Chapter 46: I’m a Child

(Still Bart’s POV)

“The danger doesn’t change even if she stays here right?”

“I know you guys are strong. But, they have too many people. What will you do if they surround you outside of town?”

Indeed, I hadn’t thought of that.

“At least we have some servants here, and there are people around. Why don’t you just leave her here when you go out for hunts?”

We discussed this with each other.

“I don’t know whether Alistair would agree with this.”

“I guess it’s safer if Leila stays here.”

“Can we even trust the mayor?”

“I can hear you,” the mayor said.

“Joking. But it really would be difficult to defend Lei if a large number of people surround us while we’re dealing with Hollows.”

“So it’ll be fine if we just leave her here when we go on hunts?”

We’ve made our decision.

“Amy will be happy.”

“So that’s what you wanted!”

The mayor is also a disappointing man.

☆ ☆ ☆ (Lei’s POV)

The room we were taken to was a large sunny room where we could see a wide prairie on the other side. Alistair must have been here before because he looked like he knew we were going to come here, but it was a really nice room for us children.

“Everyone will gather in this room if something happens, but normally it’s just our playroom,” the sister explained.

“Anyway, Alistair. See there?” The brother said before dragging Alistair into a corner where a box was placed.

“Ray, this!” Alistair said in surprise. I tried to go over there too.

“Woah.”

There were a number of small boxes in the corner and building blocks were all neatly packed inside the boxes like how they were sold in Japan.

“He asked an artisan to make it because people were playing with it in town. Trentforce is a town full of woodworkers you know, also they’re able to sell it to rich kids if they make it into sets like this.”

Apparently these were building block prototypes. The boys, whose eyes were sparkling with excitement, took everything out of the boxes and began playing with the blocks. I just watched them without doing anything, but these blocks weren’t enough for building blocks.

“Noth enough.”

“Lei?”

“Noth enough shhapesh. Thriangwe, recthangwe.” I put my hands on the diagonal blocks to show them.

“Becwom thriangwe.”

“So we can make slopes and stuff if they’re diagonal?!”

“Oh, it’s true. Lei, you’re amazing!” They said in excitement. They started eagerly building something.

“Hey,” it was the sister who said this.

“Aai.”

“My name’s Amy.”

“Emi-shan.”

“That’s the magic store’s Mrs. I’m Amy.”

“Eimyy. Lei.”

I introduced myself. Of course.

“Lei. You’re cute.”

Amy hugged me. It hurts, it really hurts. Something, something’s going to come out. You have to let me go before that happens.

“I wanted a little sister,” she said as she held my hands and took me to a corner of the room. Well, I don’t hate being cherished. Then, she took a small box from the shelf, opened it and showed it to me.

“See?”

I don’t know what you want even if you say ‘see’. The clothes, which a small doll would wear, were folded neatly inside. There were two holes in the sleeves for arms to pass through.

Amy gently took something from under the clothes.

“Thhish.”

I grabbed the pouch that hung from my shoulders with both hands and put it near what Amy was holding.

“Right?”

“Ai!”

It was a worn-out red rug dragon doll. We match.

“Most of the kids in this town receive a Rug Dragon from Emy. She put a string on it so you wouldn’t lose it.”

“Sthring!”

I thought it was because I couldn’t fit it into my pockets, but it was so I wouldn’t lose it.

“So, we’re going to change the rug dragon’s clothes.”

“Fuwa.”

historical

So, Amy and I had fun changing the clothes on the rug dragons while the boys played with the building blocks.

“HEEEY, Alistair, Lei,” I heard Bart’s voice when the sun was setting a little and it was getting darker. Alistair quickly stood up and put his hands on his hair, “I, I noticed that it was getting dark. But I thought it would be fine,” he made up excuses. He was so enthusiastic when he was building those blocks. Kyaro and Clyde looked to the side as they grinned so that we couldn’t see it and Bart smiled wryly.

“Hey, looks like you have something interesting there,” Mill said as he picked up the scattered blocks.

“Lei said that it would be fine if we made that into triangles.”

“Triangles?” Kyaro and Clyde jumped at Alistair’s voice.

“Shhave angwesh.”

“Angles? It’s probably better to not make them sharp since kids are going to play with them... Hey, Ray?”

“What?”

Kyaro called out as he showed Ray the blocks, “Can you explain this to your dad? It’ll probably sell well.”

“I know!”

So as we went home, I was told that I wouldn’t be going hunting with them and would instead be staying at the mayor’s mansion because there were suspicious people around.

“What will you do Alistair?”

“I’m-! I’ll be going on hunts but, I’m worried about Lei so I’ll also stay at the mayor’s place every now and again.”

“Oh yeah, the mayor was happy about the triangle blocks, so he’s been getting them produced. He told me to bring the kids in town to play at his house.”

“I-it’s like a job.”

“You can do what you want.”

Bart’s voice was filled with warmth while the corners of Alistair’s mouth turned up a little. It was a difficult day because I found out that the news about father coming to bring me back was fake but, “Noth bad.”

“What’d you say?”

“Nothhing.”

It was a fun day.