"Have any of you noticed what is in that front carriage?"
"That's where the leaders stay, what else would there be apart from their possessions?"
"No, I mean the front of the transport train."
"Oh, the one with the weird smell? I noticed that it appeared with the Lake Town group. They redistributed the rest of the cargo."
"It smells like meat."
"Meat? Is it properly stored? It would go bad quickly, otherwise."
"Maybe it is not meat, but it should be produced from some beast at least. My brother is a butcher, and it smells just like his shop."
"I just wonder how much they paid to get that cargo in. With such a smell, the leaders should not have allowed it to be commissioned."
"Do you know who brought it on board? Which Lake Town person?"
One of the mothers, sensing that the conversation was drifting from her preferred topic, spoke up. "I've heard that the Sen Family is about to make a move?"
"Is the information reliable?"
As the adults talked, some put their hands over the fire. It wasn't particularly cold, but it was a habit to warm their hands.
The little girl was mustering up her courage. She was not old enough to fully understand her feelings, but she was overwhelmed by curiosity and pity for the strange young man. An attraction that she could not comprehend was pulling her.
While her parents were distracted with the conversation, she suddenly stood up and walked over.
The young disheveled man turned his head as she came up to him. His eyes were wild and reckless. They were the eyes of someone who had already been pushed to the brink and was capable of anything.
Any adult would run at the sight, but the little girl was not old enough to recognize the danger. She stopped a few steps away.
"What is your name?" she asked in a childish voice.
"Go away," the young man muttered. He gave her a fierce glare.
The little girl almost jumped back. For a moment, it felt like she was looking at a beast, which frightened her. However, she felt more pity than fear, so she forced herself to keep looking.
"It is not good to be alone," she lectured.
"Newborn calf," the young man muttered, shaking his head as he took a large swig from his bottle.
The little girl did not feel deterred. If anything, she was more determined than when she started. "You stink, so you should wash," the little girl explained. "What are you doing in Brightsteel Town?"
When the young man did not respond, she explained. "Everyone is going there."
The young man paused. He stopped muttering and responded in a normal tone, his voice cracked and deep. "Visiting someone."
He had nearly said 'visiting my sister,' but at the last minute he remembered and changed his words.
At the sound of his voice, the families around the campfire were instantly alerted.
"Safi!"
"Ko Safi, come back right now," a motherly figure called out, her voice stern and full of reproach.
The little girl quickly scampered back, but as she left, she turned around and smiled brightly at the young man.
He was startled.
The smile was so pure and radiant, it was only a smile that a child could have. Only someone who had not seen the ugly side of the world could smile like that.
He almost lost himself in it.
Ko Safi, the little girl, turned around and sat back down next to her parents, but the young man's face was frozen, as the image of the smile lingered in his head.
Even after he tried to get rid of the girl, she still talked to him, and even smiled afterward.
"There are good people in the world," he muttered to himself. "They are just small."
He had almost made a mistake by saying 'my sister' but in the end, he caught himself. As long as the mistake wasn't made, it was fine.
There were no connections established between them, nothing that could trace him back to the girl or lead the girl to ask after him.
Several of the men at the campfire were staring daggers at the young man, but he did not even notice their gazes. He cast his eyes upward at the evening sky again.
"To be young," he muttered.