ROYAL DUTY

14.Villagecapades!?

"Let's stop here," Natalia directed, pulling her mare to a stop.

 They had left the palace early that morning. Before the palace woke up to prevent a scandal. Tyren had wanted to bring a carriage. But Natalia had insisted on just the four of them riding out in commoners' clothes into the towns and villages of Athanasia. The four of them being: Tyren, his bodyguard whom she had learned was named Soren, Kyle, and herself.

They had ridden from the palace to the fancy castles of the nobles, then to the rich merchants' homes, and then into the marketplace of the Athanasia, where Natalia suggested they stop. She found the housing system in Athanasia funny: the rich were on one side and the poor on the very far end. So unlike Demotia, where the moment you got out of the palace, you met with the commoners in their extreme poverty. 

No wonder the Imperial family was very unbothered by their people's wellbeing. It was not thrown onto their faces, the way it was in Demotia.

Looking at the Athanasia market, Natalia noted that the people there weren't well off, either. They weren't as bad as those in Demotia. But they didn't look like they were part of the great rich Athanasia either.

She guided the three men to a barn where they left their horses and quickly arranged for them to be looked after. Then, they stood in the middle of the marketplace, as she was figuring out where to go next.

"Why did we stop here? I thought we were going to look for the starving people," Tyren inquired, looking uncomfortable and out of place. Quite a new look on him that Natalia found amusing.

"Well, for one, aren't you all hungry? I am starving. We shouldn't have skipped breakfast. Two, the marketplace is the best place to know what is going on with normal people. If the people are complaining about prices. That is a problem, and it needs solving. If there are a lot of thieves or complaints about them. There is another problem and you need to be aware of it. At the market and in the inns, that is where people openly complain about everything. We just need to look for a place to eat, stay there for an hour, and you will see what I am talking about."

Seeing that her point had gotten across, she turned around and saw a couple of inns and local food stalls. Taking a deep breath, she headed for an inn with the words 'hot ones' on its door. It looked like it was the most popular of the inns—judging by the number of people getting in and out, and the noise coming from it. When she got in, she was excited at the amazing smell of food. Fresh and sizzling. She had always been partial to local food as compared to palace food.

Immediately spotting an empty table with four chairs in one corner of the inn, she headed there; the others following her lead. It was funny how she was the lady in the group, but she was the only one who looked calm and comfortable as she sat down and called for the innkeeper.

"Can you all just relax? Nobody is going to attack us. I am sure no one here knows what their Crown Prince looks like. Just sit and enjoy yourselves. It will rub them the wrong way if you keep acting suspiciously. You are already carrying gigantic swords, adding those murderous expressions won't do anyone any favors," she chastised the men who looked ready to jump on anyone who stared at them the wrong way.

"What are you ordering?" a short plump woman who reeked of smoke asked them.

"What do you have?" Natalia inquired since she didn't know anything about local Athanasian foods. And she was certain none of her companions knew anything, either.

"We have soup, porridge, hard beef, wild eggs, bread, bacon, boiled potatoes, tea, and beer."

"I would like two bowls of porridge, 4 boiled eggs, 4 pieces of bread, two servings of boiled potatoes, and 4 servings of bacon for me and my friend here." She gestured to Tyren and then turned to Kyle and Soren. "They will order for themselves."