“What did you remember?”

The blonde-haired, green-eyed woman smiled gently at the trembling statue-girl.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it…”

“No, it’s just… A lot.”

Jade shook her head and sighed, “Besides, you just lost your father. I don’t want to make you even more upset.”

“Then don’t tell her, tell me!” Peridot pushed her aunt out of the way and took her mask off, tossing it into the flames from a dozen meters away.

“You can tell me too!” Oliver shouted out the window, making the gas mask disappear from his face for a moment so that he could flash her a big white grin.

“I’m the Chief of Verde Village and now the official Teacher. Dad wouldn’t want me neglecting one of my students because of him.”

Emerald pushed Peridot out of the way and then shouted at the boy in the window, “Oliver, get back to work!”

The stone-girl trembled again and shook her head, “It’s just… It’s been so long, but it still feels like yesterday. When I lost my parents, my village, everything. It’s complicated… I just can’t help feeling like, like I’m still stuck back then. It’s hard to explain. When I turned into a statue, I was burning. Everything was burning.”

“Wow, that’s dark as shit.”

“Peri, shut up.” Emerald tried to smack the tall girl’s head but she dodged. Ignoring the ‘little’ brat, the newly appointed Teacher smiled at her new student and said, “It’s perfectly normal to feel that way. We all have traumas and triggers.”

“If the fire bothers you, don’t stare at it.” Peridot snickered on the side, “If your past bothers you, just don’t think about it. That’s what I do and it works pretty well, hahaha~!”

“I’m fine. Really…” Jade giggled with a bright smile on her dark-gray lips, “I used to be a Rank 3 Sculptor before, I don’t know how long ago that was… What’s the current year?”

“Three-eighty.”

“What do you mean three-eighty? Three hundred and eighty… What?”

“Three hundred and eighty. That’s the current year. What year do you last remember?” Emerald asked, using a tissue to wipe her eyes and then another to blow her nose.

“It was nineteen-eighty-seven when I… Became this way.”

“Nineteen-eighty-seven?!” Peridot screamed in shock and Ivy was also audibly surprised in the background.

“What calendar was that?” Emerald frowned, “We’re using the United Kresvalian Calendar now.”

“Umm… The Greenstone Kingdom Calendar? Kresvalia became united? When did that happen?”

“Pft~! When else?! Are you an idiot? Three-hundred and eighty years ago! Hahaha~!”

“The Greenstone Kingdom is ancient history now. My Dad never went to College and didn’t have any systematic learning. Klein is a Doctor and doesn’t care about History. If you want to find out more about the Greenstone Kingdom, you’ll need to go to Greenstone City or hope that there’s a knowledgeable enough history professor in one of the nearby Colleges.”

“So I’m… Four hundred years old now?”

“More than four hundred years.” Emerald nodded seriously, “It’s really amazing. But how old do you feel?”

“I was twelve…” Jade looked up at the bright sun in the sky. Even staring at it didn’t hurt her shiny crystalline eyes. The light also seemed a bit tinted.

“I remember bits and pieces. I was buried for so long… Sometimes it felt like a moment, others… I wished I had just burned to death.”

“Ugh~!” Peridot shivered, “I hate being underground. Only a pervert like Ollie would wanna go into the mines all the time.”

“Oliver is a Miner.” Jade grinned and revealed her marble-like teeth, “When I was a Sculptor, I would spend most of the day just… Sculpting. In a small room in my basement. All day, every day, for most of my childhood.”

“You’re still a child.” Emerald shook her head, “Your ‘childhood’ isn’t over yet. Trust me. When you reach my age, you’ll look back at this time in your life as when you were only just a ‘kid’.”

“I’m older than you, ehah-ehah-ahehah~!”

“No, you’re not.” The middle-aged woman couldn’t help snickering at the girl’s strange laugh, but then she quickly became serious again.

“From now on, you’re fourteen years old. If anyone asks, you’re just a girl from a nearby village that was Cursed. Don’t tell anyone you’re hundreds of years old. You’re already ‘valuable’ enough as it is… If people know you’re also an antique, then nothing will stop their greed.”

“Yeah, people are evil assholes.” Peridot cackled, “You can trust us though.”

“Mmmn.” Ivy nodded her head on the side with a sad expression on her immature face, “People can be scary sometimes.”

*Crackle~!*

The flames were still raging in the background and Jade seemed to hear those screams again. The curses and the cries. But then she shook her head quickly and rubbed her aching stomach, standing up from the grassy ground.

“Papa used to say, ‘Never work on an empty stomach. Starving Artists are doing it wrong.’ I don’t know whether I can really eat regular food anymore, but I want to try. Do potatoes still exist? I want to eat a baked potato!”

“What’s a potato?”

“Never heard of it.”

Emerald and Peridot spoke at the same time, while Ivy was in the back looking confused.

“No way…” Jade looked at their faces for a while and then giggled, “Don’t try to trick me. I know potatoes still exist. I’m disappointed in you.”

“Hahaha~!”

“Sorry…” Emerald smiled wryly and shook her head, “Yes, potatoes still exist. I have some… Had some in the pantry. Klein said we need to get rid of all the food and destroy it to avoid spreading the plague.”

“We got plenty of potatoes at home.” Peridot patted the tall stone-girl on her shoulder, “Come on. I can’t stand that smell anymore… *Chuu~!*”

Jade tried to wipe the snot off her face with her grassy hands, but it only made the situation worse.

“Uh… Don’t worry, we got tissues at home too, hahaha~!”

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