I was 5. My parent sold me to become a slave. But I got lucky as the one bought me is Ariana. At first, I got scared as I am being bought by a wizard. I thought I’ll become one of her experiments or something like that. But the moment I got there, it’s totally unexpected. There are another children like me. Including me, there are 8 children in that place. I was the youngest one and I’m still the youngest one.

“What, you brought a new kid?” a boy asked Ariana.

“Yes, poor little kid. Her own parent sold her to get some money.” Ariana answered the boy. “All of you, please take care of her.”

“Okay!” all the kids answer her in unison.

This place consists of three girls, including me, and five boys. Burue is the leading boy. He got some nice blue hair and green eyes. He’s an elf. Firn is the bookworm boy. Just like normal bookworm, he got a pair of glasses on him. He got a normal dark brown eyes and dark brown hair. He’s a beastman. Euca is the boy with a dream of becoming a demon king. You can’t miss the pair of goat horn and the slithered yellow eyes. He’s a pure demon, so it’s not so weird for him. Nois is the easygoing kid. He has typical dark brown hair and eyes. He’s a human just like me. And the last human is Mada. He’s the silent and thinking type but he also does something stupid at times. He took responsibility and took care of us when Ariana is not around.

The girl consists of Nil, Sei, and me. Nil is the leader of the girls. Her brown hair is the same as her hair. She likes to imitate Ariana as she’s a half elf half human, so Ariana is the closest being to her. Sei is the bookworm girl. Her white hair and blue eyes distinguish her from us. She’s an angel. She’s thrown away by the Angels because she had her own will. Unlike any other angel.

“Uwahh, Nevi is crying again!” Burue shouted. “Someone, get Mada or Sei quick!”

I cried and cried as I saw my favorite hairpin has been broken. It was just a fluke, we play dogdeball and I tripped. But as I was a crybaby back then, I simply cried and cried.

“Bad news! Mada left a note. He and Sei left to gather some food and will be back for another hour.” Euca came with the news.

“What? Both of them?!” Nois shouted.

“Nil, you’re the girl’s boss. Can’t you do something about it?” Burue talked to Nil.

“Even if you say it. The only ones could handle her is only Mada and Sei.” Nil answered Burue.

Euca nod. When I heard it, I didn’t know why but I let my cries even louder than before. For another hour, they tried everything to calm me down but nothing worked. Another hour passed by and the promised time had come. Mada and Seis open the door and look into the mess in this place.

“What the? What’s happening?” Sei surprised by the condition.

“Let me guess. Nevi starts to cry, you guys tried to calm her down by bringing everything you thought could calm her out of the house. Am I wrong?” Mada made an exact guess.

“No, you’re not.” Firn answered from one of the piles of stuff.

“Even Firn came out? Just how useless is all of you?” Mada said another word as he walks to me.

Mada lowers his body and looks into my hairpin. He already guessed the reason I cried.

“Whaa, it’s in a worse condition than I thought. I’m afraid I can’t fix it.”

I let out a louder cry when I heard it. Suddenly I felt my body being lifted up. When I realized it, Mada already carried me. He’s 3 years older from me so it looks like a big brother carrying his little sister.

“It’s okay. I’ll create you a new one. I’ll create it if you promise to stop cry.” He patted me in the head and rubbed it.

I can feel such a gentle stroke out of his hand that calmed me down. I don’t know why but it feels so different. It’s like bundled with a love and kindness of a father toward his child. A stroke I can’t even remember being given by my parents.

Not long after he carries me, I finally stopped crying.

“Starting from now on, one of you should stay behind.” Nil said to them with exhausted voice.

“Seriously? Did you even tried?” Sei puffed her cheeks as she looked into the kids.

Our life was a simple life. Even I didn’t know the reason I stopped crying only in their hand, Mada and Sei. But yes, I loved my life. When everybody busy with their own stuff, Mada is the only one keep me accompany.

“Mada, when we grow up, would you marry me?” was my favorite question. But everytime I asked it, Mada always answer. “I’ll consider it.”

When we reach our teen, some things change. The boys started to show some affection towards the girl. Everyone but Mada. He focused on reading, studying, and training. He tries a lot of new magic since Ariana gave him the mana ring as his birthday present when he reached 15, a year ago.

“Finally the boys have slept. So, tell me. Nevi, Sei, which one do you prefer?” Nil opens a conversation.

We’re in the middle of the night. We’ve been in the same room since I came, so it’s not so strange for Nil to wake us to chat. The room consists of three beds with a big window at the end of the head side of the bed.

“Nobody. I see everybody is the same.” Sei answers in flat tone.

“Uhh, you’re no fun.” Nil boo-ed at Sei. “C’mon is there no one in the boys that catch your attention at all?”

“We, well.” Sei blushed and covered half of her face in the blanket.

“I can guess who he is.” Nil smirked. “Well, it means both of you need to fight to get him.”

“Huh?” Sei and I responded in unison.

“Oh, c’mon. I can see it. Both of you have fallen for Mada, aren’t you?”

No answer. Just a silence.

“I know at some nights, both of you spent time together. Alone when nobody else notices.” Nil came closer to Sei.

Nil came closer to me. “And, Nevi, It’s perfectly normal for you to fall for him since he’s the one taking care of you since you came. I can see you always look into him when he’s reading, study, or train. You simply can’t take your eyes off him.”

Sei and I looked at each other. We realized both of us blushed and try to cover it with a blanket.

“Hahaha, I feel pity for the other boys as they have no hope towards both of you.”

“The, then, how about you? You always look into Burue with sparkling eyes.” I tried to pin her back.

“Ye, yeah. Nevi’s right. You, yourself is the same.” Sei backed me up.

“Well, I won’t deny that I looked into him with sparkling eyes. But it’s nothing more than admiration toward his greatness in magic. But,” Nil paused for a moment and look into the windows. “If I have to say about fascination, hmm, I guess I need to correct myself. Three of us have to fight to get him.”

“HAH?!” Sei and I responded in unison once again.

“I mean, who will dislike him? He’s so strong, mature, great at martial arts, he can cook and do house chore, he’s great at magic even only in theory, and he’s so cool. I can imagine when he grows up and cooking for me while I’m on bed pregnant with our child.”

When she said it, a picture of Mada with an apron while cooking in the kitchen appeared in my mind.

“No, you can’t!” Sei suddenly raised her voice a little.

“Uh, it seems Sei the calm one finally lost her composure.” Nil teased Sei with a smile. “Oh, Mada is so cruel. He made three maidens fallen for him but yet he didn’t show any affection towards us.”

“We, well. That’s because….” Sei didn’t finish her words.

“Because?” I wondered what she wanted to tell.

~knock knock~

“Hey, girls, can you please not so loud?”

Suddenly Mada’s voice heard from the door after the knock. Three of us panicked and looked at each other.

“Ma, Mada, haven’t you slept?” I asked Mada from my place.

“I just came back from my train. How about you girls?”

“We, well. We’re having a girls talk.” Sei answered Mada.

“Ssstttt.” Nil and I put our index finger in our mouth. It is not good if Mada knows Sei still wake up.

“Sei, is that you? It’s unusual for you to awake at his hour.”

“We, well. There’s only three girls in this place. We would feel bad if we left Sei.” Nil answers Mada stuttered.

“Well, okay then. If you girls still planning on continuing your girls talk, at least lower your voice. You don’t want to wake the others.”

“Okay!” three of us answered him in unison.

After that, we could hear his footsteps getting further.

“Hahh, finally he’s gone.” Nill let out a relieved breath.

“He’s right. We’re too noisy. I’ll go to sleep.” Sei pulled her blanket and left us.

“Ye yeah, I guess I’ll get to sleep too.” I also pulled my blanket and tried to sleep.

“What? Buu, both of you no fun.”

I can imagine Nil puffed her cheeks. But as I couldn’t hear any words from her, I guessed she’s also tried to sleep.

If I have to rate it, Sei is above us. She’s been in good relationship with Mada since I can remember. They often spent time together to work on some new spell or to study together. On the other hand, I bet Mada only sees me as a little sister figure. Uhh, thinking about it just made me depressed. I just left it and gone to sleep.