A Kentucky Belle in an Isekai World

4: Envera

An hour of time in the Duke's library taught me that libraries that do not use the decimal system are much harder to navigate.

I stumbled across something useful entirely by accident by starting at the end of one row that, thankfully, had geography books in it.

I found a really big Atlas along one shelf and pulled it onto the floor.

I began to look through it.

What started to get to me was that there were pages and pages of it. It was as big as one at home would have been.

This world I was in was clearly the same size as earth...which scientifically made sense, but that kind of detail hadn't been what I expected from Karen's book.

In fact, each of these continents I found had a name. And they weren't like the ones at home. One looked a little like Australia, but it was higher up. Most of them were much smaller than Africa or the Americas would be.

I didn't know what one I was on, but if the weather was any indication, I had to be near the equator of this world or at least not very far North. Most of the continents were around that area, but spread out. There were some archipelagos with names just like at home.

It was overwhelming. I was starting to feel like crying again from pure frustration and the fact that I hadn't had caffeine in...oh, 10 hours at least, and it was the middle of the day by now and I'd only eaten one apple.

Though in that blasted dress I could barely feel my own stomach.

"Trouble planning your voyage, miss?" someone had snuck up on me while I wasn't paying attention.

I looked up to see another man, this one maybe 20 years old, with similar features to the duke and his sons, but with bright green eyes.

I blinked at him. I didn't want company, but I was anxious to ask someone for information, and I had to weigh my options.

"Sorry," he said, taking my stare to be annoyance. "I thought you were looking through it so avidly, but of course, I shouldn't tease a lady."

There was that word again. I wasn't one to take offense to being called a lady, but I think I was going to be if this kept up.

"It's hard to plan a voyage when I ain't got no idea where to start from," I said crossly, forgetting to check my accent yet again.

"What an extraordinary accent," he said at once, of course. "Are you foreign?"

"More than you'd believe," I said dryly. "I'm new around these here parts. My...father is Lord Laurel."

"Oh, oh, you were here to be presented to the Duke," he said, understanding dawning in his expression. 

"Yeah, speaking of which, you look uncannily like him," I said. "But I didn't see you in that courtroom yonder."

I think I was upping my country manner on purpose then just out of rebellion. I haven't used the word "yonder" except as a joke in my entire life.

But then, this did seem like the place people would say "yon" and "thither" and "ere" in, so who knows?

And that didn't seem to confuse the guy as much as the part about my identity.

"I see," he said, bending down to straighten the Atlas. "Well...there is a reason for that. I suppose you'll find this out sooner or later. Might as well own up to it now. I'm the Duke's illegitimate son."

I think he thought I would look horrified or embarrassed, but half the people I know are "illegitimate", and I didn't bat an eyelash.

"I see," I said flatly. "So you weren't invited to the big event? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but no one could have told without you admitting it. You're the spitting image of them--those-- other two."