I wasn't going to go home just yet. Why bother going back fast when I have another man to carry each load that I'll put on me?

I'm not being cruel. I paid the man his portion – well not just yet but I sure would when I'm done with him.

It's not like he was complaining either. I'm sure he would be more than happy to stay by my side if he knows that the longer I keep him, the more I'll pay him for his service. But would I tell him that? No. It's best to keep it to myself. Greed is ugly on the surface, on anyone, even myself.

I kept walking and stopping to look over stalls and stores, not really buying anything, mainly just looking.

"Are you going to buy anything on this one?" he finally voice out after I stopped at the 10th stall since he followed me.

I didn't answer him immediately and just gaze at the stuff the merchant sold. Fresh fishes, crabs and other sea animals. I'm not much of a seafood fan but I should probably ask my kitchen servants to buy me some later. "No. I'm just looking," I finally answered the big build man, standing right next to me.

He huffed but said no more. I can hear him trudging along as he followed me, step by step. He was a few feet away every time, stopping just at the exact amount of distance each time he caught up to me.

"Why? Is the box too heavy for you?" I turned to him with a slight smirk on my face. I haven't been my teasing self for years. Going out from my office is letting the childish side of me out, it seems.

"I'm not you, Princess. I can carry this for a whole day," he states in a monotone after that. He does seem to be holding on just fine. A few more strolls probably won't hurt. He probably wouldn't even mind. It was his words after all.

I turned and walked again to another path. One away from the market. I walked down, looking over the homes and buildings around the path. I've been gone for so long that I'm sure there's more stuff that had changed over the course of a decade.

Not as much as the one I had just witnessed, but I did notice a few subtle changes in the designs of the area's buildings and homes.

I kept walking absentmindedly when suddenly something bumped into me, making me stop on my feet and turned to look down to see a little boy stopped directly with his head on me. His hand was outstretched to the front resting on my lower chest. Slowly he rubs his head. His tiny hand are fidgety as they leave my figure after a brief rest on it.

"I–I'm so sorry." he cried. His body shook as he look down. He looked only at the ground below us as he timidly hunched his back probably from both fear and shame. I can just sense it.

A guilty pang pulled in my heart as I look over his pitiful self. He is almost a mirror of my young self. Troubled looks and pitiful worn-out outfits. His scrawny figures also make him all the more pitiful. Has he even been eating at all?

"It's alright," I told him. I don't want to make it obvious that his image made me waver, so I tried my best to keep an indifferent pose. "Just make sure you watch where you go next time."

He finally looked up, his blue eyes gleaming as the sun shines its way to his eyes. "Of course, sir! Thank you so much, sir!" then hurriedly, he started running off. Pulling a hood over his head, covering his dirt brown hair and ocean-blue eyes. He went on his way, in a hurry, with his feature covered from the eyes of others.

Shaking my head at the boy's departure, I began to once again walk down the street, beginning to let myself lose in my mind again.

Gosh, what do I do now? Do I want to keep looking for Evangeline? Do I really want to tangle myself with the past again? How am I even supposed to find her now?

As if on cue, a familiar face run out of a building near me, completely waking me up from my thoughts. Her face was red and fuming. Her raven hair was a mess with flour everywhere on her. "Oi!" she yelled at a space behind me and I turned to see her eyes directed at the little boy I had seen earlier.

Feeling weirded out by her direct shout at the boy, I turned back to her, watching her expression. Her furrowed brow and hands on her side indicate that the boy was probably running away from her when he bumped into me a moment ago. Jo was always known to be quick to anger, so it wasn't surprising. Though if she was still just like the young her, the boy can expect an hour of nagging with his ear being pulled for disobeying her, the moment he came back.

"What's wrong, Jo?" I asked, finally making my presence known to her.

My question brought her attention to me and the moment her eyes met me, they widened. "Henry!" she shouted, shocked. She wear an expression as if she had just seen a ghost. It wasn't shocking. Considering the fact that I never left home, if George didn't work with me, I'm very sure everyone from my past would surely think of me as dead by now. It has been ten years since that night after all.

"Stop gaping your mouth like that. Flies will enter it and you'll choke."

Immediately, she shut her mouth and glared at me. "Always with the smart mouth," she scoffed before rolling her eyes playfully at me.

I mainly shrugged, "You're not answering me. Why are you chasing that pitiful kid?" I mean how much harm can that one scrawny-looking kid could possibly do to make her this furious?

"Pitiful?" she scoffed. "You should see my kitchen and the state of the orphanage the boy left me. He's a petty thief, Henry."

A thief?

Almost immediately, I patted on my pockets and everywhere in case my stuff was stolen when I was at his arm's length a moment ago. My wallet's gone. So is my gold pocket watch. I should have known better than to trust someone based on their looks.

My worried antics earned stares from the two as they leaned closer. Confusion and worries are on both of their faces. "What's wrong, Princess?" the man asked.