Bastian
Chapter 173 - This is me

✧This Is Me✧

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“What do you think of this? It’s new.” The store owner showed a fresh blanket. The small store was packed with colorful blankets.

Odette studied the blanket with a discerning eye, questioning the shop clerk about the type of fabric and its feather count. Bastian kept a respectful distance as he didn’t understand what they were talking about and wondered why Odette didn’t just pick the top blanket, the colour and softness didn’t matter, but she was determined to make an informed decision.

   “These two seem to be the best, what do you think?” Odette said, showing some blankets to him.

   Bastian approached the stand and looked at the blankets. One was plain white, while the other had a floral pattern.

   “Flowers? Are you serious?” Bastian said with a raised eyebrow.

   “The texture feel really nice, try, touch it.” Odette smiled at Bastian brightly and held out the flowery blanket, attempting to torment him.

   “Okay, fine, then let’s go with that one. ” Bastian said. Odette was somewhat surprised by his chosen blanket.

   “Good choice,” the stall owner said stepping forward. “But I think it might be a little small if its for the gentleman. Give me a second. There’s a bigger blanket with this material in our storage. I’ll grab it for you.” The stall owner turned away.  

“No, this will be enough,” Odette said.

   “If you insist, but with a husband that tall, there’s no way it can be enough.”

   Odette flushed bright red. “Wait, this is my cousin, my cousin has come to visit and I don’t have any blankets for him.”

“Is that so?” The store owner looked at them, puzzled. However, once she spotted the wedding ring on Bastian’s hand, any doubts she had disappeared. “Oh, my, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to make a fuss. “I thought you were picking a blanket for you and your husband. Maybe I’m getting old, my guesswork isn’t good anymore.” The store owner joked as he packed the quilt.

   Bastian came forward and paid the stall keeper as Odette turned and near ran away in embarrassment. Bastian smiled as he turned in time to see the blue ribbon in her hair flutter away.

“Why that one?” Odette asked, annoyed outside the store.

“The texture,” Bastian said casually.

“You didn’t even touch it.”

“I chose to trust my cousin’s great taste and took her advice.”

“Since when do you trust anything I have to say?”

“Since today, I suppose.” Bastian said and walked ahead, leaving Odette who confused, watching his back.

   Wherever Bastian went, he would naturally grab people’s attention, but as he walked through the village with the floral blanket tucked under his arm, he attracted more attention than usual.

   “Lets go back,” Odette said, turning down a side road to head back to the cottage.

   “I, ah, have some things I need to do first.”

   “What things?”

   “Well, you know, this and that.” Bastian did not wait to see if Odette followed after him, but turned away and made for the only restaurant in the village.

   Odette stood in the middle of the road, dumbfounded and watched him march away. He looked like an entirely different person and she had never seen him like this before. Bastian sat on the terrace and waved for Odette to join him when he noticed she did not follow.

   “Come, Miss Byller.” Bastian shouted enough to get the attention of the whole village. Odette picked up her feet, that man not Bastian Klauswitz, he was Karl Lovis.|

It seemed more reasonable to believe that, after all.

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On the return to the cottage, they passed through the fountain at the village square and several stalls selling all sorts of niknaks and curious. Odette’s face lit up. It was hard to believe that she acted so aloof when around the various gold and expensive jewels back at the mansion.

   Bastian followed her around the stands, keeping a respectful distance, watching her trying to choose between one sugar cube tong and another. They were pretty much the same but with minor differences. After considering both the shell and flower patterns, Odette picked the shell.

They stayed at the market until well into the afternoon, but the only thing Bastian remembered was Odette.

   Odette had a surprisingly girly taste.

   Odette was good at bargaining.

   Odette was always careful what she chose.

   Odette was so beautiful in the golden rays of the afternoon sun. A beauty he would soon lose forever.

   By the time they were done, Odette had bought so much stuff, Bastian wasn’t sure how he was going to carry it all. Bastian laughed when he saw the final item Odette bought. Pesticide. She held a pesticide bottle with strong words on it, like a queen’s scepter. 

“Apparently there was a bug in the rose tree.” Odette told him, like it was no big deal.

   “Allow me to carry it,” Bastian said, extending his hand. “No, you’re already carrying too much,” she had a stubborn look in her eye.

   Bastian didn’t argue and let Odette have her way. If she didn’t want help, he was not going to pressure her. Maybe it wasn’t just about preserving her pride.

   They left the market, carrying a hundred bags between them. The village brook, basking in the afternoon sun, danced with a radiant golden hue. They walked side by side, following the stream back to the cottage. The shadows of willow trees cast about them, and each of them was lost in their own thoughts.

   “Countess Trier must not be a very generous person, to have put you up in this pokey little cottage.”

   “I like it here.”

  “Why?”

   “Countess Trier is not a heartless person, I told her that I did not want handouts, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

   “Is that why you cut ties with the imperial family?”

   “Perhaps. I wouldn’t even call it distancing as I have never lived a single moment as a noble, so a I don’t know what it’s like. I only accepted their stipend as I thought it was some sort of compensation, but I don’t even want that now. At this point, I feel I have suffered enough as the girl who stole her mothers crown.”

   “What if your rights were restored?”

   “Empty assumptions have no power, Bastian. I wont live like my mother.” Odette drew a clear line in the conversation and Bastian respected her. “You know, I think you are more of a noble than I am. You’ve received more of an aristocratic education, led a more aristocratic life and therefore, are more aristocratic life. While lowly old me has been a day labourer and lived as a maid.”

   “You speak like a revolutionary.”

   “I’m just saying, our lineage does not define who we are, so perhaps I am only just now finding out where I belong.”

   The things she could never bring up when talking to Countess Trier or Count Xanders flowed more easily around Bastian. She thought it might be because Bastian might be able to understand better.

   “You were deceived, dear Bastian, there was never a noble woman behind these features,” Odette humbly confessed. “I am just an ordinary woman who had the rotten luck of being born into the Imperial family.”

   Odette felt like a great weight lifted off her shoulders. The sadness that had grown as long as the evening shadows got carried away like a flowing stream.

   Once they got home, Odette went straight to the kitchen and arranged the groceries and placed the insecticide in the back garden. She sensed Bastian trailing behind her.

   “I’ll prepare dinner, if you want to go ahead and tidy up the guest room.”

   Bastian went up stairs, throwing the blankets onto the bed and went over to the dressing table. Neatly arranged toiletries and a golden comb sat next to a bottle of cream, with a shinning red letter H. It was the initial letter of Odette’s name, her pride and her shackle. Bastian looked at it for the longest time.

 

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