She was an orphan living at the Charitable Asylum.
Although Leon wanted to tell the admin lady this excuse, considering it sounded a bit like Hell, he decided to explain in a different way:
"She’s sort of a reserve member of our bureau, came here with me to rent an apartment."
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Nodding in understanding, the admin lady frowned slightly and asked with some confusion:
"This child... looks twelve or thirteen? Does your bureau actually hire child labor?"
"No, she’s looked for the past ten years, if you really calculate it, she should be around twenty-three or twenty-four this year."
"Then how come she..."
"Uh... she had a major illness ten years ago, so she’s been ever since."
Illness ten years ago? And hasn’t changed since?
The admin lady was stunned for a moment and then whispered with some understanding:
"Could it be that... that, what’s it called... dwarfism?"
"Oh yeah, yeah! That’s the one!"
Reaching behind him and grabbing the green-eyed girl’s hand, which was pincering the soft flesh of his waist, Leon continued to spin his story with an unfazed face:
"It’s, uh, genetic or something, I don’t really understand this stuff, but basically, she just doesn’t grow... Aunt Mary, Feiliya prefers peace and quiet, could you arrange a room for her on the sixth floor?"
The admin lady nodded, looked over the tenant book, and asked:
"A room on the sixth floor, quiet and not facing the street... there’s only one left for a monthly rent of 12 Silver Wheel, is that acceptable?"
After making the decision for the green-eyed girl, Leon turned back to Feiliya and explained:
"Don’t worry, I’m living here too. I’m familiar with Happy Apartment; the facilities might be a bit old, but it has everything you need and it’s very clean... Oh, Aunt Mary."
At this point, Leon turned back around, a bit sheepishly:
"Feiliya’s family suffered a disaster, someone set fire to her home, burning all her savings, furniture, house, everything to ashes, so she doesn’t have much money right now, and the rent might need to be delayed by half a month."
"Oh dear, so that’s what happened, no wonder you’re looking for an apartment at such an odd time."
After hearing about the "dwarf girl’s" situation, the admin lady couldn’t help but sigh and sympathized deeply with Feiliya, who was both disabled and disaster-stricken, then she kindly said:
"No worries, I’ll vouch for you, dear child, just stay here, and let’s not talk about delayed rent, you can start paying next month!"
"Oh, no need to be so polite! Everyone has a hard time, if we can help each other, we should."
The tag of "afflicted with illness," "suffered a disaster at home," "impoverished," and "hard survivor," matched with the delicate and cute green-eyed girl’s appearance, seemingly triggered the admin lady’s inherent compassion for the poor and weak.
After helping Feiliya complete the check-in, she led Leon and her upstairs while soothing them with kind words:
"Don’t worry, child, nothing in this world you can’t get through, as long as we don’t give up hope, the future will surely get better slowly. I’m always in the duty room, if you need any help, just speak up... Oh, by the way, do you have anyone else in your family?"
"Uh... I have an older brother..."
"Does he have a place to stay? If not, he could come here too? There are still quite a few vacant rooms and the rent is cheap..."
Clearing his throat forcefully, interrupting the admin lady, Leon whispered:
"That fire I mentioned earlier... it was set by her brother himself..."
Hearing Leon’s words, the admin lady found it hard to hold back, then secretly turned around where the green-eyed girl couldn’t see and mouthed:
’Why though? Why would someone set fire to their own home?’
’Sigh, I don’t understand what he was thinking either.’
Leon, while mouthing back, pointed to his head with his hand, then made a helpless expression on his face.
Oh, so her brother has a problem with his head!
Understanding Leon’s hint, facing the ill-fated cute "little" girl behind her, the admin lady’s sympathy index rose another level, whereas Feiliya, who witnessed all the communication between her and Leon, was already fuming.
You bastard pervert! You’re the dwarf! Your brother has mental issues!
The furious Feiliya had already thrown her fear of Leon to the wind, starting to follow the two up the stairs, struggling with her small legs and pinching Leon’s thigh root forcefully with her hands.
While Leon, successfully retaliating, paid no mind to her attacks, which were akin to tickling, continued to walk steadily, and when she got tired by the fifth floor, he picked her up and carried her directly to the sixth floor.
"Here, this is the room I mentioned before."
Watching Leon kindly helping his sick colleague behind him, and Feiliya, who seemed a bit stubborn and unwilling to admit defeat, trying to get up the stairs on her own, the admin lady couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction, then handed the key to Leon, a bit embarrassed:
"Could you help introduce the rest to this kid? It seems someone just arrived on the first floor, and the old man isn’t around, I need to go check it out first."
"No problem, leave it to me!"
Receiving the room key and watching as the admin lady hurried downstairs, Leon grasped the moment before the green-eyed girl erupted, handed her the keys, opened the room door, and tossed her inside.
"This is your room... Okay, I introduced everything I needed to, remember to come to the bureau at 7 in the morning. See you."
Done with what might be considered perfunctory introductions, but lacking even in that, Leon ignored the roaring from inside the room, directly using the Black Goat’s soul vision, glanced at his own home.
Well, at this time, William, Melanie, and little Ellie should still be at school, they’ll probably be back in the afternoon, and since Anna isn’t helping Aunt Mary, she’s probably shopping.
With her shopping habits, she probably wouldn’t detour home after buying things but would go straight to Bridge Public School and wait outside to pick up William and the others on the way, so they’d likely come back together in three or four hours.
If that’s the case... maybe check out the prospective newbie?
After calculating his free time, Leon didn’t head home, but directly pulled out the forms given by the red-haired director in the hallway, checking through them one by one.
Given three and a half hours, he had to leave half an hour to tidy up, and factoring in the time to assess the newbie, he should ideally find a place close to Bridge Street, preferably reachable within an hour...
Hmm? Wait a minute, there’s actually a resident of Happy Apartment on this checklist?