What to Do at Night

Chapter 6: May All Their Firsts Be With Each Other

Chirping.

Ariel woke up to the sound of birds chirping at the light of dawn. She could see the white curtains fluttering from the breeze that flew through the ajar window. It was not properly locked last night apparently.

'Yes, this is Aunt Lucy's villa.'

Realizing that it was not her home, Ariel rubbed her eyes and raised herself. As she approached the window, the morning sun rising over the mountain glistened gold on the lake's surface next to the villa. Looking blankly at the beautiful scenery, Ariel murmured.

"It has already been a week......."

A week has passed since she came here after running away from the capital. Even though Ariel did not send a letter of notice to her Aunt Lucy at that time, Aunt Lucy still greeted her with much delight and with open arms.

When Ariel stated that she was planning on staying here for a long period of time and was looking for a job, her Aunt Lucy said, "I won't ask you what's happened." She, instead, asked Ariel to take care of the villa if she didn't mind it.

Ariel silently nodded. In fact, that was the reason why she came.

Thus, Ariel came to this villa because it was located in a small town. There was nothing particularly major that needed to be managed because Aunt Lucy had already taken care of it.

She planned to receive guests from a few days later, so until then, Ariel was told to take it easy, so she cleaned the villa in the morning and evening, and then went to the village to go grocery shopping when food ran out.

'This isn't that bad.'

It was a place where no newspapers or magazines could come. There were only birds cries and no people's voices throughout the day, because there were hardly any people unless she went out to the village. It brought peace to Ariel.

"I need to go to the market this morning."

The weather was not good yesterday, so she postponed her trip to the market, and all the food was used up. As she changed her clothes and came out, the early morning air wrapped around her refreshingly.

She walked for a little while and arrived at the entrance of the village. She could see the merchants who had finished settling down were eagerly selling their products from the farm.

'Aunt Lucy said she would prepare a meal when the guests come, so should I practice?'

She didn't know how long she would be working here, but she was going to work hard while she was there. With a heavier bag of groceries than usual in her arms, Ariel began her trip back to the villa, but she suddenly stopped along the way and found a bookstore in the village.

"Let's see ...... The collected newspapers were last week's, and magazines were last month's."

Since it was a rural area, new books didn't seem to come in right away.

"Shall we buy a newspaper for next week?"

By now, a week had passed since she left the capital. Arsion should have become a holy knight during this time, so she should get next week's newspaper and check it out. Thinking so, Ariel was about to head back to the villa when someone suddenly called out to Ariel by the entrance of the village.

"Ariel! It's Ariel!"

"......!"

Who recognized her? Did we happen to be acquainted in the capital? Ariel looked back in surprise, and there stood a familiar man, but she didn't remember who he was.