Miss Planeswalker, are you free for romance?

Arrietty looked at her father - he made a funny face at her and waved.

The girl responded with a bored look on her bare feet, turned around, and went back to her cabin with her coral hair draped over her shoulders.

In the living room, a thumbtack lay flat on the table, used as a candlestick.

Various 'weapons' are hung on the wall:

There were rapiers made of sewing needles, daggers made of safety pins, and darts made of several pieces of sharpened wire strung together and hung on the side.

The girl pulled up her trouser legs, sat on the bed, and placed her feet on the table.

In the candlelight, her slender white feet were wiggling. She was holding a big notebook in her hand and writing in her diary.

“Today, it opened.”

"Is that girl the queen we are waiting for?"

"Grandpa's words are true, right?"

"Arrietty! Time for dinner!"

There were knocks on the door from outside.

Judging from the severity of the crime, it must be his mother.

Arrietty pouted, let out a "whoosh", nimbly jumped off the bed, hid her diary, hummed a song, and happily opened the door.

"What are we having for dinner today?" she asked.

"Potatoes, onion rings. And these are all borrowed by your father with great effort. If you refuse to eat them like you did yesterday, you will go back to your room!"

The girl drooped her eyes. Behind her mother, Pod puffed up his round face and winked at his daughter, looking like he was enjoying the fun. It was extremely annoying.

Arrietty pointed at her father: "Mom, look at him!"

Homily looked back in confusion.

Her husband was sitting upright at the dining table, with a small piece of cut bandage on his chest as a napkin.

He looked at the food in front of him with a serious face, then raised his head with a puzzled look on his face.

"What's wrong?" The man looked completely confused.

"Dad!" The girl walked around her mother, sat down on the cushion angrily, and put her hands on her chest, not looking at him.

"Okay, okay, come and eat." Pod smiled and asked his wife to sit down, his curved eyes narrowed into slits.

“It’s a pity that the tenant this time is a girl.

If it's an old gentleman, maybe he can make a living room for my treasures." Pod chatted with his wife while eating potatoes.

The place where Arrietty lived now was made by Pod out of two cigar boxes.

There is also a lovely carving on the ceiling of a woman in tulle playing a trombone.

Below are vast tracts of woods and beaches, the scenery is vivid and exquisite.

Homily didn't think so. The woman's face was full of greed: "I saw the gem! The shiny, emerald green one, and -"

"Homily."

Pod called his wife's name seriously, interrupting her in the middle of her speech.

"I remember, we have rules."

The wrinkles on Homily's face wilted instantly. The woman muttered, "I know, I know. Maybe she left one day and forgot the jewelry in the drawer..."

The dwarfs have their own rules and are not allowed to take things that the giants care about.

Even when circumstances allow, they usually maintain a simple life.

For example: jewelry, gold and silver, etc.

And once you attract the attention of the giants, the consequences of being discovered...

At the very least, they will have to move away, and at worst, they will 'disappear'.

Even if they move, it is not something they can afford.

Although Homily, like other women, had a personality that loved jewelry and gold and silver ornaments, she also knew what was important.

——It was fine before. There was a musician living here. He would sit in front of the piano and music table all day long, so it was safe to borrow things from him.

Now, the owner of the house has changed to a girl, a young girl.

Young people are curious, ignorant, sensitive and suspicious.

This suddenly increased the risk for her husband to borrow things.

Although she liked those shiny things, she couldn't let her husband go out and run around for her at risk.

Homily sighed.

"Fortunately, this girl's daily routine is very regular. She goes to the balcony, has morning tea, then goes out with her easel and comes back in the evening."

Pod wiped his mouth and said, "I could waltz on the carpet and she wouldn't notice it!"

Arrietty curled her lips: "Mr. Pod..."

"Ouch!"

Homily picked up the small spoon and smacked her daughter on the head. "Call Daddy!"

Arrietty rubbed her head. "Father, my dear father, Mr. Craftsman Pod. Can't you find it?"

"Did you borrow some sugar cubes today?"

Chapter 7 Fairies and Fate Changers

After dinner, the table was cleaned up.

Pod, the husband, and Homily, the wife, sat at either end, with Arrietty in the middle.

The old couple stared at their daughter seriously, trying their best to control their emotions and not let them get out of control.

Pod's voice trembled a little: "You mean? She found footprints after I left?"

The man staggered and tried to stand up, holding onto the corner of the table. Halfway through, he suddenly lost his strength and sat down on the cushion, gasping for breath.

His eyes were filled with horror.

Arrietty chewed the big nut happily and rolled her eyes at her father: "Of course, she also put two pieces of sugar on the kitchen counter, and I saw them all.

Sugar...is very sweet.

Can I move back directly tomorrow?"

Homily was not at all surprised by her daughter's 'adventurous spirit.' She patted the back of her hand gently. "Listen, Arrietty."

“Borrowing things is a skillful job, like an art.

Many borrowers have lived in this house, but now, we are the only one left.

Do you know why? "

"Your father is the best borrower in this area.

Oh...the best since your grandpa.

In that era, Aunt Lupi and the Spillers all spoke highly of your grandfather and your father.

And these flexible skills are just games between them as father and son. "

Homily's face was full of pride, but she changed her tone again to one of worry:

"Times have changed, Arrietty.

We must be careful, very careful.

The rats, the cats, and the dogs.

The evil ant exterminators will smoke us out with acrid smoke, and the hounds will bite our bodies with their long fangs—"

"That's enough, Homily."

Pod interrupted his wife's bloody description and said to his daughter tiredly: "Anyway, they disappeared.

Your Aunt Lupi, well, maybe you don't remember, she sang "The Queen and the Stagecoach" to you when you were a kid.

They disappeared after that day, and your mother and I could only watch from afar as the ant exterminators walked in one by one, carrying large boxes and long coils of pipes. "

Pod was sad and helpless, his round, fat face full of the pain of facing a difficult life.

"We can only move. Move to the sewers, move to the wild, live with fleas, grasshoppers, mice and night cats. Maybe we can find a new home, but where is the good opportunity for us to move?"

"My brother, Kocher, that arrogant fellow lives behind the fireplace among the lath and plaster, high up above, looking down on the giants as if he were the master of the house."

"But what happened in the end? A fire that was like a child's play. They, their whole family..."

Pod choked up, took the bandage handkerchief handed to him by his wife and wiped his nose, then looked up and saw his daughter's eyes sparkling.

Arrietty said eagerly, "Pain and hardship prove that we shouldn't live like this! Isn't it?"

She turned to look at her mother, as if seeking her support.

But Homily just looked at her in disappointment.

The girl didn't want to give up.

She stood up and stood on the chair.

Then, jump onto the table by stepping on the chair.

Facing her parents' surprised eyes, Arrietty pulled out the sewing needle from her waist.

With her coral-red hair draped behind her back, the heroic girl looks like a knight commander commanding a charge of thousands of troops!

She brandished the sewing needle, stabbed and chopped a few times, and then chanted in a high-pitched female voice: "The holy moment is coming!

The card grass and heart-shaped leaves are in full bloom, and the queen will come across dimensions with the sound of the bells before the war!"

The girl ignored her angry mother. She waved her cloak and said with bright eyes, "We should be her knights and her most loyal guardians.

We are not a tribe of 'little people' who can only survive by relying on humans.

We are fairies!

We are otherworldly creations!

We should be the sharp edge of her sword and the clever whisper in her hair!"

"us--"

"Enough!" Pod's fat palm slammed the table, and he stared at his daughter: "Enough! Arrietty!"

"Since the existence of the Dwarf Clan, we have always lived by the rules passed down from generation to generation. You will not only harm yourself, but also all the Dwarf Clan!"

Homily pulled her daughter off the table and pressed her into a chair, her feminine brows almost standing up.

"Arrietty, my daughter, do you know what will happen to us if we are exposed to the eyes of mankind?

Put it in a glass box for exhibition?

Or be dissected?

In captivity?

Controlled by those giant fingers for life?"

Arrietty nodded humbly in agreement with her parents' words, but then she rolled her eyes and brought the subject back to the topic:

"But, the prophecy and diary left by grandpa——"

That was when Pod's father, old Pod, was still alive.

At that time, young Arrietty often held his hand and listened to the old man tell stories about his adventures in his youth.

At that time, this is what the old man said to his granddaughter on his lap.

'Arrietty, my station ends here.

But the Dwarf Tribe is not here, and cannot be here.