4 years later, and that makes me 6. And still, no sign of my Faerie features appearing.

My peaceful life has somewhat been  intact. The King's visit has become less and less frequent now. Allowing me not to think about his ridiculous request. Maybe I'm selfish for not even thinking about it. But, when his request is as vague as that? It's too difficult to accomplish. I admit I'm not that great of an artist too. I draw only for myself, and that's what I've been doing daily in this new life.

Since Mr. Skull-Head believes that art may make me stronger, whatever that means, my collection of paintings has grown quite drastically. Of course, my first drawing of the Great Faerie Lake I've already transferred and colored into a canvas.

My growth could be seen with the collection of paintings now decorating the cabin's living room. Paintings of the Great Pit in between the Kingdoms, the field of flowers I was born from, and even an anatomical painting of a Chicken-horse creature Mr. Skull-Head kept then killed. There's mundane smaller paintings as well. Such as a self portrait of me, and even a portrait of Mr. Skull-Head.

Since there's literally nothing else to do for me, I just live my dream life and paint. And supplies is not a problem, since Mr. Skull-Head kindly brings a stable amount everytime he comes back, and high quality as well.

I'm not that organized as a person so my paintings are displayed not in a chronological order. But In the cabin's living room, I still display the Faerie Lake painting first though, so that's a start.

"Little One, what it is do you like to do other than paint?" Mr. Skull-Head asks me out of the blue while I prepare my canvas.

My other hobbies, huh? Well, I like reading. But when people ask upfront about these things, they're probably asking about social stuff, which is... Yuck. To say the least.

"I'm going to the capital tomorrow. I need you to come with me," He adds.

The capital, huh? While it's true that I've never seen anyone other than the people that visits here, I've been comfortable being alone for way too long. A change of scenery wouldn't hurt of course, but I don't know... Isn't he big name in the Kingdom or something? If he brings a child with him, what attention would that bring to us?

Though, I don't know if the King or the Knight has spread the words about me or not. Not that I matter.

"What are you gonna do there?"

"His Majesty has invited me to the Third Prince's 6th Birthday. And he also instructed me to bring you along."

I tilt my head to him, asking why without any words.

"His Majesty has always been like that. He might only want to see how you'll act, surrounded by those many people."

That damned king... He's like a parent that demands his introverted child to go socialize. Sure that would definitely works and not make the child suffer.

"That reminds me. You turn 6 this year, yes?"

I nod to him, then I say, "I don't know the exact date of my birth, though."

"The third day of the 8th month Confussius, that's the day Yurganeil brought you here. That is today, so I'll consider today as the day of your birth."

Wait, today!? Doesn't that mean I have the same birthday as the birthday prince?

"Wouldn't that... Complicate things, if I go to the party?"

"Why would it? No one would know anyways. What could be gained from anyone knowing, really?"

The way he says it are both ensuring and infuriating at the same time.

So... Does that means Mr. Skull-Head won't ever celebrate my birthday? That sucks, but, from his person, I could understand. I've known him for 6 years now. He never showed a single emotion all throughout those years, ever. I don't think he'll ever show any kind of happiness or empathy either.

He's only bringing me to the party because the King specifically requested to anyways. I don't know what would happen if I ignore that request so I really have no choice, do I?

-----

"Welcome back, Lord Re-creator. For how long are you gonna be in the capital this time?"

"Not long, again. The King wanted me to attend some formalities."

"Gotcha... Enjoy your stay here anyways, Lord Re-creator, always a pleasure to greet you."

That conversation is the first thing I hear when I raise my head from Mr. Skull-Head's lap. It seems, we've arrived just before nightime... God, that ride to the capital was a menace. The cart had to scale down a mountain, and the road was underdeveloped. My motion sickness tolerance is quite low so I have to keep my stomach on track all the way. Me managing to fall asleep is quite a miracle, actually.

Now that we arrived, I look back to see that the cart has already passed through the capital's main gate, with the landscape before it being your typical grassy marshes, paved with an actual stone road that leads into the capital itself.

Now, my first impressions of this fantasy city is... Very jazzy, very classical 50's, and very gothic-victorian.

Most buildings are dark in color and textures, mostly built with dark crimson bricks or with light colored yet very rough-looking stones. The road itself is made of some sort of smooth yet dark cobble. The roofs of these buildings also arch sharply, most of them having some kind of picked fences in beautiful and intricate motives outlining them, completed with the sharp-looking lightning rods that point up on every pointy ends of the roofs.

That being said, with it being close to night, the street lamps lit the capital roads, together with all the shop signs and the shop displays.

Potions stores, clothing stores, armories, and even book stores, all have these classic bulb lights that goes around their store names attached right up their doors as signs.

On the way, I see dresses, suits and other fancy clothing displayed behind glasses windows, just like my world's cities in the 50's. Swords, potions and magical tomes are displayed as if they're accessories that changes each week depending on what's popular with the masses. And popular they are, as many stores are crowded as if everyday's black friday.

Not to mention the street-foods and arts as well. All the delicious smell, from sweet and savory to downright extremely weird. My eyes spy some kind of pizza parlor serving many kinds of distinguished city-folks, human-lookibg or not. In another corner is an ice-cream cart, popular with children of many races, poor or rich. There's even a store selling giant centipedes skewered like satay, though it seems to be popular only with the dragon-looking people.

And all that sight is accompanied by the tune of music and the arts coming from left and right. From Jazz to melancholic classical, from figure painting to intricate magic displays, this city looks like it's alive only in the night.

It almost look modern, this fantasy city. When I first hear about the Kingdom of Old Magic I thought that it would be dark, decrepit and sad with lots of cult sacrificial stuff going on. But to say I'm pleasantly surprised is quite an understatement.

But... I must say, I notice many symbols etched to the roofs, roads, or walls of the buildings and stores. Some symbols looks like moths, some like rams, some like octopuses, and some even looks like vaginas. Though I don't know for certain what any of those symbols are but, that's to be expected from the Magician Kingdom, right?

One other thing that differs from my world is that there's not only humans living in this capital city. There's many kind of races living here as equals. Of course the disparity between the rich and the poor are still visible, but the horizontal differences of the people here are seemingly almost negligible.

I saw many nobles-looking humans attending a dinner party with inhuman races that also sport some fancy looking outfits. Heck, I even saw an eldritch-looking octopus dressed like a drag queen hanging out with other humans and non-humans that also dressed up like drag queens.

This capital seems like a pretty fun place. It almost make me upset that Mr. Skull-Head didn't bring me here sooner. But in the end, I'm pleased with result. It's not everyday that you die and get reincarnated into a world like this, right?

And finally, after a long road trip, the cart arrive at the Demon King's Castle.

I'm nervous, but also excited. Because this birthday party I'm attending must have a lot of food, though this is the demon King's son's birthday party...