"How did you prepare that for them but sell only this to us?!" One customer complained bitterly.
"The bush pig was hunted and brought here by one of them. If you bring one as well and pay me well, I will grill it for you." The man said it in a "businessman" tone that made the displeased man scoff.
"One of us? Who was it?" Lance asked curiously.
"Who else if not Alvin?" Susan asked, smiling before looking around.
"Where are Alvin and Harvey?" Alicia asked first since they were still not out yet.
"They left on an errand." Harold said to Alicia, making her raise a questioning brow.
"I will tell you about it later," Harold whispered to her, and she gave him a nod.
"Does he ever sleep?" Susan asked curiously. When did he leave his room and go hunting, then returned and now running an errand?
He was always moving around. Maybe it was his sleep deprivation that was making him so cold-hearted and emotionless.
"That shouldn't be your business," Williams reminded her.
"And if I were you, I wouldn't be so keen on facing him after embarrassing yourself the way you did last night," Williams said, and Susan raised a hand to her chest and looked at him in confusion.
"Me? What did I do?"
Williams shook his head and eyed her with disapproval. "Just make sure you avoid him as much as you can. And also stay away from anything that tastes like or resembles wine," Williams advised.
"What did I do?" Susan asked again, hoping she hadn't said or done something inappropriate.
"You embarrassed yourself! Our family! Our generation!" He stabbed his spoon on his plate with each statement, making her flinch.
"How? Don't I deserve to know exactly how I embarrassed myself?" She snapped at him.
"You bawled loudly and kept yelling Alvin's name," Alicia supplied when it seemed like Williams wasn't going to answer Susan's question.
"I did? Did he see me?" Susan asked in horror, already feeling embarrassed by the thought.
"Of course, he did! You flung yourself at him and accused him of telling that fake shaman to say all that to you," Williams said, and Susan covered her face with both hands.
Williams was right. She was going to do well to avoid Alvin for as long as possible. It was a good thing that he wasn't having breakfast with them.
"When are we going back to the palace?" Williams asked. They all turned their gaze to Alicia as they waited for her to respond.
There was no need to look at Harold since they all knew that if they asked him, he was going to ask his precious Princess when she wanted to return. So it was best to ask her directly.
Seeing as they were all staring at her, Alicia looked at Harold and said, "Can we go back by evening?" She asked, and Harold gave her a nod.
"If that is what you want." Harold said, and Alicia smiled at him.
"Can we not go back immediately? We haven't seen enough of the village yet!" Susan whined, and both Luciana and Paulina bobbed their heads immediately. Even Lance looked at Harold with hopeful eyes, but he ignored all of them and focused on his meal, making them sigh dejectedly.
As they enjoyed their food, they listened to the gossip all around them. It was both fun and thrilling because their eating table at the palace was usually quiet, except when Alicia decided to unleash some of her craziness or the king had things to say.
They listened to the gossip about two servants—a guard and a maid—in the house of an aristocrat who fell in love and ran away with some of their master's money, and currently, the police were searching all over for them. Some talked about the palace and how the nobles who had gone there hadn't returned or sent words home, and some of them voiced their envy at the lavish lives they were currently living in the palace.
The others simply listened to their conversations until they got to an interesting one that touched a sore spot in one of them.
A man was narrating the marital affairs of another household. The wife of a certain man, whom he had married for 10 years, hadn't been able to produce children. Then the husband was fed up, threw her out and married another woman 2 years ago.
His former wife then had an affair with another man and was now heavily pregnant while her ex-husband's current wife still couldn't conceive.
Funnily enough, the men voiced their complaints and were blaming the ex-wife for refusing to bear a child for her husband and shamelessly getting pregnant for someone else. A middle-aged man was especially annoyed and suggested the police arrest the woman and punish her for shaming her husband in such a manner.
The sound of a spoon hitting the table noisily startled those around the table while the others away from them, who had been talking about the issue, looked at the source of the interruption.
It was Luciana. In anger, she stood up, took off the straw hat, and glared at the men condescendingly.
"How dare you sit here and judge the woman?!" She asked in a harsh tone that made every one of them look at each other.
First of all, she was a woman. Secondly, she was a woman dressed as a man. Thirdly, a woman was challenging them and even asked them, "How dare they"?
"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TALKING TO IN SUCH MANNER, YOU FOUL-MOUTHED WENCH?" One of the men stood up and yelled at the top of his voice.
Luciana was startled at the tone this village pauper was using to speak to her. It was only now that she remembered she wasn't in the palace or dressed like a princess. Even though men had a lot of rights, rich or poor, as a noblewoman married into the Royal family, she commanded respect.
"I AM TALKING TO ALL OF YOU, YOU FILTHY MEN!" Luciana said, pointing at all of them.
"How could you say the woman should be punished? You didn't think the man was at fault? He could not grace his wife with a child for 10 years, and now that another man did it, she should be punished? ARE YOU ALL INSANE?"
"She must be crazy!" Many of the men there agreed.
Harold began to massage his temples and turned to look at Alicia. From the look in her eyes as she looked at Luciana, he could tell she was in full support of Luciana.
Well, this wasn't going to end well.
"HOW CAN YOU SAY THE MAN IS RESPONSIBLE? IS IT HIS DUTY TO CONCEIVE A CHILD?" One of the men yelled, and Lance could not help but nod in support of the man.
Alicia tsked. "So much ignorance." She said on the side but obviously, she was heard.
"Who are you referring to?" Another man asked Alicia.
"You! What are you going to do about it?" Susan chipped in calmly.
Well, it didn't end well.
From yelling, it turned into a food fight, with each group throwing food at each other while Harold just watched from the side with his hands folded and lips pursed.
He was never going to do this silly trip with these people ever again.
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