As soon as she entered the village, people found her strange and pitiful due to her current predicament. The people thought her as a fugacious woman. This wasn't uncommon for the people living in this village as they also were suffering from poverty for so long already. Nevertheless, because her face was unfamiliar, they were being wary of her.
She did still wore the now-ordinary cloak along with its hood. Moreover, she slightly covered her face with a mud as to not make the people more suspicious of her.
She chose to ignore them and continued to walk around, looking for something that could satisfy her hunger and thirst as well as some decent clothes to wear.
And fortunately, she brought five gold coins in her pocket. 1 gold coin is equivalent to 10 silver coins, and 10 silver coins  is equivalent to 100 bronze coins. On the other hand, an ingot of gold is equivalent to 10 golds coins. While 2 silvers coins were enough for a month's allowance in an average family
When she saw an inn, she rushed over there without a second thought. No customer could be seen inside, while there was only the female owner on her forties, busy wiping the wooden table.
Maybe because it was already late in the afternoon that's why there's no people coming in the inn. But it doesn't have anything to do with me as long as I can eat and stay for a night. Lucelle's thought.
"Oh my~ How glad I am that there's finally a customer!" the owner of the inn exclaimed as soon as she heard the sound of someone's footprints entering, but grimaced when she saw those worn-out clothes, "Hmmm?"
Lucelle payed no attention to owner's sudden change of expression, "Please bring me some foods and water."
"Do you have money to pay?"
She nodded and brought out a single gold, "I have a gold here. Is it enough?"
The gold was too shining on the owner's eyes that she didn't hesitate to lick her wet lips caused by her saliva's dropping.
As shocked as the owner was, she replied with a wide smile, "Yes, yes! It is more than enough!" and then, in a second she took the gold.
"That's good," Lucelle simply uttered, "And, please buy me some decents clothes and arrange a room for me to sleep. By the way, can you also give me proper medicine for wound?"
She wanted to cure her cuts and wounds as soon as possible as herbs were not enough.
"Consider it as done, Miss. And please seat on the wooden chair," then the owner guided her to a clean table with a single chair, "Please give me few minutes to prepare your orders."
Lucelle simply nodded as a reply and sat on the chair, alone and quietly.
After some time, the owner brought different kind of dishes on the table. There were pork, chicken and fish-made dishes and some vegetables. She didn't mind how the dishes was made of as she was already hungry.
How many days she had been hungry to the point that she was eating them non-stop? The owner thought. However she chose to stay silent knowing that she already had a gold in her hand. That's more than enough for me to renovate this inn or even to stop opening for months.
Then the owner excuse herself as she had things to do, which was carrying out Lucelle's latter orders. Nodding was her only reply as she was focus on filling her stomach.
"Ahhhh... Finally...!" Lucelle yelled when she was already full, "It feels like I had been starving to death earlier, but now it feels so refreshing. But..."
A lone tear was dropped down on her face as she remembered the tragic scenes two days at her residence. Her parents... her brothers... and her clansmen... were already gone.
"If only I have the power to turn back time, I would like to... But, it was so pitiful that I was a fire magician. A weak... an incompetent... useless or whatsoever, I'm that kind of person..." she murmured to herself.
Seconds later, she wiped her tear as she mustered her courage, "With time and will, I can get stronger and stronger. And if that will happen, I can take revenge. I will slaughter them into pieces! I will burn them with my fire into ashes!"
Shortly, the owner arrived as she brought clean clothes on her arms. She was having a hard breathe and had sweats on her forehead as if she ran away for kilometers.
"Miss, this is your clothes and medicines that I bought with the remaining change of the gold you gave me," then the owner gave the clothers to her, "As sunset is already coming, I will now guide you to room."
When she heard the word sunset, did she only realized that she was sleepless all the time while escaping. She was really nervous that if she stopped or slept, she would get caught or worse, killed.
She didn't even noticed the big dark spots under her eyes. She really wondered how did she get energy to continue to run or to walk, even arriving from this village.
"Maybe, I was desperate to survive?" she thought.
She blew air from her mouth, feeling exhausted already. Lucelle silently followed the owner. They stopped at the last corner of many rooms. This room was a little bit better among the rooms they had passed by.
"This is your room," then the owner opened the door, "If you need anything, just call me. Then, I shall not disturb you anymore." she bowed before leaving.
Lucelle entered the room, then put down the clothes and medicines on the table and immediately lied down on the wooden bed. Even it was her first time lying on this kind of bed and first time in a strange room, she unknowingly and silently sleeping. She didn't even bother to change her clothes as she was already too tired.
Too tired of what was happening.
Too tired of everything.
The birds were busy chirping under the trees, the people in the village were occupied with their daily activities and the rays of the sunlight were already coming through the window of the inn's room. But Lucelle was still in a dormant state, guardless.
The sound of footprints were heard near at the door of Lucelle's room and three knocks were done. The owner came, "Hello, Miss. This is the owner of the inn. Are you already awake? Miss? Miss?"
When the owner didn't hear a respond, she gradually opened the door and saw her lying on the bed.
"M-mom... Dad... Brothers... Where are y-you?... D-dont leave me... alone..."
_TRAVANGEL_