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Chapter 3
After staring at the children, who weren’t answering anyway, I climbed back out through the small hole.
I was worried they might chase after me, but the twins weren’t the kind of kids who would completely trust someone over just a single piece of chocolate.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Looks like I’ll have to meddle with the childhoods of these future masterminds a little.”
I want to live.
I’ll survive, grow into a proper adult, and make this orphanage mine.
And then I’ll make the orphanage director, who gave these children such an unhappy childhood, pay the price for her crimes.
Clenching my fists tightly, I hurried toward the food storage room.
A while later, I heard whispering coming from the direction of the hole I had climbed out of, but the unclear sounds went in one ear and out the other.
“I shouldn’t have acted so cool…”
I had come out after bragging to the kids, but of all days, today’s meal was only soup. There was no way I could take any of that with me.
My face, which had been full of excitement because I thought I would be able to bring back some food, stiffened immediately.
“Aisha! Aisha, aren’t you going to eat?”
Elle, who had shared a room with me until a few days ago, came close to me while looking at the soup bowl I was staring at.
“If you’re not going to eat it, can I have it? No matter how much I eat these days, I’m still hungry.”
After slowly examining Elle, I pushed my bowl of soup toward her.
“Sure. If you want it, eat it. I don’t feel like eating.”
“Really?”
“But tell them I ate it and just return the dishes.”
“Of course!”
Looking at Elle’s bright smile, I bit my lip.
The reason she was hungry no matter how much she ate was because the meals themselves were unbelievably terrible.
‘Of course you’re hungry eating something like this.’
Calling this soup was generous. It was closer to plain water with a little bit of soup mixed in.
There were barely any ingredients in it, and it had almost no nutritional value.
‘The biggest problem is that the orphanage director serves this garbage and calls it food.’
No wonder the children’s hobby was searching through dirt for bugs to eat.
Even now, Elle looked happy as she held the bowl I had been eating from and gulped it down.
‘Poor Elle. No… poor orphanage children.’
Not a single child here was even slightly chubby. In fact, there wasn’t even one who could be considered within the normal range.
Meanwhile, the orphanage director was enormous. She was so tall and large that she almost looked like a bear.
And there was a reason for that.
All the donated food that was supposed to be given to the orphanage children had been eaten by the director herself.
‘A horrible person.’
As I grumbled while thinking about the orphanage director, a brilliant idea suddenly struck me like lightning.
“That’s right! There was that place!”
Once I had the thought, my next action was obvious.
I had to act on it.
So I carefully slipped out through the back door. I moved quickly but cautiously, afraid of being discovered by the caretakers.
Despite my caution, a smile never left my face.
‘Why didn’t I think of that place before?’
A place with even more food stored than the kitchen or the storage room!
That place was the director’s room.
I don’t really like the saying that people act according to how they look.
Some people look cold and heartless but are actually emotional, while others look like good people but commit fraud as naturally as breathing.
But the orphanage director was someone I had to admit truly acted exactly like she looked.
Her face was filled with greed, to the point where she wouldn’t give away even a single bean.
The greedy director never gave anything to anyone, even if the food piled up in her room went bad.
She only occasionally threw a single item to children who managed to please her.
I quietly headed toward her room.
Luckily, the clock tower in the center of the orphanage had just struck twelve.
‘At this time, she always left her room and headed to the dining hall. Especially today, since it’s Wednesday, the day she goes outside to eat.’
My good memory was useful at times like this.
An ordinary child probably wouldn’t pay attention to things like this, but I knew every single movement of the director and the orphanage teachers.
Because of that, I headed toward the director’s room without the slightest hesitation.
The window was wide open.
Because the director rarely left her room, a strange smell often came from inside. That was why the teachers who cleaned the room usually left the window open, at least during lunchtime.
I stared at the open window for a moment.
It looked as if it were saying, “Welcome, thief.”
“…Stealing at this age.”
The thought of stealing made my heart waver slightly, but I quickly threw away those concerns for the sake of my future.
“Right now, becoming friends with the children comes first!”
Holding my empty stomach, I quickly climbed through the director’s window.
And thus, I entered the orphanage director’s room.
Just as expected, on the large table in the center were piles of freshly baked bread from the morning, cooled milk, sandwiches filled with various fruits and vegetables, snacks, chocolate bars, candy, and all kinds of other food.
“She really is greedy.”
Especially the bread on the desk was something the nearby bakery donated every few days so the children could eat it.
Of course, the greedy director had never given any of it to us.
After carefully looking around, I put two palm-sized pieces of bread and some milk into my pockets.
Ah, and one chocolate bar too.
“If I get too greedy, I won’t even be able to climb back out the window.”
If I overdid it, I’d only end up with a stomachache.
With a disappointed expression, I was about to climb back through the window when—
“I’m really annoyed!”
The orphanage director’s voice suddenly rang out.
If she found out I was here, she would beat me so badly that I probably wouldn’t be able to walk again.
‘My luck is unbelievably terrible. Why did she have to come back at this exact time?’
I felt the hairs on my body stand up.
‘Should I hide? Since I’m small…’
But if I hid and the director didn’t leave the room, I might actually starve to death inside.
While I was anxiously pacing around, thankfully, I heard one of the orphanage teacher’s voices.
“Director, is something wrong?”
Of course, the moment she asked, the director immediately snapped back in an irritated voice.
“What? Do I have to explain every single thing to you?”
“N-no… that’s not what I meant. I was just wondering why you suddenly came back…”
“Shut up.”
“Ah…”
The director let out a mocking laugh, louder than before.
“Why? Are you all going to make a fuss again, saying you were hurt by something I said?”
“That’s… because you said we could tell you anything we wanted to say…”
“You idiots. Shut up. I don’t even want to look at you.”
“Director…”
Hoping their conversation would continue longer, I struggled my way toward the window.
Right now, both of my pockets were stuffed with milk, bread, and even a chocolate bar, making it difficult to climb out immediately.
Should I just hide inside the room now?!
While I was debating, the door suddenly burst open.
“I don’t even want to hear your voice. You sound like a pig being slaughtered. It’s irritating.”
“D-director…”
“Quiet! Go bring me my meal right now. Ah, that’s right. Remember the beef that came in last time for the children? Grill that for me.”
Thankfully, it seemed like fate didn’t hate me that much.
The moment the door opened, I succeeded in climbing out the window.
I couldn’t remember the last time my heart had beaten this hard.
My whole body trembled.
I had jumped down too quickly, and my butt hit the ground painfully enough that I almost cried out, but I held it in.
Then—
“Wait! What is this?!”
The director shouted even louder than before and moved much closer to the window where I was.
‘S-she found out?!’
I had been crawling carefully to escape, but I suddenly stopped.
Then I pressed my body tightly against the wall beneath the window.
‘What excuse should I make? What should I say…?’
My mind went completely blank.
My mouth dried up, and it felt as if my heart was being stabbed with needles.
Then the teacher, realizing something was wrong, asked in a trembling voice.
“W-what happened?”
“Something happened, alright! Look at this!”
At that moment, I heard the sound of paper fluttering through the air.
“T-this is…”
“If you have eyes, look properly. Can’t you see? There isn’t a single donation that came in for the children this time!”
“Ah. Th-that… the situation has been difficult recently…”
“If the situation is bad, then you should make it better. Are you receiving your salary for free?”
“Ah… that…”
“Do you know how many places require money?”
“Since donations haven’t been coming in, we don’t know what to do…”
At that moment, the sound of something being hit echoed.
“If you just sit around doing nothing, do you think donations will magically come in? Don’t just stand there. Make those little parasites work. Make them beg if necessary…”
“Beg…? You mean begging?”
“No. No. I have a better idea.”
The director’s voice, beast-like in another sense, filled the room.
The relief that I hadn’t been discovered mixed with anger toward the director, who had no trace of kindness.
“What about making a few more of them look pitiful? Last time, when one of the children got injured, we received quite a lot of donations.”
“T-that…”
“Yes, that’s it! I’m a genius! Nothing else brings in as much donation money as that! I’ll pick a few children, so make sure to feed them well for now.”
