Charity (3)

Luke offered me his hand when I was about to get off the hover car. I accepted, knowing it was common etiquette and elegantly got off the car. The orphanage appeared like a mini school with the nice facilities. It was unlike what I imagined, it looked like it was properly funded, at least externally.

A teacher from the orphanage came out to greet us like we were important sponsors. She warmly smiled like she radiated sunshine. The inside was similar to the outside with the same designs and decorations that resembled our school. In some ways, this place appeared even nicer than the middle-class area I visited.

"Unfortunately, the director is not here today," she apologized.

"No, it's us who decided to come last minute," Luke politely answered.

"Why don't I see any of the children?" I found it strange to see the nice facilities mostly empty.

Alex shot me a glare as we continued the tour with the teacher. It seemed like everyone knew the reason why except for me again. I never knew this was such a famous place that everyone knew what was going on. Feeling left out, I squeezed Shelly's hand for the answer.

"The children are in class," Shelly whispered inside my ear with carefully chosen words.

"Can we go see the children?" I asked the teacher.

The teacher momentarily stopped walking, before turning to answer, "which class would you want to visit?"

It wasn't like they were displayed in a zoo. I became confused by her question. There had to be something more to place that I didn't know about. I glanced at Luke for an explanation as he answered for me.

"Any class will do," he replied after silently asking Shelly and Alex for their opinions.

"Then I will lead you to class 12-B," the teacher immediately decided.

We were soon led to a large room that was almost the same as the mana training rooms at our school. Inside the room were around twenty children who practiced attacking the dummies like they were their enemies. In turn, the wooden mannequins holding a sharp sword were spelled to attack them as it analyzed the children's every move.

The mannequins had realistic human skin and features that wouldn't be distinguishable from human beings. In fact, if I couldn't sense the complex spell layered over top of one another to make the illusion, I might have rushed in to stop the vile scene. I frowned as I continued watching the people that appeared like they were fighting for their lives like an outsider.

If I had to compare my current vessel's age to them, I couldn't even call them children when we appeared to be the same age. More than an orphanage, this place appeared like a training facility with the grunt atmosphere. I stuck to Shelly even closer as I stared at the scene in front of me.

"This is just like our mana training class," Shelly noticed how uncomfortable I felt.

But it wasn't. Our mana training class was based on teaching us new spells rather than attacking other people. I bit my lip when I noticed one child immediately getting back up to fight back when he fell down earlier from the dummy's attack. His arm appeared broken with blood pouring out from the slash and bending at unnatural angles.

He ignored the pain in his arm to mutter another attack spell to get some time to pick up his sword again. But he soon fell onto the ground as the mannequin relentlessly kicked the child when it spotted another opening. My ears were filled with his screams as he couldn't move from each painful kick that wouldn't stop.

I froze when the screams finally stopped when the child appeared unconscious. Did the first district really need a place like this? Why were they training children around the same age as us to fight this hard? When I couldn't continue watching the kids getting badly beaten up, I turned towards the walls.

"I thought this place was just an orphanage," I pitied them.

"It is…" Shelly couldn't hide it wasn't only an orphanage.

There could be no way I could support a place like here. I would rather support another orphanage where children could be children with a normal childhood. I pulled on Luke's shirt to tell him I wanted to get out of the room.

Luke nodded as we soon exited the room and sat on the nearby bench while Alex had sent the teacher away. My thoughts of wanting to explore the nearby area had almost disappeared after watching such a horrible scene. But when I looked at everyone's expressions, they remained the same as before.

"Can we support another orphanage?" I asked Luke.

"This is the only orphanage in the first district," Luke answered with no emotions.

My hopes crumbled as I started to feel even worse. I never thought I was lucky enough to be reincarnated into a privileged body with a family that loves me in the third district. I could have been reincarnated as a child in the second district, thrown away in an alley with zero potential for mana or a child training for their lives in this orphanage.

I shuddered from the thought, drowning from the idea that no child in the first district had a normal childhood from what I encountered so far. Maybe this life wasn't as bad compared to others in front of me.