"Come on, please? Just go there and then take me out of your Pocket Dimension once you’ve gotten to your seat, it won’t even take any real effort on your part," She pleaded in dismay.

"Absolutely not. I’ll enjoy myself a hell of a lot more if you’re not there," I huffed in response.

"What if I sit several seats away from you, and you only bring me out if it’s mostly empty inside?" She suggested, as she tugged on my sleeve.

"Okay, fine. I’ll agree to that. But something tells me that it’s going to be a full house in there, too bad for you," I remarked dryly.

"Wha-...that’s not fair, you’re gonna keep me in the Pocket Dimension the whole time regardless of whether it’s crowded or not!" She protested indignantly.

"Keep your voice down, will you? These rooms seem to muffle sound pretty well, but still, I don’t want anyone hearing a girl’s voice coming from inside this room," I sighed in exasperation.

"In that case...take me to see a movie or I’ll scream as loudly as I can!" She declared smugly.

"Go right ahead. I’ll lock you up inside my Pocket Dimension until you’re reduced to a pile of bones and rotting flesh," I replied icily.

"U-uh, that was just a joke, o-obviously! I wouldn’t scream, you know that, it’s important that you maintain your cover, right?" She laughed nervously.

That’s more like it.

"How understanding of you, good job," I remarked, as I took a swig of water and patted her head patronizingly, having finished eating.

"Hey, come on, let me have some fun too...please? You won’t lose anything if you do. And doesn’t being mean make you no different than the type of Nobles you hate?" She pointed out.

Huh? That’s, uh, well-...that’s not really relevant here.

"Damn it, you little smart-ass. Alright, fine...if, and I do mean only IF, there’s no crowd inside, once I take my seat, I’ll bring you out. But if I feel like there’s even the slightest risk of being seen, like say, if there are security cameras inside, then I won’t take that risk. That’s non-negotiable. Got it?" I stated firmly.

"Okay, got it. So long as there’s at least a possibility that I’ll get to watch a movie in a cinema, that’s fine by me," She nodded eagerly.

"Hm? What, you’ve never been to one before?" I responded with a raised eyebrow.

I’ve only been to movie screenings twice in this world, my family took me...and, well, I never did in my old world. I just pirated any movies I wanted to see if they weren’t available on any streaming services.

It’s not that I didn’t want to watch a movie in a cinema, because I did. But since I was on such bad terms with my family and they didn’t want me seen in the public eye since they considered me an embarrassment, I wasn’t really allowed to leave to mansion.

If I wanted to buy something, I could either have it delivered or get one of the staff to go buy it for me, but I was confined to the estate. Other than a few times when I was really young, until after my family was killed, I almost never left the gates of the mansion.

"No, I haven’t. I’ve been to stuff like live plays and operas, but those are so boring. I’ve always been curious about what it’s like to watch a movie on a big screen, but whenever I asked, my parents always refused and said it was too uncultured or something," She grinned sheepishly.

Tch, damn it, stop. Stop being relatable.

"Come on, then, let’s go. Get in," I nodded towards the portal to my Pocket Dimension with a sigh, as I opened it.

"Mhm, okay," She replied eagerly, as she hopped through it before I closed the portal.

She sure is trusting, isn’t she? If our roles were reversed, I’d be sure that I was being played. After all, I fully intended to do so before I changed my mind.

While I’m only really keeping her around because she has some useful Skills, I’m still gonna be stuck with her for the foreseeable future...and with that in mind, it makes a whole lot more sense for me to make her trust and like me instead of having her end up resenting me.

As much as it pains me, I’ll try to be at least a little bit nice to her. Only a little bit though, and it should be a gradual process...for two reasons. The first being that I wouldn’t be able to stomach it. And the second reason is that she’ll get suspicious if I suddenly start being super friendly and cheerful towards her.

I then headed out of the room and locked the door, before leaving the inn and making my way towards the cinema. It’s the middle of a weekday, so hopefully it won’t be too crowded.

Though I probably shouldn’t expect weekdays and weekends to work the same way as my old world in that regard...after all, it’s not like Commoners have regular office jobs and stuff.

This world may only be a few decades behind my old one in terms of technological progress and development, but it’s a few centuries behind on a lot of other things.

And that’s precisely what’s holding it back from progressing even further...there are far fewer Nobles than there are Commoners, all Nobles are highly educated, while some Commoners can’t even read and write.

There are some independent schools for Commoners that have been set up fairly recently, so the illiteracy rate has dropped, but those schools barely even cover a fourth grade level of education when compared to my old world.

So, even of those who can read and write, most of them are at the most basic of basic levels. In other words, even if they could get the equivalent of office jobs, they wouldn’t have the knowledge or skills to perform such jobs.

Plus, I’m sure a lot of Commoner parents don’t see any merit in enrolling their children in those schools, not counting those who can’t even financially afford to do so.

Lycia and Rhyle never enrolled Argent or me in a school, they simply taught us themselves. Well, mainly Rhyle, especially when it came to stuff like math, but Lycia was fairly well educated by this world’s standards too.

Naturally, it was pretty easy stuff for me, but I have the benefit of getting a full high school level of education in my old world through tutors and stuff.

Anyway, I’ve gotten way off topic. I’ve arrived at the cinema, and thankfully, it doesn’t seem too crowded. I headed inside and looked around, getting the scent of popcorn immediately.

Ohh, this feels like a proper cinema vibe...the carpeted floor, the posters of the movies being currently screened, screening times, a snack booth, and so on.

This is my first time at a cinema by myself...gotta make the most of it! First things first...I have to pick a movie. What should I go with? There seems to be plenty of options. I approached the ticket clerk’s desk as I skimmed the various titles.

"Good afternoon, sir. What would you like to see?" She greeted me in a friendly, welcoming tone.

"Uh, that’s what I’m trying to decide, actually," I replied sheepishly.

Most movies are made by Nobles, and cinemas are one of the few establishments outside of the capital that the Nobles have a direct involvement in.

Specifically, they take a huge chunk of the money from ticket sales...which is, admittedly, fair, since they’re the ones who made the movies. Well, there are a few movies made by Commoners, but, uh...to be frank, they’re crap.

At least, the one I saw was. Crappy directing, poor camera work, awful dialogue, inconsistent characters, you name it, all the hallmarks of a bad movie.

Hm, let’s see...this action movie looks pretty good. Well, the poster does, anyway. And with no description, I don’t have a choice but to judge a book by the cover, so to speak. I’m not getting anywhere with this, and I really don’t want to pick a crappy movie...

"Excuse me, could you give me a recommendation? I don’t know which ones are good or not," I requested, giving up on trying to pick one myself.

"Certainly. This one is very popular and well-received, it’s a romance drama-..."

"Sorry, any genre excluding romance. I mean, if it’s, like, an action movie that includes some romance, that’s fine, but not something that’s mainly focused on romance," I grinned sheepishly.

"Hm, in that case...how about this one? It’s a murder mystery, a very popular crime thriller, if you don’t mind gruesome scenes," She suggested in response.

"Oh, that sounds interesting. Alright, then, I’ll go with that one," I nodded as I took a look at the poster.

"Great choice! And how old are you?" She inquired.

"Oh, uh, I’m twelve."

Crap, is this movie age restricted or something? I should’ve lied and said I was fifteen, I can probably get away with that too!

"Ah, in that case, a child’s ticket...that’ll be one silver," She replied, as she punched the ticket and handed it to me.

Oh, never mind, then. Looks like there’s no age restriction. I see, there’s a discount if you’re under fifteen years old. It’s one silver and five coppers if you’re over fifteen.

"Sure, here you go," I responded, as I handed her a silver coin.

"The next screening is in just under twenty minutes, in Theatre No. 14. It’s just down the corridor over there and the second door on the left," She informed me.

"Got it. Thanks a lot for your help, miss," I replied politely.

I then headed over to the snack booth and got myself a large tub of popcorn, an extra large blue slushie and some gummies.

I felt a surge of excitement and anticipation as I headed through the corridor and got to the screening room for the movie I’d picked...alright, here we go, time to enjoy myself!

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

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