The Silver Seer

Chapter 32: Evening Sunset

Reyes pushes himself around the small village, greeting any passersby with a small wave and smile. The mannerisms he learned as the Crown Prince are showing at probably the most inconvenient of times, yet he doesn't care what his expression and gestures mean to others. He has more pressing things to worry about.

Yesterday, he was visited by who the people in the village claimed was the best doctor in all of Germany (the doctor didn't give Reyes Rötis, so clearly they're not the best). After a thorough examination of Reyes' body and asking the young man to do various things that involved movement of his back and left leg, they decided to have him begin to get up out of bed and move other limbs besides his injured back and leg. Which was fair.

Being confined to a wheelchair is not.

How is he supposed to fight? He could try to train himself to wield his rapier sitting down, but it would take him a few months of practice to try and figure just the basics out. And he still doesn't know where his beloved weapon is.

He gave up trying to say his usual calling for it the night he screamed, and now he's asking people who try and talk to him to find it before approaching him. They end up leaving him alone, so it works out in the end.

But when he stops near a small red house with a white roof (which he thinks is absolutely awful in terms of color), the door opens to reveal a young woman in a white dress and long brown hair.

He hates how much she insists on talking to him. Every time she opens her mouth and speaks in that cheerful, carefree voice, it makes Reyes want to vomit. He hasn't yet, but he doesn't know how much longer he can listen to her before it may very well come to happen.

"Good afternoon, Crown Prince Lars! How are you today?" The girl hops down the entire set of three small steps leading up to her house before skipping over to the boy, who sighs.

He forgot that he's been absently correcting everyone who calls him Reyes, as he assumes Reko told just about everyone in the village that his name is Reyes. Which isn't completely wrong- "Reyes" is the name the boy gave the soldier in their second meeting, as their first resulted in Reyes almost killing him.

"Awful, thanks for asking. If you don't have my rapier, I don't wish to speak with you." Reyes begins to wheel himself away from the girl, but she follows him like a puppy.

Resisting the urge to snap at her, Reyes decides to just tune her out as she begins speaking.

He doesn't know exactly where he is. He knows he's in Germany, but as for how close to Switzerland that is, he has no clue. He could ask someone, but he figures they'd give him a town name and leave him to figure it out unless he is to ask how close it is to Switzerland...and he isn't in the mood to speak with anyone.

Yet he likes the small village. There is a fountain in the middle of the area that the children who love to push him around at extremely high speeds like to play in. There are colorful flower beds and gardens near houses and other structures that never fail to catch the boy's eyes, and the sky is so clear at night that the stars and moon are always shining brilliantly.

It reminds him of the nights he would be traveling across the continent, and the silent stillness of the sky would always lull him to sleep after dispelling any stressful thoughts from his mind.

Every morning, the sound of chirping birds or the soft chatter of people out and about would gently wake him, unlike the loud noise at the base.

The houses are small and quaint, and from what Reyes can see based on glimpses within the house he's staying in, simple yet comfortable and charming. He always found the palace to be far too extravagant and crowded, but he supposed it was the way a palace should be, so he never argued against it.