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Chapter 5
“‘100% what? Island boy?’”
According to the statistics collected by the Comment Fairies, Edin is definitely an island boy.
If “male lead” is shortened to “male protagonist,” then “island boy” must… be a boy who lives on an island?
“Edin. Did you ever live on an island?”
“No. I’ve never been to the sea.”
“Then do you know what an island boy is?”
“Huh? Some guy?”
└ [Oh my, ‘some guy’???]
└ [Are we subtly cementing him as a ‘some guy’?]
└ [Kids being all flirty is too cute lol]
Does “some guy” mean something else?
I tried to understand from context, but the expressions they used felt like a foreign language. Maybe it was foreign because it was the language of the Fairy Kingdom.
When they started chattering among themselves, I thought I’d stop listening and play with the girl sitting beside me instead.
└ [You poor souls don’t know how delicious the male lead is]
… Delicious?
‘Aren’t fairies supposed to live off bait?!’
Bait. The kind used in fishing.
It shouldn’t taste good, yet the Comment Fairies always seemed to be picking it up and eating it. I thought they had weird tastes, but eating the male lead?
‘So what they were talking about earlier—stocks or whatever—that meant eating the male lead?’
The bait was a snack or delicacy, and this was their main diet?!
└ [Why are we creating cannibalism now]
└ [They eat tteokbokki, pizza, chicken, bossam, jokbal, boiled pork, soy sauce crab, burgers, sweet and sour pork, jjambbong, yukhoe, budae jjigae, ramen, donuts, abara]
└ [They really take care of their diet]
Every example was a food I’d never even heard of.
‘So… they just eat whatever they come across?’
└ [Shh! Don’t let them know we’re pigs!]
I had never seen the Comment Fairies in real life, so I imagined them as small, cute creatures. But the mental image kept growing until they seemed like giant monsters. Maybe I should’ve called them Comment Monsters instead.
└ [Talking too much]
└ [No, we’re not eating the male lead~~]
└ [Hmm, everything tastes amazing nyam nyam chuberup]
Even among themselves, they disagreed—some fairies tried to clear up misunderstandings while others stirred them up. I had to endure a brief panic until I realized that “delicious” was just figurative.
Spending similar days at the orphanage, the Comment Fairies who loved excitement gradually became quieter. According to them, this was the “daily life part.”
When they had nothing to say, the fairies seemed to go visit other protagonists.
So when the area grew quiet, the fairies stirred up another incident.
“Why are you all gathered here?”
“The director brought a boy earlier.”
The children, curious about the new arrival, were peeking around the director’s office.
‘Just a while ago, the stingy director was grumbling about having too many mouths to feed.’
Seeing a new child arrive suggested the orphanage had gained a bit more financial stability.
‘It feels rewarding to see the results of making a good impression on visiting sponsors.’
Because of that, one child could safely enter the facility.
Even though the director was stingy… it was still much better than the child moving from place to place at such a young age.
The Comment Fairies, like the children, started gathering in small groups at the prospect of a new character. Of course, I didn’t actually see them gather; it just seemed like that because the comment sounds grew louder.
└ [Oh, the transfer student in a school story? This is totally a heroine introduction scene]
└ [You must watch a lot of anime]
The fairies were excited about a new male lead candidate. Apparently, appearing midway through increased the chances of becoming the male lead. I didn’t understand why a male lead was necessary, but I was curious about the new face, so I waited by the director’s office with the children.
Soon, the door opened, and the teacher who came with the rumored new child looked directly at me.
“Rose. Just the person I wanted to see.”
“You were looking for me?”
“This child just arrived today. Could you show him around the orphanage?”
“……Of course!”
Every time sponsors came, they treated me as a guide, as if I were an official escort!
└ [I don’t like this guy, deal with him.]
└ [The one who favors problem children?]
└ [He’s definitely embezzling]
Why did this suddenly turn into embezzlement?
└ [Special feature of fantasy orphanages. They use embezzled money for gambling, abuse, or human trafficking.]
What terrifying ideas!
Even though I knew the teacher wasn’t entirely reliable, I had to make a good impression for now.
Regretting that I had peeked, I smiled at the child behind the teacher.
“Hi! Your name is…?”
Having listened to the Comment Fairies so much, maybe I’d absorbed their way of seeing things. I noticed the child’s hair before his face. Actually, it was more accurate to say I couldn’t see his face because his messy hair covered it.
‘Red hair?’
Before reincarnation, my own hair had a reddish-orange hue. Friends with reddish-brown hair were common, but seeing such vivid red hair was rare even in my memory.
└ [Caught?? Male lead]
└ [What about his eye color]
His bangs were long, so I couldn’t see his eyes clearly.
└ [Kids who hide their face are always the most handsome]
Ignoring the fairies’ obsession with appearance, I smiled as kindly as I could.
“I’m Rose. What’s your name?”
“……Leon.”
His voice was hoarse, as if he had suffered a lot.
Though taller than petite Edin, he seemed smaller than me because he was shrinking into himself.
‘For me, returning to the orphanage after all I’ve been through feels like a relief, but for him, it must be unsettling.’
Children like him needed time to adjust. No child at the orphanage was without a story, so excessive curiosity was inappropriate. Asking why he ended up here would be rude.
└ [He must be a lost child of a duke or marquis, right?]
The Comment Fairies acted as if they knew the child’s past.
‘Children aren’t lost property, and losing a child doesn’t happen often! Especially in noble families.’
Since these fairies once claimed someone was a princess, their “knowledge” probably wasn’t reliable.
└ [Clichés exist for a reason]
Clichés or not, nothing they’d said so far had been true. I reached out to Leon, certain there were no clichés here.
“Can’t you talk?”
“…….”
“You fool. Idiot.”
“……”
I heard Jeff picking on someone again and went to the corridor to see that Leon had become the new target.
Previously, I might have reacted to Jeff’s childish provocation, but now I could respond appropriately.
“Jeff. Haven’t you heard the saying?”
“What?”
“Only fools see fools.”
Jeff flinched, unable to answer immediately—he had just called Leon a fool, meaning he himself was a fool.
“Do I, as a genius, only see geniuses? Does Leon look like a fool to you? I see him as a genius.”
“What! You….”
Jeff opened his mouth to call me a fool but hesitated, remembering my words.
“You genius!”
“Right. I’m a genius.”
I accepted the praise with a sly little smile.
Jeff, who ended up just giving me a compliment without winning anything, scowled in frustration but could only puff out his cheeks in silence.
“Ugh. Boring. Let’s go!”
As Jeff left with his friends, the corridor became quiet.
‘Fool.’
Pleased with handling another problem, the Comment Fairies immediately jumped in to praise my actions.
└ [Wow, the female lead fights so childishly well]
└ [The lines are exactly like when she fought her brother, gave me chills]
Praise?
└ [Her mind is adult, but she enjoys arguing like a child? If she’s going to act like a kid, why bother with the reincarnation plot? I’m out.]
└ [The professional dropout is back]
Not praise, then.
└ [When you call someone a fool, you should counter with “treasure of the sea”; call someone a genius, counter with “world’s unlucky guy” for a real kid fight]
└ [Isn’t that too old-fashioned a proverb?]
The Comment Fairies sometimes taught these childish ways to win arguments.
‘I’ll use that later. Noted.’
While my “combat power” rose, Leon crouched in a dark corner like a child with a story. He seemed to have almost reached his usual spot today before Jeff had grabbed him.
‘It’s been days, and he still hasn’t adapted.’
Keeping to himself in the corner, the person most interested in him was… our Comment Fairies.
└ [Only the female lead gets permission to the male lead’s heart, no one else, Michelin-worthy cliché]
└ [Hurry up and build the romance, I’m dizzy]
‘…….’
