"Where are you going today milady?" Olivia asks as she combs my hair softly.

"It's a secret," she frowns her eyebrows as usual. Her continuous curiosity was one of her most troubling personality traits, "I'm going now, I'll be back for dinner"

"Be careful milady! You never know who you might encounter!" she sighs.

"Don't worry, I won't stand out," I smile and pet her head.

"Are you sure you will be alright Ophelia?" Mace asks me as I get up on Angel, a beautiful white horse.

"Of course I will father but thank you for worrying," I chuckle.

"You know that's not what I-..." the galloping interrupts his logic and I ended up not listening to his worries.

'They should relax more,' every day was the same thing, I was treated as a thin paper sheet that would rip at any moment.

✽ ✼ ✽ ✼ ✽ ✼ ✽

She arrives at the capital with her white shirt and black trousers, covered by a dark brown hood.

"I'll come back," she placed Angel in one of the stables of the capital and, after paying the young man, she leaves to the busy streets.

"Well then, where shall we go today?" a bright smile covers her lips as she stretches her arms.

As Ophelia walked down the busy streets she was approached by several merchants, trying to sell their best products at the best price on the market, however, as her eyes wandered around, she noticed a bunch of kids in one of the side streets.

"P-Please stop... I don't have anything..." a young boy cried as a group of kids surrounded him.

"Liar! We know you do!" one of them growls.

None of them noticed Ophelia's presence until she spoke.

"That is a serious accusation you know?" the kids flinch as they hear her voice.

"It's true!" another kid claims.

"Then where is your proof?" she smiles coldly as they look to each other conflicted, "This is the time where you run away kids"

"We'll get you next time!" the group gets my hint and leaves. She looks down just to see the young boy filled with scratches and cuts.

"Are you alright?" Ophelia goes down to his level and he blushes once he sees her face.

"Y-Yes... I'm fine..." he states as she helps him get up.

"Come with me," she smiles warmly while holding his hand carefully.

"Feeling better?" Ophelia finishes applying some ointment to his wounds as he ate some ice cream, "We're in the middle of a festival, you should be excited and having fun, not finding trouble alright?"

"Thank you, miss!" he chuckles and runs towards the crowd of people.

'Well then, I really wanted to try that shooting range,' she walks towards the stand that was currently empty.

"I want one ticket!" she states but she hears an echo, a male voice that said the same thing as her and placed the coin on the balcony at the same time as her. Ophelia looks to her side just to see a man whose eyes equaled to the depth of the oceans and hair reminisced to the brightness of the sun, even though he was suspiciously covered with a long cape with a hood.

"This is troublesome..." the salesman stated as he realized the situation.

"I said it before you, so I'll go first," Ophelia said after pushing the coin towards the salesman.

"No, I did. You arrived here after me," he glared down at the woman standing beside him.

"Alright, you should always say yes to a crazy person, you never know what they might do if they encounter reality," Ophelia states as she leans on the balcony. A rush of wind passes and removes her hood, uncovering her crow hair and light blue eyes.

"Are you perhaps stating I'm crazy? Do you know who I am? I could have you-...!" he stops himself from talking.

"And do you know who I am?" she smiles politely.

"Of course not, why would I?" he blurts out in the spur of the moment.

"Well then, I will tell you" she pushes the coin forward and the salesman grabs it, making the young man dumbfounded, "I'm the girl who is going to go first, you welcome"

"No, you...-!" he clicks his tongue once he sees the salesman give the bow to the young girl.

"Too late mister," she starts shooting but ends up missing every single target.

"You are really bad, I'm surprised," he states with a shocked expression on his face, "I don't think I've ever seen someone as bad as you"

"One can't be too good at everything, otherwise the Gods would punish me," she chuckles and he laughs softly, "Show me how great you are, mister I'm-so-important."

He grabs the bow and quickly shoots the arrows, hitting the center of the target in all of them. He then turns towards her with a prideful smug on his face.

"Did you take notes?"

"I would've but you see that arrow?" she points to the target furthest on the left, "You missed the center by this little bit, so you are really bad... I'm sorry..."

She pats him on the shoulder and starts to head towards the crowd, however, the young man felt insulted once again and so he chased her.

"What the heck is your name even?" he asks loudly and she freezes.

"What the heck is YOUR name?" she questions him, mockingly, after walking to him.

"Blake, my name is Blake," he shrugs as he understood how uncomfortable that question was.

"Well Blake, I'm Ophelia, can't say I'm pleased to meet you though," she states sarcastically before leaving and disappearing within the crowd.

'Ophelia...' the young man thought to himself as he found himself curious about that lady, dressed as a man but beautiful as a porcelain doll.

✽ ✼ ✽ ✼ ✽ ✼ ✽

“This must be fate,” Ophelia looks to her side just to see Blake sit in front of her.

“Or just bad luck,” she smiles at him, mocking his comment.

“What is your business in the capital miss?” his dark blue eyes sparkled with excitement as he spoke, eager to learn more about this interesting individual who had sparked his attention.

“And why should I tell you?” she finishes drinking her tea and gets up, “Oh my, look at the time, I am afraid I will be late.”

“Why are you avoiding me?” Blake follows her as she leaves the tea shop into the crowd. Since her figure was small she was able to easily sneak in with the people.

“Because you are a weird man, following me around and speaking futile things like fate,” she politely states.

‘Wierd?’ he looks at her dumbfounded as that word echoed into the depths of his soul.

As they manage to skip past the crowd of customers that filled the market they stopped at a fountain right at the center of the capital, where street musicians played and commoners danced happily.

“If not fate, then what could it be? And don’t you dare to say bad luck again,” he grabs her wrist, making her turn around and, right after that he lets it go.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” she lets out a long sigh when she understood this man was extremely persistent.

‘Why am I doing this really?’ he scratches his head in frustration as he was immersed in thoughts.

“Again!?” he wakes up to her loud voice and, as he sees Ophelia walk into a side street hurriedly, he follows.

“What do you think you are doing to a kid?” her voice turns cold as she glared at the three men that were surrounding a little boy.

“Who are you? His mother?” they glared down at Ophelia, analyzing her up and down.

“Not bad, you look in shape miss, we might just let him off the hook if you do us a couple of favors,” one of the men states, as his eyes were compelled by desire, and his lips portraited a greedy smile.

“Get up,” she grabs the kid by his arm and raises him forcefully, afterward she throws a small bag filled with gold coins to the men and grins, “That should be enough for your desires no?”

As Ophelia was leaving one of the men forcefully grabs her but, as she was about to turn a loud yell was heard.

“I’m sure you should give that back to the miss fellas,” Blake was holding the arm of one of the men right after breaking the other one with a big smile on his face. The men looked at him horrified as they had seen how quickly he moved and how far apart was their difference in strength, “This belongs to you, doesn’t it?”

Blake stretches out his arm with the pouch as the three men disappeared in the darkness of the side street. Ophelia glared at him while the young boy was hiding behind her legs.

“Didn’t your parents taught you that you shouldn’t meddle in other people’s affairs?” she smiles politely while grabbing the money rapidly.

“Yes, but they also taught me to help women in need since they are frail,” as she heard these words, Ophelia felt her annoyance grow.

“Thank you so much, this is all I ever hoped for! I woke up today morning knowing I would be saved by my prince charming in his shining white armor,” she sarcastically dramatizes the situation and then glares at him, “Isn’t this the time where you should propose since you took this maiden’s heart?”

“Miss, that’s not what I-...” as he was speaking Ophelia punches his face, opening up his bottom lip slightly right before shaking off her hand from the pain. Blake looks at her dumbfounded as he caressed his face from the pain.

“As you can see, I can handle myself pretty well mister,” she smiles mockingly as she covers her wrist.

“I’m sure you just hurt yourself more than you hurt me, let me see,” Blake grabs her hand and checks her knuckles that were becoming darker as they became slightly bruised. He lets out a sigh, “Come on, let’s get you treated and I won’t take a no for an answer.”

As Ophelia was about to reply he sprouts those words and she is left in silence as the three of them went to buy some medicine.

“That was a good punch though,” Ophelia was sitting down on a bench as the young boy, already treated was beside her, resting his body on her. Blake was sitting next to her, as he applied the ointment gently to her fist. A slight smile was placed on her lips and he chuckled, “So next time we meet, are you going to punch me again?”

“Are you a masochist mister?” she laughs gently at his remark.

“Hardly,” Blake stares at this woman, that kept on laughing at his silly words and he thought that she looked like a bright ray of sun.

“Do I have something on my face?” she tilts her head confused and he hides his flustered expression.

“I should go!” he felt his heart skip several quick beats and he hurriedly leaves as Ophelia just watched him disappear, confused and without understanding anything.