Lia was overwhelmed.
The first sign of people came into view by the time she reached the foot of the mountain. Perhaps because of the upcoming festival, even the small village of Ara outside the town was full of energetic and noisy activities. When Lia stepped into the town proper, she was struck by the number of people.
After spending weeks of seeing nothing but trees and her human contact were limited with her mother, Ed, and a bunch of unwelcomed men, going to a new place full of people made her giddy with excitement. If not for the danger, she would have wanted to go to the festival too. But that move would be risky and her whims were not worth risking their necks.
'Just act normal and you'll be okay,' Lia thought.
But this was not enough to tamper her enthusiasm. The prospect of widening her knowledge and experience of this new world was enough to double up her excitement.
Of course, the real owner of the body had gone through the town a couple of times, but she hated it. The place reminded her of everything she did not have. That and the feeling that she had to remain hidden among the people when she could have been one of them. But that worked perfectly well for Lia now. Being invisible to other people was what she needed. She could watch and gawk at people without being noticed.
As much as she wanted to join the festivities, she was glad that she came down before the event. The festival was all sorts of catastrophes.
In the novel, the festival caused some major changes in Lia's life. Tamara took her to the town and wanted Lia to enjoy it like a normal teenager. She did get her part of enjoyment when she won the cooking contest and meeting and falling for the male lead. She was enjoying the time of her life. Who would have thought that, at that time, Tamara's unusual hair color would be revealed. The people in this town did not know the witch's face, but she had a distinct feature — her hair. In the sea of blacks, Tamara was the only one with platinum blond color. Then all hell broke loose. The people surrounded, mocked, and threw rocks at them. Because of this incident, Lia grew more distant and angry at Tamara. The riff was so wide, they never made up again until the end.
Lia had no intention of repeating that. Not to someone close to her. She just hoped this trip would be uneventful. She made her way to the town, acting as normal as possible.
Fesal was a small town located at the southern part of the country, near the border of Brearus and Lodell. It serves as a gateway to both countries as most merchants do business here, whether through meetings or by delivering their goods.
While Lia hadn't seen other citizens of Brearus that much, she could easily pick apart who the foreigners were. It was not just the rich and colorful clothes they wore but also the way they carried themselves. The people of Fesal looked like country bumpkins compared to them.
Lia watched the people as subtly as possible, trying to commit to memory their mannerisms and their way of speaking. She walked fast, but still her eyes were faster to capture the little things. Hopefully that would help her blend in.
For the most part, no one gave her a weird look. Though, she certainly noticed some questioning gaze thrown at her. She did not understand what was wrong with a female traveling and looking at the shops alone. She glanced around and realized that most young ladies walked in groups of twos or threes.
She checked Tamara's sketch in her hands and rounded in a corner. She reached an alley with fewer people than the main street. But there were still some vendors selling their products placed on the ground.
Lia had no time to take a look as she noticed her destination not too far ahead. She quickened her pace and soon, she reached the back door of a shop. She knocked twice before the door swung open, revealing a lanky lad with a pimply face. Lia did a quick rundown of characters in her head and could not remember who he was.
"Who are you?" the lad stared down at Lia, and for a second, she thought it was her who asked the question. He seemed younger, though her senses were off. While she was in her twenties in mind, her body was still a teen so she tended to treat the younger ones as a younger sibling than someone from the same age group. It was not hard to imagine him as one when his defiance reminded her of Robin, and the thought almost made her smile.
"I came to deliver," she lifted her basket full of pots of ointments. "I'm doing the delivery instead of my mother. Tamara," she could not help but add as though Tamara's name would be the secret code to enter the shop.
"Fine, come in." The lad opened the door wider.