Southern market

*PREVIOUS CHAPTER*

'Did he just compliment me?' I smiled and nodded. "You too, we have a long way to go" I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

***

I woke up and saw that I was still in the forest. The duke was sitting against a tree, he had his arms folded and was asleep. 'He must've stayed watch last night' I smiled and laid down again. There was only the two of us here and it felt like there was nothing or no one bothering us.

*Time skip, land in the south*

We finally arrived at the land in the south. I felt so nauseous because of the wobbly road where the carriage travelled on. The duke looked okay, he didn't even look at me once in the carriage.

"Duke, your land is quite empty. What are you planning to with it?" Qin asked. The duke was quite unpredictable so it wouldn't be weird if he came up with something crazy or stupid.

The duke was deep in thought with that pokerface of his, although it was readable that he also didn't know what to do with it.

"Would you like something, my wife?" I blushed, I still wasn't used to the way he addressed me. Qin looked pretty awkward and probably felt like a third wheel. I sighed and shook my head, I had no reason to want something from the duke.

"Well, I actually don't have any ideas for this land. We should look at what the capital has and the south lacks" Qin nodded and went to talk to the knights and guards.

"We will definitely build a house here, it will be a bit big since this land will be used by farmers" I nodded. 'This man always thinks of his people before him' He was really cold on the outside but he was really thoughtful on the inside.

***

The duke and I went to a well-known marketplace in the south, it was very busy. We were both dressed in a dark clothing and had a hood on. We were inspecting the markets one by one and nothing looked out of the blue.

We walked passed a small food stall and I kept staring at it, it looked like hamburgers! "Do you want some?" The duke asked me. I looked at him with adoration in my eyes and gave him a firm nod. He ordered two hamburgers and we ate it together. I felt the tender meat in my mouth and felt dreamy. The duke looked pretty serious when eating it and went further with inspecting the market.

We finally finished eating and went inside a shop called 'The Magic Shop'. I was quite curious and saw that there were a lot of ingredients and animals.

"Youngsters, what would you like? We have everything for you when you're having fun!" The duke looked away and looked flushed. I couldn't get what the shop owner was saying and just innocently smiled.

We went looking around the shop and one thing caught my eye. It was a really pretty glass jar filled with a dreamy night view. "Ah miss, that's our 'Glass Starry Night'! It's made with dream magic" The shop owner said.

"It's pretty" I said with a smile. I put the jar down and went to the duke. "Everything looks okay in this market" The duke nodded.

Qin was looking for us and entered the shop. "Duke, I saw something strange, please follow me" The duke looked over to me, he was asking if it was okay to leave me alone. I gave him a smile and a nod. He left with Qin.

"Miss, is that your lover? He looks really muscular, even with his cape on!" The shop owner laughed. I got a little flustered but kept smiling. "Did you already sleep together?" My head exploded and I turned as red as a tomato. The owner laughed even harder.

"I'm sorry if I offended you! Youngsters these days are capable of everything" He smiled and grabbed something from behind the counter. It was a music box! I didn't know that they had those things here too. I loved listening to music boxes and often played them while I had paperwork.

"You can have it, I can't sell it since it's broken. It looks worthless" The shop owner threw it to me. 'How can he throw such a wonderful thing?!' I wanted to give him a beating but had to keep my respect, he was older and so I needed to respect him(1).

I left the shop and looked around. The duke probably wouldn't come back till sunrise. I was left with one guard and Mary. I'm already happy that Mary didn't force me to buy more dresses, she always goes crazy whenever we go downtown.

I grabbed the music box and looked at it. I opened it and immediately closed it. There was a picture of a young couple in there, I can't keep it. I wanted to give it back to the shop owner but I couldn't find the shop anywhere.

The shop disappeared into thin air.