Orphanage (part 1)

Ch. XXI - Orphanage (Elice)

-----

It's a human orphanage…

I've never been outside the castle much before, so it does surprise me when I see an orphanage. I've never even seen an ethelen orphanage, so looking at a human one is quite odd to me.

Humans do care a lot about one another. Even when it doesn't return them any favors, humans can still care for another one of their kind without asking anything in return. That is the one trait that I look highly in humans.

Though ethelen is the same, but it's very rare seeing it. The act of not asking for anything in return mostly only applies to family members or friends. It's very rare seeing an ethelen do something for the sake of strangers.

The three of us arrived in front of the church, with Luca leading on the front. From the outside, it looks like an old abandoned church that has not seen care for many decades. It may as well be decades since the last time anyone has ever taken care of the walls and pillars, judging from how terrible their state is.

But seeing the insides, it looks like any normal house for poor people. It's not dirty, but the lack of furniture does get into your mind, reminding you about the fact that the owners are poor.

When we arrived, we saw quite a few kids playing in the front garden. The average age is around 8 to 10, with some of them being older than the others. The oldest one seemed to be about 13 year old, while the youngest was probably around Luca's age.

The kids stopped playing when they saw us arriving at the church's front door, and a nun finally came out.

"Welcome. How may I help you?"

The nun asked softly, and I was about to talk to her. But then Rake lifted his hand to halt me from speaking, as if he knew that I was absolutely going to talk.

H-Huh? He's not going to say anything bad, is he??

Rake then stepped forward and arrived not far from the nun. He then bowed forward slightly, confusing everyone in the scene.

"We must apologize beforehand. Our actions have caused the young girl behind you some problems."

Huh?

For once he is actually using his human senses. He knows that we were the cause of Luca's problems, so the first thing he did was apologize.

Funny, I've never even thought about apologizing firsthand.

"P-Problems? Luca, what problems?"

It seems the nun doesn't know. She turned to Luca who was hugging her back, and Luca doesn't seem like she wants to explain it here.

"T-Then, would you like to come inside?"

Rake nodded, and he turned to me.

Judging from how he tilted his head and chuckled, I bet he's grinning at me.

What a loser.

Rake then entered following the nun, and I followed behind him. A bunch of the kids who got curious also followed inside, and we sat down at the lobby where a round table and four long chairs were placed surrounding it.

The kids are sitting and grouping behind the nun, while me and Rake sat alone, just the two of us at the other side.

"Luca, will you… explain what happened to the miss?"

I said to Luca who is sitting right next to the nun, and she nodded.

"Some men… knights. One with gold hair, and a scary face… They were rowdy, and they took all of the apples."

"T-They took the apples??"

The nun looked quite shocked hearing this fact, and she immediately placed her hand on her chin as she pondered.

"That's problematic… each of those apples takes a long time to grow. And Luca had quite plenty with her…"

"How much would you say the apples cost?"

I asked the nun, and she began pondering immediately.

"There are about twenty apples in Luca's basket. She was going to sell it to the shop owner we always work with at the plaza, but since she didn't sell it…

One apple is about five Jules, so it's around one hundred Jules. That's going to be difficult for us…"

I'm not exactly sure how much one hundred Jules is, but the food that I bought with Rake earlier costs around twenty Jules each. Counting from how many kids here, there are around eleven of them, which means twelve plus the nun. They need to eat three times a day, so that means it's thirty six meals for a single day.

Not sure how much they bought the meal for, but if an apple is already five Jules, then any other food should've been more expensive. I can already tell that they are having difficulty with just eating alone.

To eat is to survive. They are growing apples from trees to be able to get money, and these apples are their only source of hope for survival.

How pitiful…

"I-In that case, we would like to--"

"How many apples will I get for two thousand Jules?"

Rake suddenly asked, which shocked both me and the nun. The kids who understood it also looked very surprised.

T-This fucking guy… why is he so straightforward?

I hate it. I hate it. I know he means it well, but I hate it.

At least be dramatic about it you piece of--

"T-Two thousand!? Uh…"

The nun looked quite startled when hearing the amount, and she began counting it inside her mind. And as Rake would obviously do, he just stood up and casually took out a large bag of money from his storage bracelet.

BAMM!!!

The bag of coins then crashes to the floor thanks to him dropping it. He didn't even care about the wooden floor, he just dropped the money so casually.

"This is two thousand Jules. I want apples."

"H-Hey!! At least be nice about it!!"

"… was that not nice?"

I began to argue about ten different ways he could have said it better, and he continued the argument with doing it efficiently. Meanwhile, the nun and kids are all too silenced to say anything.

"Woah!! It's money!!"

The kids slowly began swarming the large bag of coins, while Rake and I stood away from it. They began studying the coins one by one, being amazed by how shiny it is. The both of us can only watch as the kids began to grow greedy just from the sight of gold.

"Ekhem…"

The nun suddenly cleared her throat and caught all of our attention. She lifted his hand and faced her palms against us.

"Please understand… I am not saying this because of pride or anything. But, I'm not sure if I can fulfill that offer.

Two thousand Jules worth of apples… I have been working for many years growing apples, and I have never even imagined how many apples there would be. It is… impossible for us to grow that many, mostly due to the time.

In a single week, we could farm about twenty to thirty apples. But, that is on good terms. Sometimes we can't even grow ten quality apples due to the season… and growing so many apples will take time, that the rest will already be rotting.

Two thousand Jules can get you four hundred apples. Growing that many will take us… a couple months."

"We are okay with it. It is fine to send them gradually."

"G-Gradually… I guess that can work as well… but why do you need four hundred apples?"

"Hmm, let's see… what about donating them to the nearby houses?"

I gave her the idea of sharing these apples with the people instead of giving to us. Because obviously, Rake and I won't be needing any of the apples at all. The people around this area, however, maybe.

"T-That would be… wasting your money!"

"It seems like you don't understand... We're not only doing it for you, but for the others in this area as well."

The nun seemed to understand, and she nodded. I'm glad she did, and my mind returned to the past few minutes that Rake and I spent.

When we were running earlier, Rake and I ran past quite a lot of poor houses. Their conditions were terrible, that one can tell poverty is a big problem in this town. Despite the rich plaza we were at earlier, this place is like a whole different world.

I want to help them. And from how he suddenly drops two thousand Jules like that, Rake's intention is definitely to help out. 

Perhaps, an apple everyday should be good enough to help them out.

"Then… we shall heed that request. From the deepest of my heart, I thank you… both of you."

Hearing that, Rake turned to me, and I also turned to him. I don't need to see him to know that he is grinning in there. Looks like we finally agreed on something.

GRP!!

I turned to my left, and found Luca grabbing on to my robe.

"Big sis… do you want apples?"

Hearing that from Luca, I immediately had an idea.

"Sure! Let's see the apples!"

And so, I went to the back to see the apple trees with Luca. The other kids also joined in, and we played in the backyard for a little bit.

Rake seemed to be talking… business with the nun lady, who she then introduced herself as Rina, and he found out a couple things which he then told me.

First, this orphanage was the only one in the entire slums area. There might be more on the other sides of the town, but in this slums area, this is the only one. But even then, there is barely anyone helping or making donations, which means they don't really have much to support their lives aside from these apples.

Second, Miss Rina the nun lady is the only one. She took care of all eleven children by herself, and did not ask for anything in return from any of the children. 

Some of the kids are already grown up into teens, and they can already understand some things like money and food. They can go out and do some work already, especially the boys. As for the girls, their job is to deal with growing the apples.

Luca was a special case. She was rather wild for a girl, and she always begged Miss Rina so she would be the one taking the apples to the shop owner. She was successful and came home safely three times, and today was her fourth. Unfortunately, it all went to crap when the knights approached her.

Rake already apologized to Miss Rina for luring the knights into the slums, but the nun understands. We were being hunted down, and we came here to lay low for a while.

She also mentioned that we are more than welcome to stay, but obviously we can't do that. We have to keep on moving, otherwise the knights might catch up.

At least… until the adventurers guild send their actors away to Clouren, that is supposedly the city next to Lionade.

Perhaps then… we can come here and stick around.

Speaking of the future… I've never even thought about it.

Rake is coming with me now, and he is… somewhat protecting me. Still don't know his reason, but exactly how long is he going to be there?

Will he leave me alone? Will he trade me off with some perverted rich human noble? Or will he keep on sticking with me until the day I die?

Preferably, I'd rather go with the second option than the third. But clearly, the first option is the best.

No matter how strong he is… I still can't accept someone who is responsible for the deaths of my people to stay close to me. Honestly I'm not sure how I'm even allowing all this. But it is what reality has given me, and I just have to keep moving forward.

The time will come when I slice his throat, and the throat of all the humans who are responsible for the disaster that befall on my people. Until then, I need to survive first.

I just need to keep moving forward… bit by bit.