Mouth agape, Ruben tries to fight back his emotions pushing it down and locking it in his heart. "Wait! What about my authority as a tiva shouldn't I have istants under me that I can—."

"We both know that ya'r only a tiva cuz of special circumstances... and now those special circumstances are affecting our capital," Klaus explains. "I'm sorry son... but we both know why ya don't have istants under ya wing and why you don't have patrons ta give ya commissions."

"W-what? But I did get commissio—."

"...It was all from me lad." Klaus shook his head. "I pitied all of ya... children needing ta survive on yar own. But I also have a family aye? I can't let this workshop fail me lad, I hope ya understand."

Of course... I had a hunch from the very beginning... How can someone like who never shows up at work, someone who can't even do their duties as a tiva, someone who doesn't even have a single patron. How can someone like me get commissions? Of course it all makes sense. And the money that Mister Klaus is paying me with, it's probably the workshop's capital. This is all my fault... But even so... The emotions that Ruben kept bottling up inside exploded with a crack.

"So you're just gonna let all of us starve to death?" No... that's not what I want to say.

"N-no son I jus—."

"Just what, didn't care enough about the lives of a few useless orphans?" Please... stop...

"Rube—."

"Don't you dare say my name, at the end of the day you just pitied us didn't you?" Ruben shook Klaus' hands off his shoulders with his hand. "You liked laughing behind my back just like everyone huh?! Did you like having control over my life old man?!"

Ruben left the workshop, slamming the doors shut with a bang. "I'm sorry Rube—... laddie..." Klaus hushed to himself, his arms instinctively reaching out to the back of the young man leaving his workshop, but he didn't chase after him. He was too hurt but his arms still reached out for Ruben, he was guilty that he couldn't do anything better for the young man.

...I didn't really mean any of those. But I can't come back down now, what's done is done. I can't do anything about what I said. This is for the best. Ruben thought to himself as he headed southward into the orphanage with shaky steps, bottling the guilt in his heart and locking it.

♦ ♦ ♦

Sitting on their beds, the children started to gossip among themselves curious about the outside world. "So what's peddling life like?"

"Mm... it was like..."

Me and Royce liked to play games, doing aris...mel...tik...? Arismeltik! We counted coins and thought about... kon...ver...syon...? Konversyon rates! We looked at coins and did some arismeltik on them! Comparing the... value! And if I got it right I get extra potatops on my next meal...! He said that he didn't like potatops so he'd always smile when he gave them to me when I won!

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

And then we used to go from place to place... Papa asked Royce and Rudz about... stuff... I think? And he would buy stuff and sell them in the next place! And somehow our money grew! And then since I'm a good girl Papa gave me some coins! I bought him some round bread with liquid sugar at the top and he ate it, his face was so happy!

Hm... I remember Rudz reading a book and boiling some water! And then the water turned into white crystals, he called them salt. He said it was eva...pur...? Evaporation! Then we did a lot of other cool stuff. He liked to talk about some cool stuff! Like how our body works, he said something about... cells... I think? Ah... but he always pokes fun at me... He's a bad person.

Oh! And Anastasia is super strong! She can run super fast, jump super high, and she'd always scold me... She said I shouldn't have cried for the deer... But the deer was cute... But she took off the skin! And then she started a fire and began cooking it! And she made me eat it! She told me that I'll be strong like her if I ate more food... She's not a bad sister!

And Mama used to always fix my clothes! Dad called her a... sea...mis...ters? Seamisters! She can put cloth over the holes in my dress and fix it! Papa said that she was beautiful because she can do that! Ah... But I'm not good with doing that... So I cried, but Mama gave me a big hug and told me that I'll always be beautiful!

"Whoahhh!" The children exclaimed.

"That's so cool!" Ergo praised.

"Hmph! Of course!" The girl said, holding her head high.

Then with a slam the door opened, letting inside a grizzled fury inside that stormed upstairs.

"Ah!" Lyrica exclaimed. While the other children just went silent, possibly used to this.

"Wait a minute, I'll be back. Continue with your stories," Jodie said, heading upstairs to talk to Ruben.

Soon enough, Jodie and Ruben's bickering could be heard. They were arguing like cats and dogs, passing the blame to each other. Curious, Lyrica headed upstairs along with Ergo.

"My fault?! How can this be my fault?? I already told you that I can't work!" Jodie yelled.

"Ah yes!! Of course!! You can't work because you can't have calluses on your pretty hands am I right princess?!" Ruben argued back. "And your help?? Oh yes!! Of course!! You think something as useless as buying from the market is helping! How naive of you!"

"Oh?? That's rich to hear from someone who keeps using our budget to buy gifts for Rita!! Has that worked out for you yet, oh I'm sorry I forgot. Rita doesn't love you!!" Jodie spat.

"Oh yea—...?" Ruben was about to say something, but stopped seeing what Jodie was pointing to.

Both of them went to silence as soon as they heard the girl with white hair and the boy with brown hair trying to calm her down. She was crying with tears streaming down her little face. Then with weak little steps, she moved forward and held into Jodie's skirt. "Plea...se... don't... f-fight..." She let out with her tiny little voice.

"We... we're not fighting okay...?" Jodie stammered.

"Yeah... we're not fighting... see...?" Ruben said, trying to force a smile.

"Liars..." Lyrica said, clutching into Ergo instead. "Your smile isn't as gentle as Royce's...! It's fake! You're both liars!!"

Lyrica said, still holding into Ergo's clothes, with Ergo patting her head trying to calm her down. She stood up and backed away from Ergo with a blank expression, tears still welling from her eyes. Then she stormed off downstairs and headed out of the orphanage running away. Leaving Jodie, Ruben, and Ergo stopped at their tracks, speechless.

"You're both just gonna stand there?!" Ergo barked. "She was right... both of you are liars!! You don't care about us!!" Ergo then ran off, trying to chase after Lyrica.

Ruben couldn't move forward and run after them, he didn't even reach his hand out. He was too occupied with his guilt that he didn't even stop to think about how others felt. He focused on his own problems and plummeted down, blaming others. All he could stammer out was a weak little, "...Wait."