As far as its citizens knew, no place was noisier and more crowded in Redne than the trading district, where the central market was located.

As people were returning to work after lunch, the commotion should’ve eased. Yet, the common people were suddenly surprised and became more hectic then usual.

The cause was a carriage that was speeding through the paved road. The breadth of that said road could ideally fit in four carts in a row, yet the stalls on both sides of the road had narrowed it.

As a result, the pedestrians crowding along the road quickly dispersed, most of them were yelling in panic.

There was an old woman crossing the road just in front of the speeding cart. Luckily a boy quickly pushed her to the side way before she got hit.

Quickly, the black-haired boy turned to check on whoever was driving in that reckless ride. As it passed him, he saw at glance the face of one passenger, facing exactly his way. It was a brown-haired girl with a pair of green eyes.

Both of them made an eye contact. The boy stared without even blinking. As if at that very second, something was possessing him. A feeling that he never knew existed.

Eyes as if morning dew on leaves

Skin white as if pure pearl

Cheeks glow red as if the moon

Suddenly, the girl's leaf-shaped long ears, signifying that she's an elf caught the boy's attention.

Even as the carriage had disappeared from sight, her face was still present in the boy’s mind. He was stunned, as if a spell was just casted on him, he even ignored the old woman who was thanking him for the rescue.

Meanwhile, the pedestrians returned to crowd the road again, as if nothing happened.

Suddenly, a loud yell was heard, “Reyl! Reyl!”

The boy’s daydreaming instantly dispersed. He immediately went towards the caller.

The man calling him had a black hair as well, his face was almost like it would be the boy’s when he’ll grow older. He didn’t seem so pleased.

“Reyl, I told you not to wander around!” He reprimanded. “I heard there was a cart speeding on this road. I was worried you got hit.”

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Reyl lowered his head in regret. “I’m sorry, da… I won't do it again.” He most certainly could not tell the whole story.

Reyl's father looked at him for a moment. His eyes were directed on the bruise in Reyl’s arm. Noticing his father’s gaze, Reyl quickly hid his arm. His face turned pale for his mishap having been discovered.

Instead of scolding him, his father smiled and ruffled his hair. “Come, we still have customers to attend to. Who knows, we will might sell out our merchandises and then be able to return home to Lu Vazr.”

“Yaay!” Reyl shouted cheerfully.

However, even at that moment he couldn’t bring himself to forget the little girl he saw in the speeding carriage back then. Even if it was only for a second, her image was carved perfectly into his memory.

He had this hunch that they would meet again.

==oOo==

The carriage was still speeding. One of the passengers, Maven was still resting on one side of the cart.

Only a few minutes before, she saw a boy with black hair staring intently at her. Even if only for a moment, she found herself difficult and unwilling to forget his bright, brownish eyes.

When she turned toward the woman who sat across her, she began questioning in her head. Could Father Nigel had been correct in his hunch, that this noble woman wasn’t as ‘noble’ as she looked?

A hunch that Maven would go though a life of hardship instead of a happy one filled with love and care?

“We’re almost there, Maven,” said Theana LaSalle as she looked back to Maven, startling the latter.

“Y-yes, madame.”

“From now on, call me ‘mother'. Never forget that.”

Maven nodded. Perhaps ‘hardship’ meant the strict rules of aristocratic households that would bind her the way a leash bound a horse. Maven would become the horse and Theana her coach. The cold stare of her ‘new mother’ seemed to confirm such suspicion.

Not too long after, the carriage slowed down. When it was about to stop, only then Maven began to look out through the glassless window.

All that she could find were shoddy sheds cramming as far as she saw, none of that fancy mansion you would expect from an aristocrat. Were the LaSalles only poor aristocrats pretending to be rich?

What’s the meaning of this? Maven shouted in her mind.

“We get off here,” Theana commented.

“E-Eh?”

Maven’s confusion was replied with Theana's sharp, cold stare. Sharper still were her words. “Or do you prefer to stay in this dirty place, filled with diseases and criminals? I assure that you will not live to see tomorrow.”

Maven was stunned. The woman in front of her now seemed more like a devil in human form. Is this what Father Nigel felt from her?

It was the first time that little girl was faced with a choice between life and death. Chose wrong, and that’s all she wrote. There was no other option.

Maven thus got out of the cart, following her "new mother".

Wearing her long dress, Theana walked slowly and calmly. It’s weird, would a noble woman ever going to enter a slum like this while wearing such a fancy dress? Maven thought.

Unfriendly faces, people wearing shabby clothes, and prying eyes stared at Maven as if hungry wolves spying their prey. Yet Theana simply continued walking.

What dumbfounded Maven the most was that said ‘wolves’ in fact kept their distance from Theana. Some even bowed down their heads with respect.

Suddenly Maven felt her blood was frozen. It was as if a thousand daggers had pierced her. She really just wanted to run away from this place, back to the sanctuary of the monastery.

Alas, Maven was now a sparrow in snake’s lair, too weak to just fly away. Thus she decided to keep following Theana, the only guarantee to her survival.

Maven didn’t look left or right. She focused only on Theana’s back. She couldn’t afford to be too far from her, let alone straying away.