I turned to face the source of the voice. It was Azel, Hanmer’s childhood friend. She was born in Sharatan village and had lived here for 45 years of her life. She is also the owner of the fruit stall who had introduced me to blue apple. She occasionally gave me free fruits.
“Hi, Azel,” I greeted her. “Yes. I had something I wanted to make. I just finished it today.” I walked towards her.
“People talk about you here. They say you look different.”
“And how exactly do I look?”
“You look like you belong to the noble peerage. Sometimes the wives and young girls of noble families pass by here.”
“Hahaha…. Do I really look like a noble? I’ve never heard that before.”
“You do, actually. Whenever I visit the tavern for dinner, you are all they talk about. A young, feeble woman from outside who suddenly appeared in this village. Nobody knows where you are from and you look different than the rest of us.”
“What do you mean ‘feeble’? It would be better to say dazzlingly beautiful,” I joked.
“When you first came here, your condition was… bad. You looked so pale and sick. You looked as though you would faint at the slightest stress.”
I nodded at Azel. She smiled at me and gave me a glass of fresh fruit juice to drink. I tried to pay for it, but she just waved me off and pulled a chair for me to sit on. I had plenty of time to spare so I gratefully say down.
I loved the fresh fruit juice Azel occasionally offered but I did miss smoothie. Isn’t there such a drink in this world? Really, has no one ever figured out how to make a smoothie? Now that I lived like a recluse in Kaichen’s jungle house, there was no way to discover the kinds of drink in the empire.
Can’t I make it myself? I could but if I did ‘invent’ a new kind of drink or dish, then it would catch people’s attention. Besides, I was in Dalia’s body, so I wanted the invention to come out of Acrab. I was attached to that place despite my better judgement.
Even though I ran away, I can’t abandon my people. Acarb is why I have money that I can use in this world. Thinking about Acrab made me sad and tressed. I took a deep breath and handed the empty glass back to Azel.
“Azel, do you have any fruit this size?” I asked, holding out my hands and making a fairly large, round shape.
“Hm…,” Azel then clapped her hands in joy. “I think I do.” She went inside the store and carried a large wooden box outside. People here were so strong. Is that why Kaichen is also very strong? And…has a great body?
I brushed my thoughts away from Kaichen’s strong arms and chest. Azel pried open the lid of the wooden box.
“Will this do?” she asked.
“Oh! It’s a watermelon!”
“Watermelon? This is called Siron here, but it looks so ugly that people hardly buy it. Unless a nobleman passes by, that is. No one wants it. I was thinking maybe I should stop importing it.”
“Ah… such a pity! Where do you get these from?”
“Siron isn’t found in the empire. It only comes from the territory of the old Af Kingdom in the southwest.”
The old Kingdom of Af was a recent country which became a part of the Kalhai Empire, maybe fifty years ago. Momalhaut was formed by the rebels when their countries were defeated by the empire. Could the people from Af Kingdom be behind the Momalhaut? People in countries that had already belonged to the Kalhai Empire and lived a more comfortable life did not want independence. But those people who had lived in independent countries and were forced to assimilate after the defeat could indeed form the rebellion.
The war was terrible. The Af Kingdom did not want to form cooperative bonds with the Kalhai empire, thus they were defeated in war and absorbed within the empire. I had read about them in one of the three books that Kaichen had given me. That book was full of history. I didn’t know why I had to learn history to learn magic, but I read it anyway. I didn’t want Kaichen to reject me as his student again.
