That morning was just like any other day. It was busy, chaotic, and tiring.
The children, thirsty for affection, often followed the adults around. The kids at the Gilford Orphanage were no exception.
Sometimes they would cause trouble to get attention or scream loudly, which was something that couldn’t be helped because they were just kids.
I understood that well. Yet, it was often difficult to manage the surging emotions I felt.
In my heart, I wanted to shout out, but I had managed to hold back more than once.
Thinking about it, the kids weren’t at fault. It was the adults who failed to give them enough love.
After soothing my heart like that, I felt a bit more at peace.
In that aspect, the Lady Virgin Saint showed an unexpected side.
As far as I knew, the Lady Virgin Saint had quite a prickly personality. She masked her true self with a facade, yet her real feelings flowed out every time we faced each other.
I thought she wouldn’t be able to endure it for long and would get angry or give up. However, the Lady Virgin Saint hadn’t wiped her smile away even once from yesterday until now.
Rather, unlike me, who struggled every time the children clung to me, she clearly distinguished when to coax and when to scold them.
It was an admirable ability. It made me think that she truly was the Lady Virgin Saint. There were remarkable things about her besides just her soft bosom.
Yulen also succeeded in winning the children’s affection with his natural charm. Already, there were plenty of little girls following him around.
The two of them posed no problems. As the Lady Virgin Saint said, they might be accustomed to such an environment due to being from an orphanage.
But where there are exemplary students, there are inevitably underachievers; at least in the orphanage, the underachievers were Senior Delphine and Senior Elsi.
Even now, it was evident. One girl seemed to have taken a liking to Senior Delphine and picked a flower to give to her.
Senior Delphine was boastful with her haughty and glamorous appearance. Just her looks were enough to win the kids’ favor.
Senior Delphine turned her blood-red eyes towards the girl, as if questioning the meaning behind the flower. The girl spoke with anticipation shining in her eyes.
“It’s a gift, Teacher Delphine! A flower!”
“Hmm,” Senior Delphine accepted the flower without a word. She then looked it over before asking.
“What’s this flower useful for?”
“……What?”
The girl’s eyes grew wide with confusion. It was a natural reaction to not anticipate such a response.
Regardless of that, Senior Delphine opened her mouth again in a somewhat bored tone.
“For example, if brewed, it calms a cough, or if crushed, it helps with bleeding. Those kinds of things, you know?”
“……I-I don’t know.”
With the succession of difficult questions, the girl shrank. She dragged her feet in the dirt while looking down.
Watching her in silence, Senior Delphine injected air into the flower.
It was an aura of high heat that could melt even metals. Naturally, a delicate flower like that couldn’t withstand it.
The golden glow traveled up the flower’s stem, melting it away and leaving behind white ashes.
Ashes fluttering down, the girl watched the display with wide eyes.
“Even if it’s not strong… Just watch, little one.”
Senior Delphine shook off the ashes from her hands and slightly bent her knees to meet the girl’s gaze.
The girl couldn’t even open her mouth. It was thanks to the innate atmosphere control that only Senior Delphine possessed.
“What’s both useless and weak turns out like this. It vanishes without a trace… So you should be careful too, understand?”
With a flick, Senior Delphine shook off the ashes remaining on her hands onto the girl’s shoulder. When she straightened up, her face was incredibly serene. It seemed her advice was serious in her own way.
However, the counterpart was simply too young to accept such a cruel truth.
Looking at the ash on her shoulder, the girl soon began to whimper. It didn’t take long before her tears flowed.
Yet, Senior Delphine did not blink an eye. It was even the Lady Virgin Saint who stepped in to soothe the child.
The counterpart was the heir of the Yuridina Clan; no matter how much of a Lady Saint she was, she couldn’t recklessly reprimand her. So, she carefully opened her mouth.
“Senior Delphine, if you treated them with a warmer attitude, the children would like you more.”
“I have no interest in what the orphans think of me, Lady Saint. If they’re weak enough not to accept even that level of advice, even more so.”
It was an astonishingly immature statement. Perhaps out of irritation for being forcibly dragged here, Senior Delphine’s tone was sharper than usual.
At this point, even the Lady Virgin Saint seemed at a loss. She gave an awkward smile before quickly looking at me with her eyes.
‘Who is this woman?’
I could only respond with a bitter smile.
Who else could it be? A cold-blooded heir of the Yuridina Clan who wouldn’t hesitate to dig into her half-sibling’s wounds and wouldn’t shun cowardly deeds for victory.
Instead of answering, I took a step forward.
Startled, Senior Delphine’s gaze turned to me, filled with fear, sparkling like a magnificently dark ruby.
I walked up to her. With each step I took, she flinched and as I approached her, she bit her lip and looked down.
Her slightly trembling shoulders spoke for her feelings.
This is getting troublesome; I sighed internally. It seemed that Senior Delphine wasn’t suited for taking care of children.
Then again, there were a few tasks left. One was chopping firewood for cooking, and the other was fetching water.
I could handle the firewood myself, especially since I had an axe on hand.
That left only one thing for Senior Delphine.
“Senior Delphine, if you’re so bored, could you fetch some water from the well?”
“……W-Why should I?”
It was a pathetic rebellion. I stared at Senior Delphine without saying a word. She then seemed to resolve herself, closing her eyes tight and glaring at me.
That was what she intended to do.
However, she immediately lost her resolve and averted her gaze.
“W-Why should I be your errand girl? I-I won’t do that kind of meaningless labor!”
It was a determined stance. With a voice trembling, desperately avoiding my gaze to shout those words. All I could do was accept it.
I felt I might have to ask her to do something like hunting later. Although I went looking for the monkey monsters in the woods recently, there was no success. The search showed signs of becoming prolonged.
If so, I thought it would be better to hunt while searching, so I could at least feed the children some meat. I had to discuss the details with my companions, though.
In the end, I sighed deeply as if I had given up. In response, Senior Delphine instinctively flinched and eyed me cautiously.
“I see.”
With plenty of tasks to do, there was no need to waste more time. It was now time to go chop firewood.
My hand brushed my waist. I was reaching for the axe to chop firewood.
It was then that Senior Delphine screamed like a shriek.
“I-I’ll do it!”
My incredulous gaze turned towards Senior Delphine. Regardless, she seemed to have lost her mind halfway. With her body trembling, she curled up and lay flat on the ground.
“I-I-I’ll do it! So please… please let me… o-Okay, with the chopped meat… please… please spare me… wuuugh…”
Then she seemed to break down into tears at the last moment.
I could only gaze at her in bafflement and looked at the Lady Virgin Saint. However, the Lady Saint’s eyes sparkled with intrigue, and she nodded as if she finally understood.
The Lady Virgin Saint stepped closer to me, raising herself on tiptoes. Initially, I tried to avoid her, but feeling the softness of her shoulder touch mine, I decided to stay still.
A sweet voice whispered in my ear.
“You’re useful.”
I could only manage a bitter smile once more.
What is this?
If the problem lay in Senior Delphine’s inability to understand the children’s emotions, Senior Elsi was the opposite.
She was so well-suited that it became a problem. The children reacted especially well whenever they teased her, to the point where mischievous kids went too far.
It wouldn’t matter if she exerted adult wisdom and quietly scolded them every time. But Senior Elsi never refrained when it came to dealing with children.
She had even hardened her expression to intimidate them immediately.
“Hey, do you think I’m someone easy to mess with? Because I let it slide, do I look like a real piece of junk? Damn. Commoners, just keep watching because it’s true…!”
Her youthful appearance played a part as well.
However, Senior Elsi was an adult, and the children were the ones who needed protection. She was also a high-ranking noble.
Senior Elsi had the power to back up her threats. Be it through force or authority.
Therefore, she should have been even more careful with her words and actions. A single word from someone who has could weigh heavier than ten words from someone who doesn’t.
This was a saying of the Empire, and it was something every noble should engrave in their hearts.
That night, it was precisely because of that saying that I found myself alone with Senior Elsi beside the wall.
It was to have a conversation. Of course, it wasn’t that Senior Elsi was exempt from taking care of children like Senior Delphine, but the kids had already developed quite a familiarity with her.
Even separating them wouldn’t lead them to distance themselves from Senior Elsi. I let out a soft sigh.
“Senior Elsi… they are just kids.”
It was a truly pleading tone. There was no need to overlook them just because they were young, but there was no need to lay down excessive threats either.
Even if I looked down on Senior Elsi, she still had power. There were various ways to manage them — suitable chastisement, enhancing physical abilities with magic to suppress them, and so on.
Yet, Senior Elsi was obsessed with intimidation. I couldn’t comprehend that point.
Unlike me, filled with muscles all the way to the brain in the Swordsmanship Department, Senior Elsi was among the top in the Magic Department. She couldn’t possibly lack that kind of insight.
However, Senior Elsi maintained a sulky expression.
“But they’re being annoying…!”
“Then just discipline them. There’s no need to grab a kid and curse at them.”
Senior Elsi seemed to consider my words valid. From her silence as she closed her mouth for some time, she appeared to find no rebuttal.
She huffed softly and let out a small scoff. Her blue sapphire-like eyes shone deeper amidst the darkness.
“…You wouldn’t understand anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
I asked with pure curiosity. But the only reply from Senior Elsi was one.
“Anyway, you wouldn’t know!”
Her voice pierced sharply into the night.
Junior Elsi’s discontent was evident as she turned her back on me, feeling stung by my lack of support. I put on a wry smile.
It would’ve been resolved quickly if I had just shown her the axe. Yet, the reason I attempted to have a conversation with Senior Elsi was that she seemed to have some circumstances as well.
Her consistent response with intimidation was the same in the Academy and the orphanage. There must be some reasoning behind that survival strategy.
It wouldn’t end just by silencing her with an axe. That’s why, by now, Senior Elsi and I had grown quite fond of each other.
As I pondered in vain, I scratched my head out of frustration. Then I shouted at her.
“Be careful! You never know what might come out at night!”
“…Shut up!”
She was so fussy; I clicked my tongue and turned my gaze away. It was merely a coincidental action.
My eyes suddenly froze upon a shadow on the wall.
Time stopped. My breath vanished, and even the beats of my heart reeled away from my eardrums.
Instinctively, I knew. A shadow of about 2 meters standing on the wall.
I couldn’t discern its proper form. Its arms stretched abnormally long, reaching below its knees. I couldn’t see whether its eyes were focused on me.
However, it was apparent by its posture that it was attentively watching someone.
So, who could it be?
My sight followed the monster’s line of sight slowly. At the end, I saw a large hooded hat and brown hair.
Senior Elsi was a mage. She didn’t have a shield now.
It happened right after my thoughts whirled white with dread.
I had no thoughts at all. Only the thought that if I left it as is, Senior Elsi might die rushed over me.
Just like I’d been forced to sit powerless in front of Emma.
My heart raced. Magical energy surged, resuming blood flow to my legs. The sudden torrent of mana felt like it would tear my blood vessels apart. As my veins burst, a sharp pain assaulted me.
The monster crouched down. Just before it lunged, I yelled to Senior Elsi.
“Senior Elsi!”
Senior Elsi sneered, trying to glance my way.
If that monstrous shadow hadn’t pounced on her first.
Senior Elsi’s eyes widened. Clearly in shock, her hands quickly formed a seal, gathering mana.
Incantation without words, a way to substitute language with seals. It was a method to finish incantations at a high speed, but the monster was painfully fast.
Without a sound, it lunged at Senior Elsi. By the time she opened her eyes wide, the claws extended, like a blade, were already close to her.
Too late. Even if I swung my sword or threw my axe, it was too late.
A virtual trajectory was drawn. A solid line that could pierce Senior Elsi’s shoulder, revealing clear intent to rob her of her will to resist.
And then, using the agility to freely move around the wall, it would escape. Effectively making it impossible to retrieve Senior Elsi.
Now wasn’t the time to weigh my options. I had only one remaining choice.
I gritted my teeth and focused my senses.
My vision transcended the space. Entangled lines formed ropes like the trees’ trunks. I pulled it with all my might.
A strange sound echoed, ‘crack’.
The space warped. As I dashed forward, I threw myself into it. There was no longer any time to draw my sword.
I had only one choice: to use my body as a shield.
The claws pierced my abdomen without resistance.
Was it my side? The sensation was unclear. Blood poured out. I thought it shouldn’t seep into my organs; even in my fading consciousness, I thought that.
However, what filled my vision were only the faint glowing claws of the monster and Senior Elsi, who was frozen, staring at me.
The monster was confused. I could hear it take a breath. With that opening, I squeezed out my last bit of strength and drew my axe.
With my remaining hand, I gripped the claw that pierced my abdomen. By then, the unknown light had faded. Blood poured out, but I gritted my teeth.
With a crack, the axe struck the monster’s arm.
Being caught off guard from behind, my strength didn’t find much purchase. However, the opponent’s arm was so long that it reached nonetheless. Hot blood splattered, transmitting warmth into the air.
A howling sound, and a sense of hurried retreat.
After that, I blinked out of consciousness. When I came to my senses, I was already lying on the ground, my back to the earth, and an unknown chill was creeping into every corner of my body.
I was cold. Amidst the blurred vision, I saw Senior Elsi.
Her small trembling hands, her blue sapphire-like eyes were already filled with tears. The whimpering girl’s murmurs were inaudible.
Only through the twitching of her lips could I infer.
‘Are you okay?’
I answered her with a hazy smile.
“C-Call the Lady Saint….”
Because it hurts a lot right now.
I wanted to add that, but sadly, that single line was my last.
My consciousness faded to black.
