Amy is feeling down as she arrived at the next island. She sat down on the sand while holding on to the letter which wrote that her sister is proclaimed ill. Lisa, noticing her mood, approached her with the intention of cheering her up.
"Come! I want to show you something."
"But my shift-"
"Who cares! I want to show you something amazing." She pulled Amy out of her seat and dragged her away to the other side of the beach where she sees what looks like an amazing sunset. The sky turns orange and purple and the water sparkles like treasure. It has been a while that she finds herself truly enjoying the trip.
"You sometimes need to relieve your stress. Just yell it out if you have to. You will be alright, and no one will hear you." Lisa says with her arms in the air. "Like this." She took a deep breath and yelled out, "IIII WANNTTT TO VISITTT THE BARRRRR!!!!!" she yelled in a thick accent.
Amy chortled at the slightly unexpected statement.
Amy took a deep breath and exhaled all the stress she has been feeling for weeks. "I MISS MY FAMILY AND THE ACADEMY! I WANT TO GO HOME!!!"
After a long exhaled, she stared at Lisa with a grateful smile, "Thank you."
She and Lisa are surprisingly kindred spirits. Lisa is less optimistic when it comes to the world, and her views mirror hers by a large margin, but she is quite cheery for the small stuff and actually very appreciative for the small things in life. They share their shifts together and have time to talk about different cultures and stories.
"I have a question," she said softly like she is beginning to feel nostalgic and stared at the sunset with sad eyes, "Where I come from, a sunset as beautiful as this symbolize a waning love. As the sun comes down, so does the love."
Amy felt pity for her. Lisa is a mercenary born to mercenary parents. Her mother died of a plague and her father eventually succumb to it too when she is a child. She was adopted by her uncle, and she was raised and trained in harsh environments, but she always persevered and maintained a positive attitude all things considered. One day, she fell in love with someone outside her standing and joins his party just to get close to him. The guy she had a crush on is a noble from her home country and he got married just before the party disbanded, leaving her wandering, heartbroken which is why she is invested and interested in love stories.
"How do nobles find love?"
Amy is partly unsure how to answer that. She may be noble and even if she includes her original life, she does not know how to answer that. She has had relationships, but she has gotten over all of them with no heartbreak nor self-deprecation. She is admittedly jaded right off the bat and has never loved someone that would leave her feeling like Lisa has. It is perhaps because this is her first love that this is so significant to her. The talk and description of it was long and the details took her hours to finish yet she listened attentively as it is clear that she had no one to tell her personal feelings to.
She feels compiled to answer even if the question is uncomfortable in nature because she deserves it, not because of Lisa's kindness. Also, another reason that she asks her so many questions is because Lisa has never befriended a noble girl as she had described them to be prickly and entitled, so she has a lot to ask.
"I personally never fallen in love before so I can't say this for sure. Nobles mostly marry for security or for an heir rather than love. But that isn't to say that a true love match doesn't exist. The social season is comparable to a fairy tale when it comes to finding love. Young girls dream of love and even the boys who came to search for a wife want someone they could relate to or get along with. Most end up as friends even after they marry, and it could blossom into love. But a true love match is when two married nobles fall in love before they married." she explained, "My parents are a love match, and they are still close and are very much in love to the point that their view of love is almost unrealistic. No noble connection, no search for financial security, they didn't even start with the intention of finding a spouse so quickly, but they met at their first season, courted for years before getting married and having me and my twin sister. Both my parents are quite young when I was born. If we consider their ages, they are still in their thirties."
Lisa nodded.
"There are those who are still young and fall in love in childhood but sometimes it isn't a happy ending. There are those who don't understand love and are experimenting." In this case, she is talking about Leon and Rufus. Viola, Theseus and Sabina are already head over heels over someone. Melissa and Nathaniel are far too uncaring and serious respectively to even think or consider the concept for themselves.
"What about love between different classes?"
Amy gave it thought, "It is looked down upon. It is the norm for nobles to have lovers but marrying them is out of the question. Any children they have together are usually not allowed to be among the nobility with certain exceptions. Throughout history, Solin has never had a commoner become an official wife or husband and have a happy ending. It also leaves a sad lesson for those who are in love with commoners. My grand aunt used to be in love with a commoner and had a child with him. The commoner was a servant of the family at the time. He was fired and the child inherited the country's surname for illegitimate children, but instead of being with the person she loves, she chose to marry her current husband due to security and reputation. Her husband has not ever wronged her either, so she is probably also doing this out of guilt and duty or gratitude. Even the notorious family that is known for legitimizing their bastard children due to infertility never marry their mistresses let alone actually marrying but if they do, they marry low ranking or financially struggling noble women to raise their sons as their legal mother. A classmate of mine is a rare example of his family line being born from two noble bloodlines which makes him quite noble compared to the rest of his family including his father. There are honorable mentions of love between nobles, but they are one-sided. Some nobles fall in love with other nobles but if it isn't mutual, there would be blackmail, an ultimatum or some other scheme to get the other to marry them."
Lisa listens with a serious expression.
"I never wish to marry if I don't love someone, but I am more afraid of it because it isn't always going to be good. I will be brought down and be trapped and burdened."
Lisa puts Amy's head gently onto her shoulder as they continue watching the sunset. "Boys are overrated, right?"
Amy nodded with a scoff of amusement, "They sure are."
Lisa had got her thinking about love. She didn't necessarily find it in her original life, so she expects the same here. Her mental age combined with her age here will be an obstacle anyway so romance never crossed her mind.
She watched the sun dip into the horizon as her head is still leaning on Lisa's shoulder. Love is a complicating emotion. It can stem from any origin and in any shape or form. It can happen spontaneously or overtime. It can come from ideal or unromantic circumstances; it could be beautiful and end in tragedy and the same goes if the situation is reversed. The first meeting could be fateful but also as a coincidence. The pair could be different or exactly the same in personality. They could hate each other but blossom into something different. It is beautiful yet ugly, right but also wrong. There are so many opposites and references and examples to choose from that describes love. It is simple yet complex, easy yet difficult to navigate, unexpected yet expected, acceptable to perspective to downright toxic or forbidden. She closed her eyes as she begins to sleep. If she thinks of who she loves or will love, who would be the person she thinks of most when she dreams?