"Eh? Lux?
Have you come to play in my family's quarry again?
A somewhat annoying voice suddenly pierced the air beside her.
Little Lux furrowed her adorable brows, clutching her tattered crocodile plushie and turning her back on the boy who had approached her.
She held a distinct aversion for this boy named Kayan, who often bullied her and her brother, taking advantage of the fact that Galen worked under his father.
As a sister who had always strived to avoid burdening her brother, Lux found it particularly distasteful that Kayan, now ten like Galen, still wet the bed. If Lux were to behave as thoughtlessly as he did, it would surely trouble her brother greatly.
In this small town, the lives of the orphaned siblings were fraught with hardship. While the adults did not treat the pair harshly, the local children found pleasure in tormenting them.
Even the most innocent of children understood that bullying a pair of orphans would not lead to any adult complaints.
Though Galen bravely protected little Lux, he was merely a slightly taller boy and lacked the strength to fend off several peers simultaneously.
Each time the siblings huddled together on their small bed to escape the biting cold of winter, Lux would weep quietly for her brother's various wounds, applying only the most rudimentary herbal remedies that barely stemmed the bleeding. In those moments, her heart was heavy with suppressed emotions, yearning to cry out in despair.
Yet, Lux refrained from crying, for whenever she did, her bumbling brother would become flustered and at a loss.
Lux disliked causing her brother worry, so she endeavored to be a brave sister, aspiring to emulate his courage.
Even when she stumbled and scraped her knee, bleeding profusely and in excruciating pain, little Lux would stifle her tears and instead comfort her anxious brother.
Being frail, Lux was often a target for the local children's bullying.
Once, after Galen had found her a delightful teddy bear, those children snatched it away, and Kayan, in front of Lux, set the bear ablaze, reducing it to a small pile of ashes. Little Lux was heartbroken, crying inconsolably; that bear had been her very first toy.
Though the bear was tattered and had been salvaged from a dump, Lux cherished it dearly.
Once the mischievous children had run off, little Lux could only sit helplessly before the remnants of her beloved toy, wiping away her unending tears with her tiny hands.
However, upon returning home, she felt compelled to pretend as if nothing had happened. She feared telling Galen the truth, knowing that since their mother's departure, he had been striving to protect her. If he learned of the incident, he would surely confront those children to seek vengeance for her.
But while Galen was indeed formidable, the number of children was overwhelming, and their parents would undoubtedly not tolerate an orphan bullying their offspring.
So, when Galen inquired about the missing teddy bear, Lux could only tell him she had accidentally dropped it.
At that moment, her brother did not scold her; instead, he comforted her, urging her not to be sad. Later, he helped Lux find her current crocodile plushie.
In Lux's small world, everyone except her brother seemed to be a villain.
Seeing that little Lux ignored him, Kayan felt a pang of embarrassment but was too preoccupied with another matter to dwell on it.
The boy scoffed dismissively, "Just a little orphan, acting all high and mighty."
However, just a few steps later, a furious voice erupted from behind, belonging to Kayan's father, the quarry owner, "Kayan!!! Are you misbehaving again? How dare you steal from me! Get back here!"
Kayan froze, instinctively clutching the handful of silver coins in his palm, and turned around in a panic to see a balding man with an angry expression approaching from around the corner.
Terrified, Kayan stumbled back, desperately searching for a place to hide. Suddenly, he caught sight of little Lux, holding her crocodile plushie, her face betraying a hint of schadenfreude.
Realizing that his furious father had rounded the corner and spotted him, Kayan, without a second thought, dashed toward little Lux. In her astonished gaze, he forcefully shoved the silver coins into her hand.
Just then, the near-sighted, balding man reached them, but before he could catch his breath, he saw his son shove the frail girl to the ground and kick her viciously.
Lux was taken aback by this sudden turn of events, and only when the pain from the kicks surged through her did she grasp Kayan's intentions.
"Dad! It's this little girl! She snuck into your room while you were gone and tried to steal money! When I caught her, she even attempted to flee!" Kayan feigned indignation, pointing at the weak little girl he had just pushed down.
"Is that so?" Initially prepared to chastise his son, Kayan's father looked puzzled.
He had only noticed his son running away when he returned to his room and found his money box opened, leading him to believe Kayan had been stealing from him again.
Now, witnessing the scene before him, he found himself confused; was it not his son who had attempted to steal, but this orphan instead?
"No! That's not true! Lux didn't steal anything!" After being falsely accused, Lux scrambled to her feet, her cheeks flushed with anger as she protested, "Uncle Roal, Lux didn't take your money; it was Kayan who stole it!"
"Then can you explain why you're holding my father's silver coins?" Kayan exclaimed triumphantly, raising his chin, "Don't tell me those coins belong to you. Everyone in Bell Toll Town knows you two orphans are too poor to support yourselves. Surely, that amount of silver is enough to cover your living expenses for nearly a month, right? Do you think your brother, who only works in my father's quarry and occasionally rummages through trash, could earn that much?"
"And even if your brother did manage to earn such a sum, would he entrust it to you, a mere child?" Kayan continued, relishing Lux's furious, reddening face, "Clearly, you thought you could sneak into my father's room and greedily steal money while no one was watching!"