“Today’s tasks are done! I’ll be heading out first…!”
“Ha ha, alright. Be careful not to get hurt while running.”
“Yes!”
Having completed her tasks for the day and finished tidying up faster than anyone else, the girl ran out with a face full of excitent.
When did this start?
It wasn’t until now that the girl began to eagerly await the end of her daily routine.
Of course, she had wished for the day’s tasks to end quickly before, but back then, it was rely with the thought of wanting to rest.
But unlike then, the girl now awaited this ti because…
“I found you!”
“Ah, you caught !”
Just like that, after finishing her work and rushing to the designated place to hide, the small girl, Evangeline, would always co to find her.
“Well, since I found you, that’s it! Today was fun too!”
Originally, the ga of hide and seek had started to avoid Evangeline.
Thus, there was an unspoken rule that if caught by Evangeline, the day’s play would be over.
“Ah…”
However, at so point, the girl began to think.
It was too disappointing to have her ti with Evangeline end so quickly.
“Um, um…!”
“Hmm? What’s up?”
“From today on, how about we stop hiding and play a bit longer…?”
That was why the girl asked Evangeline to stay and play a little longer.
What if she got rejected?
The girl thought with a trembling heart.
“Wow! Really?! I’d love to!”
Evangeline nodded with a full smile, as if she had been waiting for those words.
Just as the girl felt relieved and happy at seeing Evangeline like that, Evangeline grabbed her hand and asked.
“So what shall we play? Anything besides hide and seek is fine too?”
“Ah, yeah…!”
“Then co with for a second! I have sothing I want to show you!”
And so, the girl was led by Evangeline into a small cave a little distance away from where people lived.
“What is this place…?”
“Hehe, it’s my secret base! Cool, right?”
A space filled with all sorts of junk, the origin of which was unknown.
Evangeline proudly spread her arms as if showing off the place to the girl.
“Since it’s a secret base, you must never tell anyone else! But I’m telling you because you’re my friend!”
“……Friend?”
“Hmm? You didn’t know? Wait a mont! Look at this!”
Friend.
When the girl tilted her head at the unfamiliar two-syllable word, Evangeline unfolded sothing kept in one corner of the cave and pointed out a section.
“It says here that friends are those who play together.”
The girl didn’t know that what Evangeline presented to her was sothing called a book, nor did she understand the writing inside it.
“Since we agreed to play together from now on, you and I are friends, right?”
But as Evangeline asked her, the word “friend” felt incredibly pleasing to the girl for so reason, and she nodded in response.
“……Yes, friend.”
“Hehe, I’m so happy to have a friend for the first ti!”
As the girl answered, Evangeline smiled brightly and suddenly seed to rember sothing, her expression shifting with surprise as she asked.
“Speaking of friends, I still don’t know your na! What’s your na?”
“……Na?”
“Yeah, na! Just like my na is Evangeline!”
What Evangeline asked was about the girl’s na.
However, the girl couldn’t answer her question.
“……I don’t have a na.”
That was because the girl had no na.
“Oh, you don’t have a na either. Well, that’s usual around here.”
But Evangeline didn’t seem particularly surprised by that.
It wasn’t just the girl; most of the slaves living in this place had no nas.
To be exact, it would be more appropriate to say they had been thrown away.
Throwing away one’s na was a kind of rule created by the owner of the mine, Davis.
Not all slaves were of the sa status.
So were born as slaves, while others were nobles who beca slaves after committing cris.
Thus, there were occasional conflicts among the slaves.
To so, it was like, “How can those who’ve been slaves since birth oppose when I was a noble before?”
But regardless of who they were outside, once they entered this place, they beca slaves who could never leave and had to work for the rest of their lives.
Davis made the slaves abandon their nas to engrain that fact in them.
At first, there was so resistance, but at so point, the slaves began to accept it willingly and even encouraged it.
Those with fond mories from the outside understood that being called by their nas would only lead them down a miserable path, bringing back painful mories.
And even for those without any good mories, they realized that throwing away nas could prevent unnecessary conflicts that might arise among them.
That’s why the slaves in this place usually had no nas.
In the girl’s case, it wasn’t that she had thrown her na away, but that no one gave her one due to the surrounding circumstances.
In that sense, Evangeline was quite a unique case.
Having grown up here, she was able to use the na given to her by her parents without anyone saying anything.
The girl had never thought about her own lack of a na, considering that no one else around her had nas either.
However, her newly found friend had a na.
Perhaps that was why she felt a sense of incongruity, as if she did not belong with her.
For the first ti in her life, the girl felt regret about not having a na.
But at that mont, Evangeline asked the girl.
“Um, can I give you a na?”
As if she had read the girl’s heart, she asked if she could na her.
“Uh…? My na…?”
“Yes! You see, my na, Evangeline, is written here in this book and ans ‘good news.’ I felt really happy when I learned that after studying so letters! I may not rember exactly what my mom and dad were like, but I feel like they put a lot of thought into naming . So I thought having a na would be nice for you too!”
Hearing Evangeline’s words, the girl nodded as if enchanted.
“Got it! Then I’ll give you the coolest na ever! Wait a mont? Hmm…”
Then, Evangeline, with a determined expression, stared relentlessly at the book for a long ti, as if asking her to trust her.
After much contemplation, Evangeline pointed at a section of the book and exclaid, her eyes sparkling.
“Oh! How about this? Beatrice! ”
Beatrice.
Since the girl couldn’t read, she had no idea what aning the na held.
However, seeing Evangeline so confidently exclaim it led the girl to think it must have a wonderful aning, so she asked.
“What does Beatrice an…?”
“Uh, um… blessed person. Uhm…? But what does blessed an? Anyway, it’s sothing like that.”
However, upon hearing Evangeline‘s response, the girl couldn’t help but look bemused.
After making such a grand statent, she chose a na she didn’t even know the aning of.
As the girl stared incredulously at Evangeline, Evangeline shook her head vigorously, insisting that wasn’t the case.
“Wait a second! Don’t look at like that! I still don’t know a lot of words! Plus, this na isn’t chosen based on aning!”
“… Then what?”
As if challenging her to explain, the girl asked, and Evangeline pointed at herself with her finger.
“My na is Evangeline, right? But if I have to say it every ti, it gets a little long. So I thought maybe when I have friends in the future, they could just call Eva instead.”
“Yeah.”
“But look! Beatrice is a long na too! How about if you shorten it like I ntioned just now?”
Upon hearing that question, the girl had a mont of realization, her expression spacing out as she muttered.
If she shortened Evangeline, it would beco Eva.
And if she shortened Beatrice…
“… Bea.”
As the girl muttered that, Evangeline grinned, as if that was exactly right.
“See! Shortened, it’s Eva and Bea! It feels like we’re perfect friends, doesn’t it? Right? That’s why I chose that na.”
Looking at Evangeline saying that, the girl thought.
It was a na that felt so much more aningful than a na with a good aning; it had the connotation of their bond as friends.
The girl repeatedly recited the na that her friend had thought of for her in her mind.
Bea, Beatrice.
At that mont, as she felt a fullness in her heart, she didn’t realize that she would soon lose that happiness.
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