Chapter 27: Chapter 27

“Please don’t lay a hand on him. He said he did not mean it.” Shia blurted out before she can even think straight. She held the maiden’s hand firmly, which seemed to enrage the girl even more.

“Who do you think you are to lay a hand on me?!” the maiden shouted out at her. “You look even filthier than that kid!”

For the first time, Shia became aware that she was only wearing Khailis’ dirty, old robe with nothing else but her undergarments within. She started to turn slightly red from embarrassment. However, she did not let that fact to deter her to speak her mind against the girl.

“He’s just a child, and he already said sorry...”

“Sorry won’t be able to buy a clean set of dress, won’t it?” the girl roared as her golden locks dazzled in the sun. Her olive-green eyes glittered menacingly at Shia, but she still looked quite charming. Shia would have looked in awe at her beauty if she weren’t acting like such a spoiled brat at that moment.

Shia saw the boy slip away earlier as soon as she started trying to reason out with the maiden. Now that the maiden has also become aware of this, she let out an even angrier yell at her.

“That little rat has gotten away! Now, who’s going to pay for this? You must be held accountable!” she said, pointing an accusing finger towards Shia, which positively irked her.

The maiden turned to one of the men escorting her, “Seize that girl! I will make sure that you will have to pay dearly for insulting me and for letting that street rat get away!”

The man was just about to hold Shia’s arm, but of course, she would not let him do just that. Shia flicked his finger away with her hand, like what she would do to a bug. She flashed the man an angry stare; it was now Shia’s turn to look menacing.

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on me, unless you want them to be broken,” she said in an icy but threatening way.

She probably hurt the man’s pride as he charged more violently than ever against her with his fist. Shia instantly took his fist with one hand and twisted it around his back. The man was utterly surprised by this move, and he yelped in pain.

While Shia was still holding the man who attacked her securely in a knot, another one of the maiden’s men arrived.

“We caught the boy, my lady!” he yelled out to them. Sure enough, Shia saw the little boy from earlier being held tightly around the collar by another guard.

“Very well, just take the boy to the constable,” the maiden snapped. They started turning around from Shia with the boy in tow.

“Wait! Let him go!” Shia begged towards them.

“Why would I do that? Are you going to pay for my dress and my shoes?!” the lady sneered at her.

“I’ll pay for it,” she blurted out.

Again, Shia started saying words she did not full think of beforehand. She only realized after saying those words that she did not bring any gold or silver with her that day or anything of real value that she could use as payment for the maiden’s soiled articles.

“Very well,” the maiden said, “give me a thousand gold pieces for my dress and a thousand silver pieces for my shoes!”

Shia stammered, “I-I will, but I don’t have that amount with me at the moment. You must come with me at my -”

“I’m not a fool to fall for your trap here, miss,” the maiden said threateningly. “Pay me now or I will take you and this boy to the constable!”

‘Well, so much for not making trouble in town,’ Shia thought desperately. She wrung her hands together in desperation. How the hell would she be able to save herself and this boy?

As she started to hold her hands nervously, her fingers felt something hard and metallic brush against her skin. Looking down at them, Shia’s gaze fell into Langrion’s signet ring that was sitting prettily on her left ring finger. Just like thunder, something ticked inside her brain. ‘That’s it!’ Shia thought.

“Don’t take the boy. I will deliver the gold and silver pieces to you by tomorrow. Let me give you this as a sign of my promise,” Shia called on to the moving procession.

She began removing the ring that Langrion gave her from her finger. She really hated to do it, but she was sure that Langrion will understand her reason once she tells him why.

“This ring belongs to someone dear to me, so I will surely come back for it. Please take it for now. I will send you the amount for the dress and shoes by tomorrow,” Shia repeated as she held the ring to the maiden’s face.

The maiden’s eyes widened immensely as Shia handed her the ring. She snatched it away from her hand and looked at it closer. Her eyes got bigger and bigger at the sight of the insignia that was embedded at the center of the ring.

“You thief! Where did you get this ring?!” she said, clutching the ring tightly in her palms. She looked more even more furious now than she did before.

“Mind your words, miss!” Shia said in exasperation, “that ring is mine. It was given to me. I will let you keep it for now, but I will come back for it. If you could just give me your address -”

“Alright,” the nasty maiden cut her words outright, “I will keep this with me, and I will go to the Littman Manor tomorrow. See that you prepare a fitting payment for my grievances then! Marius!” the maiden said directing her venomous stare to her carriage driver, “Let’s go back home now! I am in no mood to buy dresses in this town!”

The maiden marched away through her carriage and left so quickly that Shia could only blink her eyes in shock. Although the whole predicament felt too crazy, Shia was really happy that she and the boy had escaped the crutches of the constable at that moment.

The boy she rescued came to Shia and said a heartfelt, toothless ‘thank you.’ She patted his head before saying goodbye and smiled sweetly at him as he ran away from the crowd.

The boy’s face momentarily reminded Shia of her twin sisters who were about the same age as him. This affirmed her decision further. Although she felt sorry for using Langrion’s ring as collateral, she felt relieved knowing that she had helped someone as young and helpless as he.

When she got back inside the dress shop, there was still nobody at the front desk. Everybody was still busy at the back side of the store, mending her gown and cleaning her dress. Exhausted, Shia collapsed at the arm chair and gently rubbed at her temples in an attempt to quell a budding headache.

Just then, she began to realize two things from her encounter with the fiery maiden. ‘Why was that maiden so surprised to see the ring, and how does she know I live at the Littman Manor?!’

Unable to find any sane answers, Shia furiously flipped open a catalogue and took a look at the numerous dresses to calm her down. As she began to take a look at the faces of the pretty models in it, however, she began to be more intensely reminded of the golden-haired maiden she just met.

‘Strange people surely abound in these parts of the world!’ she thought as she sighed.

The day rolled by quickly, and by the early afternoon, as promised, Khailis’ carriage stopped in front of the boutique to pick Shia up. However, she was dismayed to find out that Khailis herself was not in the carriage; she had only sent the carriage driver to pick her up.

“Lady Khailis is still pretty engaged with her task at the moment, my lady...” the driver said apologetically.

Shia sighed. She wanted desperately to talk to someone about what had just transpired at the shop and how she could go about finding the person whom she handed Langrion’s ring to, but she can’t. She simply rode in silence all the way until she had reached the manor.

It was almost dusk when she reached the Littman Manor. After setting down the boxes containing their dresses and shoes in her bedroom, Shia immediately ran outside into the bushes towards the secret hiding place that she and Langrion shared.

Shia has had just about enough surprise encounters for today. She was sure that Langrion would come there any minute now as he had done so far in the past few days. She wanted to desperately clear her head and talk to someone. She needed to tell him about his ring too...

When she reached the clearing though, she was dismayed to see that no one was there. Sighing as loudly as she could, Shia lay down on the ground and inhaled the fresh afternoon air intensely in an attempt to calm herself down.

She waited some more, but nobody came. After what felt like an eternity, Shia threw away her shoes to the opposite bushes and began rubbing the soles of her feet. Noblewomen’s shoes were far too tight for Shia’s liking. She was almost so surprised that she lasted a full day wearing them!

While pressing the soles of her feet for comfort, Shia heard a shuffling noise amongst the bushes. In a few seconds, the happy, energetic, and bouncy figure of a golden mowngry came leaping from the thicket and into the open arms of Shia who was just as overjoyed to see him.

“Chibi, what are you doing here?!”

He was carrying something in his mouth, which he settled down near Shia as he immediately greeted her with his warm licks. When Chibi was finished, Shia took a look at the thing that Chibi brought. It turned out to be one of the shoes she threw by the bushes.

“Where’s the other one, Chibi? Can you help me find it?” Shia inquired as she petted the large frame of the golden mowngry. She stood up from the ground and began squatting here and there to look for her other shoe. Soon, it will be dark. The baroness will surely scold her if she came back inside the house with one missing shoe.

Shia heard another shuffling sound from the opposite side of where she stood. When she looked up, she was relieved to see Prince Langrion standing close to the bushes. To her great relief as well, he was holding the missing pair of her shoe.

“Thank God you found it,” Shia began to say as she took a step towards his direction.

Almost immediately, however, the hairs at the back of her neck stood up, and an eerie feeling crawled into her spine. She looked at the looming figure of the prince, and something seemed to feel odd about him.

He was only standing there, doing and saying nothing of any sort, but Shia’s spirit felt something peculiar about him. She could also hear Chibi whimper dreadfully in a corner as if he was afraid to go near his highness. Perhaps, it was only the rapidly growing darkness that filled the air as night fall settled in, but Langrey’s eyes felt different. He looked down at her with a mysterious, almost wicked glare.

Shia sighed inwardly and braved herself to take another step closer to him although her gut was wildly screaming inside of her, telling her to turn around and run away.

“Quit joking, Langrey. They will call me anytime for dinner now,” Shia said as she took another step towards him and reached for his hand that held her shoe.

“Didn’t you know that it’s bad luck to lose a shoe?” Langrion said, moving the shoe upwards away from her grasp. He dangled the footwear clumsily in the air, taunting her. He spoke in a hushed and raspy voice that was almost new to Shia’s ears. “And it’s even a far worse luck to meet some stranger in the woods...”