The Past Winter
Three Sekawan

The officers of the orphanage were divided according to their respective duties. One parlour leader and one representative were busy handling the parlour and often went back and forth to travel to the main holy temple. Two people were placed in the kitchen.

Two officers in charge of the washing department. They often complain because of back pain, indeed their age has entered the middle age phase. Although other officers help, or there are officers who are brought in from outside the home, but still age cannot be manipulated. Two holy priests who take care of the financial part.

The remaining five took care of the children and became their foster mothers, including Serena. In total there were thirteen officers who settled the orphanage including priests and ordinary people who helped take care of the orphanage.

Before Serena joined, the three stray cats she now manages were cared for by other caregivers, and were notorious as unwelcome children for being too out of control. The three of them were exiled by their own foster mothers because they could not be arranged and in the end their caregivers gave up.

When Serena arrived about three years ago, she was assigned to take care of her three mischievous friends, Elyn, Olive, and Allen. At first the treatment of the three friends was the same as they treated the other caregivers before. Those who have wounds because they have been ignored for a long time and do not feel the affection of adults become increasingly delinquent.

Serena who treated them sincerely wanted to give up at first, because she was sad and felt that she was disliked by her foster children.

The treatment of the three friends changed slightly when one night they heard the sobs of Serena near their bed. Although the three girls did not fully trust Serena, but at least the three of them had intended to open their hearts.

Serena, who prayed to the god expectantly and sincerely, asked the children to like her. Every night Serena would cry in prayer, and the prayer she asked was always the same so that the three children would open their hearts to her.

Until one day Serena wasn't in the parlour. The three friends were confused, the three of them looked for Serena to and fro but did not find her, the three stray cats felt lost.

One of the officers said that Serena ran away from the orphanage because she was no longer strong with the behavior of the three of them. The three children are afraid of being abandoned and there will be no one to love them more than the woman weeps.

The three of them heard from one of the attendants of the parlour that Serena went to the imperial capital and would never return. Who would be at home volunteering for orphanages in remote villages if not the natives.

Moreover, the clothes that Serena wore when she came first were fairly good, even though the model was not as luxurious as the property of nobles, but the materials and motifs on her dress were not arbitrary, that's proof that the dress he was wearing was quite expensive. The clean white skin of the woman also looks very well maintained, also smells very fragrant, proving that she was very caring for the body before.

The other parlors thought that Serena had been a servant in a mansion owned by nobles. But for some reason he left his old job and came as a volunteer.

Some say, Serena is a noble lady who ran away because she avoids unwanted matchmaking. Some even say the woman is the royal princess of an enemy country. Because whatever she wears, Serena's face is still very beautiful to be regarded as an ordinary citizen.

Allen, Elyn, and Olive rushed towards the capital wearing only a thin, barefoot nightgown. The three of them sneak out of the house to meet Serena, the three girls will beg Serena to come back.

The three were riding a freight train that happened to pass in front of the road not far from the orphanage, they secretly climbed so as not to be caught by the coachman. If found out they will be taken down by the coachman of the horse-drawn carriage in the middle of the road somewhere.

Two days and three nights they traveled to reach the imperial capital where Serena was located. It was only fitting that the head of the parlour went to the holy temple that was in the capital, it was very long for him to return to the parlour again. It was a long and exhausting journey like this. The three little girls thought again because the three of them had intended to escape to the capital to live a new life.

The next morning they woke up and found themselves in the capital. When the train they were riding stopped, the three girls got off while sneaking out of the carriage and walking towards the neatly lined building.

It is not easy to find Serena between the vastness of the capital and the hustle and bustle there. There were a lot of people passing by on the streets, as well as horse carriages that were busy pacing the main road.

Every adult they ask about Serena always ignores and even pushes their bodies, as if they were a contagious disease. The three of them could not enter the store carelessly, because the entire store they went to considered the three little children as beggars.

The three girls were also chased by knights for allegedly stealing an apple being peddled by merchants. Of course the accusations are fake.

The real incident is, the three girls caught a thief who was filling his bag with various fruits from one of the carts owned by the merchant.

Then the thief gave an apple to Olive who happened to be starving and stared at the thief. The unsuspecting Olive immediately picked up the apple the thief had given her.

After the apple was in Olive's hands, the thief shouted loudly and pointed to three poor little girls as thieves who made them stoned by merchants and chased by knights.

Tired, out of breath, scared, hungry, and dirty. The three friends were leaning against a wall in an alley in one corner of the city. They're desperate to find Serena.

The three girls regretted their actions in the orphanage all this time to Serena. They should have been nice to him from the beginning and loved him not to be left behind.

Olive, who could not hold back her tears, sobbed and followed Allen. Elyn who tried to strengthen herself while blaming herself was swept away in tears. The three of them cried loudly while embracing, seizing the sight of everyone who passed through the alley.

Some people who saw the incident just stared as they frowned at the dirty children who were crying. The others were indifferent to what was in front of his eyes. There are even adults who wear fancy gossipy dresses about shabby little children like beggars, making them uncomfortable shopping.

The three children were crying in an alley right next to a fairly famous shop in the city. The store owner who got protests from his subscription nobles and got the threat of the nobles will not shop at the store because there are children who are crying and angry.

The owner of the store threw away the three poor children as viciously as driving a stray, dirty, smelly, diseased dog away from his shop.