Chapter 5- Capital

Elise is tired from the work and lessons soundly sleep in the carriage. She just woke up after the carriage stopped at the capital. Mr. John the driver saluted Elise and he parked the carriage after sending them off. They went to the city hall first and Martha managed the errand despite the full packed of people.

Alicia and Elise stay at the front of the sweet store while waiting for Martha. The capital is full of people mixed with commoners and nobles. The two girls are enchanted. There are noble ladies happily having their tea at the shop. It looks fun! Elise is thrilled.

There are also different types of street food available. Elise has money in her pocket and she is excited to spend it on food. She became greedy and wanted to try everything. The only familiar Elise is the cotton candy, it looks yummy having different kinds of color. But Elise is interested in bread, back then in her real world Elise always ate bread. She is looking forward to it especially now that she’s in the capital.

Alicia is silent but you can see her delighted face. Now that she thinks of it, Alicia was a noble from the countryside. The book never mentioned any details about Alicia’s childhood. Seeing her in the fresh is not that bad Elise thought.

Elise is diligently scanning the area. She saw a small book store two shops away from them. She decided to go there first alone and ask Alicia for permission.

"Alicia, Can I go to check the bookstore out there?"

"Why? Are you needing something? But Martha is not here yet"

"I just want to see if they have pretty book covers just like in the library at the orphanage."

“Hmm. Let’s wait for Martha then I will go with you later.”

The two girls decided to wait at the sweet shop because Martha was taking a long time. They sat facing each other and Alicia started to speak.

"You… Y-you can read right?"

Alicia asked out of the blue. The warm air becomes colder, Alicia shudders while looking at Elise.

Elise was taken back and started coldly to the future Saint. She did not understand why but she was exposed. Alicia is just an eight-year-old child but she is sharp. Elise knew for a long time that Alicia is intelligent, she will have noticed it eventually but this is sooner that she imagines.

 Alicia is observing Elise's reaction.

"Hmmm."

Elise closed her eyes and opened it again. The brightness in her eyes is gone and replaced by a cold stare. Alicia feels the cold chill run down through and touches her skin. Alicia feels the invisible pressure and breathes heavily. She is scared as she trembles and grips her hands. She feels uncomfortable and does not understand why Elise releases an energy that makes her feel like drowning.

"E-Elise." 

Alicia whispered because she can't breathe normally.

Elise blinked in surprise. She didn't know what happened for a moment and was dazed while staring at Alicia. She was focused that a sudden unknown energy surrounded them. She is battling if it’s okay to tell Alicia about the future.

Then a sudden cough from Alicia broke out the silence. Elise looks at Alicia and sees her gaze. Alicia’s eyes became lighter and a yellow energy-like aura surrounded Alicia and vanished in a blink of an eye.

What the heck just happened? Elise thought.

After a moment Alicia is feeling normal. She isn't glowing anymore and her eyes came back to brown eyes. Alicia in her thoughts thinks that there's weird has happened in her body. The atmosphere became warm and for a second she could see different colors from people and things. Alicia got confused.

After a minute, Martha found them. She has the purple letter in her hand. Alicia and Elise are both quiet and didn’t bother to continue their conversation. They are both confused about the weird things they felt.

Capital is clearly a lively place. There's a lot of food and stores. A big fountain is found at the center with a big sculpture dove like a bird that spreads its big wings.

Elise knows that this is like a crest of the Emperor. A dove-like bird that is a symbol of the Imperial Family. It only says that this land and this country belong to the great emperor.

Martha, who is in a hurry, drags both Alicia and Elise to the stores. They manage to buy supplies quickly. Martha is surely good at her job as Elise continues to observe everything while memorizing it in her head.  Now, the only thing that they will do is to eat lunch then go back to the orphanage.

Elise's original plan is to check out the book store and tell Martha about it. Alicia did not let Elise go alone, that's why they both went to the book store after convincing Martha that they will be back quickly.

They decided to just meet at the said restaurant.

 Elise and Alicia are both fascinated by the hundreds of books inside the store. They both love reading. That's why the moment they went in, their dazzling eyes shone brighter than usual.

They got separated when Alicia went to look for the book of Saints while Elise went to look for history and magic.

Elise is small so she can't reach the book from the shelves. She got annoyed but couldn't do anything about it so she tried the stairs next to the shelf. Getting the book is harder than Elise thought.

“Controlling Mana” A titled Elise read from the thick book. She decided to check it first. She is looking for a book that contains increasing and decreasing mana in vice versa. She seriously wants to study it so that she can have knowledge in dealing with magicians like the psycho Molten.

Elise is determined to buy the book, but unfortunately drops it because of unexpected heaviness. Elise's thin arm can't handle the burden and drop the book.

Elise is annoyed as she goes down the stairs. She wanted to blame her thin and small arm but she can't do something about it because she's still seven years old.

After she's back in the land. She carefully picked up the book but suddenly it moved far away from her. She can see a yellow glow like a rope behind her. Elise is startled from suddenly witnessing magic.

"Are you going to read this book?"

Asked from the voice behind her.

"Yes."

Elise turns her back to see where the voice is coming from. She sees a boy who Elise thinks is eleven years old smirking at her. The boy has brown hair and gray eyes. What an absurd combination Elise thought. The boy is probably a noble because of his arrogant attitude to her.

Elise's awareness of future trouble made her decision to not buy the book.

"Are you a scholar?"  The boy asked Elise.

Scholar is a term for a gentleman studying magic and becoming a magician. A genius gifted people that are respected in the empire.

"Oh I'm just kidding. I can't read, I just pick the best cover among them." Elise said to the boy wearing her puppy face.

"Hmm, how naive of you." 

Said the boy that is now glaring at her.

"I-I'm s-sorry."

Elise, who wanted to go back quickly, apologized to the boy. She didn't let him say anything more and just ran away. After meeting Alicia in the cashier they both leave the bookstore.