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Chapter 13
The door closed, and the sound of hurried footsteps faded away.
As the presence disappeared, a cold breeze swept into the room despite the window being shut.
The fire in the fireplace, which still carried traces of magical energy, died out, and perfect silence settled in.
Shadows crawled from beneath the floor and from the ceiling toward Joshua, screaming.
“[Joshua is a liar.]”
“[Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies!]”
“[Let’s tear apart the neck of that woman who treats you like a test subject and show the Rosteliers a lesson!]”
“[Joshua, Joshua. She’s just a lackey of that filthy hypocritical group.]”
“……”
“[Kill her! Call Lamia and let her devour her intestines! Kill her! Call Siren and tear out her vocal cords! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!]”
“[Yes! Kill her, kill her, kill her, kill her!]”
“[The bones of that disgusting Light Magic Knight will be piled in our tower with countless other remains!]”
“[And we’ll squeeze out fresh blood and raise a toast at the top of the tower!]”
“[Let’s send the useless husks to the Rosteliers as a gift!]”
“Be quiet.”
At Joshua’s low voice, the shadows that had been clamoring fell silent for a moment.
“I won’t kill Rosha.”
Joshua hugged the blanket that Rosha had covered him with tightly, burying his face as his cheeks flushed shyly.
“Disappear.”
At the order of the small boy buried under the blanket, the monsters scattered in perfect unison.
The room was truly left with only Joshua.
“Phew…”
Standing in front of the Angel Orphanage, Rosha exhaled deeply, trying to calm her tension. Fortunately, the orphanage wasn’t far from the Baldwin estate, so she had found it quickly.
‘Lily must be here…’
Though there was a possibility she wasn’t, given the current circumstances, the likelihood that Lily was in this orphanage was the highest. With a trembling heart, Rosha stepped into the orphanage entrance.
Despite the facility not being very well-maintained, she was lucky to see people immediately near the entrance. Children making snowmen and a woman playing with them—it seemed she was the orphanage director. Rosha deliberately made her presence known as she approached. As she got a few steps closer, the director, who had been focused solely on the children, noticed Rosha.
“Excuse me, who are you?”
The tone implied curiosity that a girl who seemed too young to adopt a child had come to the orphanage. Rosha placed her hand over her chest, bowed lightly, and offered polite greetings.
“I’m Rosha Rostelier. I believe our Golden Dawn Society contacted you in advance.”
“Oh, I see. I’m the director of this orphanage, Susan Leiletra. I’ve heard about it, though I didn’t expect you to come today.”
At her words, Rosha felt a pang of conscience.
Noah’s warning not to neglect her mission while searching for her sister came to mind.
‘Still… leaving a child alone from the first day might have been too careless.’
But Rosha quickly resolved her thoughts. While she had wanted to come to the Angel Orphanage as soon as she arrived in this country, she had restrained herself.
The reason she joined the Golden Dawn Society was not only to eradicate all demons in the world and overthrow Babel, which caused chaos by manipulating demons, but above all, it was to find her sister.
For Rosha, Lily was the most important.
“I’m Lily Lewen’s older sister. May I meet my sister now?”
She tried to remain calm, but her words came out slightly rushed.
“Um, well…”
For some reason, the director trailed off.
“Yesterday, Lily disappeared.”
A shocking statement came from the director.
“What did you say?”
“I’m sorry. We really don’t have anything to say.”
“What… does that mean?”
This was the moment she had been waiting for. It felt like the ground had fallen out beneath her.
Lily had disappeared… and yesterday of all days. If only she had come one day earlier, she could have met her…
“Lily… how… why…”
The director hurriedly supported Rosha by the arm. She had almost collapsed as her legs gave way without her realizing it.
“If it’s alright, why don’t we go inside? This will be a long story. I’ll explain slowly.”
By her usual temperament, she would have grabbed the director by the collar and shaken her, demanding how a child under her responsibility had gone missing.
But her entire body trembled so much that she didn’t even have the strength to raise a finger, let alone get angry.
Lily was missing. That one statement had drained Rosha of all motivation.
Inside the orphanage counseling room, Rosha had a long conversation with the director.
Lily had sneaked out of the orphanage during the night and had not yet returned. The staff was also searching for her. They promised to contact Rosha as soon as Lily was found.
“Could I at least see a recent photo of Lily?”
“I’m sorry. Lily hated having her picture taken, so we don’t have any photos.”
“Hated having her picture taken…?”
“Yes.”
It was strange. She might fear demons, but fearing photographs? The Lily Rosha knew wouldn’t be afraid of something like that.
“I’m truly sorry we couldn’t be of any help.”
The director, her hair neatly tied in a bun, bowed repeatedly in apology.
Inside Rosha, grief, injustice, and resentment swirled together.
Just one more day, Lily…
If only you had waited one more day, I would have come for you.
Lily, where in this cold land are you?
“If she’s found, please contact the Baldwin estate, where you are staying.”
The mention of the Baldwin estate might have been surprising, but the director just nodded with a sad expression. Rosha doubted whether the director had truly listened to her story, but she decided to remain silent. They promised to search for Lily and notify her once found, so she would wait a little longer. If she still couldn’t find her after some time, she could then collapse and cause a scene—it wouldn’t be too late.
Rosha, unable to hide her exhaustion, trudged toward the orphanage entrance. She braced herself, concentrating on every step, feeling as if she might collapse at any moment.
In the orphanage garden, she saw children huddled together, just like before. Rosha couldn’t take her eyes off the children of her sister’s age as she walked.
Then, among the children, she spotted golden hair. She didn’t think there had been any blond children before… Now, there was exactly one child with golden hair.
Blond hair was more common than she had thought. But pure blond hair, without any other color mixed in like Lily’s, was rare.
Rosha’s legs moved instinctively toward the child. Short hair with a black headband, a red polka-dot dress…
“Li…Ly…”
The children dispersed as if playing, and the blond-haired child began running somewhere.
“Lily…!”
Rosha ran after her.
“Wait, Lily!”
She saw Lily entering the orphanage building and ran after her.
“Lily, please…”
Even after entering the building, Lily was nowhere to be seen. Rosha spun in place, trying to determine which direction the blond-haired child might have gone.
Then, she heard a sudden movement.
From the end of the opposite hallway, she caught a glimpse of a human figure out of the corner of her eye.
Rosha ran down the hallway, and just as she was about to turn a corner—
“What’s going on here?”
“Ah…!”
It wasn’t a child; it was the orphanage director.
“This area is a rest space for our children. You can’t go any further.”
“I saw Lily.”
“I’m sorry, what do you mean…”
“The child with a black headband and red polka-dot dress!”
“……”
“You said Lily had left the orphanage, right? Maybe she’s come back. I saw her pass by this way, so I could find her…”
“Perhaps you’re mistaken? There’s more than one child with blond hair…”
“I saw her myself!”
Her voice raised in frustration. The director adjusted her glasses, looking troubled by Rosha’s outburst.
“Ma’am…”
At that moment, a child’s voice came from behind the director. Rosha pushed the director aside to see the child.
“……”
Short blond hair, black headband, red polka-dot dress.
…But it wasn’t Lily.
As the director had said, it was just a child who happened to have blond hair like Lily.
“I understand your grief at losing family.”
“……”
“We will search for Lily diligently, so please don’t despair too much.”
The director tried to console Rosha.
But no words could comfort her.
