(Part 3)
It was the time before dusk, with the early part of the afternoon already concluding. I was walking along a small road covered by leaves, crunching them loudly under my feet. From time to time, the leaves twirled around in a whirl, allowing me to see the shape of the wind. When I imagined the wind eddies to be the result of unseen sylphs tracing circles as they danced, the whirls seemed lovelier somehow; the image made me laugh.
That day “Guns & Breads” had closed early. At that moment, my boss and the guards were probably checking the store to uncover the thieves’ methods. Given that the store was full with guards, it had become completely impossible to do business properly.
“Sorry, looks like the store is done for today,” my boss explained to me, as I intently watched the situation; the soldiers were trying to figure out how the thief had broken into our store.
It made some sense; the men were everywhere inside the store. From the looks of it, we had at least two more hours of this ruckus before we could operate properly. So in the end, it was simpler to close down for the day and just prepare for tomorrow.
I consented to it and began to prepare for my return home, as I peeked out of the corner of my eye at my boss, who seemed pretty busy. He was loudly recounting his experience to the guards, using numerous onomatopoeia instead of words. As a result, even I, someone who had the greatest understanding of the situation outside of the speaker, was having trouble following his words. In any case, I was glad my boss’ good mood seemed restored.
For my part, the plans I had formulated in the morning regarding how to spend my leisure time had gone off the rails.
“What should I do?” Suddenly finding myself with free time, I didn’t know how to spend it.
My only friend was the witch Meyrin; I had no other distractions. I certainly love reading books, but the truth was that it felt a little lonely to go shut myself inside my room when the sun was still up in the sky.
I wanted to meet someone.
After I became involved in the events at the bakery, I used magic again after a long time, and rushed across the city in a way that seemed to render the tranquility of my morning a complete lie. I was rescued by Mich.e.l.le, I confronted a thief and got my boss a little angry at me. Finally, I cried a lot.
Maybe being released so suddenly from such a hectic situation made me crave a bit for company.
Perhaps I should go to Meyrin’s potion shop, or I could try to visit the church where Mich.e.l.le lived and worked…No, both were in the middle of their work day, I was only going to be a bother. I guess the obvious answer was to simply go back to the store and help clean it.
Turning and turning around, the direction of my footsteps changed from one moment to the next; to an onlooker in the vicinity, I must’ve looked like a person fiercely looking for something lost, or maybe just someone restless.
I know, I’ll go take a look around in En Pa.s.sant marketplace. It was the place where I first met Mich.e.l.le, and there was plenty of people there. More than anything else, I felt that I ought to know more about the city, after the events of the day.
In the year since I first came to the city, I had failed to turn my eyes towards the world outside of my bubble. I ended up working at the bakery while socializing only with Meyrin; so far, my world hadn’t extended beyond my room and the bakery’s counter. I had no one to blame but myself for becoming stuck in the nearby marketplace, in the very city where I lived.
I had enough of such timidness.
With the resolve to change my att.i.tude thus far, my pace became lighter and I treaded firmly the ground of this country, one step at the time.
I had to expand my world, little by little.
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