First Steps of Confidence (2/2)

"Wouldn't they try finding if they've noticed that both of you are missing in the Palace?" Sion asked the two heavily cloaked Ocmenians beside him as they walk across the busy Plaza. Afternoons in the square are more crowded compared to morning time, which is favorable for the triad.

"Ocmenians go wherever they please, Sion." Laguna whispered.

"But what of the consequences?" Sion concerned.

"I doubt that Silver Lady could do something against us if she finds out my dear, I saw her earlier and I find her just... adequate." Hildred smiled. "Adequate?" Sion asked confusingly through his hood. "Yes my dear, 'just adequate'." Hildred replied boringly.

Striding across the plaza is taking a toll of their time while doing their best to evade some stubborn vendors who might offer goods to their faces.

"Wait..." Laguna stopped on his tracks.

"What's wrong?"

Laguna took a deep breath "I can't believe it.. ." He said while looking at his grandmother. He knows that she already knows what he's thinking. "Oh yes, I could smell it too." Hildred sniffed. The pair turned at the distant bakery at the mouth of the plaza. Laguna literally floated an inch above the snow towards the bakery door, as if the smell of fresh loaves lifted him towards it transcendentally.

Hildred took Sion as Laguna glid inside Wheathart Bakery "Just let him be my dear, he's a baker first before knowing he's a prince." Hildred whispered, "And he remembers his heart so well." She said before they followed inside.

"Sion, order for us so we can have a taste!" Laguna brightly suggested, he handed him a heavy pouch filled with Akan coins, the realm's general currency.

"What exactly would you like me to buy?" Sion asked them.

"A little bit of everything, start from the smallest of price up to the most expensive."

"And don't spare even their drinks!" Hildred chimed in.

"Alright then." Before Sion could make his way to the counter Hildred pulled his hood off. "Remember, It is more honorable to live and try than to live and die." she whispered. "We'll take the seat upstairs. And don't put back that hood again!" An assuring pat landed on his back.

As soon as he's on the counter, Laguna and Hildred took a seat on the small roundtable by the large window upstairs, observing Sion and the crowd's absurd reactions below as they take him in.

"Mazvamia, Ohk ko salmba ja shalth ruw Jangana'va vizho kam Sion. It's a crime to do so!" Laguna whispered angrily to Hildred.

(Grandmother, I can't believe you said our Country's motto erroneously to Sion. It's a crime to do so!)

"Ja, osa M'lohka, domidavo, impo katu osa Asom di ja shalth!" He continued.

(You, the Queen, among all other people, should know the consequence of contradicting our motto!)

"Mal'vath ja shaltho ohk?" Hildred asked.

(What did you just call me?)

"M- M'lohka?" Laguna answered.

(Queen?)

"Good thing you know what I am, Kid." Hildred crossed her legs, reverting her attention back to the counter as if she didn't just commit a crime punishable by death.

"Could I purchase hmmm."

Agnetha, Matilda's younger sister, stared at him with a slack jaw. Hildred should be laughing at her seat by now.

"Basically everything you guys bake, from loaves to pies to bread to cookies..." He spoke continuously of what he wants but Agnetha hasn't caught a word he said, too stunned from the bare beauty in front of her.

"Here's for the payment." He was about to put the heavy pouch given by Hildred on the counter but a hand has stopped him.

"Don't mind the payment lad, I got it covered." A white-haired man flickered them a smile. Sion could notice his missing limb, he almost didn't noticed it against the overflowing charm the man exhibits.

"Agnetha?"

"Ri-right then sire." She rushed back to the pantry.

"That's too kind of you but it wasn't really necessary." Sion was held back, he didn't expect that Dirgeans are this much welcoming to foreigners.

"Ahhh that's just simple Dirgean hospitality for foreigners like you."

"Thank you... sir? I'm afraid I don't know who you are."

"Elliott Whiteraven." The man laughed. "And you are?"

"Sion, a pleasure to meet you." He shook the Elliott's only hand. The boy somehow feels familiar with the man's name, quite sure he had heard it before.

"Sion ey? What far land could have birthed someone as exquisite as you?" Elliott leaned at the counter. He was sure he heard the name from recent events too, it doesn't sound fresh on his ears.

"Oh I wish I know too but I actually grew up here in Dirge." Sion smiled.

"Gods smite me! are you for real?" Elliott held his chin in disbelief.

"Yes I'm a citizen."

"Where do you live then? A face like yours is hard to miss yet it's my first time to meet you here."

"I Iive at the apothecary by the outskirts of the slums." Sion pursed his lips for he could see through Elliott like clear ice.

"You are Blackmercy's son?" he deduced hesitantly.

"I'm afraid I am."

"Inferno burn us the rumors were right! Miriam was indeed evil!" Elliot closed his eyes, he finally met the friend of the Sailor the matriarchs were flaunting about from last night's banquet.

"Evil?" Sion wasn't surprised.

"For hiding a beauty like yours all these cycles." he sweetened.

"You jest. "

"No, you jest. Why would a gem like you live beside the slums?!"

"Maybe to hide me from the dangers of the outside world?"

"You mean to stay away from the rest of Sovenia? Your Mother's judgment must be clouded to think of that when your house is literally beside the real danger." Elliot said, which in turn, made Sion snap inside, but he masked it with a gorgeous smile.

"You're right! You know what? it also came across my mind why my 'evil' mum decided to settle in the Dirgean Slums among all other places." Sion held on Elliott's only hand.

"I mean, it is 'filthy' and 'foul' and those slum-kids running around wearing barely any clothing is such an indecent sight for anyone from the plaza!" Sion ranted out without breathing in between words, nose wrinkled in fake disgust.

"Yes indeed, they should stay far from the Plaza! Why are they leaving that shit hole anyway?" Elliott mirrored Sion's disgust.

"Yeah." Sion just proved his point why Elliott had never seen him before.

"Indeed." Elliott agreed, caressing Sion's palm with his thumb.

"But I don't think so, Elliott." The boy eclipsed, securing his hand on top of Elliott's to make him stay there and not move and inch. The Whiteraven didn't know that he is talking to the personification of the Slums. His face, hidden from public eye. His profession, for the poor. His family, the orphaned children of the slums. And most importantly, his blood-

Foreign... A magnet of Dirgean disdain. And besides, there are no pure blooded Sovenians living in the slums. Only those who aren't white as snow.

He leaned to Elliott, close enough so that the Whiteraven heir wouldn't find a strand of will to move. "You see, Miriam decided to settle in the Slums because most of the sick and diseased of this city comes from that place, the most neglected area where all the sewers and wastes of the 'upper districts' lead to." he whispered.

"and she settled there out of compassion, not money. And that decision separates us Blackmercys to you Whiteravens" he exhaled on Elliot's neck, Sion could smell the hint of money's dismal aroma lingering from Elliott's collar, just as he expects from an upper-class man.

He retreated from Elliott when a large hot tray was set between them.

"Here's the complete order sire, thank you for your patience." Agnetha smiled proudly as she offers a large tray of assorted bread that was plated like a hill, delicate white puffs slowly arising from each bread that just sends anyone who inhales it straight to paradise.

"Thank you maiden." Sion took the tray before turning to the tongue-tied lad.

"I highly appreciate your company and treat Sir Elliott, I wish to see more of you." he gave a final smile bfore proceeding upstairs.

"That would be 359 Akan Coins Sir Elliott, including this Snow-apple Crostata you ordered earlier." Agnetha humbly asserted, she wouldn't want to provoke a man turning red at the moment.

"Deduct that from the loan of your family, girl, I just lost my appetite this morning." Elliott said, only taking one piece of bread with him as he leave.

"Here it comes Mazvamia!" The large horned man squirmed when Sion placed the tray on their small roundtable.

"The drinks will arrive shortly, I highly recommend that you guys should try the Wheathart Rolls first, it is the bakery's specialty which all Dirgeans love." Sion points a white spiral bread with specks of yellow cheese squeezing out from it.

Laguna inhaled each bread present at the table as if he is taking in its very essence, studying them and reassembling them from the mere scent, reimagining everything from how they came to be and how they raised from the ovens.

"Let him have his moment undisturbed my dear, he is under an artisan's trance." Hildred excused her grandchild.

"Hildred, you should try these Snowberry Croissants, it is Ian'drah's favorites." Sion offered the crescents to the Queen's mouth.

Hildred took a bite on, the red filling oozing out from its center "Oh I can see why he likes eating this so much." She then looked back at Sion's hair.

"The breads here are excessively fresh, fruit-based and heart-warmingly herbal, I find it remarkable..." Laguna comments.

"The Sovenians preserves their organics well through Ice Cabinets which could make an apple last for 2 cycles if I recall correctly?" Hildred squints at Sion to correct her.

"Yes you did recall correctly, and about 3 cycles and four moons when it comes to meat and fish." Sion added.

"Impressive!" Laguna commented as he take a bite of the specialty, his irises turning bright and wide from the taste.

"Sion, this Wheathart Rolls is a genius innovation! I never knew that Wheat Maggots could be fermented with cheese to achieve this taste!" Laguna reassembled the roll's fillings.

"Wheat what now?!" Sion almost choked.

"Yes, Wheat Maggots! At first it was rediculous in my head but it was actually pure genius!"

"How did you know there were maggots?"

"It is easily noticeable from its texture down to the colour, come and taste! I'll tell as you chew." Laguna placed a roll on Sion's mouth, which the Alchemist took a small bite from.

"Now, can you feel just how smooth and milk-like the cheese is? That is actually the maggots which contains self-made milk within, bursting with that peculiar flavor from each chew." Laguna explained. A white trail of 'maggot milk' dripping from Sion's mouth as he stare confused at Laguna. It strikes him hard that throughout all these cycles, Dirge has been traditionally eating maggots joyously.

"Tuna!" A voice squeaked from below. The triad looked down on a little girl with a mousy hair, her clothes muddied and eyes glimmering as homely as the candles in the bakery.

Soft Lilac light glowed from Chacha's forehead gem and she slowly floated her way up to the second floor to land on the ledge like a feather floating against the pull of the ground, her eyes widening from the towers of bread that welcomed her.

"Oh... my." Hildred mouthed, Laguna on the other hand, rose from his seat.

"Oserio varomosik!"

"Mil'ha Shagat'doya zikho milho Shada."

(There's an entire Ocean of Magical capacity in that girl.)

What the Mezenian girl did with utmost ease was magic that only Arcane Experts who trained for decades could do. Mezenian blood may assure an affinity with magic, but not this much.

The girl in front of them still floats mid-air, her cute face shocked by the amount of bread by the table, but not as shocked as the Ocmenians.

"Tuna, am hungry, please gimme!" Chacha floated over Sion to sit on his lap.

"Oh... why do you have dirt on your hair?" Sion patted the brown crumbs from her hair.

"E're was a beautiful white man in the plaza who gave me a Snow-apple Crostata but Sijno stole it from me!" Chacha pouted.

"Don't tell me that you and Sijno are fighting again!"

"But he started it! I wish I didn't kick him out of Mama's womb... If I only knew dat that'll make him the older brother, I wouldn't have done it!" She crossed her small arms like a grumpy little boss.

"Uhmmm, I hope you guys wouldn't mind if this short-tempered girl joins us?" Sion smiled at the Ocmenians.

"Am not short-tempered!"

"Of course!" Hildred laughed. "The more the merrier when it comes to the table."

"Indeed."

Moments passed swiftly and the hill of bread flattened into crumbs. The four of them stepped out of the bakery having the shared feeling of warm satisfaction with Laguna and Chacha competing on who's smile is the widest.

"Sijno! you son of a dumb doe!" Chacha squealed when he saw her brother sitting in the middle of the busy plaza.

"We have the same mother you stupid squeak!" Sijno shouted through the loud crowd, red jam evident all over his mouth from his earlier feast of crostata.

"Arghhh!" Chacha floated above the crowd to chase her brother but Sijno did the same.

"I'll have yo'w empty head on a pike!" She squealed on pursuit.

"At least I don' have an empty stomach!" Sijno shouted back before they both got swallowed by a distant fog.

"Off we go to Miriam then." Sion said to signal the Ocmenians to let the slum-children be.

"Mye'gath osa Jang?" the diplomat cursed, still stunned from seeing the tremendous amounts of magic coursing through these 'slum-children'.

(What the fuck?)

Of course the local Dirgean won't recognize these magical prodigies, the country is the least literate in Viridia when it comes to the arcane arts.

They exited the tiled plaza in descretion, passing through several transparent walls and bridges of ice plentiful times on the way to the apothecary. The wooden pier roads began to look neglected, creaking louder with each streets they treaded. The Ice Dome above reflecting the rooves of the neighborhood, turning from red to black as they walk further to new places- an indication that they're reaching the slums.

As they were nearing the Apothecary, a loud proclamation ripped through the cold winds, begging to be heard by all ears on the streets:

"I love your son! alright?!"

It echoed through the open sky landing softly in Sion's ears like a mother's carress but entering his heart like a piercing dagger.

"There's the apothecary..." he pointed to a large shack by the Slum's entry where the scream came from. He then turned away to flee the scene without bearing any explanation to the Ocmenians.

"Koth, unmah lih" Hildred intervened before Laguna could run after Sion.

(Don't, young one.)