Ishihara // ATEEZ ✔

16 Resolute

She checks her watch, confirming the time. She has walked for at least an hour, and only now she realizes how immobilized she feels without any means of transportation aside from her pair of feet. From the watch she's grasping, she notes that it is around 30 seconds until 4:30a.m. She has been walking for about an hour, but she still hasn't met a single soul. Or that she didn't see them. Although she cannot differentiate between light and dark, she can feel that the surrounding around her is deeply coloured in splashes of black and grey. No sun in sight. She has been treading the long winding road that she assumes connects the palace to the rest of the parts of the kingdom for what feels like an eternity, but she cannot see the end in sight. Her body starts to feel a bit sore, both thanks to her luggage and the wounds that seem to heal slowly.

She wishes her horse - Golden - is right here, to keep her company and to help her get to her destination faster, although she doesn't really know where she's heading really. She hopes at least Yunho is taking care of the horse for her, as no one else would bother anyway. So where does she go now? She weighs her options. If she doesn't go back to Lucida, she has nowhere else to settle down. Turning back is not an option. Is she actually brave enough to go back to Lucida? Everyone fears her but she knows that her feet would buckle the second she faces the queen.

Especially after failing the mission that had been delivered to her.

Something about the surrounding forest makes her shiver, so she quickens her pace. It isn't groundless - a pair of eyes is actually following her every movement in the dark. The eyes blink a few times, as if the owner is assessing what it should do. It decides that it won't do anything further, before disappearing into the darkness, letting Akira continue with her journey.

Just as the clock hits 5a.m., she breathes a sigh of relief as she crosses over a bridge and reads the banner put up across it - WELCOME TO TOWN. It is still relatively quiet, but there is some flurry of activity to remind her that she's not alone. Some shopkeepers are getting ready for the day, putting out signs, preparing for their full day ahead. Aside from the shopkeepers, Akira is the only person wondering aimlessly. She must have looked like a lost tourist as a few shopkeepers glance at her, but they offer no interaction. She finds herself deeper into the town, which is only awakening.

A kind-looking woman in her early 50s, sporting a short bob, who is sitting outside a shop while fanning herself suddenly stands up when she sees Akira coming towards her direction. Akira seems apprehensive as she approaches and she's about to pull out her dagger but stops when the woman utters in her buttery voice, "Are you perhaps lost, beautiful young lady? You don't look like you came from this part of town. Are you not from here? Or?" She looks slightly shocked. "Are you not from Nyla?" As she notices that Akira is shifting her weight from her left to her right foot, she quickly adds, "Don't get me wrong! An old woman is just trying to help. I thought that maybe you want some directions because the people around town don't usually wake up so early in the morning unless you own a shop. And you-" Her eyes travel to her luggage. "-look like you need a place to settle down. Must be tiring for you to carry around that luggage. Having a trip to Nyla?"

"Ah." She spots the sign and realizes it isn't a shop like the rest around it, it is an inn. A small one, but it looks cozy from the outside. Before answering, she lays out her choice. She needs a place to settle her thoughts first before going back to Lucida to face the queen. She calculates the possibility of her bumping into any of the palace's occupants if she stays here, and although she knows that Wooyoung, Mingi and Hongjoong always goes into town, she has to take the risk. Well, if they ever did spot her, she can always outrun them. She hopes.

Next, she thumbs the money inside her pockets, carefully calculating how much she has without taking them out. She feels the texture of the paper, adding up until she comes to a total. She has 100 wais with her - wais is the currency that the whole country uses - a small amount from what she had gotten from the queen when she had killed off the gold bars' thief. She has left the rest of the money back in her safe in her room, in which she is starting to regret now. She reads the notice on the board and is quite surprised to note that it is only 7 wais per night - back in Lucida a similar room would cost triple.