“Why are you looking at me?”

As Leticia quietly stared at the ordinary-looking boy in front of her, a faint flush spread across her face from the dizziness.

“Don’t get the wrong idea!”

The kid who called himself Joey gently rubbed his backside. “I’ve just never seen you before, so when I saw you sitting here, I got curious and wanted to come take a look...”

“You’ve never seen me... Don’t tell me you know everyone around here?”

“Yeah, I do!”

Joey admitted it without a hint of embarrassment, then gave her a smile that looked almost bashful. “I know everyone in our village! So whenever I see a new face, I get curious and want to come take a look.”

What was that supposed to mean, acting like he knew absolutely everyone...?

So weird! So creepy!

Just kidding.

Leticia nodded lightly. “All right. Just like you thought, I’m an outsider. My elders are busy with something else, so they let me wander around on my own.”

“I see.”

Joey nodded, looking relieved, but then immediately said, “How could you be so careless? This may be a small place, but there are bad people around here too!”

“S-sorry...”

She had no idea why she was apologizing, but faced with this righteous little kid, Leticia instinctively lowered her head.

Come to think of it, bad people... By the Church’s standards, she was a little bad person too, wasn’t she?

“Why are you apologizing?”

Joey took Leticia’s hand. His face was lit up with a warm, cheerful smile—the kind she’d rarely seen before. “I’m not blaming you, you know?”

“Ah, yeah. Sorry, it’s a habit...”

That smile felt so dazzling she didn’t dare look straight at it. Leticia quietly turned her gaze aside and mumbled, “Um, could you let go of my hand first?”

“Ah! Sorry!”

This time, it was Joey’s turn to apologize. “Wait, are you a girl? Sorry, sorry, I didn’t notice! Ahhh, I held hands with a girl I don’t even know...”

He hurriedly let go of her hand.

She was wearing ragged clothes, her hair was a mess, her face and body hadn’t filled out yet, and her voice still sounded like a child’s. It was perfectly natural for someone to mistake her for a boy.

“No, you got it right. I’m a boy.”

Consciously abandoning the prim sitting posture Ye Mi’ai had beaten into her over the years, Leticia said casually, “Yeah, just like you, I’m not a girl.”

“Oh, what? So we’re both boys.”

Joey let out a sigh of relief and leaned close again, smiling. “I thought you were a girl. You scared me!”

“What if I were a girl?”

“But I’m a boy!”

Joey pulled a face. “If I hang around girls too much, my friends will make fun of me!”

So people really were like that...?

Feeling mischievous, Leticia slung an arm around Joey’s neck and grinned. “I thought you were scared of girls. I figured you were a coward!”

“I am not!”

Joey protested indignantly. As the unfamiliar kid leaned close, he caught a scent unlike the golden wheat or the blooming flowers—a little sweet, a little fragrant, and very pleasant. “I’m one of the bravest kids in our village!”

“Yeah, yeah. The bravest, the bravest...”

Remembering how this guy had been so scared he’d fallen out of a tree just moments ago, Leticia made a rather strange face. “Anyway, why can’t you play with girls? You’re all friends from the same village, aren’t you?”

“Well, that’s true, but...”

Joey sighed, resting his chin in his hands. “Everyone in the village says we’re grown up now, and if we keep spending so much time together, people might get the wrong idea or something. Even my mom and dad tell me that I’m a boy and shouldn’t spend so much time with girls... Because of that, Rona and I can hardly talk anymore.”

“Rona?”

“Oh, she’s the kid next door!”

Joey hurriedly explained, “We grew up together, so we were really close. But now we have to stay far apart... Don’t get the wrong idea! There’s nothing between us!”

“I get it, I get it!”

Leticia grinned mischievously. “You’re afraid people will make fun of you, and your parents have lectured you about it, so you don’t dare spend too much time together, right?”

“...Yeah...”

Joey nodded gloomily. Sitting on the grass, he looked out at the fields nearby and the carriages traveling along the main road. “Now, even when we run into each other alone, we don’t dare say hi. We don’t even make eye contact... Maybe Rona hates me because I’ve been avoiding her...”

So that was what he’d been worrying about...?

Leticia leaned against the tree trunk and tried to relax, willing the dizziness to go away. “You could just ask her, you know.”

“Huh?!”

“You’re worried she hates you, aren’t you?”

Leticia blinked. “The easiest way to find out is to ask her yourself.”

“But, but...”

Looking at Joey, who was clearly hesitating, Leticia gave him a reassuring smile. “What do you mean, ‘but’? Is there an easier way? Joey, you’re a boy, aren’t you? Why are you being so timid and wishy-washy like a girl?”

“Ugh!”

Joey was struck speechless. He mumbled and stammered for a while before finally asking in a small voice, “Um, could you... stay here a little longer?”

“Sure.”

Leticia glanced at the sky and nodded, puzzled. “I have to be back before nightfall, but I can do whatever I want until then.”

“That’s great!”

Joey grabbed Leticia’s hand tightly as if she were his savior. “Please come with me!”

“Huh?!”

This kid’s thought process was seriously weird.

“Um, um... Right! You were the one who suggested it, so you have to cheer me on!”

Joey scrambled for an extremely flimsy excuse, revealing his own inexperience and innocence without the slightest guard. “But Rona’s probably gone to the forest with her dad to gather herbs, so we’ll have to wait a little while.”

“Hm? Gathering herbs?”

“Yeah.”

Joey nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Rona’s family does that kind of work. Her dad, Uncle Nicola, is the only doctor in our village! Rona’s the oldest child in the family, so she has to help him now. They should be back sometime this afternoon!”

Medicine-making, gathering herbs, medicinal plants, doctors...

Medicine?

Medicine!

Leticia suddenly stood up—and nearly fainted on the spot. She could only sink weakly back down...

Even so, she couldn’t suppress the excited flush spreading across her face.

“Joey.”

Looking at the little boy beside her, with his face still dotted with freckles, Leticia found him much more agreeable than before. “I’ll wait with you!”