Baked

Sneaking Around

"You'd best get off this carriage!" Teijin exclaimed, rubbing his bruised noise while glaring at Sinbad who sat beside Kiari with a smile. 

"Leave him alone Teijin!" Kiari frowned, huffing. 

"Ah, so your Teijin, it's nice to meet you, my name is Sinbad." He introduced himself, though all he got was a scoff. "Tch."

With a sigh, Kiari looked back to Sinbad, who seemed quite gleeful as he pulled up the curtain to the window. "So... What exactly... Happened?" She asked, folding her hands together.

He nervously chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Well, I thought I'd make it on time but I guess my timing was wrong. I also got caught up in helping someone out. Sorry, I really didn't mean to be late." He held his head down, frowning.

Kiari shook her head. "It's fine, it's not that big of a deal. It was actually kind of thrilling, I wasn't expecting you to appear out of nowhere like that." She silently chuckled, having an amused smile, getting a similar expression from Sinbad.

Teijin's eyebrow twitched, growing a tick mark. "Kiari! You need to start studying, don't forget the books your father bought you!" He suddenly pulled out a bag, grabbing a thick book from it.

She sweatdropped as it was handed to her, remembering her small trip in Reim.

Sinbad eyed it curiously, which caught her attention. "Do you want something to read too?" She asked politely. 

"Oi! You can't just-" Teijin was quickly cut off, "Well, I guess I wouldn't mind..." Sinbad muttered, having a conflicted expression.

"They're from Reim, so they should be pretty different from any of the writings here." She spoke as she handed him another book from the bag. 

His eyes widened as Kiari finished her sentence, placing the book in his hands. "Reim?"

"Yep, before coming here we took a short stop in Reim." She smiled, opening her book while swaying her legs back and forth.

"... I see."

Seeing his sudden distant expression from the corner of her eyes, she panicked, remembering the war between Parthevia and Reim. "Sorry, you probably don't like Reim do you?" Startled, Sinbad quickly explained himself. "No, it's not that... It's just Reim seems like a really interesting place. I'd like to visit there someday."

"It is, it's quite nice, are you going to travel?" Her eyes lightened up, knowing Kou should or would end up on his bucket list as the country got bigger. "I hope, actually, now that I think about it, where do you come from Kiari?"

She smiled, closing her book, and focusing on the conversation. 

Before Teijin even had the chance to retort, Kiari spoke first. "We're from the Kou Empire. It's far into the east. When you start traveling you should come visit, I live in the Capital, Rakushou. If I remember, I'll definitely give you a place to stay." Sinbad sweatdropped at the last part. "That'd be great, is there a lot of people with red eyes like yours there?" He mentioned pointing to Kiari's ruby eyes.

Flustered, she looked away. "No, it's not common at all. It's actually kind of weird..." She muttered as she touched her cheek, suddenly questioning her life.

~

     The trip had definitely gone by smoothly, aside from Teijin, who was constantly agitated. They had reached their first destination rather quickly. 

"What the hell is wrong with you...?" Satori sneered, giving Sinbad a disgusted glare as he stepped out of his carriage. 

Kiari sweatdropped, chuckling nervously along with Sinbad who took a step back. "I'm really sorry..." He frowned while clapping his hands together, bowing.