CHAPTER 279: HEIDI AND PENELOPE

"There’s really not much noticeable impact from the famine." Aristia told Owen.

After seeing Dahlia, they were touring the streets of the Capital. Aristia felt it would be better to see how people were dealing with it up close, and what better way than to walk through the streets?

Owen nodded. "There’s food in the kingdom thanks to you." He said with his voice lowered.

Aristia smirked at him, "Of course, my amazingness truly knows no bound—"

The words of self-praise she wanted to say stopped in her throat when Owen suddenly pulled her to the side almost at the same time something tumbled past her.

She quickly looked back and saw that a girl would have bumped into her.

There was another girl following quickly behind the first one. She couldn’t stop in time and the two girls went tumbling to the ground.

[Why does this scene feel oddly familiar?] She thought when anothet girl bumped into the other girl.

She realized soon enough.

The scene was familiar because it had happened when she met Owen, but now she wasn’t the one on the ground.

She gave Owen an appreciative glance before looking at the two girls on the ground.

"Gosh! People really need to be careful on the road."

"Sorry for almost running into you." The first girl apologized as she got up.

Aristia gave them a once-over.

They were obviously twins. Both of them had chestnut brown hair, but one had light brown eyes while the other had dark brown eyes.

They were dressed rather poorly.

The one who had almost bumped into her earlier staggered back a little.

Aristia noticed her head was bleeding. The one who had followed behind supported her hurriedly with a worried look on her face.

Her hand also had a few scrapes in them from falling and some of them were bleeding.

"Is she alright?" Aristia asked.

The bleeding girl nodded, but the next moment, she fell.

"She fainted." Owen said.

Aristia sighed, "Call a carriage." Then she turned to the other sister. "We’ll take her to an inn."

Owen immediately left to call a carriage.

It didn’t take long. He returned almost immediately after.

[Again, this scene feels oddly familiar.] Aristia thought in the carriage. It was just like when they had found Kai and he had fallen unconscious.

The carriage headed to an inn.

The Coachman helped to carry the unconscious girl inside the inn and left with the carriage.

Her sister followed along worriedly. She didn’t seem to be in a better condition either.

"You both need rest," Aristia said.

The inn manager noticed guests and approached them.

When he saw that it was only children, his brows furrowed slightly, but he didn’t speak yet.

Aristia paid to the clerk sitting behind a desk in the inn’s hall. "We just need a room for a day. Arrange the best room."

"May I ask your name?" The clerk asked with a friendly smile.

"Aris."

The clerk nodded and wrote it down, then he took out a key. "The last room upstairs."

After collecting the key, she turned to the man standing at the side, guessing he was the inn manager. "Please prepare a hot bath." She said, then took out a money pouch and counted some coins. "Give this to the cook to prepare some food."

"Oh, yes miss." The inn keeper nodded. He could tell that she was from a wealthy family.

The way she carried herself, the way she spoke, and even her countenance wasn’t found in commoner children.

He wondered why there was a girl with a bleeding head there, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t want to get in trouble for meddling.

But when he looked closely at the unconscious girl, he saw that she looked like the other girl who was awake. He guessed that they were sisters.

Without lingering much, he left to ask the inn workers to prepare a bath for the guests.

Aristia returned to where Owen and the two girls were. The girl who had fainted was being supported by the two.

They headed up the stairs.

Aristia found their room and used the key to unlock it.

The room was simple and decent. It had a medium sized bed, a drawer beside the bed, and a table and chair by the window.

A knock sounded on the door.

"...Come in," Aristia paused for a few seconds before giving permission. She was vigilant because she was in an unfamiliar inn.

Four children alone in an inn. It could give any evil person wicked ideas. These people weren’t aware of her real identity, so they could harbor some thoughts about them.

But she wasn’t too worried because Millie was very close by. If anything happened, she could contact Wilson.

The door opened and a woman entered. She was a worker in the inn.

She bowed and went towards the drawer.

She opened it and took out a bedsheet, then she proceeded to make the bed.

"Could you please get me some medicine?" Aristia asked the woman.

The woman’s gaze trailed to the unconscious girl with visible traces of blood on her head and back at Aristia, then she nodded.

"Okay. I can treat her wound if you’d like." The woman said.

"Yes, please." Aristia nodded.

The woman nodded and continued to make the bed. Once she was done with making the bed, she bowed again and left, closing the door behind her.

Owen helped to place the unconscious girl on the bed.

"Thank you for bringing my sister to an inn." The other girl thanked.

Aristia nodded.

There was silence until the door opened.

The woman from earlier entered with a small box.

She took a seat beside the bed and took out some medicine from the box, then she applied it on the girl’s wounds.

She also treated the other girl.

"Thank you, king lady." Aristia thanked the woman with a smile.

The woman’s heart melted. Such a cute smile!

She couldn’t resist smiling. "Okay, okay. It’s nothing much."

She packed up the box and left, muttering how pretty the little girl was.

The sister who was awake looked like she remembered something, then she pointed at herself. "I’m Penelope. That is my sister, Heidi. We’re twins, but she’s older." She pointed at the girl on the bed.

"I’m Aris." Aristia said. "He’s Owen," she said with an eyeroll since Owen didn’t open his mouth to introduce himself.

She turned back to the girl on the bed. "Why is your sister’s head bleeding?" She asked.

Penelope’s face dropped. "We...sigh, we lived with our aunt and uncle. They said our parents died when we were little. We don’t really remember anything about our parents—"

"Penny, don’t reveal to strangers you just met about us." A new voice joined the conversation, cutting off Penelope.

They turned to see that Heidi had opened her eyes. She sat up and rubbed her head, being careful not to touch the injured part.

She noticed that she had been treated. Her head didn’t hurt that much.

"You’re awake!" Penelope said happily, then recalling Heidi’s words, she smiled sheepishly.

Heidi turned to Aristia. "They didn’t treat us well. A few days ago, we overhead them saying that they had found us when we were little. They weren’t really our and and uncle. So I and my sister decided to run away. After making plans, we ran away after a few days. Before we ran away, I got injured when I was pushed down by my uncle and hit my head."

That was what finally pushed them to go through with their plan. Just when everyone had either left the house or was too occupied with something else to bother with them, they left.

Penelope, "..."

Uh, didn’t you just say that I shouldn’t reveal information about ourselves to strangers? You’ve given way more information!

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Another knock sounded on the door.

"Come in," Owen said after receiving a nod from Aristia.

The door opened and a worker entered with hot water. He placed it in the bathroom and turned to Aristia. "Here are the clothes. The food will be ready soon."

"Thank you," Owen said, collecting the folded female clothes. He placed them on the bed.

Aristia turned to the sisters. "Go and take a bath."

Heidi and Penelope nodded and headed to the bathroom.

Once they had entered and closed the door, they halted in their steps.

Wait... why was a little girl telling them what to do? And why were they listening to a girl clearly younger than them?

Well, nevermind. It was this little girl who had helped them after all. And they did need a bath. Badly.

Now, it was only Owen and Aristia in the inn’s bedroom.

Owen finally opened his mouth.

"They’ve been living with strangers since they were born?"

Aristia twisted her lips, getting the hint of what he was thinking. "You’ve heard it. It makes me wonder if their parents just didn’t want them..." She trailed off.

Owen completed, "Or they were kidnapped."

Aristia suddenly remembered Wilson’s words when she went to beg him to help search for Leilani.

’Tia, children go missing in Amberale more often than you realize. You must understand that our family cannot chase every disappearance.’

She turned back to Owen who was looking at her with a curious expression and wondering what she was thinking about.

"So what are you going to do next? I’m sure they don’t have anywhere else to go." Owen said.