4) The life of an orphan (2)

Took a while, but here you go. Be warned, the quality probably dropped compared to the other chapter.

Anyways, Merry late Christmas and Happy late New Year. Well, on with the chapter!!!

Word Count: 1418

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<Third POV>

Rei can be seen grabbing his dinner and heading toward the tables inside the dining hall. His meal contained the basics. A glass of water, a bowl of chicken and cabbage soup, bread, and finally a chocolate bar after a while.

Rei sat by himself, well close to since there were a lot of people in the orphanage. This was an odd but normal occurrence. This was caused mainly by how he depicted himself to others.

His cold resting face with sharp crimson eyes and a slightly imposing aura didn't help when people tried to approach him. Paired with that, when they talk to him, they're met with blunt replies that don't take into account how the other person would feel, thankfully this wasn't his usual way of talking.

This was only when he didn't feel like interacting with others, though it probably didn't help that he was never the one to initiate conversations unless needed or have to.

Since Rei was this way, others distance themselves. If this happened to any other child then they would have probably been upset and cried about it, but this obviously wasn't the case.

Normally, an abrupt change in attitude would've caused some concerns, but thankfully this wasn't an abrupt change. The two Reis conveniently had similar personalities. This just made Rei appear to be either a troubled kid or a quiet kid that only speaks bluntly.

<Rei's POV>

Making myself comfortable, I start eating dinner. Tearing a piece of the bread, I dipped it inside the soup. 'Hm, a little bland, but not bad.'

Eating a spoonful of soup I noticed that the last group appears to be noticeably tired, physically and mentally. This, of course, was a normal occurrence, but it always piqued my interest.

Coming back physically tired makes sense. They could be doing some heavy labor or moving around a lot. Getting tired mentally? That, I'm not too sure about. If there was some job out there for children to rack their brains every day, then that'll suck, but I'm pretty sure they would do that to them. Now, if they were going to school, I would understand, but they aren't.

Inside the orphanage, we are taught basic math and language to become part of society when we get old enough. We aren't taught more than that unless we asked. Even taking homeschooling into account, it doesn't leave the others looking as tired as they do.

This now begs the question, what are they doing to make them all tired?

Pondering that question, I noticed that my food have almost gone cold. After that, I made sure to quickly finish it while it still had some warmth. Making quick work of my meal, I then ate my chocolate bar. 'Mm, dark chocolate. I wonder how many kids are going to throw theirs away for not liking the bitterness.'

Upon thinking that, I looked around and found it surprising that the others were actually eating it. I figured they wouldn't because of the bitterness. Though, they probably ate it because we finally got something sweet after a while.

Collecting my trash and utensils, I made my way toward the sink, while not forgetting to throw my trash. Washing my hands, I went to one of the caretakers to ask the question I had before entering the hall.

"Hello Rei, do you need something?" The caregiver, Mother Isabella, asked, noticing me walking toward them.

"Well, I just wanted to ask a question that's been bugging me for a while now. Would that be okay?"

"Hm? Go ahead and ask." Answered back, Mother Isabella, while thinking 'It's not like a child is going ask a difficult question anyways.'

"Okay. Where do the others go? I always see them come back late and they always look tired. If they are always tired, why do they keep going?" I asked looking down, trying to make the sentence sound more my age, but without me dying from cringe and embarrassment.

"..."

Hearing no reply, I look back up and see that Mother Isabella was in thought, probably trying to find an answer she could give without making things seem too complicated for a child or dodging the whole question entirely.

After a few more seconds, Mother Isabella looked at me and spoke with a wry smile forming on her face. "I'm not too sure. I haven't gone with them. If I had to guess, they probably leave every day to help the people giving us money."

"Huh? The ones that help keep our home running?" I asked back, trying to pretend that I didn't know it was the government she was talking about.

Mother Isabella just gave back a smile and a nod, indicating that I was right.

"Oh... Well then, thanks!"

Giving another small nod, Mother Isabella turned her attention back to what she was doing before.

Having my question answered, I made my way back into my room to contemplate what I just learned.

---

Inside my room, I made my way to my desk to relax before consuming the recently learned information. After getting settled in, I begin to think about the future now knowing what most likely going on in the shadows.

With the tension between the Federation and Zeon getting worst by the year, I had a feeling that the orphanage would be one of the first to be forced to join. Even worst, maybe be experimented on, seeing how they did that to develop the EXAM systems and the later HADES systems.

A/N: There were also other systems in between the two, such as the ZEUS Systems, AREUS Systems, THEMIS Systems, and a few others, but I think you get point. I'll just put what the EXAM and HADES system is in the auxiliary chapter. (terminology and mobile suits)

Shaking my head to force the darker thoughts out, I tried to put the pieces together on why the government is getting children to help them.

'Isn't still too early to prepare soldiers, hell even child soldiers for the war, or was the Federation more concerned about it than what was portrayed in the mangas I've read?'

The recent creation of the prototype humanoid robot probably didn't help... The tension between the two will keep rising until it'll explode. The time that will happen will most likely be during the time when Zeon creates their first mobile suit.

This will push the government to get more people involved or cause physical confrontations to happen.

"Haah, let's just finish adding this bit in the journal for now," I mutter to myself while I move toward the bed.

Nearby the bed, there was a small area that had a slightly different paint color. If you pushed this spot a bit, it'll show an opening just big enough to hide the journal.

I know, not the best spot, but I don't think there will be anyone who would be snooping around my room, probably.

Covering up the hole, I went and lay on top of my bed. Laying there, I let out a sigh and couldn't help but feel apprehensive about the up and coming years. 'Haah, knowing that all of this is just the beginning of a long history of wars is tiring. Even after two months, I'm still not sure if what I'm doing is even going to help...'

Letting out another sigh, I turned over and decided to just sleep. 'I'll just continue my usual routine until something happens, hopefully, it isn't something crazy.'

And with the thought finished, I finally blacked out and went to sleep.

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Almost two weeks and a chapter's finally out. This chapter took honestly longer than it should've. Writing this chapter had me stumped on how to continue from the last chapter.

It also didn't help when I felt that I had Rei's personality going around the place. (At least that's what it felt like when I was writing.) I'll hopefully have his set pretty soon, I already know how Rei's going to act, but still not 100% confident to implement that into writing.

Anyways though, I'll probably have the next chapter be the last of his life in the orphanage, unless I decided to add another. Welp, that's that. Here's hoping I don't take longer next chapter.