The morning after his farewell with Celia at the Royal Academy, Rio was
walking around the market outside the city walls to gather equipment for his
journey.
He needed food, water, cooking utensils, clothes, bedding, medicine,
weapons... humans clearly required a vast amount of resources to live. But
since there was a limit to how much he could carry when traveling alone, Rio
had to carefully screen his necessities and purchase only the barest minimum.
He would take only those items with him on his journey.
Right now, he only had his casual clothes that were typical of a noble,
and a single sword. It was much too lightweight a weapon for him to be
comfortable traveling with.
That being said, ever since Rio had enrolled into the Academy, he had
spent his entire life inside the city walls. While Celia had taken him to the
markets within the city walls to go shopping before, this was his first time
venturing into the markets that were outside the city.
He was at a bit of a loss, now.
I have no idea which store to go to...
He had gone around several stores already, but there were just so many
of them. A few among them had sold such crudely-made products, making
him furrow his brow on many occasions. Because he wanted to buy quality
items that would last him a while, he didn't want to randomly pick a store to
buy from. After wandering through the crowds pondering this and that, he
grew tired, and stepped into a back alley to take a quick break.
That was when a delicious aroma wafted to him, immediately piquing his
appetite. It was coming from a street stall in the alley.
There weren't many customers at the moment— possibly because it was
that quiet period of time between breakfast and lunch, or maybe due to its
unfavorable location— but the smell that was wafting from it truly smelled
delicious.
Come to think of it, I haven't had breakfast yet. I'll buy something from
that stall and ask them for shop recommendations.
Spurred into movement by his hunger, Rio's feet carried him towards the
stall. A little girl was behind the stall counter, looking somewhat bored by the
lack of customers. Behind her, a woman that seemed to be her mother was
busy toiling away at cooking.
"Ah, welcome!"
As Rio approached the stall, the little girl beamed from ear to ear and
greeted him. She must have been around seven or eight years old. She was a
cute child, if a bit thin.
However, the instant she saw Rio's noble clothes, her expression
stiffened. She had surely mistaken him as a child of nobility.
In the Kingdom of Beltrum, where society was based on social status, it
was quite common for nobles to act violently towards commoners. That was
why commoners feared the nobility. This little girl had probably learned that
sentiment from her mother.
"Ah, erm, I mean..." Realizing she couldn't act rudely, the little girl
forced an uncomfortable smile on her face.
"You don't need to be so nervous. It smells really good here... Are you
selling something?" Rio spoke to her gently in an attempt to reassure her.
"Umm, it's bread with sauce and vegetables and fried meat inside, sir."
The girl did her best to speak politely to Rio.
"I see. Then, I think I'll take some." Rio smiled softly, eagerly
expressing his desire to purchase their product.
"Oh my, is it a noble? ...Huh? Ah, umm..." The mother noticed Rio's
presence and hurried to greet him, but her eyes widened dramatically when
she saw Rio's face.
"Is something the matter?" Rio asked her curiously.
"Ah, no... It's nothing. P-Please excuse my actions." The woman
fearfully apologized for her strange behavior, but she continued to watch Rio
with observant eyes.
"Oh, is it about my hair color?" Rio guessed at the reason as to why the
woman reacted with shock, touching a hand to his hair. Black hair was rare in
Beltrum; he had been ridiculed numerous times by students at the academy
because of this hair.
"Umm, that's... Yes. I actually knew someone a long time ago, a boy
with black hair. So I thought that maybe... But there was no way that childwas nobility, so it was just my mistake. I-I don't know how I can apologize
enough to you for this..."
"...May I ask what the name of that boy was?" Rio questioned the
trembling woman. She kept her head down out of fear. Perhaps she was
someone he knew back from when he lived in the slums.
"I-I believe it was Rio..."
Bingo—apparently, Rio had met this beautiful woman before.
Unfortunately, Rio was on the run right now, and couldn't afford to
confirm her suspicions so easily. If she had mistaken him for a noble's son,
then it was to his advantage.
"I'm sorry, I have no recollection of that name."
"Is that... so..."
Rio decided to feign ignorance, and the woman showed her clear
disappointment.
"Have you been looking for that boy?" Rio asked. He couldn't remember
any situation where he had met this woman before.
If he had to take a guess, he would assume it was through the gang of
thugs that he had lived with in the slums. If that was the case, then the
number of possibilities were narrowed down significantly. If it was someone
who knew him well enough to remember his name, then it was most likely
one of the people who frequented the small shack Rio lived in back then.
Most of the women who frequented the shack were prostitutes that the thugs
called over. The ones they favored the most had been Gigi, who had been
killed in the shack, and her little sister Angela. There were several others they
had liked as well, and Rio guessed this woman had to be one of them.
That being said, it had been over five years since he last saw them. The
woman in front of him was not wearing any makeup, so she didn't have the
air of a prostitute at all, making it hard for him to place her.
"It's just that he may have witnessed the final moments of my older
sister." The woman's expression clouded over as she spoke. The little girl
looked on in confusion at their conversation.
An older sister... Could it be Gigi's little sister, Angela?
Thanks to her words, Rio was finally able to place the woman in front of
him. He fixed his expression so that his surprise wouldn't show, then
swallowed a breath at their coincidental reunion. She used to wear thick
makeup in the past, but he could see traces of her old self now that he knew
who she was.