It's been 8 days since I met An and Rena in that deserted town, and that day, while offering them a ride, I ended up choosing to escort them to our city, only to eventually settle on sneaking two nobles from an unknown background into that same city and allowing them to live off as commoners in the meantime.
It was only after having left them at the inn that I realized how much of a mess I had made myself.
If it weren’t for me not being allowed out, and not having time for it, I certainly would’ve made my way to check on them earlier than just today.
Leaving them, nobles on their own, there, in an establishment where commoners go in and out as they see fit, where they wouldn’t receive the usual noble treatment... what a studip idea!
I had plenty of time to imagine a wide variety of possible disastrous scenarios.
It was only after having left them that I realized what mess I had left on Madam and the establishment’s shoulders.
During the day, I was stuck at home. I often found myself in the castle stretching ears, in dread, for news of some sort of commotion caused by them in the common district, yet nothing of that sort came to me.
They were surprisingly well-behaved. I was a little bit surprised to see them hanging out with Henri, Charle, and Franq when I arrived at the Auberge, but apparently they never caused anything that could be referred to as a problem or even less of a commotion. They did, of course, draw some attention, which was to be expected given their appearances, but that was about it.
So to get back to the present, I was with Miss Rena. We were walking through the streets of the common district.
How did we end up here together?
Well, we were, after Zaraha having retrieved some color, left with not much to do in the restaurant, so under the suggestion of Madam, I proposed to show her the surroundings since, starting from the day I left them in the Auberge, they never set foot outside the establishment, and now while walking around with her, I was tremendously thankful it was not the case since glances were thrown from every corner. She did attract a lot of unrequited attention, despite not seemingly minding them much.
"So Miss Rena, is there something in particular you would like to talk about?" I proposed it.
"I don’t know,... Elliel says."
"Well, why not just walk forward? We’ll eventually see." From the path we were set on, we were on our way to the mercantile district from here.
So far, most of the discussions have been between An and I. I didn’t have many opportunities to exchange with Rena at all, even after having literally traveled for almost one day with them in the same carriage. It was only when we reached the city that I, for the first time, heard her talking. So needless to say that there wasn’t much of a topic of discussion between us, except of course the banal-
"So how is your stay in the auberge?"
"Fine, the foods taste delicious. Madam, Zaraha, Finn, and the others are very kind to us. Thank you for letting us stay there."
Looking at how she said and voiced it, I was convinced that she was both honest with the two parts of what she said.
"It’s nothing. I’m glad you are liking the place. "
"It’s been a very long time since I last ate something as good as what the Auberge is serving."
"How long have you two been—"
Before I could finish off my sentence, she stopped herself in front of a food stall in a mercantile plaza.
To be exact, it was a food-selling stall.
"Hey, Young Master and Miss, take your time and look around."The old woman running the shop called out to us.
"What are these things?" She pointed at something still steaming on the woman’s stall, guinenely intrigued by the charcoal-like thing.
"Fried bananas," the old woman replied.
Exact, unrecognizable might that banana be because of the frying but also roasting. It was indeed a fried banana.
"Want to try it?" the old woman proposed.
Without even waiting for her answer, the woman stung on the said fried banana and put it inside a peeled part of banana, making it look like some sort of package, and handed it to us.
Without much hesitation, she tried the food, after having blown air on it to lower its heat.
"Hey, Ei, it tastes really good. Don’t you think? "she said joyously.
It has been two years since I started to wander like this in the common district streets like I do now, but so far, I’ve never really been fond of street food. I usually, if it happen that I want to, eat at the Auberge, which I considered much healthier.
But though I wasn’t fond of the practice, having seen here eating one and seeing her suggesting me also trying, while having literally one of those in my hand, I couldn’t just stand and watch her eat, and refusing to do so, I did what ought to be done.
Though the quantity of light oil within the said fried banana was highly questionable, the thing tasted unexpectedly good.
"So how is it?" the owner asked.
I simply nodded, without commenting anything.
After that, we continued to visit the common district, stopping at many other food stalls or anything that struck us as interesting for Rena, which didn’t take much.
After a while, we found ourselves outside of the mercantile district as we had already visited most of its stalls. We were now stranded in one of the many alleys the city has. At this point, I just as Rena was just wandering without a clear destination. I, in fact, didn’t even recognize those alleys. I wouldn’t say we were lost, it’s just that I had never seen this part of the district. While following the alley, we ended up at a dead end.
"I recognize this place. I think the right path was the previous alley to the left. Let’s head back. " I proposed.
I recognized this dead end. It was on the path of my carriage. Though I was never in this part, this dead end was visible from the other side.
"What happened here?" she asked, concerning the thing that caused this alley to be a dead end.
It was no mere dead end.
The said dead end was literally the wreckage of two buildings that crumbled onto the said alley.
"This..." happened two years ago with great calamities. With the earthquakes caused by these dragons, many buildings crumbled like these two. "
"I see... Why don’t people take this wreckage away from the path? "
"I don’t know about the specifics, but I believe it had to do with the owner of the buildings, or to be exact, their respective inheritors. Because of them, no travaux could’ve been made to rebuild this alley since the land formerly belonged to their parents."
"What happened to the two previous owners?"
"I heard the two owners of the house died during the calamity."
"I see."
I was there that day.
Two years ago, during the passage of the dragons, I was present here in Beaufort.
Birds, dogs, cats, rats, especially rats, and every other little animal were restless. The sky darkened across the duchy. For an entire half-a-day, the earth quaked violently, tearing every fragile, old or unwell-structured building in the duchy apart.
Many houses, commoners' and nobles’ alike, crumbled, causing the deaths or injuries of many, but the most notable and destructive thing that happened out of the calamities was the fall of the giant wall that has been surrounding the duchy for centuries. The wall that was supposed to represent security ended up being one of the most lethal things that came out of the Seven Great Calamities for the duchy.
Even though I had often heard that the duchy had it easy in general, it was my first time seeing something like that.
"Do you hate them?" Rena, who has been silent for some time now, asked.
"Who?"
"Those behind the calamities."
Those behind the calamities, you mean the dragons?"
She nodded, and seemed to be seriously awaiting an answer from me.
It was a weird question.
"Of course, I hate them. How can it be otherwise? With all that happened because of them, how couldn’t I not hate them? That being said, I added honestly, "But whether or not I hate them, I doubt that will change anything. I doubt someone like this cares about what we, little men, think or feel about them. They can’t, and even if they could, I doubt they would even care about our feelings about them. "
"I see. I guess you’re right. "
Was it just an impression or was she disappointed by my answer? I couldn’t tell for sure. At least until we passed through some corridor and came to a halt in front of a strange and isolated shop guarded by an old full-bearded man.
"Please, welcome to my shop. I hope you’ll find something that-Oh, it was you." the old man said, recognizing me.
Even though, I did recognize the person, I didn't know his name, I was simply given the opportunity to meet two or three without having us really introduce ourselves formally.
I did knew he had a shop but didn’t know where exactly it was in the common district. It seem now, I guess I do.
"Good morning..."
"It’s Gervais, Young Lord."
"Please, it's Ei around here."
"Yes, Sir. How long has it been six or seven months?"
"Seven, exactly."'
Seeing Rena’s curious gaze, the old man said and proposed, "Sir, that’s a good company that you have. Please don’t hesitate to visit the interior. You might find something to your liking," he said, proposing Rena to visit the inside of his shop.
"So he should be free from jail soon then." The old man said to me.
"It was today, exactly."
"What? already?! I completely forgot. I guess my age doesn’t help either, "he complained jokingly.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
This old man was one of the few who knew very well my true identity as Elliel Aubrecht. Among the eight people were Madam, Franq, Charles, Henri, Zaraha, Shawn, and lastly, this old man. Only six of them, including this old man, are aware of my status as a Ducal heir. The others only know that I am a noble, but nothing is clear about my identity."
"I see, he’s out of jail, then. I hope that jail-time was enough to allow him to sort his mind. If I’m not wrong, he had before, being imprisoned, impregnated a bar girl of that inn called again?"
"It's the Auberge de Belltower."
"Yeah, that’s it. He’s going to be a father; it should be time for him to finally settle down. "
The reason this old man knew about it was through Shawn, who was exactly seven months ago was detained in prison for having done what he had done.
"I too hope the time he spent there would’ve taught him at least something."
"Are we hoping too much?"
"Maybe."
With him, effectively, that could be too much to ask.
"Owner." Rena called from the shop door.
"Did you find anything that interests you, young lady?"
She nodded.
The old man stood up from his chair and headed inside, and so did I.
Upon entering the room, I immediately saw that the man was selling almost everything except maybe alimentary products. Everything from clothes to cooking utensils, stuff of every sort was displayed here.
"So what is that I can help you with?"
"What is this thing called?" She said, pointing at an object on top of a desk on the corner.
"What is it?" Oh, uh, you mean this typewriter?"
"Typewriter? Is this what it is called? "
"Yes."
"Rena, you’ve never seen one?" I asked.
She shook her head negatively.
"Can you show me how it works?"
"Well, I guess I can."
The man sat down and took his time explaining how typewriter works.
She seemed very surprised by how the thing worked; it made it believable when she said she had never seen a typewriter in her life.
"Is this what is used to write a book now?"
"Well, in a sense, yes. Do you want to try it too? "
The owner didn’t even have to hear her answer to know what it was.
"Have a seat."
"First you put the paper in place, then you rewind the dynamo. Once you reach this corner on the sheet, you are free to write, both hands please... That’s it. Now try to write something on both thumb joints here on this long bar here. What to write? Well, you see, try anything you want. "
Upon typing a letter, a metallic sound reverberated, soon followed by another, then another one. This went on for several minutes, with regular stops at a loud "clang".
"That was not bad for a first try. So, young lady, would you like to buy it? I can make you a good deal.3 The old man proposed shedding his skin of a wise and gentle teacher for a new one of a greedy merchant.
She strangely looked at me before giving her answer.
****
We were on our way back to the auberge.
"Are you sure you don’t want me to buy it?" You know, we can still go buy it if you want. "
When the old merchant gave his price for it, she simply said that she wouldn’t buy it now but that she’d be back for it one day.
"No", she reassured. But as I said, 3I will be back for it later. There is something I must still see with An."
"I see."
"Thanks for proposing, nonetheless. And thanks for taking me out and benevolently buying me all of this; it was very kind of you. I am really grateful. " "She said with a smile."
"It was nothing."
"I, too, would like to pay back for this."
"As I said, it was nothing," I said.
Nodding, she didn’t pursue the topic any further and instead brought up another one.
"Say Elliel,"
"Hum?"
"There is something other than all I asked for today. I’d like to ask you again today."
"Something to ask?... What is it?"
"Today, when we get to the Auberge, An will, once they’ll come back, come to you for a favour. I would like you to accept it. "
That sounded like an complicated request for me to so easily acceed to, given that it could be anything with these two.
"A favour? Of what sort?"
"I don’t know how he will say it, but all he’s going to ask for today is time. Time is all he needs, we would like to stay around for a little while... He is, for now... just a little bit confused, but I’m sure he will soon get over it and know what to do next, like he always did. All he needs is a place to rest and time. Can you do that for me? " She said to, in sense, half of her words sounded like it wasn't adressed to me but rather to herself, then as if believing her word wasn't enough, she stepped in front of me and pleaded, "We won't cause any trouble, I promise."
To be honest, I was still perplexed by what she wanted to say, but I knew
"Please, I got it, I understand."
She, for a few seconds, seemed confused by my answer, so I made it clearer. "If,as you said, he comes to me with that request, I will allow it."
These words hadn’t even entirely left my lips when she reached out for my hands.
"Thank you Elliel. I know I’m annoying with this, but really, thank you."
With her hands grasping onto mine, it reminded me of what I felt earlier this morning.
This morning, while taking care of Zaraha, I saw Rena ready to use some sort of magic on her if needed. I knew for sure that it wasn’t to harm her, and though I didn’t recognize it as healing magic, I knew that it was something close to it.
I really had many questions concerning their identity, but I guess it was fine if it stays like this for some time.
Soon we found ourselves at the Auberge door. Within, I was already hearing a familiar comotion.
"They are already back."
I couldn’t help but sigh.
"We’re back, Madam." I announced.
"Welcome back to you two. Franq and the others are back. "
"I noticed too." I said.
Upon entering the auberge, we were greeted by Madam at the counter, and at the center of the room I was already hearing a voice eloquently, "Okay, another one. It’s a commoner and a noble who walks into a bar-" Upon noticing me Franq, who was speaking loudly, went silent and from one of the restaurants, a tall young man rose up and came to me to only stop in front of me.
"You’ve grown a lot in these six months, Ei."
"Likewise, Shawn."
Without much warning, he hugged me.
"Glad to see that you're safe and fine," I said, hugging the man back.
"Thanks, it's all thanks to you." I really thank you Elliel. I thought I was done for good with what I did. "
"You're fine now. I just hope you’ve learned your way now."
Yeah, of course, ahaha. "What was it the third time you saved my ass? I can’t allow that to happen a fourth time."
"Yeah, whatever, can you let me go now?" It’s getting embarrassing now. "
"Of course," let me go. He threw his arm around my shoulder and dragged me to where the tables were. Bard a song for my friend, Ei."
"Right away, Sir." Franq said, being in the middle of the room with a guitar-like instrument in hand.
***
I remained with the others till the middle of the afternoon, at which point I finally retired myself from the little party they were holding for Shawn's return.
"Thanks for taking Rena out today. She really needed it. I’m sure she appreciated it. "
"It was nothing."
I was now in an alley outside the Auberge, leaning against its wall along with An. I, with all this commotion, hadn’t got the opportunity to talk personally when it was literally one of the reasons I came here and even took the entire day off today from both the house and the Edouard clinics.
"So how was your stay?"
"It was as you said, Madam really took great care of us. It has been a long time since we last had such a comfortable stay anywhere we’ve been to. "
I felt him go away while saying those words, which prompted me to say those words next.
"I see. You and Rena are welcome to stay as long as two need to get what they have to fix on. " I said, glancing at him from the corner of the eyes to peek at his reaction.
I saw him starring at me as if I had clearly messed up somewhere. It was an expression, between actual confusion and surprise,
"Could it be that Rena did say something to you?"
"Was it that obvious?" I confessed.
He sighed and for the first time since we met, I saw a smile taking an actual shape on his face; "I hope you won’t take it badly, but it was."
"Sorry for that. It was supposed to be so smooth that it would come across as natural."
He didn’t answer directly, as if trying to find the words, but after a while he said, "I don’t know what she said to you, but thank you for allowing us to stay here a little bit more."
"Don’t mention it. "
You know, there is something I’d like to ask. It is a little bit personal, but—are you and Nia... you know?"
"What?"
"Together... like a couple, you see."
Somewhere in my head, the theory that these two are eloping lovers is still alive and well, so when I heard from Madam that these two were seen spending the night in the same room, I had the feeling that this could be true.
"You know, she and I have spent a long time together. She has been very kind to me even though we were set to never get along from the get-go. To me, she’s the most precious friend I ever had and I feel extremely lucky to have stumbled upon her."
"So you two aren’t eloping lovers then?"
"Eloping lovers? Where does that come from? "
"From nowhere, just forget about it."
"I see. Is there everything you wanted to ask?"
It certainly wasn't, but I still said, "Yes, that’s all. I think it soon will be time for me to get back home.
I’ve been skipping a lot lately. I can’t spend much time here anymore. "
After that, I bid him farewell, then did the same to others.
***
Usually, when going to the Auberge, I always travel there on foot, to avoid attention. I usually had my own path to Auberge and one strictly back home, or to be exact, to the carriage that would eventually take me home. I was currently on my way to that said carriage when I heard a voice from behind me calling me.
I saw a tall young familiar face, panting, clearly that he had run after me, while a few minutes ago he had just bid them farewell and left them.
"Shawn, what are you doing here? Is there a problem... with Zaraha? "
"No—no, she’s fine. I just wanted to talk to you in private. "
"Hum? Go ahead
He proposed that I continue the discussion while walking. "You know, I’m really thankful for..."
Awkwardly removing a tattered piece of paper from his pocket, he handed it to me. There was something written on that piece of paper. It took me some time to realize that it was an address of somewhere in the common district.
"And what exactly do you want me to do with this?"
"You know, when I was in that prison, I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted to do, what I should do." I know it isn’t just about me anymore, but I want to take a seat for her and for the baby that is coming. And this is where I want to start with a new foundation for my family. " pointing out the address that was written on the paper.
"I know I own more than I could ever pay back, but I’m begging you this one favor."
I was glad to hear these words from him, but since he didn’t even voice what exactly he wanted me to ask, I urged him; "What is it?"
"I want to buy this property. Forward this to Anson. He will know what is to be done with it." Charle’s father should be the one I would go to for this favour, but you know my situation with him, he would obviously go out of his way to make the acquisition for me. "
Glancing once more, I tried to figure out where exactly it could be and then I realized.
"I’m not asking for the money, just that you forward this to him. I’m sure he should have his way out of this for me. I know I’m just a common--"
"Don’t play this card on me. Sure, I will forward him this address—but what about the money? "
"Don’t worry, I got it. I have what I need to start this. "
"You’re sure?"
"Yeah, don’t worry. I will be doing good from now on."
"Reassure me this is not the start of yet another —"
"No, I swear, I’m done with it this time. I’ve changed Elliel, I really did. I have learnt from my mistakes. "
Is that so? Anyway, just don’t get yourself in trouble. I won’t save you from hanging for a second time. "
"I know, friend. I know. I’m already thankful you did it once. I won’t make the same mistake twice. "
"So long that you know. Is that all? "
"Yeah, uh..."
"What is it again? Is there anything else you need? "
"This one isn’t about me. It’s about the two people you brought over to the Auberge. "
"Rena and An? What about them? "
"It’s only the boy. The girl is fine, in fact, she’s a sweet and nice girl, but him, I don’t trust him."
"What are you saying that? You only met him for half a day."
"That’s it. I only met him for half a day and I already don’t feel like getting along with him. I know it’s just my impression of him, but he’s fishy. "
"What are you talking about?"
"I’ve spent six months with a criminal of any sort but him. He’s something else."
"He’s scarring you?"
"No—no, it’s not that! See, I know he is a noble, but even for one, there is something wrong with him.
Within him I feel this passive aggressveness. "
"So what exactly do you want me to do with this?"
"When I was in jail, my fellow inmates told me about those Aristocrats, how violent and ruthless they can be. You’re a kind boy, too kind in fact. I know what I’m talking about. But I think it would be best to be safe rather than sorry. Get your Anson to take a look at them. I’m sure he would be able to dig something up about them. "
When we reached the place where my carriage was, one of my attendants was already opening the door for me.
"You do really want to bury him with work? Sigh,... Fine... But, in the meantime, try to get along with him. Maybe it’s just spending too much time in prison that makes you feel this way. "
"Maybe, but sure, I will try."
"As long as you do."