“I’ll leave some bowls for us and Vei.” Naika takes three bowls and fills them with three Skiev balls each from the large bowl with a scoop.
She then leaves them on the counter for later.
“Now, take this and we’ll go serve to the kids.” Naika plops a type of scoop she used into the large bowl of Skiev Balls, she grabs a stack of small bowls and cups for each of the kids.
“I get to see them?”
“Why not, you’re not gonna hurt them are you?” Naika elbows Maito.
“Hey, I’m carrying this, and no!” Maito reassesses his grip.
The two exit the kitchen and directly to their right they walk for a short while to arrive at another double door set. On the other side is a hubbub of high pitched laughter and chatter.
“Vei!” Naika calls to the door.
“On my way!” Vei’s voice can be heard through the noise.
She then opens the door, revealing herself and children gathered playing with toys that are as alien to him as toys were from his old world, but there wasn’t anything plastic.
“Maito?!” Vei is surprised that Maito would be there with Naika.
“Yes?” Maito walks past her and places the pot on the table near the front of the room.
Naika starts handing bowls to the children who sit with sudden silence on the floor. The children then stare at Maito with curiosity. Maito counted them all, there were six of them and they didn’t look any older than five years old.
“Alright everyone, line up!” The kids don’t stand, instead they just stare at Maito.
“Maito!” Dannen stood from the crowd and rushed over to Maito, holding out his bowl.
Maito then takes a scoop of the Skiev Balls and gently drops them into Dennen’s bowl and hands him a cup of water.
“Four?!” Dannen yells in excitement at the bowl.
Maito then realizes he had given him a portion of food he thought was good, which was one more than he should have given.
“Four?” Some of the kids whisper to each other, they then stand and walk toward Maito. Maito quickly gets surrounded by the kids.
“Can I have four!” A kid to Maito’s left shouts.
“Me too!” Yells another.
Bowls start shoving forward. Maito is quickly overwhelmed and begins filling each bowl with four skiev balls and handing out cups of water. Finally the last child walks up, holding their bowl out. Maito only had two left and placed them inside the bowl.
“Oh no…” Maito says to himself.
He looks at the kid's face, It’s a girl with long white hair. She looked very upset.
“Stay right there!” Maito pats her head, then runs out the double doors.
Everyone turns and looks at the little girl. Naika then walks up.
“What’s wrong Biz?” Naika leans over.
“Why did Maito run off?” Vei walks over.
“He-” Biz is cut off by a sudden burst through the doors.
It was Maito heavily breathing, holding a bowl.
“I’m sorry…” Maito takes a deep breath.
“For keeping you waiting…” He breathes in again.
Maito then hunches over the little girl and pours all the Skiev from it into hers.
“You get six, for my mistake…” He breathes in and puts his hand on his knee.
“Don’t let the others know.” Maito chuckles.
The girl stares at him in awe. Maito then leans against the wall of the room to catch his breath.
“What was that about?” Vei asks, concerned with Maito’s urgency.
“We ran out from the bowl, so I gave her mine.” Maito loosens the cloak around his neck.
“Oh, is that what this was about? Naika sits along the wall.
“You can have mine if you want.” Vei offers.
“No, I don-“ Maito feels a tug on his cloak.
Maito looks down and sees Biz holding up her bowl.
“We can share mister!” Biz looks determined to give Maito a Skiev Ball.
“It’s fine.” Maito smiles back at her.
“can’t eat all...” Her sentence was a little off, but Maito got the idea.
She looked more upset, so he sat down against the wall.
“Alright, only one.” Maito holds up a finger.
“Two!” Biz commands.
“You sure?”
“Three!” Biz sits next to Maito against the wall.
Maito now gets a better understanding of how small the children were.
“No not more!” Maito giggles.
“Mister… Name!” Biz looked up to Maito.
“Maito. Yours?”
“Bits!” She bursted with courage.
“It’s Biz, Biz.” Naika corrected her.
“Biz!”
“Biz? I think your name is great!” Maito chuckles, Biz happily smiles beside him.
Maito always saw other younger kids in the hospital, but this was his first time connecting with one in conversation.
“Open!” Biz commands Maito whilst holding a Skiev ball.
“I think I’ve been fed too many times today.” Maito says to himself, then opens his mouth and holds his hand under his chin in case of drippings.
He eats the Skiev ball and Biz giggles. She then eats a Skiev Ball herself. Maito notices Vei staring at them, they make eye contact.
“What?! Spouts Vei, looking away and back.
“What are you looking at, something on my face?!” Vei puts her hands on her face and looks away.
“You were looking at me.” Maito says.
“What are you talking about?” Vei retorted.
“Vei said she met…” Biz stops mid sentence to chew and swallow.
“An amazing per-“
“I said I met Peilia and she was feeling sick that’s why I’m here!” Vei cuts off Biz.
“No!” Biz says with a mouth full.
“Yes!” Vei counters childishly.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Maito tells Biz.
“Ok!” Biz says with a mouth full.
After enjoying themselves, the children became tired and were all finished with their food. The sun was starting to come down, and the children were all ready to go home, except a few whose parents were more busy than the rest. This included Biz and a boy who Maito learned to be named Eyon. Eyon was more attached to Naika and was close friends with Dannen so Maito couldn’t find the chance to get to know Eyon, but Maito hoped some day they could become friends. Biz wanted to be carried by Maito and watch as they all walked out to the front gate to send off the kids back to their parents who were waiting. Dannen and Eyon were playing about by the statue and Garpiloff had come out of his study to greet the parents for small talk. Naika and Vei chatted with a mother of one of the kids who had acted in bad behavior beforehand. The child of the mother was looking down away in guilt. Maito wasn’t there to witness what the child had done, but Maito had a slight jealousy towards the kids and their attachment to their parents.
“Bye!” Biz waved toward the other kids, and so did Garpiloff, Naika and Vei.
The parents and kids walked off waving behind them. Maito couldn’t wave since one arm was holding Biz while the other held an object Biz had gifted him. When Maito inspected this gift, it was a shiny rock that had a marking on it. At first, Maito was worried why Biz was in possession of such a thing. But after tapping it, it gave off a golden shine that Maito thought was angelic.
“It’s time to head in now.” Garpiloff told everyone.
Vei pressed Dannen and Eyon toward the front door while Maito carried Biz inside. Biz was resting her head on Maito’s shoulder, trying to stay awake as they moved through the halls of the building.
“Here, I’ll take her for now. You can go clean the bowls.” Naika opens her arms and Maito gently hands Biz over to her.
“I’ll take care of it. Kad is here.” Vei moves on ahead to where Maito was going. Maito stops and looks behind.
“Hello!” A man presumably Kad, closes the front doors behind him.
“Kad?” Maito tilts his head.
“Yes, I’ve been waiting for this moment!” Kad casts his boots to the side on a miniature table.
Kad looks to be wearing what every man Maito has seen, including himself, usually wears. But his cloak is light blue with a white undershirt and his hair is jet-black.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you mean, what-do-I-mean? I’m about to teach Garpiloff’s first ever summon the wondrous world of Laish!” Kad is very enthusiastic and speaks too fast for Maito to register.
“Laish?”
“That’s what we call the written language of what you speak right now!”
“The written language of Laitz?” Maito was surprised he knew the name of the language he spoke, probably due to the expanded vocabulary he received from the tablet.
“Yes, since you already know how to speak Laitz, writing and reading Laish should be very simple to learn!” Kad puts his hand on Maito’s shoulder and points to the symbols over each door that Maito had memorized to recall their use.
“Sooner or later, you’ll figure out how to read those!” Kad laughs and rubs his hands together.
“You are extremely excited to teach me.”
“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for the opportunity to repay Garpiloff and Rech!”
“Rech?”
“Well, I haven’t been able to express my gratitudes to Rech these past few Oggs.”
“Oggs, Rech. Who and what?” Maito’s comprehension of what Kad is saying becomes hazy.
“I guess Garpiloff didn’t bother to explain time and his friend Rech? Well I can’t say for sure if they’re friends anymore. Rech stopped coming by for a long time, and Garpiloff said Rech would come back when he found tranquility. I’m not sure what Garpiloff meant by that.” Kad itched his chin in deep thought.
“Right…” Maito became lost in Kad’s blabbering.
“Now then!” Kad starts elegantly walking down the east hall whilst Maito follows to the last door in the corner of the hallway.
“This is my room, but we’ll be using it as a study for you!” Kad pushes through the doors and the layout of the room is familiar to Maito’s except every nook and cranny was stuffed with papers and binders that were also stuffed with paper.
“Since you already know Laitz, we’ll only have to use this!” Kad perfectly spots and slips out a pamphlet of some sort out from below his bed.
“After you can fully understand this. We’ll go over time and currency!” Kad sits on the ground near the center of the room.
“How long will this take?”
“You won’t know how long it is until you learn how long it was!” Kad’s voice gave a slight cheer to the word learn, causing Maito to be repulsed by his demeanor.
“Now sit, sit-sit!” Kad pats the floor. Maito then sits across from Kad, slouched forward.
“Now for my favorite part!” Kad squirms in excitement.
He pulls out a pair of goggles that he then strapped around his head, they weren’t transparent so Maito was confused. His curiosity was answered when Kad tapped of his lenses, suddenly glowing and becoming transparent with the magnification of both his blue eyes.
“Oh dear…” Maito said to himself in English.
“Huh?”
“Let’s get this over with.” Maito sighs, supporting his head with his palm at the chin.”
“Yes!” Kad chuckles.
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