The next morning, Shin which couldn’t sleep a single second due to Shou’s ridiculously loud snoring , was suddenly jumped on at full force by Estelle. “Wake up Shin! It’s morning!” Annoyed by her action, shin shouted back in response “I’m awake… Now get off me , you’re heavy!!”. Which caused Estelle to start constantly slapping him , until Teodora stepped in and lifted her out of bed, and started patting her head while comforting her “there, there. Shin is just tired, he didn’t mean to say you’re heavy. Although you are” which somehow calmed her down to a certain extent, but Shin and Estelle were both still glaring at each other.
As the others were also getting out of bed by now, the 2 kept glaring at each other, and the rest just went on to wash their teeth while Ren dragged Shin and Teodora Estelle and keeping them distant enough so they wouldn’t jump each other, keeping that up even as they were brushing their teeth.
After getting dressed, by now Shou was already in the dining area at a table waiting for them, as for any other meal of the day, those being the only times Shou isn’t last to come. They kept dragging the two and keeping them distant, even as they sat at the table Shou was waiting for them at, putting the 2 in the middle of both sides since the tables were for 6 people. “They still going at it huh” Shou remarked as he and Lydia were sitting next to Shin, while Ren and Teodora next to Estelle.
“They are also ignoring us completely even tho they are in the middle” Ren replied, then all 4 of them just sighed in acceptance of the fact that they wouldn’t stop any time soon. “By the way, who’s the one in charge of breakfast today?” Shou asked , his attention back to food as usual “I think it’s Mary, so it’s gonna be a sweet breakfast today” Teodora replied. Mary who’s in charge of breakfast today then, came in with a bunch of other caretakers and a bunch of serving trolleys and they started giving everyone breakfast. Shin and the rest’s table was the furthest away from where they started distributing it, so it was going to take a few minutes, but as the others got their breakfast, they all had the same scared expression on their faces. “Why does everyone look so scared?” Lydia asked “Mary probably tried baking pastries again” Ren replied with a sigh “no, I don’t think that’s it” Shou said with a ridiculously serious expression while crossing his arms. Which caused the others besides the 2 that kept glaring at each other to all swift their attention to him. “W-what do you mean?” Lydia asked “the one in charge of cooking is Mary. There’s no mistake about that.” He then took a pause before continuing , while looking around and smelling the air “But this smell! It’s not sweet. Mary only knows how to make sweets, last time she tried to cook a savory meal 10 kids ended up food poisoned and half the building on fire. Their reactions are because…” but before he could finish… the food had arrived at their table, and to everyone’s shock besides the 2 still glaring at each other, Shou was right.
As they all were staring at their food , clearly concerner for their lives, the first to speak was Ren “Teodora. You’re the oldest, you try it first and let the younger generation know if it’s safe to eat.” “W-what? Why would I? You’re only a few month younger than me, and you’re a boy! Are you going to let a lady potentially get food poisoning, is that what kind of man you are!?” “You’re right… I’m sorry Teodora.” Ren then turned to Shou “this is something only you can do. Your stomach has adapted to everything Mary has ever cooked.” “B-but” “There’s no But. shou, you’re the only one who can do it.” Ren kept pressing the matter, and Shou felt an unjust need to do it, since Ren was right.
Last time Mary cooked something savory, out of those 10 kids ending up food poisoned, Ren and Teodora were 2 of them. (Lydia slept in that day and skipped breakfast so she was fine). As Shou finally gathered the resolve to go first, everyone kept staring at him with suspence waiting for his verdict, not just the ones sitting at their table, but everyone in the room. They were all touched by his bravery, and started cheering him. “If I don’t make it… Ren. I’m the one who ate your favorite cupcake 2 months ago.” “I already knew you idiot, you had cream on your face when you tried to deny it.” Ren said in a ironically emotional tone “I see.. I’ve got no more regrets then.” He then took a better look at the meal in front of him. It’s appearance was normal, just a few scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, but they all knew better than trusting Mary’s cooking. he took some eggs with his fork, and was about to go for it. But right when they were almost in his mouth, without a single care as they weren’t listening Shin and Estelle started eating their breakfast while still casually glaring at each other. “Huh?” Everyone else in the room said as their jaws dropped, and the 2 just kept eating and not only that, they seemed to had gotten into a race of who finishes their food faster. They all hesitantly tried it and ended up asking for seconds, as Mary stood there victorious.
A few hours had passed, it was around 11 in the morning, and they were in the orphanage’s backyard which was very large, and had various things for entertainment which were being used by some other kids as of right now.
a few were on the slides, one of which had just fallen off, some were pushing each other on the swings where a boy had just pushed a girl too hard, causing her to fall. Some were on the roundabout, where about 3 of the current 5 spinning on it were about to throw up, and a few others on the monkey bars. there were also a few football fields, basketball courts or tennis camps or volleyball courts, though they were mostly for the more sports passionate ones.
Teodora would usually play Volleyball as she’s actually the Ace of the female team, while Ren and Shou would usually play football. Ironically enough, the shy and small Lydia was actually the unbeaten tennis prodigy of the orphanage, and Estelle was more or less good at any sports but mostly basketball, which was part of why Teodora calls her a gorilla.
Though none of them really wanted to play to begin with today, as the shock from Mary’s cooking being edible still hadn’t left them, they were also bound to stay away from anything that would give the 2 that were still glaring at each other a opportunity to hurt themselves. Sitting on 2 different benches and splitting equally with the fighting ones in the middle to avoid any additional drama, Teodora was the first to speak. “I wonder when these 2 will stop, it’s getting annoying” as she sighed and kept Estelle in place with her arm wrapped around Estelles neck, Ren replied while in a similar situation with shin. “they are completely ignoring us at the end of the day, at least they aren’t resisting” “I guess you also have a point” Teodora replied back and just started sighting to herself in acceptance of the situation at this point. “Why don’t we take them out? Maybe that will distract them and they’ll forget about it” the one who suggested it was Shou, to which Lydia nodded in agreement, making it pretty hard for the others to decline.
Each group at the orphanage had an assigned caretaker, though they also just took care of the others in general, the assigned ones gave the kids their weekly allowances, and were responsabile specifically for their own group.
Their Caretaker was actually Mary, so they quickly went to look for her to let her know they wanted to go outside the orphanage and they would need their allowance.
Knowing Mary they went straight to the kitchen, since that’s where she was most of the time practicing her cooking, as she thinks that’s the only thing left that she has to learn to get married, though the kids weren’t so sure about that as she was 24 by now and never had a boyfriend, but they all still hoped she’d eventually find someone.
they got to the kitchen and there she was, trying some new recipes as usual. “Mary, we want to go out to show Shin the city and to get these 2 to stop fighting!, give us our allowance!” Shou was the one who called out to her, which actually scared Mary causing her to drop the dough she was preparing on the ground.
She was pretty close to crying, but ultimately just gave them the money as she usually carried them around in her pockets in a sack, she gave them 15 copper coins each, which was their weekly allowance for whenever they would want to go out. Ignoring Mary’s sobbing Teodora was the one to take all the coins, since she was the least likely to loose them “thanks, we’re going to eat out also so no need to make our lunch portions” she said very casually to which Mary managed to reply between her sobs “alright, just make sure to come back before dinner”, “we don’t intend on babysitting these 2 the whole day, so don’t worry, we will” Teodora replied back and started walking away while carrying Estelle on her shoulder, Ren doing the same with Shin as Mary waved at them with a smile “take care” were her last words before cleaning the mess she made earlier and start all over again.
Tertāmen was around 238,397 km2 in size, and around 25 million current habitants. Unlike other countries though, it was all a metropolitan land, in which war related conflict would always be inexistent in, but that didn’t mean it was completely out of conflict as a whole, unlike what many thought. Tertāmen was divided in 5 main districts, all having sub districts of their own divided based on wealth and status.
The government of this supposedly heavenly land was located in the 5th and central district, and ruled by a council of high status individuals from each continents currently at war.
After establishing tertāmen and it’s no war related conflict rule, each kingdom had sent 2 individuals, of duke status in this council, and their descendants would take over.
Tertāmen’s founds came from all kingdoms paying a monthly fee, and also from commercial activities which happened in the 2 peaceful months in the continent.
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The discrimination between poor and wealthy was unfortunately very elevate in Tertāmen, but everyone living there besides a few exceptions thought of it as nothing but natural. Truly a sad reality, considering that it’s called the living heaven on earth by outsiders which are unknown to the heavy discrimination.
In fact even orphanages require a 5 gold coins per child fee to simply give a child a home. The slums of Tertāmen were very distinct, as many with diseases, starving or injured could be seen around, and many homeless children which have no way of paying the orphanage fee weren’t excluded.
As they got out of the orphanage’s property and turned right they were on towards the shopping area, with Estelle’s hand being held by Teodora and Ren keeping Shin in place by his sleeve. “Uhm… where exactly are we taking these 2 though” Lydia was the one to ask as they all walked towards their destination, “we’re going to the shopping area, but it’s not like we have anything to buy after all” Ren replied then the next to talk was Shou “these 2 are ignoring us anyways, wherever we go should be fine?” “No, to begin with we’re taking them out so they can stop ignoring us, and stop fighting like wild animals” Teodora exclaimed with a sigh. “W-what if we take them.. to the park?” Lydia suggested in her usual almost whisper like tone, which somehow they all hear loud and clear, though someone who doesn’t know her would probably not. “I guess it wouldn’t be a bad idea, it’s a pretty warm day for this time of the year, so why not” with Teodora’s approval now, their destination had changed to the main park, which was around 10 minutes away on foot.
After getting there, surprisingly to no one the first thing Shou mentioned while looking around at the various food stalls was “those look so good! We have to try them!” Which resulted in him getting a smack to the head from Teodora. “We’re not here to stuff our mouths” she sighed, but then took another look around and decided that it actually wouldn’t be a bad idea. “Let’s go take a seat first, that table should be fine” she pointed at one of the many wooden tables with seats, designed for people to have a seat while eating from many of the food stalls or simply for a picnic if they wanted, today it was pretty empty as usual in this time of the year though regardless of it being a warmer day.
After they sat down, To her shock the unlikely possibility of Teodora loosing the sack with their money had became reality, causing her to forget about the 2 they were trying to get to stop fighting. “Ren, Shou come with me, Lydia you stay with them. We have to find them before someone else does!” She blssed them around. though not like it was anything new, nor something they were against, so they did as she said and in a single instant, Lydia was left alone with 2 angry kids that were glaring at each other, or rather by now as they had no one to hold them back they were already going at it, their foreheads attached as they pushed each others palms. “G-guys, you shouldn’t fight..” the poor Lydia tried to stop them, but obviously couldn’t do much really, as she was the shyest, smallest in stature and third youngest among them, the only ones younger than her being Shin and Estelle by a few months.
After a few more attempts of stopping them, she rightfully gave up, and started thinking for a way to make them stop instead, and as she looked around, she remembered Shou’s words from earlier saying that some of the food at the stalls looked good, that being what she decided to go with. Teodora didn’t take Lydia’s money when they got them from Mary, as it was very unlikely for her to loose them, so She still had her own spare. That being said though, having the money wasn’t enough, due to Lydia’s Shyness it was pretty hard for her to go anywhere outside the orphanage alone, but she was determined to stop Shin and Estelle from fighting, because although it had only been a day, or rather less than a day since she met Shin, he was already a dear friend to her, like Estelle and the rest, and she didn’t want her friends to be fighting. After getting the resolve for it, she started walking towards a stall, which was pretty far away actually as the tables were mostly designed for picnics but started being used with food bought from these stalls, so she had a bit to walk.
Normally it would’ve had taken the others around 15 minutes to get there, get the food and come back but after around 10 minutes only, Lydia finally arrived at the stall which was selling Takoyaki. After waiting in line, another few minutes passer but ultimately it was her turn. The lady selling them had a bit of trouble hearing her at first, but eventually she heard Lydia order 3 Takoyaki servings, which had 6 squid stuffed balls each, and costed 5 copper per serving, that being all of the money she had.
a bag would’ve had costed another copper coin, but the lady was nice enough to put them in a bag and give them to her for free, as she was taken aback by Lydia’s cuteness. So with a proud smile, Lydia took the bag of Takoyaki and started going back.
Teodora and the others still hadn’t came back, as she didn’t exactly know where she lost them or at which point, so they went quite back and all around the area they walked on.
Shin and Estelle were still fighting, unaware of Lydia being gone even tho 15 minutes had passed by now.
At this pace, it would’ve been around 5 more minutes until she got back to them, but a group of a few guys around her age had spotted her, and the bag in her hand so they approached her, causing Lydia to get too scared to keep walking as they surrounded her. “C-can i help y-you?” She murmured, “huh? Can’t hear you, speak up if you’re trying to say something.” One of the boys said, causing Lydia only to get even more scared and start trembling as they walked closer to her, causing her to fall to the ground. “Seems like you bought some takoyaki there, how about u give them to us?” Another one of the boys said, “s-sorry.. t-these are for my friends.. I-I can’t” Lydia replied, but this time they were able to hear her, only making them angrier. “What kind of friends would let someone like you who can’t even talk properly but something alone?” The kid which seemed like their leader mocked her.
The others joined him in mocking not really Lydia at this point, rather just her friends, and they kept going for probably around 30 seconds, until…“D-don’t make fun of my friends.” Lydia said firmly this time, with eyes filled with determination to not let them put dirt on her friend’s name. “Huh? What did you say?” The boy’s leader asked in shock, not expecting her to be able to look at anyone like that or speak in a such determined tone, which was audible nonetheless. “I said don’t make fun of my friends.” Lydia repeated herself with even more determination in her eyes and voice.
The boy then gestured something to his friends, and before she could say or do anything, Lydia was being held by 4 boys, and her takoyaki bag had been taken from her. “G-give then back, they’re for my friends!” Lydia shouted, “you keep talking about some friends of yours, but where are they when you’re in this situation, huh?” The boy talked in a calm tone, looking down on her as his friends kept holding her.” “T-that’s… they are having an argument, so I’m giving them these takoyaki’s to make them feel better and make up.” She replied, with a hint of hesitation In her tone.
But before she could do anything else, the boy simply kicked her in the stomach, and kept looking down on her with dead eyes “if they were your friends, they would’ve had came with you. And they would be here now.” “T-that’s…” but before she could continue, the boy kicked her again. “That’s what? Huh? Speak up.” “Th-that’s not, not true.” She managed to say in between breaths, and coughs from the kick’s impacts. “How is it not true, explain it to me.” The boy asked, still looking down on her, but at least seemingly interested in letting her speak. “It’s not l-like they let me go alone, 3 of them h-had to rush away to find something, and I-I was left with the 2 that are fighting. I-I can’t expect them, to b-baby me around my entire life, just because I’m like this. I’m g-going to get them some good food, and have them forget about their fight, and have them make up. Because f-friends help each other regardless of who helps who more.” Lydia said with full on determined and convinced eyes.
The boy was taken aback by her words, and suddenly lost all of his composure. He then gestured something to his friends holding her, and they also started slapping and punching her. They kept going mercilessly at it, the park being too empty for anyone to notice, and then being too far away from the stall Lydia bought her takoyaki from, and still pretty far from their table, so all she could do was take it and cry hoping that someone would come. Suddenly though, a thought came to mind out of nowhere, something that would’ve been naturally the first thing she should’ve had done, but it only now came to mind. She gathered all the strength she had left, and all the breath she could and said only 3 words. “Please help me”
Neither the kids hitting her or their leader could hear what she said, but they could tell she tried to say something, causing them to stop hitting and just straight up laugh. “I’ve no idea what you said, but I can guess hahahah, you probably tried calling for help, but unfortunately for you, no one is coming to-“ everyone was shocked. Before the boy could even finish talking, he had already been sent flying by a punch in his jaw. As they turned around to where their leader should’ve had been, they only saw 2 kids that looked so angry, all they could see really was the boy’s crimson red and the girl’s golden eyes glowing with it anger and hatred. “You bastards… let her go.” The 2 said together in a tone filled with pure anger, so much that it scared the very souls of the ones that were hitting Lydia, but even in that state, Lydia recognized the 2 very well.
They were Shin and Estelle. The other kids that were previously hitting Lydia fell to their knees trembling with fear, as the 2 approached them.
Lydia wasn’t really hurt too badly, ironically or not she had a pretty large durability, and her skin wasn’t easy to scratch, but she was definitely tired, enough for her to simply fall asleep right there as soon as they let go of her, but it wasn’t over.
“Seems like Lydia fell asleep” Shin said in a calm tone, which only further scared the other kids due to the contrast between his calm voice and enraged eyes. “So it seems, we were late” Estelle replied with eyes and tone matching Shin’s “w-wait we only did what he told us to” one of the boys on the ground said while almost crying, pointing at their leader passed out on the ground a few meters away.
“You blaming him for everything now huh” shin said with a clearly disgusted tone now “w-what?” The same boy asked, but was cut short by Estelle “at least take responsibility for your own actions, you piece of shit.” The boy had no reply for that. Shin then walked towards Lydia and took her on his back, while Estelle took the takoyaki bag which had fallen to the ground, and started walking away, but stopped for a moment to tell the kids their last words “we’re only letting you go without beating you up because Lydia would catch a cold if we left her sleep on the ground. Don’t think there will be a second time you bastards.” Both Shin and Estelle said in Synchrony then walked towards their table to wait for the others.
Once they arrived to the table, they found Teodora and the others already there waiting for them, and after explaining the situation while still holding Lydia on his back, bot him and Estelle rightfully got yelled at by Teodora and made sure they knew it was their fault.
After a few punches which both of them took without complaining Teodora hugged them, clearly relieved that they were all safe, so they all decided to simply go back to the orphanage, as none of them intended to risk Lydia getting a cold.
When Lydia woke up, it was around 7pm and she was on her bed in their orphanage room, with the others all around her bed talking to each other, they didn’t notice she had woken up yet, but without thinking much of it, Lydia started crying as she got up and hugged shin and Estelle at the same time, “I’m so glad, you 2 aren’t fighting anymore” she said in between sobs, the 2 of them simply letting her be, as they patted her back. “We’re sorry for worrying and getting you in that situation, Lydia” “yeah, we started fighting for something so stupid we don’t even remember what it was for anymore” shin then Estelle talked, both chuckling as they had clearly made up now. After they all calmed down, they had dinner and played until they all fell asleep, besides shin.
~Lydia ended up being hurt because of me, I’m the worst… But I swear. I’ll never let it happen again.~
Unknowingly to him though, Estelle was also actually awake and they had thought of the same exact thing, at the same exact time. Almost as if it was telepathy and they shared their feelings, they both blamed themselves for what happened, and both were determined to never let Lydia ever get hurt again.