Page 305 of The War God’s Favorite

“Let’s buy more food!”

“I don’t have any money...” Sighed Lorey.

“It’s fine, I have plenty!”

“...Are you sure?”

Kiera nodded, and grabbed her hand to take her out of their little hiding place. For a long while, both girls went from stall to stall, buying the food they found yummy, and running or hiding again when the other kids chased them. At some point though, Kiera pulled her to another hiding, frowning.

“So annoying! Are you sure you didn’t steal anything? They are really persistent.”

“I really didn’t! They just like to pick on me the most...”

Kiera sighed.

“Well, they are not going to stop so easily, then. Come on, let’s just go where they won’t find us!”

Lorey thought her newfound friend was full of surprises. Kiera grabbed her hand, and the two girls quickly left the market, getting into the hot streets of the Capital. It was full summer, and the heat was scorching unless one found some shadow to hide from the sunlight. Kiera seemed fine, though. Despite her paler skin, the young girl was barely sweating a bit, while Lorey was thirsty in minutes.

Moreover, she was taking the direction to the Palace, making her frown.

“Where are you going?”

“To a place, we can have fun!”

Lorey didn’t dare ask, but Kiera was indeed headed straight to the Palace. The strange girl was indeed full of surprises, but Lorey was intrigued to see what else she had in store. They entered the Palace just like that. It was a first for Lorey. She knew they had decided to open the doors to the Palace a few years ago, so anyone could come and go as they wanted, but Kiera was headed deeper inside the Palace, to the area restricted to the Imperial Family.

At some point, she couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed her sleeve.

“Kiera, we shouldn’t be here. We will get scolded by the guards...”

“Don’t worry, my aunty is working here, they won’t care!”

Was her aunt one of the servants here? Or one of those new scholars, perhaps? Now that the new system was allowing women to take the higher education test, more and more ladies were entering the Palace as new scholars, with the Empress’ support...

Kiera suddenly smiled wide and grabbed her hand to pull her.

“Here! Let’s play in the Lake!”

Under Lorey’s shocked eyes, Kiera ran to jump into the water. In seconds, the young girls were completely soaked and laughing. She looked a bit crazy, playing by herself in the middle of that lake, but Lorey was terribly tempted to join her.

“Come on!” Kiera encouraged her.

Lorey took a look around, but no one was there to stop them. After a hesitation, she ran to get into the lake too. It was probably the craziest thing she had done in her life, to simply jump into a lake in the middle of the Imperial Palace to play! Kiera was ecstatic with her friend joining her, and the two girls played for a while in the water. Although, Kiera was going further into the water.

“Don’t go too far, Kiera,” said Lorey. “You’ll drown.”

“I know how to swim!” Said her friend.

Once again, Lorey was surprised. It was so rare to know how to swim! There were few places to swim in the Capital anyway, but she knew most of the children living in Cities near the river learned how to swim... Did that mean Kiera wasn’t from the Capital? She looked like she perfectly knew it, though.

Lorey was about to ask, when something touched her ankle, making her yelp. She looked down into the water and saw something shiny swim away in a swift movement.

“What is it?” Asked Kiera, who was a few steps away.

“Something touched my leg, like a big fish...”

Kiera’s face lightened up immediately, and she started looking around in the water, a malicious smile on her lips.

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