Mm. [ The smile on her lips ebbs slightly as she gives a quiet 'um' as her initial response to his question. The way she pauses, it's not hard to tell she really has to think about how to answer that, but it isn't out of any dishonesty. ] Not exactly. [ A mostly empty castle in an indistinct part of the universe is not a small town, but it was certainly small population-wise. She does not actually explain where, 'originally', she is from, and instead, ] But I lived in a pretty quiet one for a long time. It wasn't small, exactly, but it wasn't nearly as... busy as things are here. There weren't as many people, either. [ She falters briefly, as if debating with herself, then adds, ] I didn't get out much, anyway, so I never got to see most of it.

[ If 'much' and 'ever' are the same thing. In any case, her smile begins to regain strength at his other words - although the last bit makes her perk as though surprised. ]

-- Me? [ ... Huh. Well, he's not as wrong as he might have been before she came to Cerealia, but even now there are only a few people who have hit her upside the head with the 'friend' title and gotten it through her selectively thick skull that she's allowed to call them that. She's not quite as somber about it as she might otherwise have been, at least, but there's still a sort of subtle wilting. ] Why do you say that...?