Zoe spent the next month wandering through the streets of the capital, exploring as much of it as she could. There were a few sports arenas for takraw, though Zoe found it quite interesting that the highest level competitions she’d seen were much less intense than the ones she saw in Darpi. She’d expected to see higher level performances from the capital, but the players were noticeably slower to her untrained eye, at least.

  Would it have been different if Darpi wasn’t an independent city? Moving from Darpi to the capital was a much larger undertaking than moving from the capital to Darpi so the better players went to the home of the sport? If Darpi was even the home. Maybe there was some other city, somewhere even further away that the sport originated that was even more impressive than Darpi.

  Or just some other city that had picked it up and happened to be full of old monsters with incredible levels tailored to playing the game, she supposed. Either way, the slower matches were far more fun to watch regardless so Zoe didn’t feel like she was missing out on anything.

  In Darpi, the highest level matches were almost impossible to follow. Being one of the players might be fun and exciting, pushing yourself to those limits. But as a watcher not capable of anywhere near that speed? They seemed like blurs. The ball flew faster than Zoe’s eyes could see, and the intricate movements the players made were lost on her.

  But in slower competitions, Zoe could watch the ball fly around, see the incredible footwork the athletes displayed. Watch as their limbs flew around them as they kicked the ball back and forth. The practiced movements, the expertise itself was no worse even at the lowest level competitions. They were just slower, their stats not as perfectly tailored for the sport.

  There were other sports Zoe found the time to watch, too. Fights were popular, brawls and tests of magic. In a similar fashion, the lower level competitors were the most interesting to watch. At high levels, too much of the outcome came down to stats alone as opposed to the cunning strategies employed at the lower levels.

  Soccer seemed to be another sport, though it seemed the people of Abyllan — or the Injellar kingdom at least, fell into the group that called it football. Zoe played some as a kid, and as a kid she thought she was even quite good at it.

  Since she’d grown up and looked back on her memories though, she’d at some point realized that kicking the ball in and out of the goal several times in a row did not in fact, count as several goals that won the game for her team.

  It was a pleasant time, no longer needing to worry about money. She hadn’t needed to in decades, and the feeling of being financially unstable was just as unpleasant as it always felt before. The fear of not being able to pay her rent, the anxiety of wondering what would happen if she couldn’t find some income. It all washed away as soon as she’d made enough money to pay her way.

  A few weeks into her mindless journey through town, Zoe decided to stop in at the pink library. Inside was much less offensive in its pink-ness. Mellowed purples and darker shades of blues and indigos contrasted with the occasional pink embossing or light that was almost white but just not quite.

  The books themselves were no different than Zoe had found in any other library — some interesting, some boring. Books about famous people who had visited the capital, books about the royal family’s history, the cities of the kingdom. Some about classes, and others about the dungeons that littered the city, and the od book about feats and skills that might be worth getting.

  Books at the pink library were rented, rather than lent free of charge, with a limit of one book per person. Though the benefit was that there was no expectation of bringing them back if she didn’t want to. Really, it seemed more like she was buying a book with an unlimited return policy. If she didn’t bring the book back, she’d have to pay twice the book’s value to be allowed to rent another book, but she didn’t think that would be a concern for her.

  Zoe spent a few days rummaging through the books, skimming through the books to find something she was interested in. She settled on a book called ‘Feats and you, a guide to all things feats.’ Most of the feats in it that she saw when she skimmed through were ones she already knew about but there were a few that stood out to her and she decided to spend some time reading through it when she got her place finally.

  A little over a month from when she first arrived in the capital, Zoe found an envelope slipped under her door when she woke up from a comfortable nap. White paper, with strips of gold lining the edges and big gold lettering on the front writing out Zoe’s full name. She opened the letter and read through it.

  To Zoe Mara, selections for your rental are available now. Please make your way to the nearest Royal Office at your next availability and present this letter to them.

  Zoe shrugged and changed her clothes, switching out the puffy brown pants and well fitting pink shirt she was wearing for a flowing dark purple sleeveless dress that stretched just below her knees. She tied up her hair, pulling her long bangs into a pony tail and letting the rest fall down her back and shoulders.

  If she was going to be renting a nice place, she wanted to at least feel like she looked the part. The dark colours contrasted with her skin, making her already pale skin look almost paper white in comparison. Her red eyes shone through, popping with an unexpected colour in the otherwise toned down colours she wore.

  The vampyric look she was cursed with on arrival in this world had grown on her quite a bit. Her fangs left a lot to be desired, as did her claws. She usually tried to hide them, smiling without showing her teeth and holding her hands to keep her sharp claws out of sight. One day, she’d like to see if there were some way to fix them.

  But they were minor inconveniences. They drew some attention, some gazes that lingered on her for a little longer than she liked. But so did her skin, and in many places just her level alone was enough to garner attention.

  She left the inn and wandered down the streets — a path she’d gotten so used to by now, and one she might never end up taking again if she settled into a home somewhere else. Zoe took in the sights as she walked down the streets, watching the people walking around and enjoying the smells and emotions people felt. The anxieties and rot from people’s compost, the excitement as children walked by and the delightful scents wafting from nearby restaurants.

  It was a familiar walk, and one she was almost sad to be losing. She could walk down the streets whenever she wanted, of course. But Joe was right all those years ago. There was just something different about having an excuse to do it, a reason to go for the walk. When she lived somewhere else, even though she could wander through the same streets, pass through the sheets hanging in the alley and see the obnoxious pink library at the end, she wouldn’t.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She’d have other things to do. Another royal district to visit, with new streets to get used to and new people to meet. New buildings to use as landmarks, new districts to wander through. It would be different, and exciting in its own way.

  Zoe walked in to the royal office and up to the first counter that opened up — at the far right of the counter, who waved Zoe over. She summoned the letter from her Storage skill and placed it down. “Hi there, I apparently have some selections available for my rental now?”

  The woman at the counter took the letter and read through it then nodded. “Sure thing.” She smiled and gestured to one of the rooms along the back wall. A different one from where Frederick still sat alone, slaving over a pile of papers that never seemed to end, on the far right wall. “You can go speak with Herbert, make sure to bring the letter with you.”

  Zoe took the letter and walked all the way down the length of the building to the opening at the left wall, and then all the way back to the furthest room on the right wall. If people had to walk around to the back rooms so often, Zoe wondered why they made it a single long counter instead of multiple desks.

  The room looked identical to Frederick’s, with the same desk, chair and even the shelves along the wall. Herbert looked up when Zoe entered and tilted his head.

  “Hello,” Zoe sat down and placed the letter on Herbert’s desk. “I have this here. I should have some rental options available to look through?”

  Herbert took the letter and spent a moment reading the few words on it. “Excellent. If you could just wait here for a moment, I’ll go grab your options?"

  “Sure.” Zoe nodded.

  Herbert stood up and walked out of the room, then into the room next door where he talked with the woman sitting behind yet another pile of papers. After a minute, mana surged within the room and another pile of papers appeared that Herbert took and brought back to Zoe.

  “Here you are. There are six options that fit your criteria.” He ran his finger down one of the sheets in front of him. “It says here you were looking for something affordable, but without too much noise or smells, right?”

  Zoe nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Excellent. Then first up we have this home here.” He pushed one of the sheets towards Zoe. A rather impeccable drawing of a single story home was on the front, with various details listed below it. “This is the cheapest option we have available for you. The rent is seventeen gold, and it is in the middle of an alchemy district. So there may be occasional noises or smells from some of the experiments your neighbours are doing, but they have a good track record of being pretty good. Single story, one bedroom, one kitchen, a bathroom and a small spare room.

  “These are your second and third options.” He pushed two more sheets over to Zoe with nearly identical looking drawings on the front. “They’re the same layout, but in different districts. One is in an enchanting district and the other a leatherworking district. Quite quiet, though there is a bit of a smell. Both of them border sports districts, the noise is on the other side of the district and quite deafened but still present during exciting moments. Eighteen gold for either of these.

  “This one,” he pushed another sheet towards Zoe with another identical looking building drawn on it. “Is in my opinion, your best middle ground. It’s in an enchanting district and doesn’t border any problematic districts. But it is about a forty minute walk from the nearest royal district. Twenty two gold for the rent here.

  “And these two are the last options we found.” He pushed the last two sheets towards Zoe, each with very different buildings drawn on the front and both with two stories. “They’re a bit pricier, both are going to be thirty gold for rent. But they have two stories, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, three spare rooms each. And this one.” He tapped on the sheet to his right. "Even has a basement, though it is also a little bit further away from the nearest royal district.

  “The one on your right is in a mercantile district, so you’ll get a fair bit of traffic for the warehouses and carts of goods, but they do a good job of keeping to themselves and you’re a few streets away from the main road. And the last one here is in an arts district, so you will get occasional events that people host but for the most part it should be quite quiet and free of smells.” He explained.

  Zoe checked on her money. After her last influx of gold from the dungeon, she was left with almost two hundred fifty gold. For anything under twenty gold, she had more than enough for a year. Even the twenty two gold one didn’t bother her much — she’d only be down for her last month and only by a bit. She could probably sell off the coin she got to make that up if nothing else. The more expensive options weren’t all that interesting either — she just needed somewhere to have privacy, not somewhere to host parties.

  Being in an alchemy district or enchanting district was interesting too, and even if there was a bit of noise and smell from the experiments, it could be fun to see what was going on. A forty minute walk from the nearest royal district wasn’t a deal breaker for her, but if she had to choose between that or a little bit of noise from some alchemy?

  Zoe nodded. “You say the alchemy district isn’t too noisy all the time?" She asked.

  Herbert nodded. “That’s my understanding. Every week or two there might be an explosion or some smell that seeps into the air for a bit, but more than that and we need to step in to stop them anyway.”

  “Okay. I think I’ll take the cheapest one then. Might be fun being involved with those experiments anyway, never really got into alchemy much.” Zoe said.

  “Wonderful.” Herbert clapped his hands and pulled the paper back, signing something on the bottom of it with a surge of magic then folding it up and handing it to Zoe. “Bring this back whenever you’re ready, and we’ll provide free transportation to your new home.”

  “I’m good now, honestly.” Zoe said.

  “Well, then I can move you now, if you’d like?" Herbert asked.

  “I would, thanks.” Zoe said.

  Herbert pulled out a metal key from one of his storage items and handed it to Zoe. “Then enjoy your new home. Don’t forget to pay your rent at the end of each month, and have a pleasant trip.”

  Zoe took the key, and a moment later, space folded in on itself around her as she was teleported to her new home.

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