My Pretty Sweetheart (Arianna)

"What choice did I have? My parents look down on me and they want me dead!" One girl said.

For a moment, I was confused. "Did your parents send you here?"

The sprightly woman spoke up, her face cold, "How should I put it? There are parents in this world who think that whatever they do is right, and they'd never allow their children to challenge that. Should their children disobey them, they'll push them into the abyss in the name of love."

I was speechless, at a loss for words. I looked at her and said, "So, your parents sent you here?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Sort of. They heard that the Deer Mount Academy in Jarold City was a good place to educate problematic children, so they sent me there for me to get beat up or yelled at. I couldn't bear it anymore and tried to escape, but they took me back and broke my legs. They didn't dare tell my parents, so they simply orchestrated a fire to cover it up. By the time I woke up, I wasn't dead, but had been sent here instead."

I finally understood why she had asked everyone to gather closer to her when she had been sitting the furthest away from us. My gaze fell on her legs. While there was nothing too unusual at first glance, once I properly looked at them, I could tell that her legs looked different.

her, she didn't seem uncomfortable.

said to her, "You don't look like

and looked at me. "Why?

I shut up and looked at the other girls as I asked about how they ended up

each girl had their own unique reason that had led

into poor families. They were out to find jobs but

here in the dead of night after work because they lived

was constant. We didn't know what

be the

to your places!" I said, but

walked in. When they came in, they saw that we were all