The Path of Heroes - A Journey Around the World (English Version)

Louise Flyer: The Price of Pride - Part 2

She slowly opened her eyes. The long eyelashes were the highlight of her childish body. Her blue eyes, like the sky, conveyed serenity. In addition to all this, she wore an extravagant dress that stood out. She looked like a doll, but that made her somewhat uncommon for the place where she was. There she was, Louise, waking up beneath a large tree in a forest not too far from the city, but also not too close to the barrier. A cool and quiet place. Only the birds sang at that moment. She always enjoyed being there. She didn't have to deal with annoying people or the typical noises of the city. An ideal place for her rest.

She would have continued sleeping if it weren't for something that brutally awakened her.

"Ah! I'm so hungry!" she shouted as loud as she could.

She had forgotten to eat lunch when she had the chance. It was already late, and she hadn't eaten anything yet. Her stomach hurt, and the noise it made was surprisingly loud. Loud enough to even scare away the birds around her.

"Hmm... it might take a while to get home. And I would still have to ask the maids to prepare something, which would probably take a while to be ready... What do I do now?!"

She rarely carried money because she never needed to buy anything. She lived in a large mansion and belonged to a wealthy family. Not very surprising. They owned the largest library that existed. Everyone in Forthen, no matter how far the district was, went to that library/bookstore in search of books.

But at this moment, none of that mattered. She wanted to eat something. And she wanted it as soon as possible because her stomach hurt, and she didn't have the patience to walk all the way back and still wait about an hour to eat something. For a moment, she regretted not listening to her uncle or Nathalya. Of course, she would never admit that mistake. In fact, Louise hardly ever admitted to any mistake. It was an unchanging characteristic of hers.

"And the smell of baked bread just makes things worse!"

...

"Uh..?"

A nostalgic scent of bread invaded the place. She had felt that smell before, just couldn't remember when or where. That aroma penetrated her small nose and made her mouth water. But where was this smell coming from? She was in the middle of a forest. When she thought about it, she remembered the only decent path she used to get there. That place was outside the city, in an area with many trees. No one came there. No one would bother walking so far to find nothing.

She stood up and followed that wonderful smell unconsciously, like a child aiming for candy. She continued walking along the trail she used to use to get there. It was somewhat curved, and its end came very close to the barrier. Many would wonder how she felt this aroma from so far away, but in a forest, that smell could stand out from far, far away. Besides, she was hungry enough to make her nose a bit sensitive.

"Hm?"

Approaching the end of the trail, which was the part closest to the barrier's border, she heard a noise. They were voices.

"..."

She wouldn't mistake that. Voices in a forest could be easily identified. But the question came to mind: why was someone there? Were they going to camp or something? No one should be there. That was her only resting place. And what if more came later? Well, she had to push them away somehow. It didn't take long to come to a conclusion: "why not just scare them away?" "Just a harmless prank won't hurt, right?" She put aside her hunger, for now, to "solve" this problem. How about making the trees create faces on the trunk? Or, what if roots attacked them, lightly pulling their feet? The possibilities were many, making that sweet-faced little girl smirk wickedly as she let out a "hehehe." She walked with some euphoria to where she heard the voices.