26 A journey of memories

After finishing my conversation with Eris, we were guided to our room, the room, if you can call it that, was actually a monster with its own kitchen, hall, dining room, main bedroom and servants bedroom, it was true that if we wished we could stay here to enjoy the city, but the hassle of entering and leaving the palace every time was too much, so I can't wait to have a slightly more modest room.

Once inside the monster of a room, Camille, quite nervous, dared to ask.

(Camille) Excuse me, but what are you going to do with me?

(Leonora) That depends on how useful you can be.

(Camille) can I be useful to you?

(Leonora) That depends on you, but that will be when we return to Quarel, for now enjoy the trip.

(Camille) I promise I will be useful.

I saw her clench her small fists, and I could see determination in her face, I don't know well what to do with her, to be useful or not, I have doubts about how to treat her, in whatever way, I have until we return to Quarel to decide.

I looked at her again with more attention, and I noticed her dress, she had no more clothes and she had to wear the same dress every day, it had been washed by Irma's magic of course, but still, it's not good for her to wear the same clothes every day.

I looked at the sale and noticed that it was a little after noon, I think we can go to the city to do some shopping.

(Leonora) Irma, I want you to tell them to prepare a carriage for us, Aisha, come with me to the city, we are going to get some clothes for Camille.

(Aisha) I think it's a great idea Leo, come on Camie I will help you choose.

Aisha hugged Camille, and Camille got a little nervous, well, I can understand her reaction, she has been her toy since they met, I only allow it because that way, Aisha doesn't bother me and because her games have no real bad intention.

When Irma was about to leave to give my message I stopped her.

(Leonora) Irma, there are a couple more things I want you to do.

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We toured the streets of the inner sector of the capital, both the carriage and the coachman were provided to us by the castle, being honored guests of her majesty we were given a presential treatment, besides, our coachman has been through a lot on this trip, I told Irma to raise his salary, and also as long as we are in the care of the castle I gave him the days off.

For now I gave him directions to take us to a clothing store that has children's sizes, we stopped in front of a large store named.

"Le Petit Royaume".

As we entered a woman attended us, I told her we were looking for clothes for Camille, she took us to a section with dozens of dresses for girls, so Aisha took practically half of them and took Camille to the fitting room to dress her, that will keep them busy for a while.

I looked around and memories flooded back.

I've worked here, as an assistant seamstress, but I was in the deepest part of the warehouse, and I never had more important jobs than cutting fabric and sewing buttons, as I looked at the dresses on display, I remembered that time when I just wanted a simple life without getting involved in history, living a humble life and becoming a person of absolute simplicity, living paycheck to paycheck, getting happiness from basic routine, relating to as few people as possible, living in a monastic way and in hermit-like solitude, leaving behind all the hatred for the people who had ruined my life or had murdered me, it was Zen-like and tempting in its own way, I could just disappear, be nobody in an infinite loop of lives until one fine day I would just stop thinking.

After thinking about it, I discovered that this was a much more terrifying fate than dying an infinite number of times.

For almost three hours, Aisha made her try on a lot of dresses, every so often she made me choose between two dresses practically the same, but with a different ribbon or embroidery, I would choose practically at random, without paying much attention, in those moments poor Camille would give me a pleading look as she tried to ask for help.

I pretended not to see her, besides if she didn't bother her Aisha would bother me, and well.... Sorry little one, better you than me.

Besides, entertaining Aisha is already a very important job, even if in the end you can only be useful to me in that way, it's a more important help than you can imagine.

Finally they ended up choosing more dresses than I think they might need, when I was about to pay, Aisha shook my hand.

(Aisha) No Leo, it's on me, besides it's my gift to cute Camille.

(Leonora) As you wish.

I saw the great amount of dresses, and I didn't want to imagine how much it would be in total, but well, anyway Aisha and I have certain business, and she has her own money independent from her father's, besides considering that her father and I buy her everything she wants, it's obvious that she doesn't spend her money often.

After paying I order it to be sent to the castle, and Camille took one of the dresses they just bought her, I looked at the sky and figured it must be around 4 o'clock, lunch time had passed while they were trying on dresses, so I figured they must all be hungry, on returning to the carriage I was going to order the coachman to choose us a good place to go for lunch, but I thought better of it, and asked him to take us to a place I knew well.

About fifteen minutes later we arrived at a large building with marble pillars adorning an entrance with double doors of fine carved wood, this was guarded by two extremely elegant men immobile as statues, as we approached they opened the door revealing a finely decorated hall.

When I saw it again I was overcome with nostalgia, I've worked in this restaurant, well actually I washed the dishes, but they let me take leftovers home, and I know the food was excellent.

(Aisha) Nice place Leo, tell me have you ever been here before?

(Leonora) I have never set foot in this place in my life.

We approached a man standing in front of a lectern with a large book.

(Host) Welcome to the Medallion, do you have a reservation?

(Leonora) Yes, look for the name Leon Lazaruz.

The man checked the book in front of him, obviously he did not have a reservation, yet.

(Host) My apologies, but I can't find your name.

(Leonora) There must be a mistake, I tell him to check well.

I tapped the book lightly with my fingers, and from my sleeve fell a couple of gold coins, in a quick movement the man took the coins, this exchange lasted only a few moments and you had to be very alert to notice it.

(Host) oh, I have found your name, I humbly ask you to forgive me for this misunderstanding, in a second you will be guided to your table.

The man rang a bell with his left hand, and with his right hand he put his thumb and forefinger together and touched the book, now my name was on the list, in a moment a young man appeared to take us to our table, out of the corner of my eye I could tell that Camille had been balling her fists, it was obvious that she was watching our conversation, but as long as I didn't try to lie to her, everything would be fine.

When we arrived at our table, we were handed the menu and the waiter stepped back to let us choose, out of the corner of my eye I could see that Camille was very excited for some reason.

(Aisha) That was a very cool move Leo, but how did you know it would work?

(Leonora) very simple, important people make reservations at places like this, but someone very important doesn't have time to make reservations, so money is always the way to separate the important people from the very important.

To tell Aisha the truth, would be to tell her that I know the host, and I know he takes bribes, but that would bring a lot of questions, so I hope my long and redundant explanation will be enough to calm her down.

Again Camille was staring at me showing great excitement on her face, I think I have earned her admiration or something, well, Leon is someone cool so it's obvious, and after all I'm her older sister so earning my little sister's admiration is only natural.

With a gesture I called the waiter, and told them they could order whatever they wanted, I could notice that Camille went straight to order the cheapest thing on the menu, a simple plate of Foie gras without complements, Aisha also seemed to notice it because of what she spoke.

(Camille) you have an interesting taste little Camie, at your age I couldn't stand Foie gras.

Camille made a surprised face, it was obvious that she didn't know what she ordered, but it's not difficult to suppose that her parents have conditioned her to always order the cheapest, she looked very nervous, it was obvious that she wanted to change her order, but she didn't dare.

(Aisha) You know, little Camie, the truth is that I have a little trauma with that food, so I'm not even able to look at it, so I will dare to change your order. Waiter changed the little girl's order to a plate of spaghetti bolognese, and a chocolate cake for dessert.

The waiter took the orders and left, and Camille looked a little embarrassed as she looked at Aisha, to which Aisha just smiled.

Aisha may be a crazy sociopath, with criminal tendencies, and an obsession to instill chaos, but she also had a good heart, and over time I discovered that she only bothered the people she was fond of, and that was her way of saying that she trusted that someone.

Our meal progressed smoothly, I felt quite proud that the coffee had made it all the way to the capital, but it was quite a bit worse than what was served at Quarel, but it is many times better than that muddy water that people like to drink, for now with nothing better to do I glanced sideways at the wine selection.

Maybe a cup, yes a cup will do me no harm, but in their wine selection there are only aperitifs, and in this world there isn't much of a digestive culture, so how about a glass of gin, I think I can replace the tonic, but it's very annoying so gin alone will do, hmm but the measures of gin are very small, should I order two?

(Aisha) Leo, I see you're very concentrated looking at the menu, have you seen anything that catches your eye? Or should I remind you the incident of last time?

(Leonora) I don't know what you're talking about.

(Aisha) Do you really want me to be more specific?

(Leonora) You know, I think it's getting late and we should go.

Everything is completely fine, and I don't know what Aisha was referring to, but I had the impression that she already wanted to leave, so putting her needs before mine I decide that we should leave.

**Leonora you have a problem, and the first step is to accept it.**

Everything is completely fine, and I don't know what Aisha was referring to, but I had the impression that she already wanted to leave, so putting her needs before mine I decided to leave, I said.

We returned to the carriage, and I asked them if they had any other place they would like to go, although there were several other places to visit in the capital, it was getting late and it was better to visit those places earlier, so we decided to return to the palace.

Little by little Camille felt more comfortable with us, so she started to behave more like a child, so we were glued to the window looking at the city.

(Aisha) Tell me Camie, is this your first time in the capital?

(Camille) No, I've been here before, but.... I couldn't see anything, my parents took me to see several people, and they told me to behave myself, so that I could be useful to them.

She lowered her head, and seeing her like that made me remember that I've been in her same situation, if I showed some usefulness to my parents, but not enough for them to decide to keep me with them, they took me to see possible marriage candidates, or what is better, possible buyers.

In this case, I don't know if it's worse knowledge or ignorance, she must have been very confused being presented to a series of men that go from disturbing to grotesque and having the idea that if you stay alone with them they can do horrible things to you, or as it was in my case, being presented to a series of men that go from disturbing to grotesque and knowing as a fact that if you stay alone with them they will do something horrible to you.

Those were horrible lives, and it took away my desire to try to be outstanding, and settle for being someone in the crowd, if I didn't stand out I only got indifference, but the attention wasn't exactly better.

If at that time I would have looked for any kind of relief, no matter how temporary, to even alleviate the horrors I had lived.

Can I really be justified?

Wanting to escape, even for a couple of hours from the horrible reality to which I had been subjected.

Anyway, that time made me strong, and I got to know a couple of decent nobles, and above all, I forgot how to forgive.

We returned to the palace and went to our room, Irma had not yet returned from the assignment I gave her, well it makes sense, after all I didn't ask her for anything easy, and I estimate that at least she should keep her busy until at least tomorrow morning.

(Irma) Young master, I have finished what you asked me to do.

Or she could have finished everything in an hour at the most, and then spend the rest of the time until our return doing a general cleaning until it meets your standards.

I really don't know what's wrong with this woman, sometimes I think she stops time or something stupid like that.

Irma approached me with a small wooden chest, she opened it revealing a smooth white stone.

(Aisha) What's that Leo?

(Leonora) The sage's stone, it's used to reveal your magical affinities and your mana level.

Aisha pouted, and looked quite annoyed.

(Aisha) Are you telling me that you stole vault of the royal academy, and I wasn't invited!!??