Honestly, considering Maia's reaction as she probably knew Luna wasn't the happiest, I expected much worse. Was I just lucky? Or did Maia overestimate her? Yeah, I was probably just lucky. Either way, when we got inside the room, the kids were eating at a table, sitting next to each other. Layra and Maia were sitting in front of them on the other side.
"How's it going?"
Luna asked as we both took a seat at the last sides of the square table, me sitting next to the boy and Maia, and Luna in front of me.
"As you can see…"
Layra's tone wasn't the happiest, but that wasn't surprising. After all, although they were technically eating, it was extremely slow. They must've not been completely comfortable yet.
I guess we don't really have many options, huh?
One thing that neither one of us had considered was probably the fact that this whole situation must've been extremely awkward and pressuring for them. After all, they were just saved from some thugs then randomly taken to a restaurant and now they were expected to eat while we were watching them in silence. I wouldn't be able to eat comfortably either if I was in their place, so the only option here was lightening up the mood, so I spoke up.
"By the way, we haven't asked yet, have we? I'm sorry, but could you tell us your names?"
He was closer to me, so he turned around first, then his sister followed. By the way he still avoided eye contact, it was easy to tell. He wasn't scared anymore, he was simply embarrassed. His mind must've been filled with ridiculous thoughts like "I'm a failure as a brother" "it shouldn't have gotten to this point." "If only I was stronger" and what not other bullshit like that, but I didn't dislike it. His embarrassment was proof of his will to improve, and grow stronger in order to take care of his little sister. If you asked me, that's a top notch older brother.
"We also haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? I'm sorry about that, haha. My name is Luna, and I'm 10 years old."
She must've understood what I was trying to do, which in that moment was like a top tier assist. Following Luna, I also decided to properly introduce myself.
"You're right, Luna. It's rude to expect someone to introduce themselves before you do it yourself, isn't it? My name is Cael. Cael Ashford. I'm 7 years old."
"It seems like I've been quite rude to our customers, so please allow me to apologize. My name is Layra, and I'm 12 years old."
"I guess I'm the last one, huh? Im Cael's older sister. Maia Ashford, 14 years old. Nice to meet you two little ones."
The mood was definitely lighter after all of us introduced each other, and even I could feel the difference. We didn't actually expect them to open up right away though, and I don't think either one of us would've blamed them If they just remained silent, but there was one tiny little thing that was bugging me… the little girl was constantly switching up between staring at Luna and me.
My, how cute… I wonder what she must be thinking, haha!… Someone please kill me.
She was definitely, absolutely, most certainly recalling that teasing from earlier, wasn't she?! And to make it even worse, her brother who didn't seem to have caught up yet, was now doing the same! Stop it, really. Please stop it. I'm actually going to cry! And as if that wasn't enough, Besides Luna looking at them confused rightfully, Maia started grinning while Layra covered her mouth as if to say "oh, my…" yeah, oh my god you guys are killing me emotionally!
"Uhm…"
While pointing at us, the little girl then looked at Layra as if asking for affirmation, and she nodded. After that, the little girl's mouth went wide open, and she started blushing… but so did I! Like come on man, how long is this humiliation ritual going to last for?! This is pitiful. I might actually be cursed or something.
"Hm? What's the deal with you guys?"
Luna asked while tilting her head in confusion and crossing her arms.
"Uh, uhm- n-nothing, nothing at all!"
It was the little girl who replied to her however, while waving her hands in front of her. It seems that at the very least, though she was enjoying the gossip, she didn't want to throw me further under the bus. Thank you little girl, thank you. That aside, this was the first time she had spoken to begin with, and it seems like she had also realized that shortly after since she quieted down real quick. Looking down at her plate of food, and blushing a bit while fidgeting with her hands. What a cute little creature.
"Alright…? Well, that aside. We're really just trying to help you two. You don't have to be ashamed of receiving help, you know? So would you mind telling us your names now?"
Luna seemed to have taken the lead when it came to conversing on our side, which was very helpful. Layra aside, I strongly doubt either me or Maia could've handled it.
"…Jun. My name is Jun. I'm 8 years old."
Oh? I guess they've finally relaxed enough to talk, huh? Way to go Luna.
"Juna… m-my name is Juna… I'm 7…"
"I see, Jun and Juna, what a lovely pair of names."
However, something was a bit "off" or rather, it wasn't really a problem by any means, or necessarily weird, but when me and Maia looked at each other, I think our eyes spoke the same thing.
Doesn't that sound oddly like a twins pair of names?
Of course, it wasn't impossible for them to be twins or anything like that, and we also haven't really asked in the end, but can twins even have that big of a stature difference? Albeit he only seems about a year older at most, he definitely is older. I think both of us were equally curious about this really irrelevant detail though, so I decided to ask.
"I agree with Luna, you two really do have a cute pair of names. Are you guys twins?"
They looked at me slightly confused for a moment, before looking at each other with an understanding expression, then turned back towards me before replying.
"No…we're not.."
I expected that answer, but what wasn't expected was the slight hint of melancholy hidden behind his words, which we all definitely noticed as we shared an understanding look. There was definitely more to their name than just a silly cutely naming sense from their parents who were most likely not even in the picture currently. And I was right.
I won't give the details on the entire thing, as frankly speaking it just doesn't seem right for me to do so. First of all, it was all very muffled and incoherent at some points, but that was expected of an 8 year old, and a 7 year old. Second of all, it just lasted quite a long time and honestly, most of you would probably get bored midway because of all the breaks we took due to them stopping to cry and what not. With that out of the way, I'll piece out the story they told us in a coherent way for you, so buckle up.
Their father used to own a small shop here in this town, and their mother worked with him. There were no real happy family memories however, because their mother had passed away during labor after giving birth to Juna. After her death, their aunt who was their mother's sister had helped their father who entered a depressed state, but managed to hold their own together for the most of it. That didn't really last long either however. With their mother gone, and their father in a poor state of mind, the business was slowly starting to fail.
Around the time Juna was 4 and Jun was 5, their aunt had gotten sick. By that point, the business had already failed however. And the only income they had was from their dad's savings and small jobs he did during the day, so they could not afford medicine or a doctor. Their aunt passed away shortly after, when Jun was 6 and she was 5. No other family member was willing to help them, probably because they thought poorly of their father or something along those lines, but regardless of the reason, that was the breaking point for the last part of their family.
One day, Juna and Jun were playing with some kids not too far away from their small apartment, and she had seen their father get home during the day which wasn't usual, considering his many daily jobs, so she slowly followed him. However, when she finally got there, she saw him hanging from the ceiling with a rope around his neck, and not knowing what to do when he wasn't responding, she quickly went to call her brother. When they got back, Jun had understood what had happened unfortunately, and that was the total downfall of their family. Ever since, Jun has been taking care of her. They lived in their apartment for about 3 months give or take, until the landlord couldn't afford to let them stay rent free, and they were kicked on the streets. The earlier brutes were actually Jun's "employers" who were, as you can guess, something more along the lines of some bandits who did a lot of sketchy things which aren't relevant.
The reason they had ended up in that position from earlier to begin with, was because while they did offer them a place to stay, which was a small cell with no bed and just some hay for them to sleep on, they didn't always feed them. They were given barely enough water to not die of dehydration, but they'd sometimes go for even a week without any food. Earlier today, Jun had managed to sneak out of their cell with Juna, and stole some bread for her since hadn't eaten for about a week, running away afterwards, which resulted in them eventually getting cornered, and you already know the rest.
For 2 kids so young to have been through so much, it was genuinely disturbing. This world wasn't any better than my previous one. If I had to guess, I think that the brutes were probably just part of a gang, and the ones in this town are probably just one small squad of the many they may have, so while it should've been common sense, I was still forced to realize that the underground world was a thing anywhere after all.
By the time we were done with discussing it all, we had all also eaten dinner in the meantime. Afterwards, Layra and Luna discussed it with her grandma, and fortunately it didn't take long for us to find Jun and Juna a place to stay. From now on they'd live with Layra and her grandma, and since they will probably spend most of their time at the restaurant, they'd still undoubtedly be safe from any brutes, since those kinds of guys don't really act up on large scales like that, even less for 2 children. And if they did… well, we have a certain creature named Maia, so I don't think it's the best idea for them to do so.
Regardless, it was honestly already fairly late when me and Maia got out of the restaurant, and after parting ways with Luna and Layra, we started flying back home. It was around 9 and a half when we landed, around 10 meters away from our tents area.
"Today sure was one heck of a day…"
I said while stretching my arms after she put me down. The clothes I had on amounted to about 20 kg in weight overall, and while it definitely wasn't easy to walk in, I had gotten relatively used to it, and thankfully enough the weight was distributed well enough for none of the pieces to overwhelm me in any way, so it was like a perfect balance of absolute absurdity I was forced to wear.
"I guess you could say that.."
Maia was also now stretching her arms, as we started walking towards our tents.
"Seriously, I can't wait to finally change my clothes and go to bed."
"Hm? Didn't I tell you that you're not going back to normal weighing clothes from now on until you grow stronger?"
I froze. I froze in place so abruptly, I probably looked like a robot who's batteries had just run out. Did my tiny little ears hear what this psychopath had just said in a casual tone correctly? I turned my head to face her, terror written all over my face as my eyes were as wide open as they would be if you heard someone tell you that you're about to die within the next 10 seconds.
"Huh?"
What did she just…?!
"What?"
"M-Maia… Can you repeat that one more time? I don't think I've heard you right…"
"Oh alright. I said that until you get significantly stronger, or I guess until we find another way for you to grow stronger, you're not going back to normal weighting clothes. What about it?"
"…"What about it" my ass!! What the hell is wrong with that tiny little brain of yours?! You've never told me about this before you stupid gorilla!"
"What?! Who the hell are you calling a stupid gorilla you annoying little twerp?! You're the one who asked me to train you, and I've told you that I'd increase the difficulty!"
"In what universe does making your 7 year old brother wear more than 20 kilos worth of clothes is normal even if they ask for training?! I can understand it during the day while I'm actually supposedly training, but do you expect me to sleep in pajamas as heavy if not heavier than this?!"
"Of course I do! I've literally told you, we need to strain your body to the max. We need to force your mana stomach to produce more mana to provide to your body's regenerative system that we're going to completely overwork! What makes you think you shouldn't sleep with heavy clothes?!"
By this point, we were already at each other's throat, however we were quickly interrupted right after. Without any of us realizing it, someone had approached us. One of them pulled Maia back by her backpack and the other lifted me up by my shirt with one hand.
"Alright, alright. That's enough. Seriously, just how noisy can you two be?."
I didn't even need to think about who this could be, which wasn't only because I looked up and saw his face, but also because of who was in front of us, pulling Maia. I wanted to try and argue, but after seeing her face, I suddenly felt the need to become a world pacifist and never raise my voice ever again. Just like Luna earlier, her eyes were closed, and her lips curled up in a smile, but I felt anything but happiness coming from it. and I think Maia felt the same exact way when she turned around and saw her too.
"Your father is right, you know? I don't even know how you're screaming so loudly and casually at the same time. But some people are already sleeping, so why don't you two… lower your tone a bit?"
""Yes mam…""
All we could do was reply at the same time, completely defeated by mom. After a really long day, and a short fight, at last we were finally back home.