The day after Elenor arrived in Vaidia. Lloyd, Rosina and Isabella soon arrived a day or two later. Except Lloyd, the rest stayed in the same building. Lloyd stayed in the royal palace as he was a royal blood himself.
Elenor was having her breakfast inside her room. Isabella was busy trying to get closer to her brother who was dense to her advances and Rosina was taken away by Lloyd the first thing in the morning.
"...I only have you Alec." she muttered as he poured her tea.
An ominous smile fell on Alec's face as he heard her. He took a step back after refilling her teacup.
"Of course. I will never leave you."
She chuckled at his answer unbeknownst to the hidden message behind his answer. Placing her utensils down, she turned to look out of the window. The tree outside her room was slowly losing its leaves as time flew.
She glanced over at Alec whose eyes never left her. Shyly looking down at her cup, she asked him a question.
"Want to go out today?"
"With your brother? Understood, I will invite him now." Alec turned and was about to head out to find her brother.
Alarmed, Elenor's eyes widened and hurriedly stood up from her seat. She grabbed onto his coat, trying her best to stop him from going.
"No! I mean the two of us only.."
Alec raised an eyebrow, "Only the two of us?"
She meekly nodded, gripping on his coat still. Alec kept quiet for some time before humming in reply,
"Yes it is dangerous for you to go alone especially in a kingdom you aren't familiar with."
Elenor gritted her teeth and glared at him. "Stop teasing me and just agree!"
An amused smile was plastered on Alec's face as he looked down at her whose face was flushed. A light chuckle slipped out of his lips as he nodded, playing with her hair in his hand.
"Alright. Shall we head out now?"
When he finally stopped teasing her, she heaved a sigh of relief and nodded. Alec left to get a carriage for them to head out to the capital in Vaidia.
They immediately left once Alec was able to get a carriage for them. It didn't take long for them to reach the capital. If Elenor had to say one thing that was different from Elaelind and Vaidia, it would be their food and various skin tones.
In Vaidia there were more skin tones that sided more to the tanner side while Elaelind rarely had those. The food however,
Walking through the streets where stalls were selling different types of food. Her stomach growled loudly as all the types of delicacies around her wafted such a nice scent. What's even better was when she first saw the type of food they sold was similar to asian street food.
To be more specific, korean street food. Her mouth drooled at the sight of melted sugar being pressed into different types of shapes. She tugged on Alec's arm excitedly, dragging him towards that stall.
"Two please!"
The seller smiled brightly and nodded, "Young lady do you know how to play the game with this food?"
Elenor nodded proudly, "Of course! You have to try cutting the shape out without cracking it and once you do, you can get a free one right?"
The seller laughed cheerilly, "My, you do know, alright best of luck to you and the young man with you!"
"Thank you sir~" Elenor paid for the sugar candy and handed one to Alec.
Alec stared at it before looking at her. Elenor grinned and explained the whole thing and how it's supposed to go.
"Like this Alec," she took a small toothpick and began carefully breaking away the excess sugar candy around the shape mark.
"It's...kinda easy.." she slowly said, her focus all towards the sugar candy.
Just as she almost broke the excess sugar candy around the shape, she made a mistake causing the shape to crack and break. Elenor stared at it in shock. Ever since she was young she was able to do this! It was a piece of cake for her last time!
She pouted and sulked as she ate the broken sugar candy. Then a sugar candy came into her view. It was a perfectly shaped heart. She stared at it before looking over at Alec who had handed it to her.
"You're right, it was pretty easy." Alec nodded before receiving a free one from the seller once he noticed that he had a perfect shaped sugar candy.
Elenor sighed and ate it, thanking him at the same time. She was slightly salty that he was able to do it while she failed. That was his first time as well! Thinking about it made her even more unsatisfied.
"How do you know this game?" Alec suddenly asked as they continued walking about after eating the sugar candy.
"These foods are similar to my world. Pretty shocking though, I never thought this world would have something close to me.." she answered with a smile, looking around.
"Do you still miss your family?" he asked.
She knew he was still worried about her leaving so she gave him a warm smile, "I do miss them. They did love and cherish me all the way until I was an adult but I still don't want to leave this world. It's selfish of me but isn't it okay to be selfish once in a while?"
Alec nodded before mumbling at her, "I wish you didn't insist on me having to wear this…"
Elenor laughed at his complaint and the way he wanted to change the subject, "What's wrong with it? I think you look good."
She wore dull green a-line dress with a bow at the collar. Her sleeves were cuffed and wrapped around her wrists. Today she let her hair flow free, not adding any accessories to it.
Alec wore a simple white long sleeved button up collar shirt with a black vest over it and fitted black pants. His hair was styled natural this time, letting his hair fall over his eyes.
At first he insisted on wearing his usual clothes which were his work clothes. Although Elenor loved looking at him in his work clothes, she didn't want other people to think they were only master and servant.
No, she wanted to look like a real couple this time! With a new determination, she walked closer to Alec, their hands brushing against each others. Seeing how he wasn't planning on taking her hand caused her to pout.
"Alec I want that." she said pointing over at another food stall which was slightly crowded with people.
He nodded, "Wait here." he said before walking to the stall.
Elenor patiently waited for him, leaning back and forth on her heels. Her ears then perked up as she heard some ladies close by her speak.
"Hey hey did you see that gentleman over there? He's so handsome!"
"The one with black hair and eyes right?! I wonder if he's dating anyone.."
"Who cares? We can try asking him out later!!"
"True. Even if he was, we could always have a simple fling!"
Elenor couldn't help but snicker at their conversation. She knew his looks could rival the male lead in this world but damn sometimes when other ladies look at him makes her annoyed yet proud.
"Elenor?" she heard Alec's voice calling for her.
Her gaze fell on him who came back with a bag of snacks from the food stall she requested. She side eyed the ladies who were talking about him before smiling over at him. Taking a step forward, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
With a happy smile she spoke, "You're back! I've been waiting."
Caught off guard by her bold action, Alec could only nod, looking at her and no one else. She shot a smirk at the ladies who quickly ran away once they realised their situation. Satisfied, she removed herself off him and took the bag of snacks away from him.
"Thanks." she said as she happily ate it.
"Let's go there next," Elenor said, pointing at something far away.
She walked ahead, munching on the snack. Alec at first trailed behind her but was no longer able to hold it in and walked beside her, intertwining their fingers together subtly. Elenor noticed and turned to him.
A laugh slipped out of her mouth as she spoke to him in a teasing tone, "Took you long enough."