When I came down the carriage people stared at me as if seeing a stranger for the first time in their lives.
It's as if they've never seen a masked person in their whole lives. The breeze of the wind blows the same time I made my entrance. And that's when their little mouths started turning.
"Is she Lady Vivienne Hernandez of the Shire?!"
"Do you think she's wearing that cloak because when she woke up, she looked ugly?"
"What if she is!"
"Then that's a disgrace for the Shire"
"Yes, that sure will be a disgrace, don't you think so?"
"Maybe her beauty sleep just made her little smooth face rot, ha!"
"Hahaha, what if that's true!"
"Then that's hilarious!"
I stepped down from the door and started towards the two gentlemen in the centre. I ignored them as if they were just decoration statues. I walked past them all not minding what they were assuming. The guy that seemed to be called Sir Ron turned his head towards my way and glared as if telling me not to take a single step closer. But of course, I walked towards him.
He looked startled for a moment when I finally reached where he was. I smirked for a moment before speaking.
"I believe that you both are disturbing my trip; don't you think so gentlemen's?" – I stared at him and he too stared at me as if I were a foreigner to the country. He smiled and stepped off the man. The man sprang up to his feet and started apologizing.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry my lady! Please forgive me." – The man starts bowing multiple times like I'm gonna strangle him any moment. Who the heck would wanna strangle a guy who of course I don't want to admit spoke the truth? I was going to stop him from apologizing when Sir Ron cut me off.
"I apologize to the lady for my rude behaviour just now. It was due to the rudeness of this man that I had to teach him a lesson of not criticizing your grace. I was just doing what had to be done. Forgive me for disturbing your trip to the emperor." – He apologized while bowing. I only stood there and stared at him intensely. As expected, he was just sent here to test my conscience! I didn't even mention I was going to see the emperor but he –
"That is fine Sir Ron, but I do believe an official royal knight such as yourself can't be roaming around the town square without the prince nor the emperor's permission I presume. Am I not right Sir Ron?" – I asked smiling brightly while he looked more shocked then from earlier.
"Yes, that's right milady." – He straightens up and turned to the man beside him and beckon him to leave. Without a moment to lose the man dashed away running. Oh well, must be his unlucky day.
"Ah, Nanny?" – I utter her name while heading towards one of the market tents.
"Yes milady?" – Nanny replied while following me along with Sir Ron.
"Have you notified both the coachman and the guards what I told you?" – We all reached the tent. Sir Ron looked bewildered. I started scanning the items on the table with curiosity.
"Yes, I have notified them to leave and return after an hour." – Sir Ron started coughing all of a sudden. Maybe he coughed on his saliva out of surprise? Hmm, well who cares? I turned around only to meet his face 1 meters close to mine. Nanny froze on her point.
"Vivienne, I think you've been acting weird lately. Usually, you would cling onto me when you see me beat up those guys from saying dreadful things about you. But…... you're just different. It's as if you've changed. You never let the guards out of your side. Who's going to guard you when you have no bodyguards?" – His blue eyes started gently at mines which gave off a familiar sense as if I've seen them before. I have almost forgotten that Nanny was still standing frozen like a fiasco which made her look like an idiot. I snapped out from the stare.
"Well, who else do you think is going to be my bodyguard? But you." – I pointed at him while stating my point. Sir Ron looked shocked for a moment as if I just said something out of my character.
"Are you sure? Do you mean it?!" – He looked happy and I am uncomfortable with that because his face is just too close.
"Yes, I mean it and also you just called me Vivienne without my permission." - I backed away from him. He looked sad all of a sudden, but I didn't care all I care about is snapping Nanny out of her time freeze.
"Nanny, snap out of it." – I rolled my eyes under the mask and started towards another tent full of flowers and little bottles.
"Viv-, I mean milady what exactly do you need from a town market? You can just order stuff from your mansion like you always do. And also, usually, you would be 2 hours early to the palace just to get a glimpse of the prince. Did you perhaps hear about something that happened at the palace that you don't want to go too early as usual? – Sir Ron blurted out questions while Nanny nod on also wanting answers which almost made my ears bleed. I guess I'll have to suffer this trip then cause I have no choice but to have him and Nanny as my companions during this trip.
After an hour roaming around the town square, I was able to buy a lot of materials and ingredients that I can use to make useful accessories. I ended up paying a local coachman to deliver all the materials home cause I wanted to have a little adventure around the empire just to get a little info on how Vivienne's world works and looks like. I was just about to start walking towards a little boy who sales flower. He was covered in dirt and has a little basket bag filled with flowers around his left arm. When I almost reached him an explosion suddenly occurred in the house the little boy took shelter in and smoke started spreading everywhere. I can hear people screaming in the distance and some running away from the perimeter. The explosion left me shocked to the core cause there was never an explosion in the story. I scanned the whole perimeter just to figure out what's happening when Nanny started creeping out from the dark which almost gave me a heart attack.
"You almost scared me to death Nanny!" – I whispered shout at her in anger.
"I'm sorry milady. Sir Ron was wor- "– Nanny got cut off when someone dashed from behind her embracing me in their arms which almost ended my poor heart that very day.
"Sir Ron, I swear if you ever do anything like this again, I'm going to kill you. Understand?" – I threat him while he squeezed me tighter.
"I can't promise that. I almost thought I'd lose you again. My one and only friend." – W-what again? What the hell is he talking about? Friend? Vivienne never had a friend in her life. She was lonely and friendless; she was always bullied but what in the world is this?
"Eh, this is getting clingy. What on earth are you talking ab- "– I suddenly got cut off by a little cry from behind me. I tugged on Sir Ron's shirt to let go of me which made him sad. I turned around and followed the little cry. Sir Ron and Nanny started following me from behind towards the foggy smoke.