A Kentucky Belle in an Isekai World

8: Turning Tables

Tony somehow got away and to the coffee shop.

He didn't really think Paige would follow him, but he needed to get out of sight. And probably change cars once he could.

He started taking photos of as many of the papers as he could and sending them to himself and his parents, so there'd be some evidence of this even if Karen caught him.

If he'd had time to pause and really absorb how weird this situation was, he'd have found it funny, but the adrenaline was pumping too much for that right now.

Unexpectedly, Paige walked in the door only about 15 minutes after he got there.

She had a purse with her now and pushed up sunglasses.

"Look," she said, "this sounds crazy...but, I got the vibe you're not much of a liar. And something just wasn't quite right about that woman, though I can't put my finger on it... I could answer some questions about the comics...but I just don't get how it's all connected."

Tony smiled in relief. He could have hugged her. Finally, somehow else who thought Karen was just not right and didn't think he was nuts until he proved it.

"Where did she go?" he asked.

"After she went after you and you weren't there, I said I thought you'd mentioned going to the post office," Paige said, pointing at the papers. "She freaked out. I guess she thought you were sending those somewhere. Left right away. The post office is at the other end of this part of town. It'll take her 30 minutes at least to figure out it was wrong."

"How did she follow me then?" Tony wondered. Then he realized that Karen could have gotten a picture of his license plate the same way he did with hers, and possibly she just guessed he'd try a library if he needed answers.... Maybe it wasn't that hard to figure out. Or may they'd followed him and just lost him long enough for him to get ahead.

It didn't matter. Magic or just skill, he didn't think she'd be gone for long.

"I want to explain everything," he said, "but not sure this is the place to do it."

Paige sat down at the table.

"What does the series about Thesaurum have to do with this?" she asked.

"Series? Okay, back up. It's a series?" Tony said.

Paige held up her phone. She'd already opened her web comics app. "You can get the first 3 volumes as hard copies, but the author has been publishing the 4th season for a month or so. Week by week. Do you read web stories?""

"I've read a few fan fics, but I never tried the comics. I hear they were mostly garbage." Tony shrugged.

"Mostly, but there's some good stuff in there," Paige shrugged. "I haven't read this one in a while."

"What's it called?" Tony squinted at it.

"The Crown's Heart," Paige said.

"Really?" Tony said. "That sounds like a dumb rom com."

"That would be about the usual way titles for these stories work," Paige said.

"Is it an isekai?" Tony asked.

"No, it's not. It's one of those fantasy/reality ones that play off European culture a little, but that's just a theme. It's more like D&D usually: mages, magic, rulers, rivals, etc." Paige gestured like she was elucidating.

"But the papers I found talk about someone going into another world," Tony said cautiously. "And they're about the same one."

"That would be quite a plot twist--wait, are you telling me you have the next season's plans?" Paige's eyes widened. "That's--I mean, I dropped the series, but still...that would be interesting to know about. I've never heard of  one of these turning into an isekai partway through.... Well, there was that one...but it wasn't even the fantasy type of story."