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Chapter 4
Sending children to unverified strangers for adoption no matter what…
Clicking my tongue at how horrible the director was, I headed toward my seat.
As I walked, unfamiliar faces kept sneaking glances at me.
Not a single one of those gazes held any friendliness.
Guys, could you maybe stop staring at me so intensely?
I wasn’t intimidated since they were all much younger than me, but it still felt awkward.
Their stares were way too passionate.
Looking at them again made it sink in that I really had transmigrated.
Until I figure out how to return, I’ll have to live here.
Together with these children who were staring at me like hawks.
…Honestly, it’s making me want to return to my original world even faster.
Right. Maybe the real “Lopez” was wandering around after losing her body.
Or perhaps our bodies had simply been swapped.
If that was the case, then I should make sure to return this body safely as soon as possible.
And if I wanted to hand it back intact, I’d need to properly deal with all the dangers headed Lopez’s way too.
After setting my goals for the future, I sat down in my seat.
The green-haired child beside me immediately started crying again because they hated sitting next to me.
But Anna refused to change the seating arrangement.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the moment Medina and Chester were talking, Klein approached me.
Looking down at me coldly, he whispered,
“So you pretended to lose your memory just to get my attention?”
“……”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Okay.”
If he didn’t believe me, what exactly was I supposed to do about it?
I answered straightforwardly, but perhaps he thought I was mocking him because his face instantly turned icy.
“You…!”
“Klein, stop it!”
Medina hurriedly pulled Klein away while nervously watching my reaction.
Then she whispered quietly to him,
“They said Lopez lost her memory.”
“She should still apologize at least.”
Standing behind Medina, the other original male lead, Chester, spoke with a gravity far beyond his age.
I eventually rose from my seat.
The moment I did, Medina visibly flinched.
Considering how terribly Lopez had treated her, I could understand why.
I bent at a perfect ninety-degree angle toward the frightened Medina.
“I’m sorry. I don’t remember anything, but I sincerely apologize for treating you badly.”
Apparently she hadn’t expected that response at all. Medina staggered backward slightly before awkwardly smiling.
“…I-It’s okay, Lopez.”
After hearing her response, I softly thanked her, straightened back up, and returned to my seat.
If this had been the original Lopez, it would have been completely natural for her to snap back harshly and start screaming instead.
So my quiet apology clearly shocked them.
The dumbfounded expressions I briefly caught on Chester and Klein’s faces were honestly kind of funny.
Shrugging my shoulders, I turned to comfort the still-devastated green-haired child sitting beside me.
“Could you stop crying?”
“WAAAHHH!”
Apparently that wasn’t the right approach.
On the surface, Sunflower Orphanage looked perfectly normal.
But in reality, it was a vicious place that didn’t hesitate to illegally sell children under the director’s supervision.
Still, only Class Three children were sold.
The reason the orphanage had never once been exposed during inspections was because of Classes One and Two.
From what I heard, the classes weren’t divided by grades.
Instead, the children were evaluated based on health, intelligence, elegance, charm, personality, and other factors.
Class One held the highest-ranking children, Class Two the upper-middle, and Class Three the lowest-ranked children.
In other words, Class Three is the discard pile.
The adoptive parents who took children from Classes One and Two were usually extremely satisfied.
That reputation conveniently covered up the ugly reality of Class Three.
And the forgotten children of Class Three were typically sold off for bribes to people legally prohibited from adopting, filling the pockets of the orphanage staff.
Even if it’s just a novel setting, this is way too cruel toward children.
Shaking my head, I looked around the classroom.
Despite still being young, the children were diligently focused on their lessons.
Maybe that’s because this is Class One.
And Lopez herself had also belonged to Class One.
Although she feared adults, her academic performance was excellent, which was why she’d been placed there.
The orphanage probably believed that all they needed to do was suppress her fear of adults.
Just like Klein—whose personality was awful but whose other abilities were so overwhelmingly exceptional that he still remained in Class One.
And later, because of a certain incident, I get demoted to Class Three.
At that exact time, I was originally destined to be sold off to adoptive parents visiting the orphanage.
But I planned to escape before then.
If I wanted to find a way back to my original world, I couldn’t stay in an orphanage where I might be sold at any moment.
And staying in Class One long enough to get adopted by a “good” family would also be troublesome.
That would only make it harder to search for a way out.
More importantly, I also needed to avoid getting used by the original male leads.
Honestly, I didn’t care about getting kicked down to Class Three.
If anything, Class Three—far from the watchful eyes of the teachers—was the perfect environment for escaping the orphanage.
So I’ll quietly drop down to Class Three at the right time, finish preparing, and escape as quickly as possible.
I still needed to learn the geography of this world and gather money, so it was impossible for now.
At the moment, I was basically just a clueless child in this world.
While I was busy making plans, Klein suddenly threw an eraser at my head.
“What are you staring at?”
“You threw an eraser at me, so naturally my eyes went toward you.”
At my perfectly logical answer, Klein’s face darkened menacingly.
“Stop looking at me.”
I quietly turned my gaze away.
This wasn’t because I was scared.
I simply knew the male leads would die young, which naturally made me more forgiving toward them.
“So then, Lopez—what did I say is the most important thing in life?”
Pulled out of my thoughts, I stood confidently and answered,
“Love.”
The real answer to questions like that was obviously money, but since this was a children’s class, I figured they probably wanted something emotional.
Watching my overly confident attitude, the teacher’s face stiffened.
“Go stand in the back.”
Maybe that answer was too emotional.
Lopez was acting strange.
It wasn’t enough that she stared blankly during class—her answers to the teacher’s questions were bizarre too.
“Love.”
Love? Did she seriously just say love?
The one person least likely to know what that meant?
Klein stared at her in disbelief.
The teacher had clearly said the most important thing in life was money.
It was such a basic question that you could answer it without even listening in class.
Maybe she really did lose her memory.
Even an idiot like Lopez should have been able to answer something that easy.
Meanwhile, Lopez was standing in the back being punished…
“Teacher! Lopez is falling asleep while standing!”
“……”
She’s seriously so weird!
Klein should’ve realized it from the moment she calmly started talking back to him.
With a horrified expression, he turned his gaze away.
The dormitory was surprisingly cozy.
My bed was tucked away in a corner, and the moment I climbed onto it, two children approached me.
Standing crookedly with their arms crossed, they warned me,
“You better behave yourself.”
“Don’t bully Medina again!”
“Just because you lost your memory doesn’t erase all the awful things you did to us!”
The atmosphere around the glaring children was intense.
More precisely, they clearly held a tremendous amount of resentment toward Lopez.
When I didn’t respond, they seemed to think I was ignoring them and became even harsher.
“Or maybe you’re just putting on a show.”
“Like when you framed Medina.”
“Even though it failed and got you sent to the discipline room.”
The two openly mocked me.
As I silently stared at them, they exchanged awkward glances and instinctively stepped back half a pace.
This is when you apologize.
I stood up and sincerely told them,
“I will. I’ll be extra careful from now on. I’ll avoid even making eye contact with you, and if our shoulders accidentally brush, I’ll kneel and apologize immediately, so don’t worry. And I’m truly sorry to both of you too. From now on, I’ll apologize instead of greeting people.”
One of the children stammered in confusion at my heartfelt response.
“What? N-No… I didn’t mean you had to go that far…”
Just then, Medina entered the dormitory late and hurried over, separating me from the other children while apologizing.
“Lopez, I’m sorry. You must be really upset because of me, right? Guys, let’s stop and go.”
As they walked away, I overheard them whispering among themselves.
“Why does she answer like that?”
“Lopez is weird! She said she lost her memory, and now I think she really did.”
“But we’re still classmates, so let’s not go too far.”
Medina awkwardly smiled while calming the two children down.
Didn’t kids usually like exaggerated reactions?
Puzzled, I lay down on my bed.
After class, the children were completely absorbed in playing with water outside.
From the distance, Medina’s lively voice rang out.
“Eek! Klein! Stop splashing only me!”
“Hmph, that’s what you get for not taking my side!”
“Come here, Medina! Stand behind me!”
Chester shielding Medina from the splashes, Klein glaring at him in annoyance, and Medina shyly laughing stood out especially clearly.
They look so happy, and yet their ending is tragic.
Part of me felt sorry for them.
But why exactly did the male leads die again…?
I definitely remembered they died trying to save the heroine, but strangely, I couldn’t recall the details.
Tilting my head, I shifted my gaze.
Beside me, the green-haired child was puffing their cheeks while trying hard not to cry.
Tears shimmered in green eyes that matched their hair perfectly.
The child was honestly adorable, but for some reason, they always seemed close to tears whenever I saw them.
“Do you want to go play in the water?”
“I-I don’t want to play with you!”
“Me neither. Since we agree on that, should I go sit over there?”
“H-Hic… why are you bullying meee?!”
Sorry, I’ll leave instead.
