04: A normal day

The morning started calmly like the vast majority there, the birds flew over the city and the wind blew through the trees, the only difference was the movement of carts and visitors arriving for the festival.

Secilia was in her bed sleeping comfortably when a knocking sound made her wake up in the bedroom door, but she was still lying down covering her head with the pillow.

The knock was repeated, but now followed by the voice of one of the maids on the other side of the door.

"Secilia, your mother is calling you, she said that if you don't get up immediately she'll come get you herself."

The voice was direct and emotionless. Secilia sat up straight away with her eyes still closed and her hair messy, slowly she opened her eyes turning her face to the window next to her bed and opening it to look outside.

The view from the girl's room was the side garden and the winery next to the mansion, she rose from her bed as another knock began.

"I'll be right there, let me get dressed first."

Secilia replied yawning. The girl walked calmly to the wardrobe removing a light blue dress and put it on there, returned to the dresser next to the bed and with the comb that was on it, fixed her hair and finally headed for the door.

"Good morning, Rosaria."

She smiled rubbing her right hand over her eyes as the maid sighed.

"Your mother is in the dining room, she asked you not to be late for your studies…"

The woman made way for the girl as she spoke in a serious tone, but before Secilia walked out of there she returned to say

"Please don't repeat the same thing as yesterday, or I'll come after you and Clark."

Secilia froze for a moment and without answering the maid and continued walking a little faster, Rosaria seemed to know everything, she scared Secilia and at the same time made her feel comfortable.

" Ah, finally appeared, did you sleep well, daughter?"

Helena was sitting in one of the chairs on the side of the table, near the end opposite the door where Secilia was standing.

" Yes mom, sorry for the delay."

The girl noticed her father's absence, she walked to the chair facing her mother and sat down while a maid placed her plate.

"Where's Daddy?' Have you ever been to the winery?"

She started putting food on her plate awaiting her mother's response.

" In fact, he went to receive the Bargosa, apparently they decided to show up for the festival."

Helena glanced at Secilia without showing that she was watching her.

"um, he's going to have work so, how many batches did they ask for?"

The older woman sighed and grabbed her wineglass, slowly sipping the liquid.

"A much larger amount than usual, your father almost refused the request… but coming from one of the most important families of Edel… it would be impossible to refuse such a request."

Secilia noticed the strange tone in her mother's voice, but decided not to ask, she didn't want to get involved in any business involving the 4 families of Edel.

"How about we take a walk around town today? The Festival will be very busy this year."

"I intended to help Senhora Ana and Alina finish the decoration."

Helena glanced at her and sighed, normally she would complain about that, but maybe it was a good thing, even her father, the Andean Duke, had agreed with that.

"Okay, your father has agreed to let you ride the festival, but come back early and Rosaria will accompany you.

" Serious? I really can??"

Secilia grinned at her mother's permission and hurried off to eat.

" But don't even think about missing Mr. Jeriak's class, after that you can go."

Secilia finished eating and headed upstairs to the library.

The library was a room with several shelves divided into sectors on the left and right expanding across the left side of the second floor, in the center was a table where a man of approximately 55 years old with brown hair with a white side was sitting with a book in hand.

"Arrived early today, we can start earlier then… Start by summarizing the 4 families of Edel."

The girl sighed seeing that her teacher was always straight with teaching, walked up to her and sat down opening a book.

" Edel has a union of 4 families that are responsible for protecting important points of Edel, namely Argolia, Bargosa, Laffrey and Pelonus.

The teacher turned the page of the book he was reading and indicated that he continue

"The Argolia family is responsible for protecting the northern route bordering Frosttorn, maintaining trade relations."

She took a short break before resuming.

"The Bargosa are an important family that is in the port of Sifx, the biggest port of Edel, place where all the products of other continents and kingdoms enter by sea.

"Pelonus, responsible for guarding the south bordering Camalus, although it is a neutral kingdom, the protection of the southern lands is necessary."

The girl would stop talking and then the teacher would close his book staring at her

"There is still one…"

Secilia looked at him, although she thought it unnecessary to explain about her family she answered him

" Yes… Laffrey, the family responsible for guarding the hero's rest and holding the frosttorn festival, owns the most important delicacy of Edel, the wine made from Modrika and Farvayn apples."

"What are the diplomatic relations between the three continents; Valandor, Celuriam and Thermiseras?

"The relationship is unstable, Evedth, the biggest kingdom of Celuriam is recovering from the war that happened 10 years ago which made the kingdom have bad relations with the lands of Valandor. Balty and Peperot remain neutral as does Camalus. Even with the Darach Fiudengar disaster, the morbid…

The teacher glanced at her, but the girl continued talking without noticing his gaze.

"Termiseras is relatively closed off, as it always has, I mean, since the holy war.

"Although it maintains some minor imports and exports with the realms and also continues its tainted hunt, as early as six…

The teacher held out his hand indicating for her to stop and a wide smile on his face seeing how the girl remembered the details.

"Very well, what made you remember all this?"

The professor put the book on the table and stood up walking to the nearby window.

"Tell me a story of distant lands.

The girl found that a little strange, the teacher didn't like legends, but the girl didn't question the teacher's request

"The succubus of Paratia, it is said that during the holy war and before Paratia became the city it is today, a series of murders was taking place in the city which led people to believe it was a necromancer's ritual, but an unknown person. hunted the creature, investigating and seeking what she wanted, in the end she discovered that it was a Succubus that had taken the body of the former Lord's wife and murdered her on top of the bell tower making her body fall from there... plays in Paratia telling this story."

The man stood still looking out the window, with his right hand he took out a pack of cigars from his pocket and with the other hand he opened the window and then he took one out with his left, keeping the pack and lighting it with his right hand.

"What made you choose this story?"

The girl was looking at the cover of the book the teacher was reading earlier "The Haspurti Adventure Guide".

" I like this story, my brother used to tell it to me when we played in the garden and it was the last story he told me before he joined the academy."

"You're free for today.

The girl rose from her chair with a wide smile and ran out the door without saying goodbye.

The man blew thick smoke out the window without looking at the girl and then let out a sigh.

" See you tomorrow teacher!"

Said Secilia appearing at the door and disappearing through it again, the professor let out a light laugh, dragging his cigarette again.

After leaving the house, Secilia continued walking along the long street that led from the mansion to the center of the city, next to her was Rosaria.

Secilia felt a little uncomfortable with Rosaria, but she knew that she could trust her and also that the maid would protect her from any complicated situation, while Rosaria kept a calm expression on her face, walking a little behind.

The drive to the center was crowded with people outside the houses and shops, decorating their entrances with white flowers and strips of fabric over the arch of the doors.

In the middle of the paved street some adventurers of various races were walking freely talking.

"The adventurers have already started to gather, will Emm'ou's family come?

"You should be careful what you say, it's forbidden for them to set foot on the lands of Valandor without a formal invitation."

Rosaria scolded Secilia about the dialogue, but the girl was always curious about the forgotten land of the ancients and especially about its secrets.

"I'm sorry, I'll be more careful."

Secilia noticed that near the local atelier there was a group of Velvets, a very peculiar half-animal race, the group was composed of a bear man, a bird man, a hooded man and a half amphibian. On the other side, next to the Cyclops inn was a group of dwarves mumbling as they looked at a hammer of a human adventurer.

"Hello Miss Seclia, shouldn't you be in class?"

The voice was coming from the right side of Secilia where a group of villagers were setting up a wooden platform in front of the local blacksmith shop, the voice was coming from one of the older men.

" I was released early, how is the organization of the festival?"

" All very calm, some adventurers arrived and already allocated themselves in the inn, almost all the rooms were rented."

The man let out a laugh, showing his happiness at how busy the festival would be.

"You should go soon, enjoy a little of your free day.

He nodded the girl with a nod and resumed walking watching people, the locals waved at her smilingly, while adventurers and visitors didn't know who she was, although many noticed her simple beauty."

"Good morning, Miss Anne!"

The girl was still talking loudly across the street waving to the lady. The woman was crouched arranging some white flowers in a vase made of intertwined branches.

"Oh, good morning dear, good morning Rosaria, I see you're not running away today."

The lady stood up with the vase walking calmly towards a cart full of vases

"Yes, Mom released me today, said she wanted to help organize things for the festival."

"Alina left to help Clark at Cyclops, why doesn't she go there?"

"Okay, but first I'm going to help you here."

The lady let out a light laugh as Secilia and Rosaria followed to help the lady.

After some time, the cart was already full and the girl's clothes were dirty with mud, but she didn't care about that and just hit her clothes removing a good part of the dirt.

"Thank you Secilia, now you can let me do the rest"

The lady said as she pushed the cart, Rosaria sighed cleaning her clothes before addressing the girl

"We should return to the mansion to change clothes.

" I'm still going to get dirty a lot today, it would be useless to do that"

They continued walking towards the tavern where there were three adventurers from the desert lands of Harlas, standing at the door talking, when Secilia passed one of them looked at her in the corner with the intention of following her, but Rosaria passed shortly before looking towards his face. with a frightening expression making him recoil instinctively.

"What is it, Rahsa?"

Asked one of the group members to his friend who backed away

"Nothing much, just getting in the way."

She replied to her friend turning her gaze towards the group and sweating cold, in her head only one question was "Where have I seen this woman?"

When the two women entered the place they came across several boxes scattered around the tavern hall, next to the cashier was Clark checking the list of objects received and next to one of the boxes was Alina

"10 desert beetle crates"

"Check

Answered Alina counting the boxes

"Seriously, who drinks this?"

Clark turned his gaze to the door when he heard Secilia's sentence, Alina released the lid and ran to the girl hugging her

"Secilia! What are you doing here at this time? Did you run away again?"

"If she had run away, Rosaria wouldn't be here either. Hello Rosaria!"

Clark replied that in response he received a firm look from the woman, for an instant he froze.

"I came to help you, if you don't mind."

"Of course, of course, help me tidy up the things that have already been checked. Clark, what's next?

Alina spoke, taking Secilia towards the boxes that were already correct, thus starting to organize everything together with Rosaria

" How are the caravans this year?"

After a while asked Helena as she placed some bottles of foreign drinks on the giant shelf, full of other bottles with small name tags, behind the counter.

"I haven't been there yet, I will when I'm done here, but I heard that this year more people are arriving than usual, maybe because of the tournament."

Answered Alina next to her helping to finish organizing the bottles

" It seems that there were several tournaments to decide who would come this year, I don't know if they are the best in the world, but I know that there are several very strong people, it seems that Astrid is coming this year too."

- Serious?! I haven't seen her in a long time!

Secilia replied to what Clark had said, the girl seemed very excited to the point of dropping a bottle of maple whiskey made in Besua, but Rosaria grabbed the bottle before it hit the floor.

" I'm sorry Clark!"

" It's okay, Rosaria always manages to prevent the worst."

The woman stood up putting the bottle on the shelf and looking at the floor with an uneasy expression.

"Not always…"

She whispered, but only Clark could hear what she said, making him clench his fists, making Alina realize the boy's discomfort.

"I think we're done here!" how about we go to the caravans?"

She asked Alina holding Secilia's hand pulling her out of the place towards leaving Clark behind in silence finishing organizing the place.

After a few minutes, the trio arrived at the gate that separated the city from the outside area, where there were some carts carrying products and being duly checked by the guards, which was clearly tiring for the merchants. The group passed through the civilian transport door where the guard opened the way.

"Good morning, Miss Laffrey."

Secilia smiles waving at him, she hated how all the guards and soldiers in town treated her like they did her mother.

"Has anyone from Frosttorn arrived?"

Secilia stopped for a moment at the door looking at him and waiting for his answer, but he kept looking at the wall in front of him.

"No, only the people of Kar'najo, merchants and adventurers from the southern kingdoms and Celterna.

" I got it, thanks."

The girl continued walking with the other two towards the place where the caravans should be assembled.