A/N: Extra Long chapter for Alyxatlas’ chapter request~! \\o/
Once again, thanks for the castle~
…
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The group saw Yassop and his own servants out the door. Yelena and Yanno looked at him and his back, feeling very complicated.
Even if they didn’t express it much, they’d miss the old man quite a bit. It was just that they didn’t know how to say it.
They were so used to being quiet and, in Yelena’s case, bitter, that they couldn’t bring themselves to say anything out-of-character.
Anyway, the group watched Yassop disappear from their view before heading in, with Helen looking at her new family members.
"While there aren’t a lot of people, why don’t you join me on a tour of the place?" she asked, tone gentle and kind that not even the grumpiest kid could say no to her.
The two nodded. They were curious about the new place anyway. However, there was palpable awkwardness between the mother and son, and the boy didn’t dare walk along or ahead of his mother.
Helen saw this but didn’t say anything. Time would heal, she believed, and time was only starting for them now.
The house was designed so that those from the upper floor could quickly go down and exit the house without having to go through the rest of the rooms.
This was why, before heading up the stairs, all they saw was the ante-room—a more formal living room for guests and the like.
The house was a manual construction building, so its arrangement was quite different from the other residential homes. After the ante-room, there was a large living room that could accommodate dozens of people at a time.
There were also separate sitting spaces so smaller groups could have places for more intimate conversations.
They passed by the other communal areas in the ground floor like a small library with several desks (which was also used by the students to do their homework), a canteen, a small multi-purpose hall, a lounge area for the staff, and so on.
The rest were rooms for staff and some smaller kids, so they could easily be taken care of by the adults. There was also another room which was occupied by another guest—like them—though Helen did not specify who it was.
Anyway, for the most part, the second floor was dedicated to the kids’ dormitories. They also had a small living room on the farthest corner from the stairs, and a lot of them tended to hang around there before going to bed.
The building was also a courtyard house, so there was an open space in the middle of a rectangular floor plan, which was another communal area the children and staff could enjoy.
On top of improving lighting and ventilation, the courtyard also improved the overall openness of the place. This would also allow each of the bedrooms to have nice windows and views, improving the kids’ well-being.
In the courtyard, there were some movable picnic tables, swings, and some seating areas. Whenever they wanted to have a party, they’d just rearrange a few furniture and set up a barbeque somewhere.
It would make the inner rooms smell of burnt meat and sauce but no one really minded that—especially the aborigine kids, who quite liked the smell.
They said it allowed them to dream of barbeque even while they slept. Very cute.
The tour ended about half an hour later and, unexpectedly, it coincided with the time a few of the kids went home. They were all quite small, no more than 10 or 11 years old, with some in the younger range of about 8 or 9.
They politely took off their shoes on placed them on the shoe rack before entering, their eyes bright and sparkling even when they were doing the mundane.
They sparkled even more at the sight of their headmistress, however.
"Miss Helen~!!!" a few kids yelled, running over to her for a hug. She smiled, hugging them back. She was a bit surprised to see a few faces though.
"Why, if it isn’t Pongo and Gururu1~" she smiled. "It’s been a while since you visited us!" Of course, even after they got adopted, she still saw them as family.
"We miss you, too! We’re doing homework here with our new friends~!"
Helen laughed. "It’s good to help each other," she said, nudging the towards the direction of the library. "You go on now. We don’t want you getting home too late."
"Yes, Miss Helen~!"
The handful of kids disappeared into the corridor, but more and more kids came home. Suddenly, there was activity everywhere and each room was occupied by a small group of children.
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