Aqueo still had time before the time Hermina gave him, so he walked around the part of the townsquare that he hadn't reached yet. He found himself at the far end of the place that he couldn't see clearly from the elevated road because of the high buildings that were blocking this part.

    There were more shops here but they were located way too closely with each other. The whole place was actually a wide road that the merchants just occupied, so the pathways were narrow and convoluted. Despite that, the place was livelier than the rest of the townsquare. The bright light of the day reflected the energy and the noise of the people buying and selling things here, including the occasional waving of the colorful fabrics that were used as the ceilings and decorations of most of the shops caused by the strong breezes of wind.

    Aside from live animals and magical beasts that Aqueo couldn't recognize, there were many interesting things here that he didn't find at the other side of the townsquare, like whole meats of animal carcasses, giant fishes and other seafoods, fruits and vegetables, foods and other products that were completely new to him even with Aquifer's memories, and things he had seen in the memories but didn't know what they were for.

    But there was something that had been bothering him for a while. Three people seemed to be following him. Whichever corner he turned, the three would follow. In fact, there were only two of them before. And they were all wearing similar clothes—brown fabrics that even covered their heads and faces as if they were in a desert.

    Aqueo moved faster, away from the townsquare in the hope that more people around would deter them. He was quite sure it wasn't part of the townsquare anymore, the pathways here were getting wider. The merchant stands were now neatly arranged into four lines unlike the convoluted arrangement of shops where there were even dead ends in the middle.

    Aqueo stopped when he noticed that there were four of them now. They didn't even try to be discreet the way they were looking directly at him. If he wasn't being tailed right now, he would have tried the meat that was being roasted on burning charcoal in front of him. The smell would've been too appetizing to resist. And then he got an idea. Food. There were restaurants all over the place. Betting everything to the chance that they won't follow him there, he ran himself to the nearest one he saw.

    The door shut loudly behind him when he entered and Aquifer just passed through it as if it wasn't there.

    The waitress, Aqueo was sure because of her attire, approached him immediately. "I'm sorry, our dear customer. This restaurant is for reservations only!" the waitress kindly said.

    "Don't you have an empty slot for today? I'll pay for the inconveniences I might cause," he said while looking warily outside. His stalkers weren't trying to follow him inside.

    When he looked at the waitress again, it looked like he didn't need to try so hard to convince her. She was holding two of the flowers that the merchant didn't buy and was looking at it so intently, she must've taken them from his shopping bag. Aqueo wasn't quite sure if she recognized them.

    "H-hey! I'll give you a hundred of that flower, just let me hide here for a while," Aqueo said in a rushed negotiating tone.

    "H-hu-hundred?" Her eyes widened. "No way! You already have a bunch of them here," she exclaimed. Now, Aqueo was sure.

    Her reaction was understandable. Aqueo knew they were rare himself.

    "Yes, a hundred. I'll give them to you free of charge," he smiled at her while glancing a bit at the glass window behind.

    Her mouth fell, but she recovered quickly. She remembered she was in the middle of work. "Come with me," she said and led Aqueo to a slightly hidden compartment farthest from the entrance.

    "You said hide here?" she asked after she made him sit on a chair next to a table. She sat at the opposite side. They were now well hidden by walls of plants and other decorations.

    "I-uh...," Aqueo suddenly hesitated. He was in such a hurry a while ago that he didn't even consider that he might put the young woman in danger. "Yes," he still answered.

    "From whom?" she asked as she held the flower on the table and the invisible Aquifer hovered around it.

    "From a girl," he quickly answered. "Yeah, my girlfriend! She was mad at me."

    It would be best if she knew nothing about him. Those people after him might be dangerous and decide to come after her because of him. He didn't want to repeat his past. It would be too unbearable the next time it happened again. Just what did they want from him anyway? Now that he finally managed to run away from his godforsaken life.

    "I see," she smiled. "I don't want to take this free of charge. I know they are too rare to just be given away for free. My name is Wyrfena Lovenclove. Forgive my manners, but are you a noble? You don't have a noble insignia and your clothes aren't something a commoner should be wearing in a place like this . . . or at all," she trailed her last words when she suddenly thought he was very likely a noble.

    "I'm not a noble." Aqueo was hesitant to say his name.

    Wyrfena sighed in relief, "Oh! I almost had a heart attack. What's your name again?"

    "I-uhh, Aqueo. Aqueo Harp."

    "A Harp? Never heard anyone with that family name before. You said you have a hundred of these flowers?"

    "Yes. You know what that is?" Aqueo asked, curious how she recognized it when the merchant didn't.

    "I do," Wyrfena said excitedly. "I saw it from an old book I found. The book is a secret," she whispered. "The description and the diagram match the real thing so well. I did some research, asked a lot of people, and no one has ever seen the flowers before. Or even knows."

    "Really?" That was another confirmation for Aqueo that something was off about the ten years gap. Maybe he could find the answer from her book. "How old is the book? Like . . . when was it last known? Did it say anything about it?"

    "Yes," she said excitedly, "It was written over a hundred years ago. The book is actually a journal of an alchemist. A diary."

    "H-hu-hundred?" Now it was Aqueo's turn to be surprised the same way she did.

    Wyrfena was about to say yes when a bell suddenly rang. "Oh, I'm needed in the kitchen. Wait for me here."

    Aqueo's still surprised gaze followed Wyrfena until she was gone. 'A hundred years? Then what's with the year calendar at the townsquare?' And then Aqueo realized that he couldn't really recognize most of the characters written on the huge calendar. Some characters were similar to his earth language but there were characters that he couldn't recognize. He pulled out the book he bought and found that even this one had characters that he couldn't understand, although he was sure it was about magic because the characters used for 'basics of magic' were the same with his earth language characters.

    But what about Aquifer? What was the spirit doing in that time gap? He wanted to know. And his initial thought that the spirit was over a hundred years old was definitely wrong and it was actually older. So if that ten years in the calendar that he wrongfully thought was actually a hundred years, then the spirit should be over a thousand years old. But Aqueo couldn't be sure because he didn't know the exact dates and the actual meaning of the numbers on the calendar.

    Even the greetings 'noble master' used by the son of the merchant wasn't in the memories. And the thought of him being followed by creepily clothed guys, things were now turning grim in his head when he remembered the thing implied by the merchant when he said something about 'the situation right now' and 'the King's soldiers'. Something bad must've happened to his mage employee when he said he lost them. It made Aqueo slightly nervous that it might be dangerous for him to stay in this town.

    Wyrfena came back carrying a tray of food. It smelled so heavenly good when she laid it in front of Aqueo.

    "It's made with the flowers you brought," she said then quickly went back to her job.

    'Those flowers are food ingredients?' Aqueo had no idea.

    He tasted it and it was as heavenly as its smell. He just ate there and he could've forgotten his stalkers when he suddenly saw two of them walking inside the restaurant and picking an empty table. They were glancing around and it looked like they couldn't see him because all the tables had walls of plants and decorations.

    Aqueo sped up eating while trying to think of a way to escape from them. Now, he was more afraid that they might do something to Wyrfena.

    He placed the book back inside the shopping bag and he suddenly saw the uniform of Hyndrel Academy. An idea suddenly formed in his mind. He quickly changed into the new clothes inside the plant compartment, ducking down to make sure they wouldn't see him.

    When he was done, he took out the book and decided to just leave the shopping bag including the flowers inside. He thought of giving those to Wyrfena anyway.

    He opened the book and pretended to read it too close to his face, then walked carefully towards the door. He wasn't sure if his stalkers didn't recognize him because he was hiding his face from them. When he finally reached outside he was relieved that they didn't try to follow him.

    Thankful, he greeted the strong breezes of wind as if they were an old friend and continued walking along the pathway between merchant stands while holding the book high on his face. He was walking, until he made the mistake of turning into a corner and the book was just half-covering his face. He made a full stop and so was Aquifer, but the spirit wasn't aware that in front of them stood one of Aqueo's stalker just half an arm's reach, looking intently at him.

    . . .

    Wyrfena laid the trays on the counter and proceeded to walk toward Aqueo's table. It would be some time before she would be needed again, so she was excited to see Aqueo and talk about the flowers. There were so many things about the flowers she wanted to talk about. But she was disappointed when she couldn't find him there except his shopping bag on the table. She approached it and her eyes brightened up when she found out that the flowers were there.

    'Why did he leave this here? He was serious about giving these to me for free?' she thought while looking through the windows in the hope that she'd find him there. 'I'll try to look for him later.'