Mei and Aridel, the Lord Marshall and the Radiant Princess, ventured out from the ancient manor at dawn on a summer morning, disguised as commoners and without any entourage or carriage to speak off. Mei had been adamant about it since she said over and over that she wanted to experience her first visit to the city as a normal person would.
It was easy enough for Mei but not quite so for Aridel. He had been drilled since he was an infant on how to carry himself, how to portray a certain bearing at all times since he was a prince. The simple clothes were not enough to fool anyone into thinking that the man who stood ramrod straight and walked with a majestic gait was a commoner man, out with his wife on a normal day.
Aridel watched her closely too. She was after all, his best example on acting so far. Even with the many changes she had gone through lately, not even Nanny Coco thought that Mei was not herself anymore. His wife had quickly grasped the main traits the original Mei used to display, most importantly about how her interactions with people went and more so with people close to her like the old nanny. Mei had said it was not hard because the original Mei was a fairly good and sincere person thus she could easily slip into her persona, that it would have been much harder if she were recognized as a stubborn or arrogant person. He also thought many alarms were not raised because of the timely way Mei showed she had access to her own power now. For their close people, the fact that she was able to train and cultivate now was bound to make her change in many ways, thus her proclivity to try new things and leave others behind, like the embroidery and painting was not such a weird thing.
Many other things were also seen only by him, in the privacy they shared. The fact that she was always so open and nonchalant with him where clothes were concerned...
-Whatever you are thinking right now about, it is a good thing, keep it up-she said out of the blue while they were walking side by side at a brisk pace. He cleared his throat at that, visibly ashamed of being caught thinking of how her back looked when she was changing clothes in plain view back in their room. She grinned and said nothing else, but her eyes told him she knew what he was thinking at that moment too.
-Did you walk around like this on your other world?-
He had been thinking of this question for a long time now. After all, their time together was spent mostly training and discussing plans and teachings for her and sometimes, he felt she had closed the lid on her past life so much that it came through to her only at night, when she had nightmares.
The smile faded slowly from her face but visibly. She looked into the distance but maintained the rhythm of walking with him.
-I tried once every few years but less and less so as time went by-she said.
-Why? you have told me your world was vast, well communicated and mostly peaceful since there were no magical beasts. Here, even with that risk, people roam around between countries-
She glanced at him and debated what to say for a bit.
-My old world was beautiful indeed. But my life was not, and going out kept reminding me of all the things I wanted and couldnt have-
They were walking along vast fields that separated the Marshall Estate from the Imperial city, and found dozens of families tending to the work needed to care for the growth of the many plants strewn across. One of the consequences of having a nation isolated by the magical beasts was that food matters were taken seriously and every bit of land available was used for food production. This was a world were trade for food was not possible and meant every nation had to be able to sustain themselves or go through famine without options.
-Maybe, I was given so many drugs every day for such a long time just to keep me going that by the time the nanos were introduced and they could repair the worst damage to my body, my mind was never able to be quite the same as before the accident-She said.
And that was it. She did not go beyond that. Aridel decided not to push her anymore since he had seen her broken body in dreams several times by now and could imagine what she meant by wanting things she couldnt have.
-It is hard surviving, no matter which world we are living in- he said to close the conversation.
Maybe he was cheating in a way. These few months with her had been a reprieve like time for him too. She had been able to get a complete and healthy body again and the joy she felt at that was undeniable. He had been able to get married and with how things turned out, he had had to dedicate time to her, focusing on taking care of her up to a point when it would be fine for her to stand beside him without trouble. His own father emperor and his military aides had left him a precious time for himself that he could not have had any other year, had it not been for her arrival into his life. And while they thought he was carefully growing feelings with this wife and working hard on bringing a grandson into being, he could improve on both their cultivations and reaching the next stage was now much closer to him.
He also knew he was cheating her in the process He knew what she wanted and that she was sincerely growing some feelings for him, paciently bidding her time where he was concerned while also knowing he was a hard bone to crack. She was not conceited about having him in her clutches either. Although they were married and had completed the rites beyond what was normal for most couples. He felt it was a positive thing for himself too since he could feel some degree of trust and respect for him. It was strange to know she was trying to bring them together while still leaving him room, the ultimate choice on what would happen and when between them. Maybe that was also something that he liked and had to be acknowledged as a trait that only an older woman like her could show.
It was much like now. They were both walking together towards an objective, by their own means while bringing such different experiences in life and both knew what lay at the end of the road, what to expect. Perhaps what was important and interesting was what they would share along the way, some things would be the same as everyone else, some would be completely different given the fact they were so different from each other.