Chapter 14

Thank you to DefinitelyChaos for translating chapters 13 through 17! They had an incident where they lost some of their work, so an applause for them for pulling through and redoing the chapters.6

•Italics for thoughts (+apostrophes for the first one) and sound effects.

•Multiple "-" represents flashbacks and memories (unless dependant on time signatures like "* * *").

Enjoy reading!||

. . .

Within the caste system, both darkness and sunshine coexisted.

The extravagant places were too gaudy, the gloomy places darker than any other city.

It was also one of the darkest parts of downtown, where Kalia was heading, and also the beginning of her life in back streets, living with the immigrants she grew up with.

Kalia looked out of the window at the scene outside, riding in a small carriage that roamed around the city.

It was not a place where I often visited anymore because I was busy with work or training. To be honest, it was the first time in seven or eight years.

Although it was the same city, the islands were wide, and she only returned to the islands after seven years of war, that was merely a little over a year ago.

The year after the war was different from those during the war.

Especially as the Commander-in-Chief, she had no time to take care of the back alley.

Her job was national security, and the small task of the planning was under the jurisdiction of the bureaucracy.

'It's just an excuse.'

The woman, who was wondering what was the reason, laughed cynically.

She was just reluctant to come back there.

Aside from the excuse that she was at war, she had not come near there since she entered the West Sea or the Dukedom.

It was the same when she left for the academy.

She had nothing to fear, but she was strangely repulsed at that dark alley.

It wasn't scary, but she felt a vague dislike.

It was only a narrow alleyway with less than 100 steps.

"Wait a minute."

At the crossroads just before arriving at her destination, she stopped the carriage for a moment.

Then she looked to the side of the busy street at the entrance to the dark alley.

When she narrowed her eyes and looked closely at the alley, a familiar sight as if she was seeing the Kalia of those earlier days, curling up there somewhere.

A child crouching in a corner of the alley with mottled, yellow hair darker than the present.

She suddenly felt strange.

The day I saved Simon felt like it happened yesterday, but why was the memory of the past faint like mist?

Even if she was too young to remember, how could she, an orphan, live in that back alley?

She had never doubted it before, but it suddenly came to her mind.

She tried to find out about her parents and inform others to retrace her past, but it resulted in nothing.

The past Kalia before that, too. Even in the past, the younger her didn't know a thing.

As Kalia stared at the dark alley with narrowed eyes, Hemming, who was quick to notice, called her out with a slight cough.

"I don't think we'll be able to get there on time for the appointment, it's getting late."

"Oh no, we can't. Okay, let's go."

Kalia gave a delayed nod, leaving the carriage.

A black alley stood behind her as usual.

* * *

The carriage stood in front of the casual hangout cove, "Leisure Time.'

Kalia lifted up one side of the skirt and awkwardly got up from the wagon.

The hem of the dress, which wound between the legs, was very annoying.

Hemming reached out as if she were going to escort the awkward Kalia, but Kalia only saw a cute little Hemming's hand.

'. . . Don't forget, no running.'

Kalia jumped down from the carriage.

Not a speck of dust rose at her gentle, butterfly-like walk.

It was easy for any sophisticated, well-dressed lady, but no one downtown cared about it.

Kalia, who was relieved, suddenly felt dizzy.

'You said you wouldn't do what you normally do, but you jumped again, didn't you?'1

Of course, the movement was so fine that she didn't get a speck of dust, but Kalia blamed herself for not being cautious.

Let's not run, let's never run.1

With that commitment, she stood in front of the store.

"Wow, there was a shop like this?"

Hemming fixed Kalia's clothing and looked at the store as if it were brand new.

Unlike Kalia, she often came to town and shopped, but she had never been this far downtown.

A pair of curious eyes examined her surroundings.

Fortunately, there were many people coming and going without a care since it was an area close to downtown.

"Let's get in quickly before it's too late."

"Right!"

Kalia went inside with her glasses fixed.

The wide-brimmed straw hat didn't suit the interior, but she was unwilling to take it off.

As she sat down at the dining able with such a hat on, some eyes turned to her.

Especially the little boy who was sitting alone at the next table, staring at her hat with great curiosity.

"Wow, it looks very expensive."

The little boy, who muttered without realizing it, lowered his head as his eyes met Kalia's.

Looking at the boy's reddish face, it seemed he was ashamed.

The boy, who would have been only seven years old, was drawing on a mesh sketchbook by himself.

It seemed to be the child of the store owner or an employee.

'A rather cute child.'

Is the child residing in her stomach a boy, too?

It would be nice to have a brave, mischievous boy, but a tomboy girl would be nice, too.3

Kalia, who looked at the child playing with paint warmly, unconsciously placed her hand over her flat belly.

She didn't even notice that Hemming was watching her with a strange look as Kalia rubbed her flat belly.

"Oh, they want you to sit over there . . . I'm sorry, sir. He's my son, but he's not listening to me these days."

A young woman wearing an apron brought the menu to Kalia's table and started talking with a smile.

Kalia said she was fine and ordered some cakes and two fruit smoothies on the menu.

"I don't think he's here yet."

Hemming glanced around with the straw of her juice, which the employee gave her just a moment ago, in her mouth.

Kalia laughed at the sight of the wild animal standing guard.

"Do you know who I'm going to meet, so you're now looking around?"

"What? Oh, no. I don't think so, but I just, uh, I think we should check."

Hemming blushed and laughed.

When Kalia shook her head and looked over the broad carriage window, she noticed the eyes of the kid next to her. ||*1||

The child looked at all the cakes Kalia had ordered.

The child's eyes were filled with intense desire.

". . . Do you want to eat?"

"Kid, would you like one of these?"

". . . !"

The startled little boy shook his head and bowed his head.

It took a few seconds to hear a cringing voice.

"My mom will scold me."

"Your mom?"

"Yes, Mom, she told me not to bother the guests."

'Aha.'

She must have been worried that the child would be rude to the guests.

It was like a strict warning.

Nevertheless, at the glancing eyes of the child, Kalia changed her strategy.

"Kid. Can you draw me a picture?"

"Yes . . . ?"

"In fact, I'm a collector crazy for paintings. I think there's a very promising little artist here. Can you draw me a picture? For the price, well, how about this lemon cake?"

She held out the cake that the child was peeping at the most.

The child gulped down and nodded his head resolutely to Kalia's appeal, which implied ' I really want it.'

Soon the child's fingers moved across the lines, drawing a pretty lady wearing a large hat and handing it over.

"It's my sister."

The child was embarrassed. The freckles on the back of his nose turned red.

"Thank you, um, your name?"

"It's Clark!"

"Yes, thank you, Clark. This is a little bit of sincerity for the painting."

Kalia pushed the cake onto the child's table.

When the kid lifted a fork at the mouth-watering cake due to his excitement, "Put that down, sir. Our store is not a specialty bar, we don't serve tequila."

"Ha! What are you talking about, you sassy woman! Bring it if a guest asks, bring it, so talkative. Kwak beer, hah!"

"You cow!"

There was a commotion on one side of the store.

The child's face turned blue as he was looking at the disturbance.

That was because his mother was the woman who was swinging around her hand, holding a man who was drunk at noon.

"Oh, Mom . . ."

The child got up in surprise.

The wind knocked the child's fork to the floor.

"If you don't have tequila, why don't you buy it and sell it? Where's the owner? Call the owner! Do you know who we are? We're first-class mercenaries from the Wolf Brigade of the Wind!"

"Let me go, stop this. I'll call the guard!"

"Huh, what a fool! Do you think it's faster for the guards to come, or do you think it's faster for us to make a mess here and disappear?"

With a loud noise, Kalia's gaze fell on the fork and the blue-eyed child's face.

Then she was hooked on the guys who were bantering with their employees in the middle.

The warm eyes that looked at the boy disappeared to nowhere.

And then there was an expression of indifference on her face.

Hemming's complexion, from looking into the eyes of Kalia, which had no warmth at all, eventually turned blue.

"Hey, what are you doing? Let go of this hand right now! Somebody there, please call the guards right away!"

The black-haired man who just came down from the second floor shouted out among the men who were either mercenaries or pieces of shit.

He heard and shouted with a reddish face, but no one listened to him.

Even the guests were busy going out one by one, clicking their shoes and tongues.

"Are you sure you don't want to bring tequila and ruin the store? Huh? Can't let this store open for three months?"

The drunk guys burst into laughter.

In the meantime, he didn't forget to shake the employee's wrists and hands like sheets of paper.

The black-haired man who was shriveling fell behind the carriage on his feet, and the employee, who was screaming, was slapped on the cheek by a man and stumbled.1

Slap!

The sound of the contact of skin caused silence in the store.

The woman, holding her swollen cheek red, quickly looked at the child's complexion watching the scene.

She woke up with her blue eyes and shook her head at the crying child.

"Don't come here. Stay there!"

When the mother, who was slapped on the cheek, blinked desperately, the child finally burst into tears.

Watching the child's red eyes, Kalia rose up quietly from her seat with a fork.4

. . .

||T/N:

1. [When Kalia shook her head and looked over the broad carriage window, she noticed the eyes of the kid next to her.]

•Not sure why it said carriage, or car, the window when she's sitting in a shop.2

Chapter 14 – Finished||