Plurk paste

The lights are now turned on to reveal a five-year-old Rita, hair dishevelled, dressed in pajamas, looking at a couple—a plump man with a round face and a thin woman with blunt-trimmed hair—dressed in the cloaks of imperial mages. A tray of food is sitting on the table: stale bread and tough cooked vegetables, long since gone cold.

"Hey, Rita, did anyone come today? Did you hear anything from your papa?"

"No," replies Rita sullenly, shaking her head.

The woman gives the man a glance, then speaks up again. "Say, Rita. Why don't we have a little talk tonight?" After a moment, she hurriedly adds, "We can do it while you eat. That way it'll be more distracting..."

Although Rita says nothing, she gets up to the table and begins to nibble at the food. The woman sits across from her, while the man starts perusing the bookshelves.

"Hey, Rita. It's about your mama..." The woman starts to speak. "I've told you—how many times has it been—there was an explosion in the mountain where your mama was supposed to have been, yes? Today, I received an official notice from the research institute. Although they searched thoroughly, they couldn't find her after all." When she gets no reply, she continues, "Of course, there's a possibility she wasn't caught in the explosion. Do you understand?" A silent nod. "In other words, it's possible she wasn't caught in it and could be doing fine somewhere, but then, wouldn't it be strange that she didn't come back to Rita? Since you're Mama's only precious daughter."

"Is Mama not coming back anymore?" the little girl asks as she chews on the fibrous vegetables.

"...Right, that's how it's going to be..." Looking troubled, she glances to the man and calls him over, "Hey, Semyon."

"What? You said you would talk so I was leaving it to you." The man—Semyon—ceases rummaging through the shelves and comes to sit down in an empty chair. "Basically, Rita. I'm sorry for you, but it's like you said—Mama probably won't be coming home anymore. But Rita is still little, right? You'll have to go live with someone. Normally, at a time like this, you'd live at your papa's, but..."

"Papa isn't coming."

"Yeah. I heard before. You really don't know where your papa's house is, Rita? What about his name, or his job... If you tell us, we'll contact your papa and have him come pick you up."

"Dunno. Name or house."

"Then what are we supposed to do?!" The woman suddenly shouts in frustration. "How long do we have to keep feeding this child? Let's just search the house and find a letter or something from the father! We know the mother isn't coming back. Doing this every day is interfering with our research. We're going to fall further and further behind our colleagues!"

Without a word, Rita sets down her spoon.

"Stop, Ellen," says Semyon. "You shouldn't say it right in front of the child." He then puts on a deliberately gentle expression as he turns back to Rita. "Rita. If we can't find your papa, it would be best for some couple to take you in and raise you. Of course, we're old enough to have kids your age. But you know, we're both busy with blastia research, and we still have work to get back to today. That's why we can't be Rita's mama and papa."

Rita's head tilts in puzzlement, and mistaking her feelings, Semyon asks, "Are you disappointed?" She doesn't reply, though, so he eventually continues. "...Anyway, we won't do anything bad. If it's okay with Rita, we'll ask the institute to find you a new mama and papa right away. But in that case, I think you'll probably end up living in another city."

That finally gets Rita to lift her face for the first time since sitting at the table. "I can't stay here?"

"It's not a suitable city for children, here in Aspio," Ellen interjects. "The sun doesn't shine, and there's no playgrounds where they can run around and carry on. It gets hardly any fresh food. The adults that are supposed to look after them are too busy with research... For children, it's better-"

"It's fine!" Rita interrupts forcefully, surprising even herself, but glaring at Ellen with her big eyes. "I'm fine here..."

While Ellen looks daunted, Semyon speaks up again, standing up and patting his wife on the shoulder. "Let's head back, Ellen. It's about time for the results to come out for that last load experiment. Oh yeah, Rita," he says, turning around as if he's just remembered and pointing to the bookshelf he'd been perusing earlier. "Is it okay if I borrow a few of your mama's books? I'll be sure to return them properly."

"If you'll bring them back, it's okay." Rita nods

"Thanks. But still...goodness, how your mama managed to get such a huge wall of books... There's reference texts here not even matched by the research institute's library."

"Truly. I wonder where she got all this," Ellen adds, and the couple exchange winks. They then pull out over a dozen books and gleefully exit with their haul, leaving Rita alone in the house once more.