Since it was too early to have lunch, Mark took a large book of fairy tales with amusing pictures to read to the little girl. He read the book slowly and patiently with exaggerated expressions while showing the pictures to the little girl and to his surprise, the little girl started laughing at some of the parts of the story. The little girl’s laugh was like pure tinkling bells. It was pure Christmas magical bells that brought forth the joy and laughter associated with Santa Claus and reindeer and winter wonderland, and he fell in love with the sound.

Suddenly, Mark and the little girl heard some noises outside the room and the girl was afraid and hugged him which puzzled him since according to Mentorra, the girl didn’t react even though she witnessed the battle between the circus’s mages and the man who could possibly her captor. He carried the girl outside and they saw that the noises were made by the twins fighting over some toy but the boys stopped when they saw Mark carrying a little girl.

“Mark who is that little girl?” Isaac shouted when they saw him carrying the girl.

“Don’t shout. This little girl is going to be part of our family. She’s going to be your little sister. Just like you she lost her family I think. I really don’t know the details,” Mark told the twins while he sat on the couch while still carrying the girl.

“She’s so pretty. What’s your name?” Aaron asked the girl but she just stared at Aaron with her big golden and purple eyes.

“She’s holding off on speaking until she gets used to us.”

The girl then tapped Mark, looking worried. Mark intuit that she probably needed to go to the bathroom or something so she brought her to the toilet and he was correct.

When he returned to where the twins were carrying the little girl, Mark saw that Milena was already there waiting.

“Mark, I’m in the process of hiring assistants. I’ll probably hire a total of three or four people. Two will be girls and will be my assistants when we open our stall and the other two will be our bodyguards who will guard our stall and our money boxes.”

“Aren’t you going to hire your friends from Madam Luzviminda’s?”

“The madam will kill me and they’re not ready to leave that life yet. You don’t need to worry though. Once I let it know that we’re hiring, there will be multitudes of people from the circus that would apply,” Milena laughed.

Mark then shrugged and let Milena handle it. He told everyone that it was lunchtime so they all went to the dining table. He placed one of the chairs near him and then sat the little girl there. Everyone also sat on the chairs and the little girl looked curiously wondering why they were all sitting on a table with no food.

“Place your order!” Mark asked everyone grandiosely and it made the twins laugh.

“I would like to have fried chicken, rice, and mango ice cream!” Isaac ordered.

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“I want to eat spaghetti and a strawberry cake for dessert,” Aaron said.

“I miss fish. Can I have grilled fish and rice? I would like some soy sauce, vinegar, and citric juice for dipping sauce. I would also like to have some chocolate ice cream for dessert,” Milena ordered.

Mark made a grand spectacle of uttering nonsensical words that sounded like he was spellcasting then conjured the food that everyone ordered. The twins and Milena clapped and the little girl echoed them.

“Now it’s your turn little princess. Which ones do you want to eat?”

The little girl then seriously examined what the others ordered and her forehead crinkled in thought which made everyone smile thinking that she looked adorable. She then pointed at Isaac’s chicken, Aaron’s spaghetti, and Milena’s grilled fish then she also pointed at Aaron’s strawberry cake.

“You can’t eat all of that with your tiny body!” Isaac said.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll eat those she can’t finish,” Mark said.

He then replicated all the food that the little girl pointed at and when everything was laid down in front of her, her eyes were big and she clapped.

“Remember, you don’t need to worry about finishing everything. If you’re full, you will need to stop eating okay?” Mark told the little girl and she nodded and began eating using her hands.

Mark laughed when he saw that and he let her eat that way. He then replicated a roast chicken and some rice for himself and when the girl saw the whole chicken which was roasted golden to perfection on his plate, the girl tapped him and pointed at his chicken. He laughed again and sliced a quarter chicken and put it on one of the girl’s plates.

Everyone got busy eating their lunch and although the girl, as expected, didn’t finish her food, they were surprised at the amount that she ate. After lunch, Mark kept the leftovers in his inventory and destroyed them.

“Before we leave the table, I will need to do something first so stay for now,”

Mark told everyone who was about to leave then he cast his spell the Dryad’s Circle to make sure that the girl didn’t harbor any hidden illnesses or curses inside her body and to make sure that everyone was in top health. The dryads that came from the illusionary trees that grew around them giggled and waved at everyone and the little girl waved back at the nature ladies and laughed as well. When the twins and Milena heard the little girl’s laughter, they were amazed at the tinkling sounds coming out of the girl. Aaron commented that the girl sounded magical while Isaac nodded, agreeing with his brother.

After the spell was done and the twins and Milena were about to leave, Mark suddenly said that they would need to discuss something important first before they left so they stayed again. Isaac looked grumpy and softly muttered that their friends were waiting outside already, which only made Mark smile.

“The important thing that needed to be discussed is our little princess’s name. Since she’s shy and hasn’t spoken to us yet to tell us her name, I propose that we call her after one of my favorite heroines from a book. That name is Liriel. So little banana, is it okay for us to call you Liriel?” They were all surprised to see the little girl nodding.

Mark started clapping so everyone copied him including Liriel.

“As a celebration, me and Liriel will watch one of my favorite animated movies called Alladin. You can join us if you want or you still go outside and play with your friends. It’s your choice,” Mark told the twins.

Of course, the twins stayed. They all went to the living room and Milena joined them saying she was going to stay anyway since she wanted to inspect the sample items that they were going to sell later.

Mark then dimmed the light and started playing the animated movie Alladin. He loved all the songs in the movie and how funny the genie was so he thought Liriel would enjoy it. At first, the little girl was curious why we dimmed the lights while she hugged her stuffed teddy bear but when the movie started on the huge television set, her eyes became wide and he saw that Liriel was mesmerized by the film.