Her Nightmare (1)

"Did you hear? Count Randel opened his father's grave!"

"Is that true?! How could he do that?!"

"His father must be bewildered in the afterlife!"

"I thought he was better than this!"

The morning market was not only a place to gather the missing supplies, but also a great source of information. It only took five minutes to find out every hot topic that was going on among people. 

Arianell lowered her head and made sure no one could see under her hood and observed the stalls selling handicrafts, kitchens, and farmer's tools. A few of them also had food, mostly meat skewers or stews and bread, or winter vegetables. The lack of males was apparent as the vendors were mostly women and elderly.

It had been five years since she had been here for the first time, but nothing much changed. The county was considered prosperous but not even the largest city in the area could give people more than some old onion and pumpkins from the last year's harvest.