Life in the Orphanage

I've started my day waking up in dawn seeing another boy with brown hair across my bed. He arrived later that night after I finished my dinner. He was playing in another boy's room and I think his name was Sean Albania. He seems to be a nice boy but I won't expect much from him.

I stripped off my shirt and began the same workout I did before and, the result was clear as day. It was exhausting but, I continued to finish it and decided to go out, to be more precise I sneaked out to the window.

I started jogging for about 10 minutes and my body feels like it's about to die.

"Huff~! Huff~! Huff~!" I wobbled down to the ground with rough breathing.

Once I've rested enough, I went back to my room before Mrs. Mailon checks on us. But surprisingly, it's another young woman in her early 20s.

"So you already woke up newbie, I'm Ailey, the big sister on this place." The young woman who named herself Ailey puffed her chest in triumph as she introduced herself.

"I'm Xercus," I said. "I'm just new here, so please take care of me," I added.

The first impression is where most people judge a person. However, it depends on what type of personality they have. Some people judge through their intuitions or perceptions and sometimes both.

I could say that I belong to the latter. I found this girl different from the vibes she's showing now. Her movements, gestures, breathing, and posture. All of this indicates that she's not just your average orphanage caretaker.

"Of course, leave it to this big sister!" she puffed out her chest for the second time.

"Shut up, Ailey. You're so noisy early in the morning." the kid sleeping across me groaned.

"Well, the Mistress said to wake up everyone, and here I am. Just go take a bath already, Oh! also bring Xercus with you okay?"

"Fine, fine." Sean slowly sits up and soon stood up. "Good morning, Xercus."

"Good morning," I replied.

"Oh, do you have clothes with you?" Ailey said, turning her eyes on me.

"Ah~"

Now that I notice it, I have didn't have any luggage with me. And these clothes came from someone at the camp.

It seems that she knew what I'm thinking so offered a solution.

"Hey Sean, can you make lend him some of your clothes?" she asked.

"Okaaay~" he opened his cabinet and took a set of clothes.

"Here!" he tossed clothes to me and catches them.

And just like that, Sean guided me to the bathing room.

°°°

They just departed yesterday and I already missed Xercus. Well, I didn't manage to charm him until the end. But, surely, once my work is done here, The first thing I'll do is to visit the orphanage.

I think that stupid idiot would arrive this afternoon. It's kinda boring without him, I don't have anyone to make fun of.

"Fufufu~"

"Mairade!"

"E-eek!" I was startled by a loud voice.

But, when I turned around I saw a man who was supposed to still be on the way here.

"Why are you—" I didn't get to finish what I was about to say because he abruptly held my shoulders with a firm grip but not strong enough to hurt me. Of course, for a maiden like me, this makes my heart pound so much that it makes me worried if he'll hear them.

"Is it true?" Gulliver asked. Which made me confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Xercus, told me that you were, err.. g-getting closer with an ano-another guy," he said while stuttering.

I wanted to smile so much after hearing his statement. I know he's not your usual kid but, he's smart enough to make a scheme on this idiot. Of course, I'll play along.

"Well, I'm at the age where I want to have a partner to spend my life with you know?" I said turning my head sideways so he won't notice the grin on my face.

"Uh? So it's true?" his face looks like his world is being crumbled to pieces.

"Yeah, so what? Are you going to say something?" I admitted.

He released his hands on my shoulders and started to back away. His watery eyes make me want to stop this already and say what I truly feel for him but, I want him to take this step.

"W-who is it?" he asked despite his tears almost falling.

"He's in the military, and he's the greatest soldier in the whole world for me." I finally laid down the last piece.

"I see, I could see that you love that guy." of course he's the first and only man I've ever loved.

"..." I stayed silent just staring straight into her clouded eyes.

"Well, I think it's already too late this but... " he paused trying to organize his feelings.

"I-I, erm, y-you know,"

"I don't know," I said in a hurry.

"E-ever since we were young I, I like you!"

Before I noticed it my body just move on its own and snuggled my face on his broad chest, tightening my hold on his back.

"Huh? W-what are you doing!?" he was surprised.

"I also feel the same, you idiot," I said while rubbing my cheeks on his chest.

"But didn't you—"

"That person is you, alright? I haven't flirted with anyone other than you, figure that out yourself."

When his confusion cleared up he hugged me back.

°°°

And they lived happily ever after. Or so likely the progress of the story happening at the camp right now. Well, my knowledge of romance isn't that great, somehow, it gives me cringes.

I'm currently eating lunch in the dining room right now with the rest of the kids. My introduction itself is not something I want to talk about and there is also nothing noteworthy about the kids here. My purpose is not to play house with them, but to learn about this world.

Among the kids, only Sean and a selected few have slightly high intelligence that I discovered while an instructor taught us about how to write and read. I more or less know how to read and write after the lesson.

Thankfully, classes are only in the morning so I've got more time strolling around the building. After I finished eating, when I was about to stand up, I heard an interesting conversation.

"Shannon! Let's play right after we eat okaaay~?" a girl said to the girl she called Shannon next to her.

"No, I want to go read books at the library," she replied indifferently.

"Eeeeh~? Today too?" she whimpered.

"Yes, I'm done eating now so bye." she stood up striding outside the room.

Of course, I didn't miss the chance and stood up as well. I intend to follow Shannon without her noticing that she's being followed.

Now, I don't need to find the library anymore. I just need to follow this girl.

After a little while, I've arrived at my destination. I opened the door to see what's inside. The first thing I saw was a large collection of books, maybe the Mistress is a scholar or maybe a book collector. Well, I didn't saw her ever since last night. But there are lots of caretakers in here so I think she just let them do the work.

I can't see Shannon anywhere from here, maybe she's behind among those shelves. Anyway, let's start gathering information as much as possible without having been seen by someone for the rest of the day.

The same thing happened the next day, however, I didn't have to tail Shannon to go to the library, but I also made sure no one could see me going to the library. And I still borrowed some clothes from Sean. I'll repay him with something nice in the future. But, I felt that someone was eyeing me.

Time passes by quickly and It's already been a week since I arrive at this orphanage. I stayed inconspicuous during classes because I don't want to receive unnecessary attention. Of course, I pretended not to read and write since it's already well known that I was born as a Peasant. I've met Ailey almost daily when I was on my to the library and just pass her by while saying I was just taking a walk.

It was only later when I was reading books that I've found out that most people similar to the traits that I have had lived as slaves and some become peasants. There is no record on this book that the same people as me achieved a higher status.

Maybe that's why Mairade and Gulliver feel sympathy for me, while sometimes disgust or anger from others. Since our clan, the bloodline where we originated came from a powerful Empire about hundreds of years ago.

Supposedly, that Empire has the largest border and was the supreme power on the continent. But that is only because the emperors at that time were wise and peaceful rulers. Yet, when the last Emperor came to power due to the previous Emperor passing away in a sudden illness, everything went array. The peace in the continent that has been lasting for a thousand years in history under the protection of the great Empire crumbled instantly.

A continental war that lasted more than a decade hundreds of years ago took millions of lives ended with the Empire's defeat making it vanish in today's map, it was doomed to be destroyed anyway. The Empire was situated at the centremost part of the continent, being surrounded by enemies at all fronts is the worst thing that could ever happen in a war. Well, not all written in the books are the exact details of what happened.

An Empire like that wouldn't crumble so easily unless there are internal conflicts. Surely, they're not stupid enough to declare war on every sovereignty in the continent. This is pretty common in human history, a great ruler got assassinated which leads to the fall of its Nation. In my, world several cases like that happened. My own experience was almost the same.

Well, there's no use dwelling on the past so I continue to do what I was doing and learned a lot of things. That is the other races than humans.

The existence of Elves, Dwarves, Demi-humans, Demons, and its sub-race they call Beasts. However, I don't care about those things for now. What I want to get more info is about the Aetredour Kingdom, the Kingdom where I'm at.

This Kingdom has 3 Cities and the Royal Capital which the King and high-ranked nobles reside Through many years of this Kingdom's history, there are competitions in the 4 Cities among their students from their prominent Academies. Also, I'm currently in Rotherham City.

The study in science and technology in this era is a little bit advanced than I expected. Most of the appliances in here are powered by magic, not electricity where I first thought they were using only some lighting mediums from magic as the source of light. But they built them almost the same as how electricity-powered merchandise in my world works. I particularly gave more attention to magic because there is no magic in the world where I came from.

To start things with, to use magic. A person needs to know how to conjure Manas. Everyone in here can do it. Manas is something like unprocessed natural resources that always exists in the atmosphere. So Mana is one of the finished products after refining and materializing the Manas.

Now, there are 3 ways to do it, first is through devoting yourself to the Goddess and receive her blessings making you a priest that conjures Manas to Holy Mana. The Holy Mana is the only one that could affect a living being's regeneration system.

The second is through memorization or visualization of spells allowing you to either enhance your body, generate various elements in empty air, and even enchanting things through conjuring Manas into Mana. They call them Mage.

And finally the last but not the least, the third way, is conjuring Manas into Mana Ki or rather, Ki Energy. A Ki user is defined as a Master of Martial Arts because Ki is the hardest way to conjure Manas. It needs extensive knowledge of Martial Arts and a strong vessel. A Ki user cannot be made overnight unlike the other two where you can attain them if you just met some conditions or because you are talented.

However, Ki Energy is only limited inside and surrounding the body, so a Ki user won't be able to deal with long-range attacks so it has its flaw. They call the Ki users 'Pugilists'.

It made me somehow wonder if it's a misconception because a Pugilist is a professional boxer who uses boxing-style martial arts.

This is messed up, even military units and titles feel so similar to what it is in my homeworld. This is no longer a coincidence. All this information shows that someone like me interfered in this world's system.

I also found out that today, was the 12th day in the 1st month of the 1374th year in the Sukhothai Imperial Calendar.

Now, this is the oddest thing I've discovered. That is because 'Sukhothai' is the name of the founding Kingdom in one of the countries in my homeworld which became known as 'Thailand' in modern time.

The pieces that I thought were being placed in their right places started to collapse.