To Love, Once Again

An older man with a cane, clean-shaven and wearing neat, simple clothes, steps out of the doorway and rings a bell hanging from the porch.

"Come inside if you're wanting some dinner!"

"Look Grandpa Robin, it's Mr.Lu!"

Leaning on his cane and squinting towards the gate, the man's furry white caterpillar eyebrows rise up. The rest of his face was frozen, the brows the only indication of his surprise to see Lucien, with Sera standing next to him.

Grandpa Robin was a gruff old man, a veteran mercenary who settled down in Thornmere after falling in love with his wife, Rosie. Like Lucien, he preferred not talking much, but when he did, it was rough and straight to the point. It felt weird to see Lucien and Grandpa Robin standing together like this. As far as Sera knew, they'd never met each other. Her work here in the orphanage and her time spent in the castle as Queen were different facets of her former life here. These facets had never interacted with each other before.

While the children stream around the old man, headed inside, the man walks towards them, shuffling on his cane like a fish going upstream, to unlatch the gate for them.

"Your wife has returned" Looking up at Lucien's tall frame, he nods his head towards Sera.

"Yessir" Lucien salutes with respect to the old man. He'd only met this man a few times, when he came to reform the slums and rebuild the orphanage that Sera cared for so much. Yet, like can recognize like. This old man was a grizzled fighter, one of the very lucky few to have survived their careers.

"How are you Grandpa Robin?"

Still not looking at her, the man grunts, and turns away, headed back into the orphanage, Lucien following him. Both don't speak a word. Sera wasn't sure if Grandpa Robin was unhappy with her or not. This old grandfather was the hardest nut to crack. Sera guessed he would be upset. After all, she'd left without a word.

Hearing a voice calling out her name, Sera sees an aproned figure waving to her from the porch.

"Miss Sera!" A girl with hair braided into two long braids runs up to Sera.

"Cyd!"

It was Cyd, one of the children Sera used to tell stories to and spend time with here in the orphanage.

They embrace, and Sera proudly looks at this girl before her with a smattering of freckles on her nose, on the cusp of womanhood.

"You've grown so big!" Sera exclaims, stepping back to look at her.

The young girl nods her head, beaming with pride. "It's been 5 years, Miss Sera. I'm an adult now!"

Cyd was an adult, though it wasn't by Sera's world's standards. Becoming a 14,15 years old meant adulthood here in Thornmere.

Cyd does a spin for her, showing off her simple patched skirt that fans out around her. She was so happy to see Miss Sera back. Finally, she could show Miss Sera all the wonderful things that had happened here. Each time a orphan graduated into an apprentice at one of the local workshops, she had wished Miss Sera was here to witness it. After all, that was the program, a new visionary idea that Miss Sera had worked to install with so much effort.

"Yes, you're a proper adult now." Sera agrees with a smile.

"I'm so glad to see you're doing well!" Cyd's cheeks were no longer hollow, the mean look in her eyes gone, from the way Cyd had looked when they first met. Sera and Cyd first impressions of each other, one as an orphaned street rat leader led the small children to go out begging on the streets, the other a pampered noble lady who looked like she'd never seen the slums before.

Cyd nods enthusiastically, as Sera tries to catch up with what happened here.

"The orphanage has become so beautiful too! And the slums are gone?"

"Unnnhmm!" Cyd retained that childlike quality by the way she so eagerly wanted to show everything to Sera.

The remaining children in the yard greet Lucien with enthusiasm as he follows behind Grandpa Robin, but don't touch him or pull at his clothes like they do with Sera. It seemed to Sera that they didn't know that Lucien was the King, but they still treated him with a different, special form of respect. The ones in the yard were all small, the oldest around Leo's age, which meant their faces were all new and unfamiliar to her.

Taking Sera's hand, Cyd pulls her inside, calling out to the children to wash their hands at the same time as they enter.

"After you stopped coming, we thought the program would die. Such a waste, when Tor and Beth and Mari were finally able to become proper craftsmen..."

Cyd looks sad for a moment, perking up when she adds:

"But then, Mr. Lu showed up, and things have been on an upward climb since!"

From the first time Lucien came to this place, looking so scary with his large stature and wild aura, the children had been scared to interact with him, and he stayed away from them as well, only interacting with Grandpa Robin. But they trusted him, since his first visit to the orphanage, this man had brought them toys and snacks, and although Grandpa Robin wouldn't tell them if he was the one who had done it, fixed their building's leaky roof (eventually building a new orphanage for them!) and brought them nicer beds to sleep on.

"I help Grandpa Robin here now. I'm more suited for looking after the children instead of picking a job and going through the long process of working up from an apprentice."

Gesturing out to the room where rows of tables were neatly organized in the large common room, a line of children at the side getting their plates and eating utensils, Cyd looks at the place with pride.

To see this place that had been falling apart become a proper orphanage, started in the slums from the kindness of Grandpa Robin's wife Rosie, was everything to Cyd. Meeting Miss Sera had given her a purpose to improve the lives of the children she cared for, not just teaching them how to pickpocket and beg on the street. The new program Miss Sera had installed was an apprenticeship program, which started with Miss Sera and a couple orphans, Cyd included, went around the workshops in town asking for apprenticeship spots for orphans.

But how did Lucien know about this place? He'd known that she'd often took trips outside the castle for 'charity work', the only excuse the nobles were happy with. Yet she'd never told him about this place. What was the promise Lucien was talking about??

The common room was connected to the kitchen, accessible by a counter that divided the two rooms, which was where Lucien heads off to. Inside the kitchen, wearing a kerchief on her head and stirring a big pot of soup, was Grandma Rosie, cheeks red with exertion.

"Miss Sera, you should go to the kitchen and greet Grandma Rosie! I'll be here, helping with supper" Giving her a friendly push on the back, Cyd gives a beaming smile and goes to help the smaller children receive their meals.