Friday passed by quickly with more studying in the library to get as much knowledge about the Kingdom as possible. I finally felt ready to go out to the market and then to Becca's parents home the next day.
Now it was Saturday, an hour or two before noon and we were getting ready to head out. Since we were planning to go incognito, we both put on a thin black cloak to hide our appearances. I was a little sad that I wouldn't be able to see Becca in a cute dress during our date, but as long as I could still see the expressions on her face, I would still be happy.
We both had a light breakfast in the morning. We wanted to have plenty of room to try out the foods the market had to offer. So far, I had only had food made from my kitchen staff, so I had no idea what the standard level of food was for everyone else. All my food so far was delicious, but that came from the privileges of being a Duke.
On the other hand, Becca seemed to think the food in the market was a special treat, so I still had my hopes up. In my world, some of the best food I ever had was at small food stands that sold their food for dirt cheap, so I was exciting since I trusted Becca's tastes.
Also, the main reason we were going on this trip in the first place was to go to the bookstore and get the new Tanya Walker book. I had a plan to try to find information on an investigative journalist from Tanya today. It slipped my mind, so I'll have to explain it to Becca on the ride over to the market.
I turned to look at Becca. She was posing in front of the mirror to see how she looked in the cloak. I thought it was funny to be worried about your looks when the cloak you were wearing was supposed to make you unrecognizable in the first place. However, I found it endearing since it meant she wanted to look as good as possible for our date.
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist and rested my chin on her shoulder. "Becca, don't worry about it too much. You will look cute to me no matter what."
Becca patted my head lovingly. "It's our first time going out together. I want to make it memorable."
I wiggled out of her embrace and grabbed her hand. "It's going to be unforgettable no matter what, so let's get going already. I can't wait any longer."
Becca lightly laughed at me. "This is the first time I've seen you so impatient."
I looked back and smiled as I lead her towards the mansion entrance. "I can't help it when I get the chance to flirt with you all day long. Plus, this is the first time you invited me to do something yourself, so I am excited for you to take the lead."
"You put so much energy into taking care of me everyday. Today I'll try to pay it back even just a little."
"Sounds good to me!"
Soon we arrived at the carriage that was going to take us to the market. Tyler was there waiting for us.
Once we were close enough, I greeted him, "hello Tyler, what brings you here?"
"Hello Nicolas, before you head out, I need to inform you that we have stationed several of the Duchy knights throughout the market in case you are ever put in danger. They will not be directly keeping an eye on you. Instead, they will be scattered around the market and will respond to your signal. For both you and the Duchess, all you need to do it shot your basic spell straight into the sky and the knights will come to help you."
Becca chimed in, "Tyler, you can call me Rebecca as well."
Tyler nodded his head, "I didn't want to be rude by assuming I could call you by your first name just because Nicolas is okay with it for himself. I'll call you Rebecca from now on."
Now I replied to his plan, "ok that sounds good to me. I doubt we will have any problems since we are both strong enough to deal with the average mage. Also, if we get recognized, I can quickly teleport us away. Just make sure it is not obvious people are stationed to keep watch over us."
After the business was taken care of, Tyler winked at me and said, "have fun on your date."
"Thanks Tyler, I'll see you later."
Rebecca and I entered the carriage and sat on opposite sides.
I looked around at the large cabin. It wasn't too fancy, but the interior was elegant. The color scheme was white with blue accents. There was well done carving on the wooden walls.
"It's my first time on a carriage. I wonder how fast it will go."
"I guess it is because you used to be a commoner. All nobles take carriages everywhere."
I smiled at the naive Becca. "Actually, in my world, we had something way better than carriages. It was an automated carriage called a car. It could go as fast as 450 times the strength of a horse. Everyone used them and they could get you a long distance without any need to stop."
"Wow, that sounds awesome. Is it possible to make one here?"
"Hmmm, I have no idea how they are made. I just enjoyed it when it was ready to use."
"Oh ok. Well I hope you also enjoy your ride on a carriage. But if it's your first time, you probably will not."
"I probably won't? Why?"
"You will notice as soon as we start moving."
Once we started moving, I could see exactly what Becca was talking about. The carriage ride was extremely bumpy and make me feel miserable.
I tried to suck it up and focus on something else by talking to Becca about important matters.
"So you know Becca, I am planning to talk to Tanya Walker about journalism and if she could point me in the direction of someone who can help me start our own newspaper to spread propaganda"
"Oh, because her books that I lent you is about journalist?"
"Ya, I think it will help us if we make our own newspaper that can show the people of the Duchy positive writing about the ways our changes will make society better. I think education of the issues will be a major factor in our success."
"Hmmm, it is a pretty big thing we will have to figure out, but I definitely see how it could help us a lot in the long run."
"Hopefully Tanya has some good information for us. Her writing was so detailed I think she got knowledge about how journalism works from a real journalist."