There’s a saying… If you seek directions, ask the navigators. If you seek skills, ask for a professional. If you seek the truth, ask the children.

Down to four idiots in my possession, we sheltered ourselves inside the children’s playground, an abandoned shed that was once used by hunters. Now, since the nearby monsters are extinguished, it lost their purpose in the kingdom, but not these orphans.

Every piece of furniture in sight, tables, chairs, and even their beds, was made of wooden boxes. No one would believe that this house is abandoned since dust motes didn’t float in the air. Only the morning light shafts that were filtered by the window dirt were their source of incandescence. The scent of rusted tools and nails didn’t leave my nostrils though.

Ellen took a shower from the river to rinse her sweat. Kingsley used his roots to create a new bridge. Only Guinelle sat with the other children as Rox prepared the meals and the utensils. Rox couldn’t rest easy after knowing that their lunch was only filtered water. She prepared a homemade curry with improvised spices and edible vegetables from nearby trees and plants.

“Lunch is ready!”

The masses, including Gavin, took a dish of meal and sat on the box before me. As he ate, I noticed that his close watch was fixated on Guinelle. With every swallow, he stunned himself when she smiled. Guinelle loved the sight of kids enjoying a delicious delicacy.

I smirked, resting my elbow on my knee and my chin on my clenched fist. “I suppose you have a crush on her.”

He coughed and drank quick water. His face blushed, turning in the opposite direction as he exclaimed, “W–What makes you think that!? Also, you act like a boy.”

“Hmmm? Kids these days follow the same routine. Fall in love, make love, starve every day, die early, let the child suffer. Are you even circumcised?”

He narrowed his eyes and asked, “What?”

I leaned back and nodded. “You’re not even matured in body, you’re also not in soul. Instead of pretending as adults, I suppose you should play house instead. We had a playground in our country for adults with no childhood.”

“I’m not looking at her like that! It’s just that… I just remembered someone from her.”

His gaze returned, but now, it was solely focused on Guinelle’s bangs. He might’ve encountered Guinelle when she was still the temple’s saint. However, Guinelle doesn’t want anyone to tamper with her past.

“Too bad. I suppose she wouldn’t like it if I shared an info or two about her. Just accept that you aren’t destined.”

His face appeared red. In frustration, he squeaked, “I told you I’m not looking at her like that!”

I covered my mouth and giggled, “Kids get offended easily, so onion-skinned.”

After the children ate their meals, I completely grasped their situation. All Gavin muttered was their situation of escaping to another country to avoid the threats, but they also knew the risks of monsters lying around and the distance between territories. Inside the politics, the king gave up on the resolution knowing that the targets were only orphans in the slums.

If the target rejects being sent away, they’ll instantly be murdered, not even uttering their last words. Hence, the kingdom just treated the crisis as a development to prevent poverty and promote tourism. That wasn’t the king’s intention, but it was a blessing in disguise for the citizens.

Ellen, now in another elegant velvet dress, came back from her cleansing and instantly sat beside Mary who carved images within the thin plywoods using charcoal. She asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’m drawing my family,” Mary replied as she showed her an image of forty stick men having the same height but different names and hair.

“That’s a huge bunch of a family. I started feeling goosebumps on how I could afford to feed that number of souls,” Ellen exclaimed, holding her arm.

“No. That was us. Gavin, me, and the others.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“... But that was a good drawing. Were you dreaming of becoming an artist?”

Mary shook her head. She gathered the other carved plywoods in the nearby store box and presented it to Ellen like a slideshow. Each picture represented a stick figure of a smiling girl in a dress who wore a crown and owned a glittering heel.

“You see, I wanted to become a princess someday. However, I’m not even a noble. And I have no chance of winning the heart of a prince. But I just need to save and become rich, and I’ll soon be recognized by the royal family. That was my dream since I was born.”

“I… I see…” Instead of being joyful about a child having a wish, Ellen’s lips pressed together in a slight grimace. “Don’t you have any other dreams aside from this?”

Mary shook her head and said, “I always wanted to be a princess someday. I adore how elegant and pretty they were in different dresses. However, what I want most now is to survive until I get older.”

Ellen rubbed Mary’s head and said, “Your dreams will soon change if they don't come true. You’re still young. The world isn’t as linear as it seems. As Entropy states, you’re the only one who can control your future. Very demure, very mindful.”

“Lady, you’re quite elegant, like a princess. Are you really a princess?” Mary’s eyes glimmered when she asked.

However, Ellen averted her eye contact and murmured, “...... No. You should dream of something else, not to be a whore.” Completely lost in thought, she stood up and left the cabin.

The confused Mary’s chin dipped onto her chest, adopting a slumped posture. The sparkle in her eyes vanished when she rubbed her nose. She approached me and asked, “Missy, did I say something that hurt her?”

I smiled, “I suppose she might be happy right now. She’s just shy of compliments. Not to brag, but don’t tell anybody about this. I’m a princess of a faraway kingdom.”

“Really!? Then, do I have a chance to become a princess?”

As I told her countless crafted stories, the bloom in her face returned, continuing her carvings, not knowing that I lied. Like Guinelle, Ellen had a gruesome past and she wanted no one to pry into it. Only Rox and I knew about it when we scouted our members. For Ellen, princesses are born to produce the gloom and doom of a bloodline. Elegance was their everyday food in the prison called royalty.

“So Quimora, you looked like you’re the same age as us, but you think like an old man. How old are you really?” Gavin asked.

The legal age was forged to divide the child’s acceptance of the real world whenever they’re ready. I’m an exception though. I lived inside an eternal fifteen-year-old body and witnessed the twenty years of progression of this world. This doesn’t include yet the eighteen years of assassination experience from my past life.

To answer, I called Rox to provide me with a rolled shirt fitting for Gavin’s size. As soon as I gave it to him, he unrolled it and stated the logo carved on the shirt, “Forever 15?”

“My clothing brand, my age. I can travel across time, and I’ll always be fifteen. I may have the Elven bloodline.”

“This is crazy!” Gavin exclaimed as it was the first time he witnessed a shirt with a lively mix of saturated colors.

“Don’t worry, we will also provide the others with the same shirt. You may expect that your parcel will come within an hour. Right, Rox?”

“I’ve already made arrangements to deliver a box of merchandise using my drones. I also made measurements using my AR metric tools. I’ll stamp the names on the clothes for their designated wearer,” Rox replied.

The cabin’s door bulged open as Kingsley entered. Everyone stared at him for five seconds while the awkward silence filled the air. Suddenly, his hand teleported before his abdomen, gesturing a thumb up.

I sighed and said, “I suppose we’re ready to depart.”.

“We’ll set you off,” Gavin replied.

Kingsley constructed a tangle of thin roots to bridge our way, like how I intended it to be made. Before we went across the bridge, Gavin clenched his fists and shouted, “Quimora! Trust me, we’ll find a way through this!”

“Hey, don’t shout! You’re just right before me,” I replied. “I suppose there’ll still be next time that we meet.”

“A–Are you threatening me?”

“Of course! I know your crush after all.”

A flush crept across Gavin’s cheeks. He continued shouting, “D–Damn you! She’s not my crush, you Fake News!”

“Embarrassed?” I giggled, covering my mouth with my hand, “Don’t be shy. I know you have liked me since we met. You even dare to ask my age.”

“N–Never! You’re a forever 15 grandmother!”

I chuckled, turning back and stepping across the bridge, leading the group for departure. Ellen, who was last in line, ceased and wandered her eyes back to Mary. When their eye contact collided, she averted and lowered her gaze. When she stepped off the bridge, her chest tightened.

Mary took the initiative to burn the thin-crafted bridge, the reason why I asked Kingsley to establish it that way. This should give them time to plan things through the crisis they’re currently in.

I never found any relevant information regarding the stones and the real identity of Gaul Illiadarne. It’s reasonable since they’re the generation who never witnessed the banishment of the thief of stones. However, I’ve found clues that seemed to connect the dots.

It was exactly 1 PM when we got out of the forest, in which the kingdom’s walls were already within our perspective. The sun's rays directly struck and stung everyone’s skin.

“Rox, do you have an umbrella?”

“Quimora-sama, please don’t treat me like a convenience store.”