Chapter 23

"That was a lot of fun, I couldn't imagine that there was stuff like that out there," Kaya said as she peeked at Kizer from the side.

She's been inside Kizer's estate for a very long time, it's not that everyone, including Kizer, is banning her from going out, but it's just that she has already experienced everything that Omashu can offer, including food, unique architecture, and underground beautiful caves, all of which she experienced together with Kizer.

And so, with nothing left to experience, she just stays at home gardening like the other girls and helping the workers at their home—though the latter was quickly stopped by many people, including her brother, for some very obvious reason with which she's familiar.

She may act innocent about Kizer, but she actually knows some of his real personality after being with him most of the time. Some examples are when he always observes from the top of his tower, he says that he does it to relax himself, but she knows that it's fake. He does it because he looks down at everything below.

But despite that, Kaya knows that he has a good heart, and that's what she loves about him. Kizer may look down at everything as if he were superior to everyone, but his actions—like making the lives of all the citizens of Omashu easier—weigh out that.

Formerly, when Kizer, Bumi, and his brother Hiro were still new and starting to Omashu, Kaya saw how poor the living conditions of most people in the city were. Most still barely survived every day, but some were dirt poor and did bad things to survive, which Kaya greatly pitied before.

Now, all people on Omashu have a job, and when she went for a view of the city once in a while, she never saw a single poor person begging for food or money, nor stealing. If you had no job, the Omashu king and Bao would give one to you. Due to that, the city and other cities around it thrive, and all people now live a good life.

There are also many strict rules in every part of the city, and those are heavily enforced by the City Guards. Kaya occasionally met many of them and had simple conversations, they all seemed very proud of the city and what it has become compared to before.

And all of this happened due to Kizer, as he's the one who led the Ten Pillars, which was the organization that secretly influenced Omashu and the other surrounding cities as well.

How does she know that? Simple, Bumi occasionally tells her when he's visiting the estate from time to time. As for her brother, she rarely sees him nowadays. It seems that Kizer has tasked him with something, though neither he nor Bumi tells her about it.

"Do you want to eat something?" Kizer asked with an indifferent expression.

She's been quite hungry for a while and was shy to ask for something. "Yes! I mean, yes," Kaya said before faking a cough.

Kizer found it cute, but he didn't show it. "There's a place that sells food far from here," he said.

"What about Bumi? Let's call him," Kaya said before going to the edge of the bridge.

She looked down at what seemed like the void below, though that was just due to lack of lighting and because the entire library was so massive and very deep.

Kaya doesn't know where Bumi is, so she shouted, "BUMI, WE PLANNED TO EAT OUTSIDE, DO YOU WANT TO COME?" which caused an echo after some time.

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, I WILL EAT SOMETHING TOMORROW ONCE I'M DONE HERE!" shouted Bumi back from below.

"OKAY!!" Kaya shouted before happily looking back at Kizer, who seemed a little surprised by what she did.

Soon, they left the library on the flying circle rock again.

The night was still young, and as they passed by the lonely desert, it became too cold for Kaya. Fortunately, they had already arrived at the place. It was a somewhat large desert settlement, which looked busy tonight.

"It looks like there's something going on there," Kaya said, pointing at the settlement.

"I heard that they're celebrating the day Avatar Ronu helped the group of people who built this settlement or village," Kizer said, telling what his elite soldier reported to him.

Kaya pointed at the only statue in the settlement. "Is that him? The statue right there?"

"Yes, people tend to do this in honor of Avatars. Now let's go, we might not get a seat at the restaurant below. I heard that their food is good, so it'll be a pity if we have to wait."

"Okay, but can we watch the celebration after we eat? It seems interesting," Kaya asked while still observing the preparations the people were making.

"Hm, alright," Kizer agreed.

There's nothing to really do in the Spirit Library of Wan Shi Tong, so it shouldn't be bad to watch it together with Kaya. He was interested as well, since this would be the first festival he would see after arriving in this world.

Kizer slowly guided the circle rock they were riding to the ground, and since all the people were busy, they didn't notice them landing.

They entered the restaurant that Kizer was talking about and, sure enough, it was busy inside and had few free seats. After taking a seat, a gentle-looking middle-aged woman approached them.

"Hello, Mr. and Ms., what will be your order... Oh, you two seem to be new here," the woman said.

"Yup, we're here only to eat since my husband here says that this place has great food!" Kaya said with a smile.

The woman turned to look at Kizer and found him looking straight at her with an indifferent expression and eyes that were far from normal. She quickly switched her attention back to the beautiful and innocent Kaya.

"You two should also join us on the celebration day, I guarantee that you will enjoy it," the woman said.

"Yes, we'll do that. By the way, what's the story behind it?" Kaya asked.

"It's just a simple story about the six founders of this village of ours being helped by Avatar Ronu. The six founders were adventurers who, for some reason, got stuck in this desert for days without food or water, they're not benders, so they couldn't do anything to help their situation. When they were about to lose hope, Avatar Ronu and his wife found them and helped. Avatar Ronu's wife helped by giving them all her food, while Avatar Ronu brought a massive pond to them using his waterbending. The pond you see outside the village? That's the pond from the story. After that, the founders built this settlement and continued to honor Avatar Ronu from then on," the woman said, her eyes showing visible admiration.

"Thanks for telling the story!"

"No problem. By the way, what do you guys want to eat?"

Before Kaya could say anything, Kizer placed a gold ingot on the table. "Give us everything you have here," Kizer said.

The middle-aged woman was surprised but quickly recovered. "Ah, alright, please wait a moment for your meals."

Kaya looked at Kizer with curiosity. "Can we really finish it all?" she whispered.

"I could, but I won't. And I ordered everything so you can taste all of them."

- - - - -

Some romance for a change...

Hope you liked it!

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