According to Ludwig, it was the fourth day the bad guys had attacked our island. Grandpa and his friends fought them day after day with little to no rest, and deep in my heart, I wished they would succeed in driving the bad guys away.

"...I forgot where the nursery is," I whispered as I poked my head out of a corner in one of the base's medallion-colored corridors. When I woke up in the morning, Ludwig and Ayesha had to tend to the injured coming back from their mission.

"Hey, isn't that the kid?" said a man from behind.

"...The one who killed Nikola and dismembered the others," commented a woman.

"Um..." Hastily, I apologized to them and ran off to a hallway at my left. I should have expected people saying such a thing about me, especially since I was alone with neither Ayesha or Ludwig by my side. However, I forgot about it and memories of the incident they brought up started to plaster itself at the forefront of my mind.

"I-I'm sorry," I said to myself.

"Oh, is that Ava? The kid everyone talked about last night?"

"Yeah, she's the one."

"My, what a cute kid we have here. It's a pity actually since..."

"Ignore her. We have things to do."

The few people I stumbled into cast furtive glances in my direction and they too uttered their opinions of me with some even made upsetting remarks. I turned to another hallway and bumped into a tall man in casual clothing.

"Watch where you're going!"

"So-Sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Tears welled up in my eyes by the time I reached a familiar metal sliding door. A wooden frame with the word 'workshop' engraved on it sat next to the sliding door's jamb.

"...Isn't this where Beatrice..."

"Oh, this laptop is a gem," said Beatrice inside the workshop, "Ohh! It's a shame the owner threw away such a nice IPS screen like this. Ah... They only use Philips head screws for the bottom cover. Good. Just what I'd expected from a recognized brand. They know that customers want to customize their laptop so they make it relatively easy to access the inner components."

"...Dale had a laptop too."

"Oh, what kind of laptop does he... have...? ...Huh?"

Beatrice jerked her head back when she saw me standing next to her.

"A-Ava?" She quickly swept a gaze around her workshop. "You're alone?"

"...Ayesha and Ludwig said they need to treat the injured."

"Oh... That's right. I heard how the Third Squad had themselves beaten in Vlogow."

"Vlogow...? The city just before Cleectin?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Yeah. Anyway... since you're here, how about you accompany me for the time being?"

"I-I can do that?"

"Well, you came all the way here to see what I'm doing with all these guns, blades and uh, some laptops I found, right? I don't mind. It'd leave a bad taste in my mouth if I ask you to get out."

"Um, if I'm bothering you, then I can go somewhere—"

"No, no, it's fine!" Beatrice held her palms towards me. "You're not a bother... Honest."

"O-Okay. Then I'll leave myself in your care," I said, lowering my head.

A thin smile formed on Beatrice's face upon hearing my words. I heeded her advice as she went about in opening the laptop's bottom cover with a Philips screwdriver. It took no time at all for her to unscrew the six head screws and pulled the cover away to reveal the laptop's inner components.

"Ah-ha. As expected. A one terabyte hard drive at the bottom left and a 256 gigabyte M.2 NVMe SSD to the right... The Wi-fi card is decent. But the non-removable battery leaves much to be desired. Only 40 watts. Meh. Hmm, at least this laptop has... what seems like two RAM slots with dual channels. Always good to have that. I thought it would be a single module before I open it up."

"...Um, I don't understand," I said.

My hands ran over the wooden tinkering table's glossy surface as I tried to comprehend the incessant advanced words Beatrice uttered. Which caused my head to spin at some point during her ardent commentary.

"But the fans on both sides have independent heat pipes. It's quite small tho. The graphics card is on the budget-ish side. It can still deliver some good performance in renders, but not high-resolution gaming that's for sure. Ugh, if I can charge the laptop, I'll be able to check the color accuracy on this screen. And... Ava? Hey, are you okay? What's wrong? Hey!"

"I can't believe I fell asleep..."

My hand covered my mouth as I yawned during my stroll in the hallway. I decided in the end that my presence in the workshop perturbed Beatrice, and asked her about the way to the nursery. Honestly, I wanted to see her swing a sword again after seeing her used it the day before.

Perhaps I could ask her some other time.

"...Dale must be in the nursery. I need to apologize to him," I said to myself, turning into another corner.

I was fairly certain I hurt Dale's feelings. It didn't occur to me I had done so at first because of what happened the day before. I just wanted to draw on my sketchbook without any distractions. But, after waking up the next morning, the memory slipped into my mind and I felt a tug at my chest thinking about it.

Daddy said a few times back when I was still eight-years-old that, apologizing to those we knew we had wronged meant we acknowledged the mistakes we made. Not many people could do this and for those who could, especially at a young age, they would grow up to be empathetic to those around him or her.

I held onto this belief ever since then. Somewhere in my heart, I knew I wanted to be a kind person when I grew up. It became a goal I set for myself.

"Oh, Ava. You're going to the nursery?" said a boy's voice behind me.

"Hope...!"

Hope Domitius. A twelve-year-old boy with a slightly disheveled blonde hair I met a few days before. Out of all the people I encountered, I could say he was one of the few who had unique traits to him.

Right then, Hope was carrying a large(about 9 inch) round chocolate cake in his hands. The cake had tortilla brown fondant and whipped cream frosting of the same color dotting the round edge. Chocolate sprinkles repleted the space inside the frosting along with seemingly ground hazelnuts.

My mouth watered instantly at the sight of such a cake in front of me.

"Um, this is for the kids in the nursery," explained Hope with a smile, "Haha. Your face tells everything, Ava. Want to join us?"

"E-Eh?"

"Come. I think your friend is there as well."

When I stepped inside the nursery, the sight of a dozen kids crowding the entrance greeted me. They shouted at Hope as their hands tried to reach the chocolate cake in his hands.

"Wait, wait! The cake will fall if you all surround him like that," said a familiar woman's voice.

Ayesha appeared from the corner of my vision and quickly got in between Hope and the kids. Another woman whom I recognized as Arisa was entreated by a few kids in the back. They expressed how they wanted to eat the cake right then and there to the girl, and she went into a different room afterward.

All of us sat down on the matted floor with a slice of the cake on our plate. My spoon hung in the air as I bit the bottom of my lip, dubious whether I should eat it or not. I contemplated on this choice for a few minutes until Ayesha and Dale came to my side.

"Ava! Come on. Do you want to eat it or not?" asked Dale.

"I-I will eat it!"

"You don't have to force yourself. My stomach can make do with one more slice."

Ayesha giggled at our exchange while Hope who sat next to me smiled. She brought her plate towards Dale, offering her own slice of cake to him, and he indulged himself in it without delay.

"I thought you have something to do, but... you're here," I said to Ayesha.

"Ah, I forgot. My apologies for not telling you sooner, ānisa. Gawain, Ludwig, and others have everything under control so Za'im asked me to help Hope and Arisa here."

"O-Oh, I see. I was wandering the hallways before to look for this place here. And I kind of wished you were with me..."

A warm smile formed on Ayesha's face and she brushed a hand along my hair. "I'm happy that I manage to make you feel that way, ānisa. When we met a few days ago, you refused to talk to me and hid behind Hope all the time. So, this change in you enraptures me greatly."

"You're very nice," I said, returning her smile.

"So that means Hope is the one you're most comfortable with here, right?" said Ayesha to Hope himself.

Hope paused from eating his slice of cake and looked at Ayesha with wide eyes. He shifted his stare between me and Ayesha a couple of times.

"He's a good person, I like being with him," I confessed.

Ayesha's smile reached her cheeks and she prodded Hope in the arm without stopping.

"Stop... Wha—I'm eating here!" said Hope before he distanced himself from Ayesha's spot.

"Do you know that Hope was the one who baked the cake?" said Ayesha.

"R-Really!?"

"I-I only helped the kitchen staff a little bit. I whisked the ingredients, poured the cake batter into a pan, and ground the hazelnuts to put as a topping. I didn't do much," explained Hope.

"That's excellent still," convinced Ayesha.

"I didn't know you can bake. Can you teach Mommy to bake a cake? We have an oven, but Mommy rarely used it. So if she knows how to bake, then I can eat cake every day!"

Hope chuckled at me before he answered, "I would be glad to."

"Then, it's a promise, Hope."

"Yeah. I promise you I'll teach your Mommy how to bake a cake after everything is over."