--The day was starting out the same as any other. Lilia ate her eggs slowly and tried to avoid making eye contact with any of the men at the large table of the dining hall. She knew that once she made eye contact with one of them, they would begin talking to her. She wanted to avoid that as much as she possibly could. Men were disgusting and said disgusting things. She figured that a big chunk of the male brain was used to form their privates during their time in the womb, and at adulthood they used those for thinking most of the time. 
--She could recall at least eleven times when a man had slapped her in the hiney…Or was it twelve times? Either way she had been greatly startled by each of them to the men's amusement. Not only did the man who had slapped her get the pleasure and entertainment of doing so, but all the men at the scene would treat him like some sort of hero. Each time they tried to talk to her, there was usually one comment at least heavily laced with innuendo. 
--Weren't knights supposed to be chivalrous? What a laughable concept to even consider that the king's men followed chivalry. Chivalry was just a myth. Perhaps in other kingdoms royalty had manners, but within the castle walls of Anovia courtesy must have suffered a tragic death a very long time ago. 
--The people of the kingdom probably didn't know this. Whenever the commoners had the opportunity to see royalty, it was always scheduled ahead of time so that the royals had time to prepare themselves to look and act as if they were always good-natured and good looking. This little mask of being good people really irritated her. 
--She realized she shouldn't be thinking about such things when she was eating. At least she was able to eat this good food and she shouldn't ruin her meal by focusing on such negative things. She began cutting into her piece of ham and accidentally peeked up and looked at the others eating. Luckily no eye contact was made. Both the men and women seemed to be caught up in the same conversation which had most of their attention.
--This was an uncommon occurrence. Usually smaller groups of men and women were having their own conversations separately. If everyone was listening, it was discussing some event that everyone was looking forward to or big news that had the whole kingdom talking about it. In both situations it was something worth listening to. The voices of conversation were various. Both men and women would say something and nobody seemed to be doing most of the talking. 
--"I haven't heard much about him other than he's loaded."
--"He must be rich. He's been buying something from every shop in the commoners region."
--"Well that doesn't mean he's rich. The commoners almost have their own economy since they buy their stuff from one another. Stuff we buy is expensive and high quality since it has to be brought in from outside salesmen."
--"That's true. I bet a commoner could live for a few months from what I earn in a day."
--"They don't have very high standards of living. They could spend their lives in a mud hole and be happy."
--"Well I've seen some amazingly pricy things sold at a few shops along my patrol route."
--"You have?"
--"Yes"
--"I've seen too. A few of the stores sell the kind of things we get. The people who make them just spend a lot of time on the quality and sell them at such a high price, they can make a living from the few things they make."
--"Some just buy things from the traveling vendors like we do and just raise the price to turn over a profit."
--"How can those slime afford that?"
--"They save up money little by little for just one thing sometimes. I heard about a husband and wife saved money for years sometimes just to get something like a bed that is the same kind we have."
--"So if these shops only sell a few items at a time, how can you assume that he is really rich? He might have no more money than any of us do."
--"Well he has bought multiple things from each shop."
--"What kind of stuff?"
--"I heard a rumor that he bought half of the dresses a shop was selling."
--"What would he do with dresses?"
--"Perhaps he has a woman back at his home he's buying them for."
--"People talk like he's buying just about everything."
--"Does he carry it around?"
--"No, he pays commoners to carry it out of the kingdom for him."
--"Where did they take it?"
--"Word hasn't gotten around about that yet. But wherever it is, people there must be really wealthy or he has a lot of power over there."
--"They must not have good clothing. I heard that he only was wearing rags when he first arrived. He soon bought some expensive clothes soon after that."
--"What is his name? I must have missed when someone said it because it hasn't come up yet."
--"That's what I was thinking. What is his name?"
--"I don't know. That's what people are trying to find out. He's a mysterious fellow."
--Lilia was intrigued at this conversation. It was actually a civilized conversation for a change. Those kind of conversations typically only happened about once a month.  She had distinctly remembered two other civilized conversations that happened this month. The first one was discussing which citizen owned which of the recent generation of street wandering chickens. The second conversation had something to do with the number of certain instrument players should be in the castle entertainment crew. So this made three civilized conversations in one month. That was pretty impressive. She wondered what the record was while the conversation continued.
--"Do many people know about him?"
--"Well just about everybody in the kingdom has heard about him by now. Nobody really knows much about him."
--"We know he's rich."
--"Where do you suppose he came from?"
--"A few people asked and he told them 'nowhere'."
--"He came from nowhere? What's that supposed to mean?"
--"Perhaps it was a joke."
--"Why wouldn't he tell them? He might be hiding something from us."
--"I don't know but I heard the commoners have started to refer to him as 'the man from nowhere."
--"Nowhere must be a really prosperous place if people there have as much money as he does."
There was a brief chorus of laughter and chuckles that brought Lilia's attention back to the conversation. At this point her father started talking.
--"That's actually a good point."
--"Well there's no such kingdom as 'Nowhere'."
--"I know that you halfwit. You think I would be the king if I was stupid enough to think there was a kingdom called 'nowhere'."
This upset Lilia a bit. She was kind of excited about there being three civilized conversations in a row. This might disqualify this one. 
--Her focus on the conversation soon left. She just focused on eating. She heard a few tidbits of things said about who caught the biggest fox that year and what kind of dresses were now considered out of style. The women of the table held their heads high as they gossiped and ignored the servants who rushed to keep their wines goblets full. Soon there was a loud crash and clattering sound. A comically fat duke sitting at the table had clumsily knocked over his plates while reaching for some more chicken. Judging by the mess on his clothes and the grease all over his mouth, he had already eaten quite a few. For a couple of moments he sat there as food slid down his clothes. He was soon yelling at the servants to clean up the mess making his face turn red like a large obnoxious cherry. The servants rushed to his aid and cleaned up the mess quickly. The duke was not content with their service however, and barked a mixture of orders and insults at them. The fiasco was over soon so everyone could enjoy breakfast with a moderate level of peace once again. 
--She was almost finished with her food when she noticed a couple of the men were staring at her. She already knew what it was. The front of her dress had sagged down while she was eating, and the men were staring at her cleavage with as much shame as if it were a painting on a wall. She pulled up the front of her dress and left the table immediately. She pushed in her chair and ignored the chuckling of the men as she left the large dining hall. 
--There were no events planned for the day, and her tutor had left the kingdom to visit far away family. She had the day to herself for the most part. Unfortunately there was very little to do in the castle, so she ventured out onto her balcony and just stared at the scenery. It was a vast landscape of mountains and valleys covered with a mix of flora and the occasional winding river. She so dearly yearned to see its beauty closer, but she was forbidden to leave the castle without supervision. Anybody who supervised her never allowed her far from the castle, let alone out of the boundaries of the kingdom. 
--She sighed and set aside these thoughts. At least she had the view from her balcony. A little red bird landed on the railing and looked up at her. Its eyes were like two tiny little black marbles, yet it was clear that it wanted something. Soon it was joined by a little yellow bird and a squirrel. The birds bobbed their heads, gave a few chirps, and looked back up at her.  She gave a weak smile and hummed a note for them. They chirped again, so she began to sing.  The remainder of the day and the few thereafter were uneventful. 

