The ill dialogue

Sometime after that, she finds herself on the streets once again but this time with a maid frantically fretting over everything; if her gown got dirtied from dust flying around after a palace guard on a horse breezed past, if she wanted to add to her collection of fifty shades of emerald, if she was tired, if she was ─

Her jaw drops to the dirtied ground, as she would call it, at the approaching commotion. The sound of foot stomping and orders to make way hit the air as a group of men in blood red and white march down the street, their presence bringing about whispers among the people.

"At it again, they are," the only person who has broken the trance that comes with the royal guards says whilst she rearranges the stack of oranges on the racks of her stall, "can't have a peaceful day without them getting in the way of business with their child recruitment."

"What do you mean 'child recruitment'?" Xei Pai turns to the woman whilst her maid stands on the tip of her toes to look over the forming crowd up front as they watch one of the guards get swallowed into the alleyway of sorts.

"The crown prince has given orders," she glances up at the flock of red though Xei Pai doubt any kind of crimson is visible through the throngs of people, before dropping her attention to inspect which lime fruit is ripe and which is not by pressing the peel, "for any orphan child that wishes to be trained as a knight to step forward every day at noon when the guards are doing their rounds."

"Before, there were just a couple guards passing by now it's a whole troop," then, she smiles back up at her with an amiability so opposed to the one when she was referring to the guards with, "Oranges, miss?"

"Um..."

Hushed tones break into startled shouts as the people scurry away in haste, the sound of heels on ground growing louder and in the commotion, she gets pushed backwards, the back of her knees hitting the edge of the racks. Xei Pai's balance gets distorted and in the fleeting moment between falling and landing on her behind, she thinks of the hard frown of the woman she talked to; she won't be offering her oranges with a kind smile after she made a bed out of her fruit stocks.

The crash never came, nor does the horrified sound of chaos of her undoing.

"Are you alright, miss?" A familiar voice brushes Xei Pai's eardrums that she can't help but pry her eyes that have been screwed shut to embrace the impact, open.

"I am," straightening her spine after realizing the pairs of eyes her, or rather, her timely saviour has captured, she attempts to retreat a few steps backwards before word got out how such proximity she is with one of the guards but find the edge of the very thing that almost sent her free falling restricting her from doing so, "thank you, I would have fallen and made a fool of myself if not for you."

"Lucky I caught you in time," a pair of front upper teeth grazes his lips as he grins at her and falls back bowing slightly before Xei Pai's maid joins her side, looking far more distraught and she who almost plunged into social embarrassment, "ain't it?"

"My lady," her exclamation falls deaf on her ears but not on MingMing's, "oh my, are you hurt?!"

"Fret not," MingMing turns to her, shutting her up, Xei Pai suspects not only with his authoritative air but also his smile which has no doubt captured her in a trance, "the lady is quite alright, if not a bit shaken."

Xei Pai nearly miss her maid's relieved thank goodness upon gaining her wits. Most of his comrades are out of sight as only a few remain searching in nearby alleys where children without a home could be at.

"Good day then," with a final bow to her and a nod to her maid, MingMing has gone off to reassemble with the rest of the guards who seem to be waiting on him rather than her initial assumption that they were doing their own searching not too far away, before moving forward.

"...my lady?" Xei Pai maid's voice cuts through her reverie as she eyes your trance-stricken form curiously like a child's first gaze of the sunset.

"Do me a favor, Eunha," her shoulders jolt in surprise at her firm grip and set pair of eyebrows; the falling of her face already giving away the dawning of what said favour may be and she's already dreading the outcome, "tell mother we got side-tracked while shopping and wait for me at the back of the bakery."

Before she can even blink, she was already treading down the street where the guards disappear to with my lady! calling now far behind. Vendors and buyers are bargaining for a reasonable price, some appealing with the lowest price as though no men from the palace has disrupted their activity, no trace of them even here and that everything was a figment of her imagination.

The sign pole with multiple arrows beckons her over once she reaches a cross between the farmland up ahead, the slum on her right and smaller paths between buildings to get to another street at the end of it. Xei Pai's skin crawls at the thought of the stale air farther down the scarce street. Unlike the one she is on right now, the route to the slum, Hollow Street, is completely vacant save for a robed person tumbling out of a pub as though it's a path to a different universe.

The guards can't possibly go through here, can he? Though MingMing knows there are plentiful of orphans in this side of the town, the guards will be just as useless as the police here despite their carrying the crown prince's noble cause. The children will be well fed, or better than they are on the streets, in exchange for their loyalty to the crown which the people have already been doing anyway thought without a close approximation to the castle...

The double storeys are familiar to an extent. She had memorized the route back but she doesn't know how further she can go without feeling her stomach begging for her to turn back. Just as Xei Pai thought of turning around, a voice cements her into the ground.

"Curiosity," MingMing steps out from the shadows like a dot of red within a sea of darkness, footfalls echoing off these walls acutely as though each step is calculated, "was what killed my cat, my lady."

"First a noble, then a commoner and now a guard," as though under a spell, before she can register it, her feet are already carrying her forward to cover half of the distance, "you cannot expect me to not be slightly interested."

Just like moth to a flame, Xei Pai is drawn to him and without knowing it, the corners of his lips stretch wider when she meets him in the middle.