Chapter 5 (2/2)

After nonchalantly watching our greetings, father told us to behave, then went away with the village chief for the inspection.

Huh? Why did I come here in the first place again??

Miina grabbed my hand and dragged me deeper into the house.

[Miss Liliana, what should we play?]

[Miina, stop calling me miss. Just call me Liliana.]

[But, dad told me to call you miss Liliana.]

[I told you it’s okay to call me Liliana, so from now on that’s what you’ll call me, right?

Besides, I simply call you Miina anyway.]

Miina with a delighted look on her face grabbed both my hands and with sparkling eyes asked: [Liliana, what should we play?]

Hide and seek requires a higher amount of partic.i.p.ants to be fun and there probably are no cards to play card with in this world, so what should we do...

In the end, we did some cat’s cradle.

I became dejected at my own lack of creativity.

Yet, even though she told me she’d never played cat’s cradle before, she was partic.i.p.ating with joy.

She’s such a good kid.

[Miina, are most of the villagers farmers?]

[Yeah. There are some hunters too, but most of the villagers are farmers, Liliana.]

While still not accustomed to cat’s cradle, she answered me whilst trying with all her might.

[Since this village is surrounded by forest, there seems like there’d be lots of leaf mold too. That seems like it’d be great for the crops.]

[Leaf mold? Liliana, what’s that?]

[In forests, won’t fallen leaves turn into black dirt? That black dirt is called leaf mold.]

With a look of comprehension Miina said: [Oh, I see].

[Dirt from decomposed leaves, and also ash, is good for the fields.]

...I think.

[Liliana is so knowledgable.]

Miina looked at me with sparkling eyes.

When you give me that look, I can’t tell you that I could possible be wrong...

While going nuts over cat’s cradle, the adults returned.

[Liliana, it’s about time we leave.]

When father and Ales were about to leave with me, Miina started weeping nonstop.

[Liliana, don’t gooo!]

While crying, what a cute thing to say.

l still want to bring her with me home.

Miina, you don’t have to cry, because I will drop by with father again.]

While speaking I embraced her, her face turned bright red and she looked at me sparkling eyes.

[Liliana, can we play again?]

[Yes. Of course!]

[Then, we’re friends, right!]

Accompanied by Miina and village chief Douglas to the entrance of the village, we parted reluctantly after saying farewells.

Today, I made my first friend in this world.

Huh? What was the reason I came here again??

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