The day began just so very uneventful, as simple as it always did with Hanase san knocking bloody murder on her doors in his mission to wake her up, and Eva continually ignoring him until she couldn’t anymore. She had thrown the sheets away in frustration, got up, opened the doors as if to give her smart pants manager a piece of her mind only to stop in the middle as his stern eyes dug holes into her own. The words just as suddenly died in her throat and Eva turned with amazing speed to close the door behind her and get ready. She knew what that look meant. It was the same one he would give her every single time she would laze around far more than necessary.

She immediately threw on her casual off shoulder top and jeans on, washed her face, and was out of the doors to join her manager in what seemed like a strained breakfast. Just as it was done, Eva went out quickly, knowing fully well that if she had stayed, he would most likely chew her off. He seemed irritated about something and Eva didn’t want to know what or somehow end up turning all that irritation to herself. As powerful as she was, Eva still found her manager scarier.

She had decided to walk around the town for a bit after that, going through all those places that Eva used to visit as a child and remaking some memories. There wasn’t much. Thanks to her so called special childhood, Eva had grown up far too fast and she had seen and heard very less of the world outside unlike the amount of people she was introduced to on a daily basis.

She had somehow ventured into the poorer part of Era through her afternoon stroll. It was allegedly the shadiest part of Era and Eva knew that all towns had them. Probably the most far off one was Crocus but even the royal city had its black marks that no one liked to talk about. They were places with people that everyone tended to avoid and while Eva’s thoughts sometimes did go to the injustice side of it, between her own problems and social service, Eva couldn’t choose so well.

“Oh is that Evangeline?” Eva turned around, furrowing her eyebrows when she saw no one. “Down here, woman,” she had heard the familiar squeaky voice again and looked down. “Ah, Daragast,” she greeted the little dragon pup mix something. “What a surprise to meet you here,” she went with the usual pleasantries, bowing politely when Daragast replied with a relaxed Yo.

“Want to take a walk with me, child?” he asked, taking short steps forward without waiting for Eva’s answer. She looked around, deciding to follow him once it was clear that she would most likely the spend the whole day by herself. “Wait, Daragast. What are you doing here?” Eva caught up to the tiny dragon, walking alongside him as he walked further into the black valleys of Era.

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They suddenly had a good conversation going between them. Daragast seemed to have started talking about how the poorer part of Era should be uplifted. In his view, the rich were only smart because they could afford education and that the poor might be smarter only if they could afford the said education and Eva had her own views about it. For the most part, Eva agreed with Daragast. Being rich doesn’t necessarily mean being smart. It was a foolish and rude way to see it and there were thousands of people in Fiorian history that made it to the top starting from nothing. The difference, she always told herself, was the level of determination and commitment.

Once that conversation washed over them, the next one somehow turned to how Rune Knights should recruit normal people as civil servants. Now that was an idea that Eva took quite a fancy to. In fact, she had already started making plans to write up an official suggestion and hand it over to the Council. Such an idea could get Era outside the dark margin it lived next to. Honestly, the economy wasn’t as great and even though it was much popular, just below Crocus, they still had so many people running around unemployed. It was to be noted that about seventy-five percent of Era’s population worked with the council as Rune Knights and whatnot.

As they walked further in, Eva noticed children, a bunch of them, playing around on an open playground and they stopped. Surprisingly, when she looked down, Daragast had a warm expression on, a small smile playing at his lips as he looked sympathetically at the children. “They are our future, Eva,” he had said before walking towards the noodle shop. Eva wasn’t sure what he was doing but once she followed him, she saw him place some jewels on the counter, say something to the owner and immediately run off to the kids.

They had a conversation Eva couldn’t completely hear but she did catch the words noodles and eat for free somewhere in there. Soon, the excited children had started pouring in one after the other at the noodle shop, taking one cup of noodle each and chugging it down enthusiastically. She looked back at the small dragon. What an inspiring character, she thought. People rarely made marks on Eva’s mind but she had a feeling that the tiny dragon was going to be her favorite officer soon.

As they walked back, Daragast had told her how important it was to support the local shops instead of the high end ones as that was what would help their economy the best and Eva agreed. She was sure that the bowl of noodles would taste much better than any high class restaurants she had been to. They had a good laugh on it for a few minutes until Daragast called it a day, handing over, surprisingly, some money as reward for taking the time to join and listen to him.
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