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Chapter 2
My scalp throbbed painfully.
After barely managing to pull them apart and catch my breath, I noticed Lisa looking at me with pity.
Both Lisa and Sally’s hands were full of strands of my ocean-blue hair.
Lisa awkwardly shook the hair off her hands and gave me a stiff smile.
“S-Sorry, Lopez.”
“Hmph!”
Unlike Lisa, who apologized, Sally sharply turned her head away from me.
One week after transmigrating.
I had gotten my hair yanked out by children much younger than me.
Because Lisa and Sally got into a fight, our punishment was extended by three more days.
Even though I had merely gotten caught in the middle, I ended up punished alongside them.
Now, after Lisa and Sally finished their punishment and left first, I was left alone in boredom.
It felt unfair, but thanks to my conversations with the two girls, I had managed to learn a little about this place, so it wasn’t entirely a waste of time.
According to them, this place was an orphanage.
From what they said, the children seemed to be discriminated against by being divided into Classes One through Three.
And on top of that, corporal punishment was normal here…
An orphanage, huh…
I had grown up in an orphanage too.
I found a similarity between myself and the original owner of this body, but unfortunately no dramatic flash of memories suddenly surfaced like in comics.
Maybe I’ll learn more once I get out of the discipline room.
The woman with the switch would occasionally come in, stare at me lying around wide awake in solitary confinement, then disappear again without a word.
And finally, on the last day—
The teacher, who had stubbornly continued doubting me until the very end, finally surrendered.
“…Did you really lose your memory?”
Yes, teacher.
That’s what I’ve been telling you.
Anna was the disciplinary instructor and etiquette teacher of Sunflower Orphanage.
The discipline room was set far away from the place where the children normally studied and lived.
All the children were terrified of being sent there, so they usually behaved far more obediently than their age would suggest.
But naturally, not every child could behave perfectly.
There were always troublesome children in the orphanage.
Still, the child who had entered this time—Lopez—wasn’t usually one of the troublemakers.
This was the first time she had ever been sent to the discipline room because of a single mistake.
On the first day, the terrified child cried her eyes out and begged for forgiveness.
On the second day, Lopez suddenly screamed while being struck on the palm.
Thanks to that, Anna lost her balance and embarrassingly fell backward in front of the child.
On the third day, Lopez rolled around idly without showing even the slightest sign of remorse.
As if that weren’t enough, she even mocked Anna by claiming she had “lost her memory.”
On the fourth day, Lopez silently observed Anna with an unsettlingly blank expression.
On the fifth day, the child rambled on about abuse and mistreatment under the guise of discipline.
Anna had been furious, but when she thought about it carefully, Lopez had always been a child terrified of adults.
That was when Lopez’s behavior started feeling strange.
Then came the sixth day, the seventh day…
Lopez was dragged around by Lisa and Sally, who pulled at her hair inside the discipline room.
Yet despite all that, she never once snapped back at them.
And finally, on the tenth day—
Watching Lopez lie there expressionlessly with no energy or motivation whatsoever, Anna became certain.
This isn’t the Lopez I know!
And suddenly, one particular moment came back to her mind.
“Um… may I ask who you are? I can’t remember anything at all.”
“So you really did lose your memory…!”
Anna cautiously approached Lopez’s solitary cell.
The child stared blankly into space, looking strangely like an adult who had already experienced every hardship life could offer.
There was only one explanation for someone changing so drastically overnight.
Amnesia.
Right. If Lopez still remembered everything, there was no way a child terrified of adults would behave so shamelessly.
Anna opened the door. Lopez slowly crawled to her feet.
The child who had once always kept her appearance neat and tidy now maintained a spectacular mess of tangled hair after spending time in the discipline room.
Anna asked seriously,
“…Did you really lose your memory?”
“Yes, teacher. I think so.”
Anna was horrified.
Really… truly…!
She lost her memory after being hit on the palm!
Lopez herself had never claimed that getting hit caused her amnesia, but Anna couldn’t think of any other explanation.
Just like the personality of the room’s owner, the bookshelf was meticulously organized, every book and ornament lined up with perfect precision.
Scratch, scratch.
At the dry sound of pen against paper, Anna swallowed nervously and glanced sideways at Watson.
Just as she began wondering how much longer she would have to wait, the woman who had been focused on the documents finally raised her head.
Watson, the director of Sunflower Orphanage, looked exactly as strict as one would expect. Adjusting her glasses, she looked up from the paperwork.
“You’re saying Lopez has lost her memory?”
“Yes, Director. I don’t believe she’s lying. She doesn’t remember my name or even where this place is.”
“Could she simply be playing tricks?”
Unfortunately, that didn’t seem likely.
Anna had already come to the director’s office fully convinced.
“As you know, Director, Lopez isn’t that kind of child… Especially since she’s afraid of adults.”
Director Watson fell silent.
Lopez, who had grown up abused as a child, feared adults.
Meaning she was not the sort of child who could calmly hold eye contact with Anna and speak clearly.
And yet she had dared criticize Anna?
The Lopez Watson knew would never have done such a thing.
Watson slowly tapped her desk.
Until now, Lopez had never caused any major trouble in the orphanage.
She did bully other children fairly often, but it was common enough to overlook.
However, this time it had been revealed that she falsely accused her classmate Medina of stealing.
Lopez had stubbornly denied it at first, but after Anna pressured her, the trembling child finally confessed.
And naturally, the punishment was the discipline room—the place all the children feared most.
I thought she’d reflect on her actions and come out… but amnesia?
It was absurd.
There had been no warning signs, nor had she suffered any head injury.
Yet suddenly she had lost her memory.
It was hard to believe.
Still, when Watson thought about it carefully, the situation made even less sense if Lopez wasn’t suffering from amnesia.
There was simply nothing to gain from pretending.
And there was no way a child terrified of adults could change so completely overnight.
Then… she really does have amnesia.
Watson slowly opened her tightly shut mouth.
“I’ll have to see her myself. Bring her in.”
“Yes, Director.”
Anna hurried out of the office.
At long last, I was finally able to leave the discipline room.
Following Anna outside, I spotted a building standing some distance away.
That was probably the orphanage’s main building.
She led me up to the fourth floor.
As I climbed the stairs and looked around, I realized the orphanage—far from being rundown—was actually maintained surprisingly well.
So only the outside looks nice.
Or maybe this world genuinely had some ridiculous custom where it was acceptable to beat “bad” children.
Children’s voices echoed throughout the building, but perhaps because classes were in session, I didn’t encounter anyone directly.
Trying to keep up with an adult’s walking pace over such a distance was exhausting in this small body. We were only halfway up the stairs, yet I was already out of breath.
Don’t tell me this kid wasn’t even properly fed normally?
Clutching my rapidly beating heart, I hurried after Anna.
Without considering the walking speed of a child at all, she impatiently snapped at me.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and follow me! Honestly, how can you be so slow?”
Watching Anna click her tongue irritably, I frowned.
Why was someone who clearly disliked children even working at an orphanage?
Not long afterward, we arrived in front of an elegant-looking door.
Without even giving me time to catch my breath, Anna shoved me inside.
The force nearly made me stumble disgracefully to the floor.
“Director, I brought her.”
The woman called Director lowered the glasses resting on her nose and stared at me intently.
Even while looking at the stern middle-aged woman, nothing came to mind.
After silently meeting my eyes for a moment, the director quietly called my name.
“Lopez.”
“Yes.”
“How old are you right now?”
“I don’t know.”
I could roughly guess thanks to the mirror, but I knew that wasn’t what she was truly asking.
She was testing whether I had really lost my memory.
“Your name?”
“Lopez. Ah, do I happen to have a surname? If I do, I don’t know it. The teacher here only told me my first name.”
“Do you know why you were in the discipline room?”
“No.”
“What about your appearance?”
“Blue hair and purple eyes. I saw myself using the hand mirror in the solitary room.”
“…”
The director’s eyebrow twitched upward.
After scrutinizing me from head to toe, she finally looked away.
“How do you feel when you look at me?”
“I don’t really feel anything. Am I supposed to?”
Was my heart supposed to start racing or something?
At my calm response, the director let out a low, disbelieving laugh and adjusted her glasses again.
“It seems you’re not lying.”
“What should we do, Director…?”
“Wait outside for a moment.”
Following the director’s order, I obediently waited outside the office door.
