VII
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Arc VII Chapter 16
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19th Aqua Solar XI AAC 753
Further away and down the street, Aurora was nibbling diligently on her biscuits, taking one bite after bite like a voracious kitten, with her cheeks stuffed like that of a hamster. Much to her delight, her most recent operation had been an extraordinary success! Both in monetary and alimentary terms. With her pouches and satchel filled to the brim, she had managed to acquire an ample supply of biscuits, ranging from lebkuchen to speculaas, from marzipan to wafers, from hazelnut, walnut, and almond to butter, poppies, and anise. So far, her acquisition had proven to be most delicious and delectable.
With one of her many biscuits in her mouth, Aurora turned to her doll, her trusted confidant, and her doll in crime, as discreetly as possible. Her senses scanned the area, accompanied by a few quick glances backwards, sidewards, and then ahead. The area was secure, more or less. They should be safe from prying eyes and ears.
Not everyone needed to know that she was talking with her doll. Especially, not here in the middle of the street. There were already far too many who seemed to think that she was insane because of her doll. In consideration of future endeavours, it might be in her best interest to keep the number of them somewhat limited.
Aurora took another bite of her biscuit. “Nom~. Nom~. See, I told you that my plan would work! Nom~. Nom~. Being supremely cute and cuddly has its advantages~. The cute, little girl act always works.” Most of the time, at least. Of course, there existed exceptions. Which was only fair, considering that her current body was short in stature, frail when it came to endurance, feeble in terms of strength, and not to mention, prone to sickness. How were cute, little girls like her supposed to survive in this cold and cruel world otherwise?
Little Aurora stared at her, amazed and pensive to an equal degree. “Hmm, to think that it would work so well ... To be honest, I did not expect it.”
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Now it was Aurora’s turn to be confused. A furrowed eyebrow was her response. “How so?”
Dollrora waved her tiny arms and elaborated, “Well, you see, I always somewhat suspected that I might be ‘cute’ ...”
“...” Aurora raised her eyebrow. Such was not necessarily a difficult conclusion to draw. Quite the contrary.
Her doll continued, “As long as I can remember, people used to call me that. In fact, Mother always used to call me ‘cute’. Cute, and doll like, and cute, and doll like, but mostly cute. But I never thought that we are that cute ...” Dollrora rubbed her chin, sunk in thought, as if she had come to a profound realisation. “I guess that means that we must be ‘cute’ indeed. Hmm, how curious.”
Aurora raised her eyebrow only further. “Hardly anything curious about it. Rest assured, we are most definitely, most certainly, and for all intents and purposes ‘cute’. Trust me, I am an expert on the matter. I was dressed up often enough in my previous life not to know. Just look at our stubby nose. Our wide, round eyes. Our full cheeks. No wonder that they were thinking that we are practically a perfect doll ...
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Doll ...”
“...” Little Aurora responded with a blank stare, far less amused and quite conscious of her current situation. “Well, as a matter of fact, I am quite literally a doll ... right now ... So ...”
Aurora hesitated for a moment. “Yes, ... you are ... I forget that sometimes. My bad. That being said, the point stands, we are undoubtedly ‘cute’, which is a useful tool to have in your arsenal. At least, it has served me well so far. And not just in this life.”
“I see ... I have never realised that cuteness could be this powerful.” Dollrora pondered, her tiny porcelain hand rubbing her little chin.
“Anyway, I wonder where duty leads us next.” Aurora started rummaging through her pouch before producing another pair of letters, putting them right in front of them. This time, there were only two of them.
“Let us see what we have.” Dollrora and she started reading the envelope. As usual, the handwriting was beyond abysmal. “Enter the smithing quarter. Follow the street until you find the armourers. Pass five different forges, and not one less. Then take the narrow alley to your right. At the end of the alley, you will find Magister Severins’s alchemy shop.”
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Aurora lowered the envelope. “Firstie things first~, I guess that we should start with finding the smithing quarter ...” Wherever that was supposed to be. “That should bring us closer to our destination.”
Little Aurora nodded in agreement. “That sounds like a good plan.” Not that they had much in the way of an alternative.
And thus, Aurora and Dollrora set out with their next destination in mind. Locate the smithing quarters. Then the alchemy shop in question.
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