Louise Flyer: The Price of Pride - Part 2

She slowly opened her eyes. The long eyelashes were the highlight of her childish body. Her blue eyes, like the sky, conveyed serenity. In addition to all this, she wore an extravagant dress that stood out. She looked like a doll, but that made her somewhat uncommon for the place where she was. There she was, Louise, waking up beneath a large tree in a forest not too far from the city, but also not too close to the barrier. A cool and quiet place. Only the birds sang at that moment. She always enjoyed being there. She didn't have to deal with annoying people or the typical noises of the city. An ideal place for her rest.

She would have continued sleeping if it weren't for something that brutally awakened her.

"Ah! I'm so hungry!" she shouted as loud as she could.

She had forgotten to eat lunch when she had the chance. It was already late, and she hadn't eaten anything yet. Her stomach hurt, and the noise it made was surprisingly loud. Loud enough to even scare away the birds around her.

"Hmm... it might take a while to get home. And I would still have to ask the maids to prepare something, which would probably take a while to be ready... What do I do now?!"

She rarely carried money because she never needed to buy anything. She lived in a large mansion and belonged to a wealthy family. Not very surprising. They owned the largest library that existed. Everyone in Forthen, no matter how far the district was, went to that library/bookstore in search of books.

But at this moment, none of that mattered. She wanted to eat something. And she wanted it as soon as possible because her stomach hurt, and she didn't have the patience to walk all the way back and still wait about an hour to eat something. For a moment, she regretted not listening to her uncle or Nathalya. Of course, she would never admit that mistake. In fact, Louise hardly ever admitted to any mistake. It was an unchanging characteristic of hers.

"And the smell of baked bread just makes things worse!"

...

"Uh..?"

A nostalgic scent of bread invaded the place. She had felt that smell before, just couldn't remember when or where. That aroma penetrated her small nose and made her mouth water. But where was this smell coming from? She was in the middle of a forest. When she thought about it, she remembered the only decent path she used to get there. That place was outside the city, in an area with many trees. No one came there. No one would bother walking so far to find nothing.

She stood up and followed that wonderful smell unconsciously, like a child aiming for candy. She continued walking along the trail she used to use to get there. It was somewhat curved, and its end came very close to the barrier. Many would wonder how she felt this aroma from so far away, but in a forest, that smell could stand out from far, far away. Besides, she was hungry enough to make her nose a bit sensitive.

"Hm?"

Approaching the end of the trail, which was the part closest to the barrier's border, she heard a noise. They were voices.

"..."

She wouldn't mistake that. Voices in a forest could be easily identified. But the question came to mind: why was someone there? Were they going to camp or something? No one should be there. That was her only resting place. And what if more came later? Well, she had to push them away somehow. It didn't take long to come to a conclusion: "why not just scare them away?" "Just a harmless prank won't hurt, right?" She put aside her hunger, for now, to "solve" this problem. How about making the trees create faces on the trunk? Or, what if roots attacked them, lightly pulling their feet? The possibilities were many, making that sweet-faced little girl smirk wickedly as she let out a "hehehe." She walked with some euphoria to where she heard the voices.

"Hey, you should go back where you came from!"

"Are you following us? Gross. Take that!"

As she got closer, she could hear more clearly what they were saying. Apparently, they were young girls' voices. Of tender age.

"Th-that's not it... Please... Ow!... Stop... Ugh..."

"Wait... That last voice..." Louise thought as she realized she recognized that voice. An annoying person. Someone she knew. She hastened her steps to confirm this theory. If it were that person... This would be a complicated day. Although she had promised to do this, she didn't want to get worked up about these things. In fact, she didn't like interfering in anyone's life. Everyone had their problems. Everyone should take care of their own lives.

She passed through some dense bushes and branches very carefully so as not to tear her doll dress. She hastened her steps when she realized that the people's voices were getting closer and closer. And when she finally got there...

"Ow... Ow"

"Ah... As I imagined. What a problematic person, right?" she said, drawing everyone's attention.

There was Finn, being bothered by two girls, probably the same age. Finn was one of the few people Louise had contact with - without her will. He always showed up at the library and bothered her. He was always there to see his mother, the receptionist, and took advantage of it to ruin Louise's concentration. Occasionally he would be quiet, reading a book, but these moments were rare, and most of the time, he called her to play, even if she always refused. They would never be friends, definitely. They would definitely never be friends. After all, he was an unbearable person, or so thought Louise.

At that moment, Finn was lying on the ground, protecting something, while the girls threw stones at him. "What a coward," thought Louise. They quickly noticed the appearance of the girl who dressed like a doll, and stared at her as if trying to remember where they knew this eccentric girl with red hair from. The two girls, one tall with short brown hair, and the other slightly shorter but with black hair, recognized who they saw with a long "Ah!"

"You're that girl who always skips classes, aren't you?" said the taller one.

"Yes, yes. It's her, for sure. Red hair and strange clothes."

Yes. These facts were true. She always dressed in frilly dresses that stood out because she wore them on any occasion, even at school. She stopped going because her family's social status made many people bother her daily. Besides, she preferred above all to remain alone during her studies, or any other activity. She never felt lonely, always enjoyed learning more and more in the library. Louise Flyer was an example of ambition for knowledge, and did not like at all to be disturbed during her research.

"L-Louise!" exclaimed Finn.

Finn was covered in dirt and mud, with blood visible on his forehead. "When did they plan to stop? And, more importantly, why didn't he try to defend himself?" The brown-haired, green-eyed boy was just in the fetal position while they threw stones at him.

"You're a complicated person who only brings trouble, aren't you?" Louise pointed out.

"Hm..."

Finn looked somewhat sad. With that, Louise looked at the two of them with a superior gaze. Not to impose fear or anything like that, that was her common gaze. But the girls who were there didn't know that.

"What's up?" said the taller one. "He deserved it. He followed us here, can you believe it?"

"Yes, yes. It was scary."

"N-No, it's not..." Finn tried to defend himself.

He was scared. More scared than those two girls. Surely something was wrong there. Finn seemed to want to explain himself in some way, but he was intimidated by Louise's gaze, making him stutter. For some reason, everyone felt like they had to explain themselves in some way, but it wasn't necessary. What was happening there didn't matter to this little girl who looked more like a doll. That wasn't her problem. Everyone had their problems, and it was their responsibility to solve them. Louise was only in that situation by coincidence. Just that. Even though Nathália had promised her sweets and cakes in exchange for staying by Finn's side, there was nothing in the verbal agreement that said Louise had to protect him or defend him in any way. "When you see him, could you just keep an eye on him? You don't need to do anything special. Just being by his side is enough. What do you think?" That's what she said.

She turned as if she hadn't seen anything. And that was it. That situation was unimportant. Finn could solve it on his own. Louise would go back where she came from, and... What was she doing again?

"I...I brought your lunch!"

Finn shouted as soon as Louise turned around, as if he were petrified by those blue eyes until then. With that, something ran through that little girl's mind like lightning. Yes, that's what she was doing before getting into this mess. She forgot to have lunch and now she was hungry. Upon turning around, she realized that Finn was actually curled up in an attempt to protect something. She looked a little more closely and... "That's it! A basket!" Her mouth filled with saliva as she realized that the delicious smell from before still lingered in the air. That fragrant aroma came from that fragile wooden basket.

"W-well... What can I do, right? If you brought it for me, then the least I can do is accept it."

She held her hands on her hips and looked away. It was clear to anyone that she wasn't good at lying. Finn, with a big and happy smile on his face, quickly stood up, holding the basket handle with both hands. But when he walked towards Louise...

"We're not done yet! Take this!"

"Hm?!"

Frustrated by being ignored, the tall brown-haired girl threw a rock as big as her fist. The force of her throw was impressive even to her. The rock was headed towards Finn's small head when...

"Wind diversion, air."

A "tlack" sound immediately followed.

Reciting the words she knew so well, Louise snapped her fingers in succession. And just like that, the rock stopped in mid-air for a moment before returning to where it came from at twice the speed.

Seeing what she had thrown coming back towards her, the tall girl froze. Her subconscious knew there was no way to dodge it. It would hit her squarely in the face and be fatal. She clenched her fists, turned her face, and closed her eyes, accepting what would happen next...

"Ahh..."

All the air in her lungs rushed out when the rock passed right next to her ear. Life, similar to the rock, flashed before her eyes for a moment. She realized her hands were shaking as she checked if her heart was still beating. Yes, that was necessary. Everything happened so fast that she had to check. Her heart was still racing. Her friend, who was right next to her, had wide eyes and still couldn't breathe from the shock.

"Sister Sophie!"

Reality hit her when she saw her sister fall to her knees, terrified and scared of accepting death for a moment.

"Let's go," said Louise, indifferent.

"Ah? But... what about them?"

"They're fine, can't you see?"

Sophia suddenly started crying. Understandable. For a moment, she thought she was really going to die. Meanwhile, her possibly younger sister was comforting her. You could tell she wanted to cry too, but she held it in. She stayed strong. That was somewhat admirable.

"..."

Finn looked guilty and Louise didn't understand why. Just a little while ago, they were teasing him relentlessly. Why was he sad now? Shouldn't he be happy? Or did he prefer to be hit by the rock? That's what Louise thought without worrying about the answer.

"...They're... fine..."

"Hmm. I should say lucky," she whispered.