Isabel and Cali
“Haha... I see...”
With a cold, cutting smile, Isabel stepped straight in front of the guard, using every trick she had in her arsenal—because today, more than ever, she refused to give up.
“The fact that I’ve been out of the palace so far~ I’ll have to tell Father everything~”
“Y-Yes?!”
“Well... and if I don’t go out from now on~ What~”
“Y-Your Highness!”
The guard looked utterly betrayed and heartbroken, his face a mask of disappointment at the way Isabel kept breaking the promise he’d made every single time she slipped outside.
“Or... I’ll keep my mouth shut tight this time only~”
“Your Highness! This is completely different from the promise!”
“Exactly~ Deal! I’ll let you go out this one last time~ or I won’t~ Today I’m showing Cali the market!”
Isabel pulled Cali forward from behind her and began pleading with the guard, but when he saw she had zero intention of backing down, he finally gave in with a quiet, resigned sigh.
“...All right. But never again.”
“Got it! I promise next time I’ll get permission first.”
“Please be careful. There are a lot of outsiders at the market, and crimes happen there too.”
“Mhm! Mhm! And when I come back I’ll buy you something delicious!”
Even though the guard didn’t look particularly happy about it—because for him those were the same cheap foods he ate every single day, but for Isabel they were once-a-year luxuries at best.
*
As Isabel led Cali toward the palace market, Cali stared in wonder at everything around her, completely unable to understand her reaction.
Cali herself had only ever seen the easy foods she’d enjoyed while traveling through Moncrito Kingdom and beyond, so those streets were nothing short of a miracle to her.
“Cali! Cali! Look! The candies have turned into fluffy clouds! Ooh! Look! Monkeys are dancing!”
Isabel was fascinated by every single thing—from the street food to the performing animals who collected tips—everything was pure novelty to her.
Cali simply followed along, thinking they might as well enjoy a day of market wandering.
“Cali, hold my hand tight. We can’t get lost.”
“...Yes.”
Yet the words Cali had actually wanted to say sat trapped in her throat.
Looking at Isabel’s noble-born face as she strolled through the market like any ordinary commoner, Cali realized how dangerously exposed she was.
She remembered the back alleys of Moncrito where she’d once been a slave, and she knew exactly how dangerous that kind of freedom could be for someone dressed like Isabel.
“Auntie, what’s this?”
“It’s a crepe.”
“Cali! Cali! Come here! Let’s eat this!”
Even in the simple dress she’d chosen, Isabel’s lively behavior drew every eye in the market.
Cali, hearing her name called so loudly, glanced around nervously before stepping closer.
“Let’s eat the crepe?”
“...Yes...”
“Auntie, two of them, please!”
Isabel fished a gold coin from her pocket and handed it over. The merchant looked puzzled at first, but soon placed the crepes and change on the counter.
“Thank you!”
But the change wasn’t what Cali expected at all.
“Just a moment.”
“Huh? Cali, why?”
Cali snatched the coins from Isabel’s hand and stepped back up to the merchant.
“Please give me the correct change.”
“U... uh?”
Cali had eaten crepes in other cities before, so she knew the price roughly.
She immediately realized something was wrong with the amount Isabel had received.
Crepes were expensive—usually just one or two silver coins at most.
Yet Isabel had handed over a gold coin worth one hundred silver, and received back five gold coins plus eight silver in change.
In other words, she’d been shortchanged forty-two silver coins for just two crepes.
That amount was enough for a crepe seller to earn a full day’s profit—far more than what ordinary citizens actually spent on such a luxury.
“Two crepes for forty-two silver coins?”
“Ah... th-that’s... the price of ingredients has gone up...”
Cali held up the change she’d been given, her eyes sharp.
The merchant stammered, clearly lying.
But Cali’s eyes couldn’t be fooled.
If she used Dragon Fear right here she could force the truth out of him in an instant, but she couldn’t do that—not with Isabel watching.
Instead she drew the crowd’s attention and tried to get what she needed.
“A basket of strawberries right there costs only one silver... but here the dough and labor cost forty-one silver?”
Cali pointed at the fruit stall next to the crepe vendor, where the real price was clearly marked in silver.
“Please just give me the right change before I call the guard. I’ve heard the Empire has extremely harsh punishments for fraud...”
“....!!!!”
The merchant panicked and hurriedly pulled four gold coins from his pouch, pressing them into Cali’s tiny hand.
“I-I’m so sorry!! Just... please don’t report me...”
The Empire’s laws were notoriously strict.
With its vast territory and huge population, the Empire had no choice but to maintain those powerful laws, and they even punished minor offenses like this with severe penalties—along with banditry, sexual crimes, drunk driving, and even things that didn’t rise to the level of murder.
Perhaps that was why the Empire felt like such a dangerous place.
“Wow... Cali... you’re really amazing... How did you know that?”
“I traveled with Aunt Lowell...”
“Ah... that’s right... How enviable. Cali, you’re enviable. You can travel anywhere and learn things like this whenever you want...”
Isabel’s voice trailed off, but her eyes were full of envy as she looked at Cali.
Even as the princess of the Empire, she often felt that being locked inside the palace was no different from being a criminal.
She’d read every book in the greatest library on the continent, yet she still didn’t know the prices of crepes sold on market stalls.
“I want to travel across the continent like Lowell-nim and Cali, seeing everything...”
Isabel swept her gaze over the bustling crowd, her eyes full of envy as she looked at every passerby—including Cali.
“What do you think those people would say if they saw someone like Your Highness?”
Cali, following her gaze, pointed at the passersby and answered Isabel.
“Well...”
“Just one day... if you lived in that heaven-like palace...”
“Eh? There’s no way anyone would enjoy living in a palace like a prison...”
Cali hadn’t spent much time in this world either.
Most of her life had been spent being dragged around by slaves.
Even a dragon—the strongest race—had only seen and learned so much in that short time.
What was a single meal’s worth to some became the price of a child to others.
Some were even willing to kill to steal that money.
All of it was unimaginable and incomprehensible in the dragon world.
“Do you know how much that gold coin I used for the crepes is actually worth?”
“Well... a day? Two days?”
“It’s enough for your entire family to eat for a month. Of course, there are people who starve to death because they don’t have it. That’s just the price of one meal for Your Highness, yet your family would still face the choice between starving or eating. So... who wouldn’t envy you?”
Isabel felt so many things from the young-looking Cali standing in front of her.
She had always believed that people outside the palace lived happily despite their hardships.
Now that she knew the truth, her earlier words tasted a little bitter.
“But how did you know so much? You’re so much younger than me...”
“I was still a slave when I met Aunt Lowell.”
“What?! Really?”
“Yes. And before I became a slave, I thought the same things as Your Highness.”
“Huh?”
Cali replayed every word she’d said to Isabel in her head and remembered why she’d rejected the dragons’ care and run away from the lair.
She was simply thinking of the past version of herself, who had walked the same path and looked almost exactly like the girl standing in front of her.
“Hey! There!”
The loud voice from behind made Isabel and Cali unable to look away.
A group of rough-looking men were beckoning them over with crude gestures.
“What? Us?”
“Yeah! You two. Don’t know which noble house you’re from, but wandering around like this is too dangerous. This uncle will take you home. Come along.”
On the surface it sounded like a kind man offering to help lost children.
But from Cali’s experience surviving the back alleys of Moncrito’s market during her slave days, she knew instantly that it was anything but good.