The Knowledge I Live With

Today started like every other day. I woke up early with my mother and watched her make breakfast. Father went out to get us weather and when he returned we ate. After that we all went to the castle gates and said goodbye to father as he went to work. Then my mother took me to grandma's place and left to get food from the market. She would come and get me home at around 3pm. At grandma's place I liked to spend my time reading, but sometimes I helped Lars (grandmas son) by running little errands like buying some food or supplies from the stalls next to us. Today he had asked me to get some sweets from a stall near us. That stall sold mostly sweets and goods for nobility, but occasionally commoners bought them and sold them by dropping the price a little bit. While I was waiting in line for my turn I saw some children of nobility in front of me. They weren't that old, maby 4 or 5. There was a girl and a boy and both of them were wearing really high class clothes. I watched them with envy as they were talking with the sweets seller.

"I want this!" Said the boy. He was a little older than the girl and had the money on his hand.

"That would cost you five coins" The seller said.

"I want something too!" The girl w.h.i.n.ed loudly.

"Then take what you want." The boy said. They waited a little until the girl picked some sweets that costed four coins. This is where things got interesting. The seller waited a little bit. Looked around to see if many people were around and then said:

"That would cost twenty coins," He had a smile on and I understood what he was doing. Neither of those little kids would know how much all that would cost, because even if they were nobility their education would start at the age of seven, so the man was going to make them pay more. I didn't really think much of it. It wasn't my problem so why should I care, but then I got an idea. I looked around to see if I could find the parents of those kids. I saw a noble lady and assumed that she was their mother based on what she was wearing. Then I walked up to the kids and said:

"That isn't the real price! It would only cost nine coins!" The man looked at me angrily, but after seeing what I looked like his expression changed to a little surprised look. Well… It was a little weird to see a two-year old baby all by herself on the market.

"Why do you think that." The man said. He wasn't taking me seriously. The kids were staring at me and probably didn't understand what was going on.

"It can't cost twenty coins, because if you have five fingers and four fingers you'd have nine fingers, not twenty." I said and even showed it to the kids. The older of them nodded with a confused expression on his face. "If you don't believe me ask your mother! I know I'm right!" The younger of the kids ran to the noble lady and got her there with us. She was a little confused, but after hearing what was going on she scolded the sweets seller and bought the sweets for her children. She even bought the sweets I was supposed to get for me. As I was about to leave she called out to me:

"Could you tell me your name?" It worked! I smiled a little and said:

"I am commoner Liliana, the first child of guard Edwin." This is the way I was taught to introduce myself to nobility. Our family doesn't have a last name, so my father's position and name is my last name until I get married or father dies.

"I am Isabella De Rowetta." I was right. She is really a noble. I have read about the Rowetta family. Her husband is the royal secretary and from what I have read he is good friends with the king. This day might solve all the problems our family is having!