Chapter 17 Rosalia

"Hello? Are you there?" Leo was looking around, mostly at the ceiling, while trying to speak with the voice.

He continued to call out to the voice for several minutes before giving up after not receiving a reply. ~Sigh~'I'll just have to try again another time.'

The sun had just gone down and Leo decided he would sleep tonight. He hadn't slept since leaving the camp, and although he didn't need to sleep until the following night, he had nothing to do tonight.

Leo lay back on his bed and after a few minutes, he had fallen asleep.

Leo woke up just as the sun was rising. He got up and headed down and into the tavern. Currently there were no other patrons there, only the barmaid. "Goodmorning, would you like something to eat?"

Leo walked to the table closest to where the counter the barmaid was standing behind was. "Yes, Id appreciate it if you'd bring me some." Leo sat down at the table after the barmaid nodded and walked into the back room.

After about half an hour went by, she came back with a plate of food. There were fried eggs, bacon, and some steak. "Here you go, please enjoy." Before she could turn around to leave, Leo spoke.

"Since you don't have any customers right now besides me, would you care to join me for a conversation while I eat?" Leo was looking straight into her eyes when he spoke. She was flustered, not just because of the request, but because of how calmly he had said it.

She was used to men asking her to speak with them, or drink with them, but they were usually very nervous or very old. But Leo gave off an aura of confidence. "S-Sure, I don't mind..." Her face was slightly red when sitting down opposite Leo.

"I don't believe you've told me your name as of yet. I'm Leofalor, but you can just call me Leo." Leo stretches his hand across the table for a handshake.

She sheepishly takes Leo's hand. Her head is slightly turned away from him and she is looking at Leo out the corner of her eye." M-My name is R-Rosalia." Rosalias face was as red as a tomato when taking Leo's hand. Her face was so flushed that she actually felt a little whoozy.

Leo notices how red her face is and asks "Are you alright, your face is a bit red..." Leo had never spoken to a woman before, not that he can remember at least, so he had no experience with romance. There was a time when Leo had asked the other slaves why there were no woman in the camp, the older of the men got extremely depressed whenever he asked, and they would never answer.

He was simply treating her as he would any other person. So he didn't notice that the reason she was acting this way was because she was flustered due to his actions and words. "N-No, I'm alright... really. It's very nice to meet you." Rosalia seemed to have calmed down a bit after her initial shock at the situation.

Leo had done all the right things to win over her initial affections. Not that he was aware of this, nor did he have anything of the sort in mind."Yes, it's nice to meet you as well. I was hoping I could ask you about some things." After the initial greetings, Leo decided to just get straight to the point.

Rosalia was a bit confused, she had assumed Leo was trying to flirt with her, but it didn't feel like that was were the conversation was going. "Oh... Um, alright. What would you like to know?"

Rosalia's mood became a bit dreary. She was very excited to have someone so different from those in the village be interested in her, so to have it be a misunderstanding was making her feel down.

As for Leo, this was the first proper conversation he was having with another person outside of the slave camp, so he was actually quite excited. 'I did technically talk to the guards outside, but I don't think they would count...'

"How far away would the nearest city be, and in what diraction?"

When Leo had asked his question, Rosalia became confused. "How do you not know about the three great cities?" Her expression was mostly one of confusion, but she was still a bit disappointed from earlier.

"Ah, well... I lived in a very secluded place and my parents died when I was young. I didn't have anyone to teach me about the world and I wasn't strong enough to travel alone. So this is the first village I've ever been to in my life."

Leo's explanation was somewhat the truth. He hadn't had any parents to teach him anything, and he had never left the slave camp. He wasn't strong enough to escape until recently, so he couldn't travel.

Rosalia thought about Leo's story. 'So he wasn't able to leave his home for a long time because he was too weak to travel alone? Sounds like his life was a bit difficult. But if he had to travel alone then that means there weren't any other people around him at all. I wonder how he fed himself for all those years. He must have been able to grow his own food or something.'

Rosalia looked into Leo's eyes "I see... well the closest city to us is called Zoren, it's about 5 days travel to the west of us. If you use a horse then you could make it in 2 days. If you want to learn about the other cities and the rest of the kingdom, then that's a good place to get information."

Leo smiled when he heard Rosalia's reply," Thank you Rosalia, thats exactly what I needed to know." Leo's smile made Rosalia get a little flustered again, she thought Leo was very good looking and hearing him say her name made her feel something tug on her heart.

"Y-Yes, you're welcome... Leo..." Rosalia almost had to bury her face in her hands, she had tried using Leo's name like he used hers, it made her feel extremely embarrassed.

Leo noticed her embarrassment and smiled at her again, she smiled back, trying to fight her embarrassment. Leo tried to change the topic to give her a chance to forget about what she just did.

"So, how much do I owe you for the breakfa..."

"BANDITS! THERE ARE BANDITS COMING!"