Lying down on one of the beds, a crowd gathers near. Sounds of murmurs among children with the occasional 'whoah' and whispering. The crowd soon dispersed however with a certain girl's presence.

"Let her rest, if you get close to her you might catch her illness," Jodie said to the other children.

"R-right, we don't wanna get sick too..." One of the children said to no one in particular.

"But, if we get sick we might get more food!" One of the children announced, making everyone roar in persistence wanting to look at the new arrival. The new arrival had white hair, pale skin, cat ears and a tail, and brightly dyed clothes. She was wearing a green dress, and a richly dyed brown vest.

The clothes weren't anything special except for their color however, they were still commoner clothes that were patched with new cloth here and there to save money from buying newly made ones. It was just dyed with beautiful colors, something that most commoners can't afford.

"Now, now. Don't disturb her sleep. What are you gonna do if she wakes up? Her illness might get worse and she'll die!" Jodie said, trying to scare the kids away.

"Uwahhhhhhh!" One of the children cried. "I don't want her to dieeeeee!" The child said, which caused a chain reaction of other children crying as well.

"Ah... haha..." Jodie couldn't help but cringe about her poor choice of words. Fortunately enough, Lyrica was a deep sleeper and didn't wake up from the commotion. She didn't even know about it.

Soon enough, first bell rung waking Ruben and the other children from their sleep. Except for a certain cat.

"Hey, wake up," Ruben said, sitting down at Lyrica's bed with his back facing next to her, then he placed one hand on Lyrica's head and patted it. "Wake up, come on."

"Mm...?" Lyrica hummed, still half awake.

"Wake up."

"..." Lyrica fell back to sleep. What the... just how much sleep does this girl need?

"Wake up," Ruben ruffled her hair. "You'll miss breakfast at this rate."

Suddenly, Lyrica's eyes lit up as she assumed a sitting position in one quick movement like a Jack-in-the-Box toy.

Mouth agape, Ruben collected his thoughts. "I'm just waking you up, stay here. I'll prepare breakfast."

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Then, Ruben left the second floor and started his morning routine.

Then, one after the other, the children approached Lyrica, curious.

"Where did you come from?" A boy with brown hair and green eyes asked, the very same one that cried when he thought Lyrica was gonna die.

"Um... everywhere?" Lyrica thought back to when she was with her family, during their peddling days. "M-my... fa...family... used to... tra-." Lyrica's eyes started to water as she cried and wailed.

"H-hey!" Jodie intervened. "Who made her cry?" Jodie awkwardly tried to preserve the peace. Then the children took a step back, leaving a boy with brown hair and green eyes in the spotlight.

"Huh?! Me??" The boy pointed to himself, confused. But I didn't even do anything wrong...

"It was Ergo!" One of the children chimed. "He asked her a question and made her cry."

"Eh?! I only asked where she came from...!" Jodie sighed at the exchange.

Jodie kneeled down, and put her hands on Ergo's shoulders. "Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just that it made her remember something bad. You can apologize to her now to say sorry."

Then Ergo timidly approached the crying Lyrica. "I... I'm sorry, I didn't want you to remember bad things..."

"It's alright... I wasn't blaming you..." Lyrica said, wiping her tears with her blanket.

"Breakfast's ready, you can all go down now," Ruben said smiling, having watched the whole charade which made Jodie blush in realization.

The rest of the children headed down, but Lyrica stayed still. Ruben approached her and asked. "Are you okay?"

"Mm mm," she nodded. "Where am I...?"

"I'm Ruben, and from now on I'm your big brother. Everyone here are your siblings too."

"There was a kind old lady that told me a story... Where is she?"

"Don't call her an old lady I'm warning you, her name is Aunt Bifa and if you don't wanna end up bedridden again don't call her an old lady. She was just outside, washing clothes near the well."

Then quickly, Lyrica got up and ran downstairs, and exited out of the front door shocking the children and making them gasp. "Hey! Wait!" Ruben yelled, running after her and exiting as well. The children was then stunned in silence, they were waiting for Ruben to arrive and serve their food.

She ran outside, smelling the salty scent of the wind and the soothing cold of the rising sun. She spotted a crowd of women around the well, as well as the familiar old lady. There she is...! Lyrica ran to her, huffing and puffing. "Thank you for taking care of me! Au-old lady!" She got embarrassed mid way and just defaulted to 'old lady'. Ruben followed after her and heard the exchange. Facepalming.

The old lady then stopped scrubbing the clothes against the washboard and stood up, wiping her wet hands against her clothes to dry them. She approached Lyrica. "What did you just call me?" As she got closer, the size difference and how bulky she was compared to Lyrica became even more apparent.

"Wait no, stop! Aunt Bifa!" Ruben yelled out, but it was already too late.

The old lady swooped in, her arms stretched in front of her grabbing Lyrica and squeezing her. "Wait no!" Ruben yelled out.

"No! She's still recovering! Let her go and let her rest! Stop hugging her!" Ruben yelled out.

"Ah, ta think that I'll still be called a lady," Aunt Bifa blushed. "Such'a cutie ain't cha?"

"Wait no... she said 'old lady'... not just 'lady'..." Ruben protested.

"Hm?" Bifa glared at him.

"Bwah..." By this point in time Lyrica had already passed out due to hyperhugemia.

"Oh-oh no!" Bifa yelled out.

"I warned both of you..." Ruben scratched his head.