"Where is the village?" He's still not sure if it will really be as easy as Timo paints it, his experience just shows something different. But maybe this place is really different. Or maybe Timo is just different from him. That could be a thing, too. Though... if he wasn't treated like he was because he was a bastard, then... then. He doesn't quite want to finish that thought. It means that it must be something even more inherently about him than that. And that means that it is something that he can change even less.

Maybe it really is that he's too weak still, that everyone can pick on him if they want. That he needs to get strong enough so people can't pick on him anymore. Well, he plans on that anyway, some distant point in the future. A boy needs something to work towards, right?

And then something else occurs to him, and he gulps the soup down quickly, remembering at the last moment to not speak with his mouth full (because he still wants to make a good impression, and only bad children speak with their mouth full. Adults are apparently allowed to, but that is probably because they are strong already. "There are really no other children here?"