"Did you leave in a bit of a hurry?"
Lin Chichi crouched down and looked at the Little Girl before her in confusion, not quite understanding what she meant.
"How should I put it..."
The Little Girl scratched her head. "We weren't originally here."
She raised her hand and pointed west. "We were in a big city completely different from this place. At first, Mom and Dad said we'd stay there for a few days, but then they suddenly said we weren't staying there anymore. Dad even seemed to cancel the hotel he'd already booked."
Then she looked up at Lin Chichi. "So we only spent half a day there, walked around the city a little, then took an overnight train here."
"Huh?"
Lin Chichi looked at the Little Girl in bewilderment. "Let me get this straight. You changed your original plans? You were originally going to visit Mote City, then changed your plans and came to Fickley?"
She had vaguely realized that the Little Girl before her was one of the family of three who had exited the station ahead of her.
They might even have been on the same train.
She looked curiously at the Little Girl and thought aloud, "Maybe something made your parents change their minds?"
"But there wasn't anything strange."
The Little Girl scratched her head, then seemed to remember something. Looking at Lin Chichi, she said, "A strange elder brother gave us a flyer. After Dad saw it, he seemed a little anxious."
"What kind of flyer?"
Lin Chichi froze for a moment, then immediately asked.
"A flyer about 'K.'"
The Little Girl seemed to sink into recollection. "When I was sleeping on the train, I think I heard Mom and Dad saying that he felt the city wasn't very safe anymore, that there