Rose drew number 643—not especially lucky, but not unlucky either.
She would probably take the stage on the fifth day.
Binn gave Rose every bit of help he could. He found her a new music teacher, took her to the hospital to have her throat examined, and even used his own privilege to buy her a Firstlove Fruit to build up her strength.
But none of that mattered as much as the other thing he gave her: love.
Rose didn't let Binn down. She practiced hard—astonishingly hard for a six- or seven-year-old who hadn't even lost all her baby teeth.
Who wouldn't love a sweet, sensible child like that?
Jack was the other extreme.
He had only been there two days, but he had already made friends with the children at the Orphanage. Using the few tricks he had picked up on the streets, he quickly became one of Miss Cathy's advisors—
Binn wondered: Cathy was Lord Annan's daughter and would one day be Free City's second ruler. Had Jack already become a future big shot's confidant?
Either way, neither Jack nor Rose needed him to worry much anymore.
That morning, Binn took Rose to the Embassy. The music teacher he had found for her was a priest from the Wealth Church Choir.
"Remember to listen to your teacher."
"I know, Mama Binn."
After watching Rose enter the Embassy, Binn set off for the City Lord's Mansion to collect the Firstlove Fruit.
In the Embassy Garden, the priest patiently taught Rose how to project her voice and sing the Holy Hymn.
He liked hardworking children. In the past, the Church Choir had been packed with the children of Nobles. They were lazy, always trying to be clever or wriggle out of work.
The children from devout families, meanwhile, were too