been sidering for quite some time asking my parents to let me raise the egg ying they have either of the two, though if I have both, all the better. But that would be until my punishment is over, and some time has passed. I don't want to force the issue while it's still fresh what happened.

  I walked away from both ekus who dismissed me with somewhat sad sounds auro Mom's side who was talking to someone ued.

  “Young dy, it is a pleasure to see you again.” Sir Erthan said with a bow.

  “Sir Ethan, good to see you again,” I said with difficulty. The st time we met, and since I had trouble pronoung his name, he told me I could call him Ethan, something I heartily appreciated.

  In trast to the previous times, I had seen him around the manor, Sir Erthan was wearing his full armor, along with some slight ges from what I remembered from the few knights I had seen so far. The biggest ge, and the most noticeable, was the color iain parts, specifically, the one surrounding the Baelian coat of arms he wore on his chest.

  For most knights, it was a simple white circle, but Sir Erthan's was a deep red. I assumed it was a way of identifying his rank, though I couldn't be sure without asking, which I didn't since, immediately upon finishing the salute, Mom had me climb into the carriage at oina appeared without me notig and got in right after Mom. A couple of mier the carriage started moving and off we went.

  As we left the mansion grounds, I focused on the ging sery, excited about what was ing. And then, I realized that I had no idea where we were going, so I asked Mom, who also seemed to notice that fact.

  “Right. We're going to the city for a walk around a few pces, what do you think, do you like the idea?”

  I nodded smiling, being able to wander around an isekai city, that's aing idea. Visiting shops and stores? A dream e true. To do all that with my mother? You son of a bitch I'm in.

  The ride was short enough, 15 or 20 minutes, but it felt nostalgiehow. Don't ask me why, it just felt that way.

  The road was quite simir to the st time, only we turned around at a pce we just passed by before. We moved forward for a while until we came to a sort of tollbooth with some soldiers standing guard at an inner wall that separated this area, where the big mansions were, from the one, where it seemed to be the ercial area. At least the more “expensive” and refined-looking one from what little I could see.

  We didn't stop for long, Sir Erthan only had to say a few words and show the coat of arms on his armor to let us pass without much trouble. The soldier outside, one I assume was from the Elenios tribe, saw me and gave me a nod as a greeting. Surprised by the gesture, I decided to reciprocate by waving my hand. He seemed like a nice guy.

  As we ehe new district, I saw a rge crowd walking through the streets, many of them i clothes. Several carriages were passing by us, pulled by one of three types of animals. Ekus, nothing surprising there. Another had a body resembling a moose, only its snout was more like a boar's and its legs more like a rhinoceros. And the st one was, to my surprise, a horse. Okay, it looked more like a Shire breed with its mane and tails resembling a shampoo ad, huge bodies, and fancy long fur c its legs from the ko the hooves.

  I asked Mom about both animals. “That one you see there,” she poio the ohat looked like a moose. “Is a southern mok. They are very on in both the south a. They are quite docile, but they tend to be used much more on farms for cultivation for that very reason. They o be trained well to use them in carriages as they don't like crowds very much.”

  I let out a sound of amazement as I watched the mok pass by us. Mother mentiohat the carriage they were pulling seemed to belong to some southern baron, though she didn't know if it was from the Duchy of Par or Jultare.

  was the horse. “Those are Gorleski horses. They are not as fast as our ekus but they are very hardy. They run for two days without a break, so they are widely used for shipping and caravans.” The horses Mom was showing me were four in number, close to 180cm tall, chestnut in color with jet-bck manes and tails. They were just beautiful to look at. They gave me a strong feeling of nostalgia.

  “If I remember correctly, that carriage belongs to Baroness Gilford.” She poio the crest on the side of the carriage they were pulling. “She’s from the Costera Duchy, where they breed those horses. Although, it is strao see someone from the Gilford family in the capital.” After that, Mom was thoughtful for a long while, as if there was something strange about the fact that that carriage was here.

  Before I could ask anything else the carriage jolted as it pulled inte space filled with more carriages, each parked in order in what looked like a rge parking lot. This might be the case given that we were being guided into one of those parking spaces.

  The sight was so familiar that I eechless.

  “Tya, e on, it's time to get off.”

  As we got off the carriage, I got a much better look at the pce we were in. It was too simir to a parking lot, pletely paved and without a sihole. It was impressive how advahey were, even though the carriages were still incredibly unfortable. At times like that I would love to be able to create a shock absorber of some sort, but unlike isekai's stories, implementing it is not at all easy. Expert craftsmen don't just show up because you want them to.

  We left the parking lot and finally ehe main avenue. A myriad of stores of different types decorated the entire area. Fancy restaurants, jewelry stores, clothing stores, and even what looked like a toy store were in pin sight, temptih their fshy and colorful name signs.

  My gaze focused on that specific pce. A tall building, at least three floors high, wedged between a restaurant and another building that looked ordinary. A rge sign on the facade read “Olhazir's Wonders” iers that were quite difficult to uand. It was like a very strange cursive typeface. All in all, it was the kind of pce where you could find anything.

  “Little dy?” Tina called out to me suddenly making me jump in surprise. She looked amused by my rea but said nothing and poi Mom who seemed equally lost in thought. She mumbled “Maybe we should go this way... ah, but this way would be a good idea too. There's that clothing store and also that new coffee shop...” all the while folding her arms and looking one way or the other, pletely undecided.

  I hought I would see her that way, but it was funny. Made up my mind, I walked over to her and tugged at her dress to get her attention, “Mami?”

  Just as I did earlier, she was startled and looked at me immediately with a somewhat dazed expression. “What's wrong, honey?”

  “ we go there?” I said, pointing to the store that had captured my attention a moment ago. Mom took a sed to read the store's name and immediately smiled as if she had realized something important. She ook me by the hand, and said, “e on, maybe we'll find something fun.”

  Our little group of four, Mom, Tina, Sir Erthan, and I, made our way to the front door. Sir Erthan said he would stand outside waiting for us. After all, he wore armor that might make anyone ihe store unfortable, so just the three of us would ehe building.

  As soon as Tina opehe door, we were greeted by a tinkling sound like wind chimes. They followed a short but pleasing-to-the-ear rhythm. My eye was immediately caught by a series of floating objects simir to colored balloons, faintly illuminating the pce with warm lights, in a spectacle that reminded me of those paper nterns often used during the ese New Year.

  There were several dark wooden shelves, carved with animal and star motifs, filled with a myriad of different toys, from stuffed animals, dolls made of something like por, tea sets painted in bright colors, wooden blocks with various designs, and even kites with designs ons and flyis.

  Everything caught my attention, all new, colorful, and adorable, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do! I was stunned by the atmosphere that overwhelmed my senses, doubting whether it was because of the magical experieny inner, or maybe also outer, child urgio explore the whole pce by looking at every toy. I began to tremble with excitement, I felt like... well, like a child in a toy store.

  I looked over to my mother hoping she would let me tour the pce by myself, and to my surprise, she was talking to a store clerk who had arrived at some point in my daze. Fortunately, she noticed my stare and rolling her eyes just said “Be careful” to which I immediately ran to the shelf.

  There were so many different things. The blocks were iing, bearing differeers and numbers, and some even had a simplified form of the symbols of each Pilr. o these, various kites were lined up, from smaller ones in the shapes of birds, ohat looked like a griffin, one of the rger ones with the appearance of a dragon about twice my size, and then the rgest and most impressive. A gigantic whale that, if I had to guess, was almost as big as my father. I thought it was a little strahat the biggest one was a whale and not the dragon, but when I thought about it more, the shapes didn't o make sense. You could alretend you were in the sea rather than the sky.

  “Are you ied in this oya?” said Mom, startling me by her sudden appearance.

  “What's that, Mami?” I asked, pointing to the giant whale.

  She nodded and proceeded to expin, “This is a very, very special beast. On this ti, it is called Aluvirasim. No one knows how long it has existed or what exactly it is, we only know that it has this whale-like appearand that it travels the skies of the world, traveling aimlessly.”

  “The skies?” I repeated incredulously. It couldn't be real...could it?

  “Yes, sweetie. Aluvirasim flies through the air like a bird. A specially big one.” She said, leaving an amused chuckle at the end.

  A giant whale that flies? Well, if I didn't have enough fantasy stuff in this world...

  However, I found it rather hard to believe such a thing could exist. I mean, I know it was a different world and there were gods and all, but a giant whale flying around the world?

  Notig my skepticism, Mom added, “Aluvirasim usually passes through the skies of the empire every so often, so, hopefully, you'll get to see it someday.”

  “Have you seen it, Mami?” I asked curiously. For some reason, I felt her ent sounded a lot like an adult reaffirming the existence of Santa Cus.

  “Unfortunately, no. My father, yrandfather, told me he did get to see it when he was younger. I think Aluvirasim appears every 70 or 80 years, so there's still a long time before it returns. Maybe when you grow up a little more you might see it.” She said, tapping my nose and making me ugh a little.

  If that giant whale is real, then maybe its appearance is something like the arrival of Halley's et oh, a on-a-lifetime experience.

  With that in mind, I tinued my toy exploration, followed by Mom, and... Tina was gone. When I looked for her with my eyes, she seemed to be talking to the employee from earlier. I decided not to make a big deal about it a go.

  On another of the shelves were some wooden boxes, they had some rather intricate carvings and were painted in somewhat darker colors. With her gnd a nod, Mom gave me permission to take one and pry, so I wasted no time and grabbed the o looked like some puzzle but I couldn't quite make it out until I heard something moving around inside on a slightly loud movement. I stopped to think and, as I did so, I noticed that the top part had n on it, and there was a kind of button or something simir. fused but also curious aed, I pressed the button, and slowly the top opened and a soft melody began to py, like a lulby. That metallic sound, the meiotes, the pleasant tinkling. It was a music box. I never expected to find one of these here, although I thought there was some logic to it. Music boxes were ied in a time simir to the one we seem to be in in this world, and sidering that magic exists, it is not unreasohat something like this exists.

  The tune ended with a soft click, closing the cover as well. I felt a sense of pead satisfa at having heard it, not only because it was another object I knew, but also because the tune was ohat Nini pyed for me while she practiced.

  “Do you like it?” Mom reached over to me and stroked my hair gently. I nodded in respoo her question. I hugged the box feeling joyful. “We buy it if you like it so much.”

  I hummed affirmatively in respo would be something I would treasure greatly.

  Mom took the box from my hands and we tihe tour.

  We arrived at the doll and stuffed animals se, and we found a variety of dolls that didn't look normal. Some looked like por, as I said whe here, some were painted wood, some were woven with wool yarn, rag dolls, and they even had bisque dolls. And that was just ierials. The dresses, accessories, shapes, sizes, and even the race they represented. It aradise for doll fanatics. I was not one of those, unfortunately. However, that didn't stop me from being fasated by seeing so many dolls in different styles.

  The stuffed animals, oher hand, were also varied in their representations and sizes but there were only two types. The stuffed felt like Lan and those that were made of cotton. Or at least what I thought was cotton. Those looked incredibly soft.

  I walked over to the shelf where the stuffed animals were, given my little real i in dolls, and began a game of identifying the animal they represehere were some wolves, different types of felines, foxes, rabbits, something bear-like, whatever Ginevere was, there were even ekus and a mok.

  Out of all of them, only two caught my attention. I unsciously moved to grab the first one when my mother's hand suddenly appeared and take it at the same time I did. We both looked at each other in surprise. There was a sense of mutual uandiween us both in that instant.

  In case you were w, it was a rather adorable pink kitten...

  Ahem.

  While Mom kept that one and admired it, I walked over to the other ohat caught my eye. It was a light brown color, softer and brighter than Lan. Two of its eyes were blue while the ter one was bck, better aligned and sharper than Lan's. Its little paws were rounded and white-gloved, looking more adorable than Lan's. And its tail was cute and fluffy. Much more so than Lan's. I admired the fluffy bunny thinking that this was what Lancea was supposed to look like.

  I squeezed, cuddled, petted, and pyed with it. And I felt something while doing all that.

  *gasp*

  There was a gasp from the side and as I turned around, I saw Mom's gaze directed at me and the stuffed animal I held. Somehow, she looked defeated.

  “W-want to take that ooo, honey?” she asked hesitantly as if those words were painful. I could almost see what was going through her mind at that moment.

  “...” I remained silent momentarily, staring at the stuffed bunny. It was very well made, a nice job and I was sure it would be very o have one like that, but... “No. It's not Lan. Lan is much better.” I said aurhe bunny to her pce. Then I hugged Mom and reaffirmed, “Lan is my favorite because Mami made her for me.”

  What I felt as I held that rabbit in my arms was relief.

  Of course, that other one erfectly made, soft to the toud I k could st for decades without tearing. But it was not MY Lan. It was not the gift my mother with so much effort, dedication, and love, made for me. So, I was relieved. Not only because I didn't feel anything about that rabbit that was better made, but also because only Lan could give me that warmth when I held her in my arms.

  Mom hugged me tightly and whispered in my ears a thank you and an I love you. Of course, I returhe gesture with a kiss on her cheek. We stayed like that until I decided I had satiated my curiosity about this store.

  “'Mami, we go now?”

  “Are you sure?” she asked a little surprised. “Don't you want any other toys?”

  I shook my head. “This one is enough,” I assured her while holding the music box.

  Mom nodded and motioo Tina, which I assumed was to pay for the music box as we left the store. Sir Erthaed us and asked me about my first experien a toy store. I turo look at Mom and just answered “Secret” as we ughed.

  FivesZeta