12 Overconfidence

Michael entered the room that Falke's Grandma was residing in. After asking Ellie, it seemed that everyone in the orphanage called her Grandma, but her actual name was Elizabeth. Ellie was named after her. Knocking on the old wooden door, Michael waited for the authorization to enter.

"You can come in." Elizabeth's voice was relatively deep for a woman and raspy. It grated his sensitive eardrums as he clenched the door handle. Entering the small room where the tenant of this orphanage was living, his nostrils were invaded by the scent of a coffee-like scent. Unfamiliar with the smell, Michael scrunched up his nose but ultimately ignored it.

The room was austere by nature. There were no decorations, no paint on the walls. It was big enough to be comfortable but small enough that it was obvious that the one residing in this room wasn't wealthy in any way. The bed was simply a brown hammock suspended between one of the few pieces of furniture and the window. Sitting at her small desk, Elizabeth was enjoying the liquid in her wooden cup. Seemingly lost in the flavors of what she was drinking, she took a bit of time to lift her eyes and recognize the presence of Michael.

Elizabeth's presence was soothing. Her calm demeanor brought confidence and trust in the heart of Michael, even if she didn't do anything yet. While being called Grandma by the children in this orphanage, she wasn't as old as he thought she would be. She had strikes of grey in her purple hair, but that was the only tale-tell sign of her age. She looked quite youthful and had an incredible body. Dressed in the clothes of a traditional nun, it highlighted her curves easily and made her look like a mockery of a religious nun. The outfit wasn't necessarily tight, but it still caressed her body in a sexy way.

She wore a blindfold and had a scar going over her right eye. After finishing her cup, she elegantly put it down and looked straight into Michael's eyes with a bright smile. "So you're the new arrival right?" Still, Michael found her voice to be weirdly offputting compared to her appearance. Nonetheless, he ignored that detail and nodded to her question.

"Falke already told me your circumstances so I know what happened..." she trailed off, standing up from her small chair and embraced Michael. Despite his size, his head was stuck in her breasts. Although he had a hard time breathing, he felt like it wasn't such a bad position. "You poor thing, come here."

She soothingly patted his head as she tightly held him. Michael felt the threat of tears rising once again, but this time managed to contain it. He tentatively hugged her back after a while, feeling the warmth from Elizabeth. This embrace lasted for a couple of minutes before Elizabeth broke it off. She then lowered herself to meet Michael's eyes.

"It's alright now, you can count on me, you can count on us here sweetie." She gently said, wiping off the small amount of water that fell from his eyes.

For the third time since coming to this world, Michael felt like he could trust someone.

"Anyway, now I'll show you the important parts of the orphanage, come with me." She said as she took his hands and walked out of her room. Following her, they walked down the stairs leading up to the first upper level of the living quarters where Elizabeth was living, and she opened up the door to the dorms.

The noise of the kids living here became louder to Michael as they advanced in the actual orphanage. Meanwhile, Elizabeth presented to him the various parts of the orphanage that he would use now that he had found a home.

"All around here are the actual dorms. Your room should be in the back, next to Falke's, but first I'll show you the kitchen and the bathrooms." At her words, they turned right instead of continuing to explore the vast dorms. Michael was surprised by the number of bedrooms that the orphanage had, and Elizabeth, sensing his question, told him that not all of them are occupied, most are vacant because of the kids growing up and leaving the orphanage.

"Still, you'll see that sometimes there's a surge of children incoming from the upper layers. They always come in batch, a single one is rarely being tossed away by the nobles, like your case," said Elizabeth, seemingly sad by the fate of those kids. "You'll see that periodically, some children leave. The thing is that the atmosphere of this island is bad enough that there's about a quarter or even more of the population that is infertile. It's not rare for people to look to adopt children once they come to this age."

Immediately, her expression became both sad and angered, "And sometimes... they don't bother to ask for the kid's opinion about the matter. There are quite a bit of cases where children simply disappear from the orphanage when they come back a little bit too late. This part of the D-layer is very dangerous, and even my teachings are not enough to completely deter the kids from the danger."

She continued, "I don't know what happens to these children, all I know is that they never come back anywhere. Whether it's murder, kidnapping, or slavery, this orphanage is quite a popular target for bad people." Elizabeth sighed unhappily at her own words.

"B-but if that's the case, ho-how is the orphanage still working?" asked timidly Michael. Elizabeth put on a fake mask of pride as she patted her biceps through her thin black nun robe, "Well, that's because I'm pretty strong!"

She then gained a serious air and looked at Michael while frowning, "That means that you need to stay close to the orphanage if you don't want bad things to happen ok?" She stretched his cheeks as if reprimanding him for something even though he didn't do anything yet.

Michael was annoyed by her gesture by his attempt to get rid of her hands only amused her further. "St-Stahp it!' he complained. Elizabeth chuckled, but removed her hands and continued to walk towards the other rooms she wanted to show Michael.

"P-plus, I'm plenty strong already!" Michael tried to defend himself, "I, um, don't need you to protect me."

Elizabeth stopped dead in her track and once again kneeled to Michael's level. She put her palms around his face to force him to look at her. She had a worried look in her eyes that made Michael pay attention to her word instead of responding to the annoyance her actions made him feel.

"Listen Gilgamesh, it doesn't matter if you think you're strong enough to take on the world. I've lost too many children like this already and I don't want to have a repeat again. Please, let me protect you, or at least help you. Don't reject the other kids in the orphanage either, Falke is also quite strong, he can help you in case things go wrong."

She paused for a bit before continuing, "I-It doesn't matter if you think you're strong enough, you probably are for most things, however all it takes is one bad day, one bad decision, and you're gone...." she gulped, "Please don't make me lose another child."

Elizabeth didn't release his face until she saw him nod in acceptance. Standing back up, she let out a sigh and regained her previous positivity instantly. "We still have things to visit Gilgamesh, let's go!"

Her positive attitude confused but infected Michael nonetheless as they dashed into the orphanage.

Still, one question lingered in his head, 'How does she know that I'm called Gilgamesh?'

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Michael was sent to get some food for the dinner. According to Elizabeth, it would increase his standing among the children and immediately propel him into their group. Sunlight was a weird thing on Trash Valley, since the layers other than the highest were technically buried, the sun shouldn't be able to penetrate and illuminate the D-layer. However, Michael was standing on a small bump, staring straight at the sunset in all of its glory. He was captivated by the majesty of the celestial object. Ever since that weird dream, Michael wondered how it would feel to be free, flying in the sky. He put his hand in front of the sun as if trying to grasp it.

Realizing what he was doing, Michael laughed a bit before continuing on his path. Due to the people all around him, Michael didn't notice one thin man, in particular, approach him until it was too late. Even though he had exceptional hearing, he needed to focus on it for it to be useful in the case of danger.

However, his superior body managed to reflexively react to the threat. He dodged the person that tried to capture him at the last moment.

He immediately used his inventory and pulled out his katana. The edge was in a bad condition and part of it was eaten away by the green acid of the dungeon boss, but it was still a dangerous weapon in the hands of even someone like Michael that didn't know how to use one.

The sight that greeted him was one he recognized. It was Mitch, and he didn't seem happy. The side of his face had been brutalized, leaving him with a black eye and a broken cheekbone. His gaze was filled with hate towards Michael, still, he had his mocking grin up all the time.

He laughed once he noticed the combative stance Michael took. "Ya facking shitstain, you think like you can do anything here?!"

Not letting Michael answer, he continued his monologue, "Ay don't worry ya piece of shit! I'll like, take real good care of you for what ya did t'me!"

At the end of his words, he dashed towards Michael with a speed that he never displayed before. However, Michael was much faster than before as well and managed to react in time. Mitch took two viciously curved knives out of his pocket at the last second, trying to surprise Michael.

His intent was not to kill Michael, but he wanted to make sure that he'll inflict pain due to the problems the kid brought him. What Mitch wasn't ready for, was the fact that not only Michael dodged his attack, but retaliated instantly as well.

Mitch made the mistake to only use one of his arms to block the incoming strike from Michael. The big katana easily went around the little knife held in Mitch's hand and slashed his forearm.

Mitch screamed due to the pain. There was a deep gash on the entire length of his forearm and blood was pouring out at an alarming rate. The kidnapper immediately realized his mistake in underestimating the boy in front of him and tried to retreat. As he stepped back due to the threat, Michael smiled as he felt like he was able to enact vengeance. He pressed on to pressure the bleeding man, not letting him time to recover.

Small injuries started to accumulate on Mitch's body since even with his two arms, he wasn't able to properly stop the long katana from nicking his flesh because the arm that was injured was weaker now.

Delivering a powerful blow to Mitch that made him fall over and eat the dirt, Michael felt extremely powerful. Standing in front of the injured body of his enemy felt like a rush to him. He cackled and moved on to deliver the final blow.

"D-do it now!" shouted Mitch, and before he could realize what was happening, Michael was hit on the back of the head hard enough that his flying body made a crater once it landed on the ground. His consciousness gradually left him as his improved body was not able to deal with the vicious strike he just suffered.

Still, before blacking out, he managed to see the figure of Mack helping his partner up. Not understanding how the giant managed to sneak on him, Michael saw his system send him a message.

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[Synchronization complete.]

[Waifu Catalog now available to Character:Gilgamesh]

​

Michael's vision went fuzzy and darkened.

And then nothing.

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