" Iver," Isabel asked seriously, "no offense... but if I remember correctly, you used to live in an Orphanage, right?"
"Mm." Iver nodded.
Isabel said softly, unable to bear it, "I specifically went to see the Orphanage too. The Children there were eating some brownish paste whose ingredients I couldn't even identify, and even that wasn't enough to fill them up. They had no cotton-padded clothes, and in winter, they didn't even have hot water to bathe with. The Orphanage had no separate toilets for boys and girls, much less separate stalls. Everyone slept together, with many Children lying on a single bed."
"The Orphanage on Glass Island must be different from the ones outside."
Iver sighed and explained, "The Orphanage I lived in was invested in and sponsored by my adoptive father. Although we were basically never full either, we had meat every week. During festivals, we even had roast chicken, roast meat, fried cod steaks, and haggis. As for not eating our fill... that was to keep the Children from having too much energy and becoming too rowdy. Just like prisons don't let prisoners eat their fill.
"As for sleeping—we didn't have individual rooms either, but we had individual beds. There were eight to twelve beds in each room, and back then, I would always hold Yulia while we slept. Whenever she woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't see me, she would become terrified, and her body temperature would immediately rise."
"...Even the Orphanage is different."
Isabel murmured, "Why is it like this..."
Iver shook his head slightly and said softly, "Because of the port, Isabel. Glass Island has Avalon's largest port, as well as the greatest number of griffins and knights in Avalon guarding merchants and cargo. Naturally, wealth would gather here from