Puberty had hit Ray hard. Especially since she could distinctly remember having already been through puberty once.

Having her usual brooding session while staring out the window from her usual brooding place, Ray watched as the debt collectors slowly walked out of view. Lily was sitting next to her, knitting. She was already halfway through making a sock for one of the younger children.

" Ray... What are you angry at now?" Lily said somehow sensing that Ray was angry despite the fact that she had not looked up to see Ray's expression. Lily had grown much more than Ray had over the years.

Though they were the same age, Lily was already 5 feet 4 inches if calculated using Earth's system and 162 centimetres if calculated with Earth's metric system. Whereas, Ray was only 55 inches or approximately 140 centimetres. This may be because of genetics, however, no one on Krashu knew if genetics was even a thing. After all, Krashu's laws didn't work the same way as Earth's.

In short, Ray was short because she hasn't been eating well. Lily on the other hand HAS been eating well. It was not that Ray was being bullied, nor that she was being given less food. She simply never had the appetite to eat. Now, back to why Ray was angry.

" The debt collectors," Ray said with a low growl.

" Ah... You know we can't do anything about them. Brother Jake already sent a letter to the emperor about it." Lily replied while patting Ray on her back as she tried to soothe the moody girl's anger. Unlike the anger-prone, depressed Ray, Lily was a bright ray of sunshine.

However, though she had always looked at the positive side of things, she was not naive enough to think that having loan sharks come to their orphanage was a good thing. She had long outgrown her previously more airheaded personality.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

" I have an idea to make money," Ray said all of a sudden. This comment caused Lily to pause her knitting as she looked up to see Ray's serious face.

" Really? How?" Lily said enthusiastically as she put down the knitting needles and half-made sock.

" I just remembered how to make paper," Ray said as she took a look at the thick forest surrounding the orphanage through the window.

" Paper? Like the ones that make up the books from the imperial library? Or is it like the paper that the ancient notebooks are made out of?" Lily asked, curious as to which 'paper' Ray was talking about.

" The paper should turn out like the ones from the ancient notebooks that Grandpa John spoke about," Ray said, still staring at the trees.

" Ooooh! We should be able to support the orphanage if we can sell that! Why didn't you say anything about this paper-making technique before? We should go tell Brother Jake and Sister Maia!" Lily asked as she began grappling Ray, attempting to drag her best friend to their caretakers. Ray, however, simply shuddered.

" I-I just remembered how to. I watched many videos about making paper back in my past life for fun." As she thought about her past, Ray shivered involuntarily again before getting up. She then began following Lily to the living room where their caretakers should be at the moment. Entertaining and teaching the younger children how to speak.

" Videos?" Lily asked as they walked.

" Yeah, the videos are similar to the images from the remembering stone that the Imperial Enlightened make. It is moving images." Ray explained as well as she could to Lily.

" Ooohh... You must have been rich in your past life." The girl said as they entered the living room.

" No... I was average..." Ray mumbled under her breath.

" Brother Jake, Ray thought of a way to make money! We can make paper!" Lily said spreading her arms as if she was imagining a massive business empire as, Ray, her loyal follower simply slung behind her and let the larger girl speak.

" Do you know how to make paper?" An interested Brother Jake asked as he watch Ray hide behind Lily with a little amusement. Noticing his stare, Ray timidly nodded.

" I remember the steps to make paper." The girl said as she stared at the floor.

" We need fibre from plants."

" The stringy things? Like the ones we use to make clothes? Cotton I think it is called?" Jake asked the girl as he got up from his seat.

" No... we must find a plant with nice fibres. Then, we can..." The discussion on how to make paper went on for a while before Brother Jake agreed to let them try. However, they were to only do so if Brother Jake was supervising as Ray had mentioned having to boil water.