The streets were bustling with people. Several carriages traversed the paved road. The citizens of the city chattered with their friends and companions as they walked side by side. By the corner of the streets, there were a few street vendors beckoning for customers.

On a small stand displayed assorted and colorful fruits. On a small cart were placed several objects for sale, some seemed worn out, indicating that they were already used or were secondhand products.

I watched over it all with my brother as we stood around a corner. I was feeling excited. There were a lot of people, living their ever so normal life.

I saw middle-aged couples walking with arms clinging to each other as the wife carried baskets. Young men conversed with each other as they laughed with bright smiles on their faces. Young women carried their own baskets as they walked around. Young couples smiling delightfully at each other, the flower of romance beginning to bloom.

“Everything appears to be busy already.”

It was past midmorning, and I was taken aback for a moment after seeing the amount of people already walking about.

The capital city of the Wisteria Kingdom, Serene. I was now standing amidst its grounds. In the far distance, I could glimpse the tall walls. Based on the map presented to Estelia, the wall stretched far and wide around the north up to roughly half of the city region. The north where a dangerous forest lies, where monsters lie. Especially the forest in the northeast direction, not far from the city, called the Elgion forest, had an abundant number of monsters lurking around.

There were also monsters in other forests but I think not much. Elgion was a special case. I heard the monsters there were more dangerous and deadly, and there seemed to be no end to them.

That aside, around the center of the capital region was the palace, which was a little close to the city. Although the palace itself had some wide personal space. In addition, around the south of the palace were the small territories of nobles from the capital city. Although they only had small domains, they were more influential and powerful than other nobles outside the capital. And one of those nobles that lived on the south side were Eleanore and Lanivia.

“Yes, the people are already very lively indeed,” my brother spoke from beside me. “Well, this is much better than everything being quiet and boring.”

“Yes, yes, you’re right. So what are we standing around for? Let’s go!”

I pulled him by the hand in excitement as we dove through the crowd.

“It’s a big city, so you better don’t give out on me, dear sister.”

I giggled. “Do not underestimate me, dear brother.”

As we traversed the street, I was intrigued by the buildings all around. Even though modern architecture was nice, the medieval structures still interested me as someone from a modern time. It brought a somewhat refreshing feeling.

I watched my surroundings. I saw a group of grown men loudly chatting as a pair held bottles of what I take as liquors. Quite early for drinking, ain’t it?

“You see, there was this one time a wimp was staring nastily at me,” a drunkard spoke in a boasting tone. “Of course, I’m annoyed by that shit, so I walked over to him and asked what the hell he was looking at. But the damn bastard just scoffed at me!”

“Shit! Ain’t that rude!”

“Sure it was! It pissed me off, so I punched him in the face and sent him kissing the ground!”

“Then a fight broke out?”

“Nah, him was a wuss, he instantly fled like a rabbit! That guy was nothing! What a wimp! Hahahahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

“Pathetic!”

Now now, I wonder how much of that was true. But they sure were loud. The others sure look like they suck up to that guy. Oh well…

A carriage was moving through the street, quite luxurious, I should say. It must be owned by a wealthy person. It was moving faster than others.

“Out! Out of the way!”

The coachmen yelled towards everything that was going in his way, whether it would be people or other carriages. But how would even carriages move faster than you demand? People are just unreasonable sometimes.

In any case, it seems they were in a rush. But so far, there were no accidents, so everything was fine. I don’t want to be bothered by such things.

I saw a store under a two floored building, assorted fruits were displayed. It ranged from round red fruits, oblong yellow, peach tiny balls, to large dark green fruits. What a colorful set of fruits.

“Fresh fruits for sale! The cheapest around these parts!”

The vendor shouted, beckoning for customers. Beside him was a woman, must be someone related to him. From the way I saw it, they were currently having plenty of customers. So business might not be that bad.

I saw a group of children running around. They were around six to eight years old. Many were boys and some were girls. Each and every one of them had bright smiles on their faces as they enjoyed each other’s company. They were having fun.

“Alright, we’ll only hide around here. Go too far, and you’re out of the game!” a boy said.

“What? But there’s barely any place to hide here,” complained a girl.

“And it will be too difficult for the seeker to find you. Like last time, one game lasted for one hour.”

“Yeah, no way that's happening again.”

“Fiiiiine…”

“Then, should the count be only sixty seconds?”

“Too short, make it one hundred twenty!”

“That’s too long!”

“What? How’s that too long? You always complain about this sort of thing.”

“The area is tiny, so the count should be a little shorter.”

“What? Then we can’t find a proper place to hide if time is too short.”

“That’s what makes it challenging.”

“Tch. Fine. Eighty seconds? That should be fine, right?”

“That’s fine.”

“Alright, the last that arrived at the gathering will be the seeker.”

“Me? Already? That’s unfair!”

“It’s your punishment, you were late.”

“Grrr, fine…”

The boy walked to the wall and covered his eyes as the other kids ran in all directions.

Are they playing hide and seek?

I never played that when I was a child.

But it sure was intriguing to see others do it. And seeing them, it made me wonder… If I lived a different life, if I was not raised in the organization, would everything change? I think it would definitely be.

Do I regret it? I think not. One of my earliest memories was when I was in that facility of the organization. Already being practiced and trained to become an excellent assassin. I couldn’t regret something I never experienced in the first place.

But was I envious?

Yes.

But not so much that I would go mad about it. It was just a sting in my heart. But, let’s put that aside now. I don’t want to think about it if I don’t have to.