Cry, Even better if you Beg

1

Chapter 1

The child arrived in a mail wagon.

It was a late afternoon in the early spring. Bill Remmer was busy planting rose seedlings all day long.

"Are you Mr. Bill Remmer?"

Standing with a dazed look on her face, the child asked a cautious question. Her smooth pronunciation gave off a strange feeling.

"Yes. I am indeed Bill Remmer."

Bill took off his straw hat with the same hands that had dusted off the dirt from his clothes.

When the tanned face, which had been hidden by the shadow of his straw hat, was revealed, the startled child swallowed her saliva. The child's reaction was nothing out of the ordinary for Bill. Anyone who first saw Bill Remmer generally reacted like the child because of his rough-looking appearance.

"Who are you?"

Bill's face grew more terrifying as he frowned upon the child.

"Hello. Uncle Bill. I am Leyla Lewellin. I came from Lovita."

The child enunciated clearly and slowly. Lovita huh.. Bill realized why her pronunciation sounded rather strange.

"You're saying, you crossed the border into the Berg Empire all by yourself?"

"Yes. I rode the train."

The child smiled awkwardly and unnaturally straightened her posture. The mailman who had brought the child approached the two from behind.

"Ah. This child finally met you Mr. Remmer."

"Good timing. What made you bring this child?"

"This child was walking alone in front of the station so I asked her where she was going and she said she was on her way to find Bill Remmer, the gardener of the Herhardt family. I brought her here because I was on my way to deliver some letters."

The mailman replied with a smile and handed an envelope to Bill Remmer. It was a letter from a distant relative living in the neighboring country of Lovita.

Bill urgently tore open the envelope on the spot. The letter contained the story of a child who was an orphan and was taken in by relatives who were now no longer able to foster her due to their supposed 'poor' circumstances. The child's name was Leyla Lewellin. The little girl standing in front of Bill was the orphan.

"Damned people. They sure are telling me this news fast."

Bill lost his breath in amazement.

No one in Lovita could take care of this mere orphan. Bill Remmer was the last among those who had a faint connection with the child. The letter stated that if Bill's situation was not favorable, he should leave the child in the orphanage.

Bill muttered a curse and threw the crumpled paper to the floor.

"These people should go to hell. How can they send this little thing here alone."

Now that Bill understood the whole situation, his face gradually turned red with anger. The child was treated like a bomb that was passed back and forth from one relative to another and meant to be thrown away when no one else wanted her. She was ultimately sent away to a different country with an address of a distant relative she did not even know of.

"Excuse me, Uncle Bill. I am not that young."

The child who had been silently watching Bill suddenly opened her mouth.

"I'll be twelve in a couple of weeks."

She whispered in a rather grown-up tone. Bill chuckled in amazement. He was relieved that she was older than he thought. The child looked smaller than her age.