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Chapter – 08
I briefly considered going back outside to look around, but gave up.
How was I supposed to find someone in such a huge shopping district?
Besides, even if it really was Luluka, so what?
I hadn’t told Luluka I was going out either.
So she had no obligation to tell me about her own outing.
And if there was something she wanted badly enough to sell the director’s parchment for, then it wasn’t strange for her to be in the shopping district.
“I’ll just buy these and head back.”
Humming cheerfully, I bought colorful paper and some cheap medicinal herbs.
They were herbs that worked especially well when combined with Dew Grass.
This is the kind of knowledge only someone who studied deeply like me would know.
Thankfully, that fact wasn’t widely known, so the herbs were still inexpensive. Thanks to that, I could afford them with the money I’d saved.
By the time I finished looking around, it was already time to return.
I also bought some pretty stationery before heading back to the orphanage.
I really want to earn tons of money soon!
If I had enough money, I could’ve bought Akkelte the most luxurious and expensive gift without hesitation.
To do that, I needed to start making and selling potions as soon as possible.
I’d read my potion-making books so many times the theory was engraved into my head.
Until now, I hadn’t been able to practice because I lacked ingredients, but thanks to Akkelte’s gift, I finally had a chance to make one for real.
Though the ingredients he gave me are so expensive that it’s honestly nerve-racking.
I was worried I might ruin the potion if I started with such valuable materials before even practicing with cheaper herbs.
No matter how thoroughly I’d memorized the books, theory and practice were different things.
Filled with worry, I opened the door.
“Huh? Luluka…?”
“Hm? What is it?”
Seeing Luluka calmly reading a book inside the room startled me.
Dressed in indoor clothes and sitting casually, she showed no signs whatsoever of having gone outside.
So she wasn’t at the shopping district after all?
I was sure I’d heard her voice earlier…
Since I’d returned almost immediately after hearing it, I assumed she’d come back later than me.
But here she was, looking completely relaxed in her indoor clothes and reading a book!
“Didn’t you go somewhere earlier?”
“No? I’ve been in the room all day. More importantly, where did you go, Elia?”
“Oh, I just went out to buy something for a bit!”
Luluka nodded indifferently and turned her attention back to her book.
Curious, I glanced at it.
It was a magazine selling dresses worn by noble ladies at social gatherings.
Where did she even get a book like that?
Why would a magazine aimed at nobles be here in the orphanage?
For a moment, I found it strange.
Did she receive it from someone? Or maybe pick it up among things discarded by sponsors?
Is Luluka interested in dress design?
If she had picked up a discarded magazine, then maybe she loved fashion design the same way I loved potion-making.
Leaning back beside her, I casually asked,
“Luluka, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Of course, someday Luluka would become a noble lady, but I suddenly became curious about what she truly wanted beyond that.
Did she want to tend gardens? Design clothes? Something that wasn’t simply “becoming a duchess.”
Even Akkelte, who was destined to become a duke, had looked drained whenever he mentioned it.
Focused on her magazine, Luluka blinked thoughtfully.
“…I want to be a noble.”
“Huh?”
I wondered if I’d heard wrong and asked again.
“Your dream is to become a noble?”
That wasn’t exactly something you could become just because you wanted to.
But Luluka nodded seriously.
Well… she really is a noble originally. Someday she’ll return to her family.
It was an unusual dream, but either way, Luluka’s wish would come true.
Right now, I needed to worry more about my own future.
I opened the potion-making book I’d received as a birthday gift.
At the orphanage, children could choose one present on their birthday. While everyone else picked toys, I had chosen this book.
Compared to the old books in the orphanage, it contained far richer information and even newly revised content.
That was why I’d been studying from it so diligently lately.
After all, I’d already read the old books thousands of times to the point of memorizing them completely.
That was how serious I was about this.
Before making a potion with the Dew Grass Akkelte gave me, I should study one last time carefully!
The next day.
I overslept because I’d stayed up studying until dawn.
“Yaaawn…”
Dragging my exhausted body along, I walked downstairs while letting out a huge yawn.
The stairs still creaked loudly.
The rotten wood groaned with every step.
Luluka said she told the director, so they’ll probably fix it soon, right?
At this rate, someone could really get hurt.
If one of the careless children stepped too hard, the rotten plank might collapse and send them tumbling down the stairs.
It really needs to be repaired soon… Maybe I should remind the director myself.
Thinking that, I headed toward the dining hall.
“I wonder if there’s any food left…”
Thankfully, the orphanage provided three meals a day.
But meal times were fixed, and if you arrived too late, there was often nothing left.
Since I’d woken up late, I worried there might not be any food remaining.
As I hurried toward the dining hall, I spotted that shaved-head little boy from before.
The kid who threw that balloon filled with weird liquid at me.
The boy was hiding in a corner, secretly eating something.
Why is he hiding while eating? What’s he eating?
Considering the prank he’d pulled on me before, he seemed like a troublemaker, which made me instinctively suspicious.
Quietly, I approached and checked what he was eating.
“That’s… chocolate?”
In the Iberte Empire, chocolate was a dessert only nobles could afford.
It was one of the expensive luxuries you’d never normally see in an orphanage like this.
So how was this kid eating chocolate?
Filled with curiosity, I tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
“Wh-what?! E-Elia noona?”
The shaved-head boy jumped in shock at my sudden appearance.
That reaction only made him look even more suspicious.
Placing my hands on my hips, I asked in an adult-like tone,
“Where did you get that?”
“…I-I didn’t steal it.”
“Then why can’t you say where it came from?”
Maybe he’d stolen it because he wanted it badly enough.
Things like that weren’t uncommon in orphanages.
But every time it happened, the director handed out brutal punishments.
I wanted to help him if I could.
“I’m serious. Luluka noona gave it to me…”
But the words that came out of his mouth were completely unexpected.
Unable to understand, I frowned.
“Luluka gave it to you? Why?”
“She just said thanks for helping her before… Anyway, I didn’t steal it! Elia noona, dummy!”
The boy shouted angrily and stormed off.
That brat! He doesn’t even realize I was worried about him!
Still, he didn’t seem like he was lying.
Luluka had given him chocolate in return for helping her.
And not just any chocolate—it was expensive.
What kind of help had he given her to deserve something like that?
And where did Luluka even get chocolate from?
I suddenly remembered the shopping district yesterday.
When I returned to the orphanage, I thought I must’ve imagined seeing her there…
But had Luluka actually gone to the shopping district after all?
Then why lie and tell me she’d stayed in the orphanage the whole time?
“I think it’s better if I ask her directly.”
Rather than continuing to suspect things on my own, it would be better to hear the truth from her directly.
“I wonder where Luluka is?”
Normally, Luluka was always with me.
But lately, we’d been spending more and more time apart.
Had it started after I caught her trying to steal the parchment? Or after I began suspecting her?
I looked around while searching for her.
Since pretty people stood out no matter what they did, I figured she’d be easy to find.
“…Where in the world did she go?”
But no matter how much I searched, there wasn’t even a glimpse of Luluka.
When I asked the other children, they all shook their heads and said they hadn’t seen her.
I wandered around the orphanage for quite a while but found nothing.
“Elia? Why have you been wandering around nonstop?”
At the sound of someone’s voice, I stopped walking.
Brown hair. Pale hazel eyes. A round-faced boy with a cute appearance.
“Ah… Class leader?”
It was the orphanage class leader.
We hadn’t talked much before, so it felt awkward for him to suddenly call out to me.
“I’m looking for Luluka, but I can’t find her.”
“Where have you looked?”
“Basically the entire orphanage.”
At my answer, the class leader adjusted his glasses slightly and said carefully,
“Have you checked… in front of the girls’ bathhouse?”
“Ah! I didn’t look there!”
I’d searched almost everywhere, but not there.
I quickly turned to head for the bathhouse, but the class leader stopped me in a cautious voice.
“Elia.”
“Yeah?”
The way he kept glancing around made it obvious he had something secret to tell me.
I lowered myself closer to him instinctively.
Then he spoke.
“…Be careful of Luluka.”
“What?”
“It’s something I heard from someone else too.”
At his words, I frowned deeply.
What is this? Why does it keep feeling like Luluka isn’t the heroine I knew from the original story?
Luluka, who found my pendant far too quickly—as if she already knew where it was hidden.
Luluka, who tried to steal the director’s parchment.
Luluka, who lied about going to the shopping district.
Luluka, who apparently received help from the shaved-head kid who had thrown dirty liquid balloons at me.
There’s definitely something I don’t know.
Until the very end of the original novel, Luluka had been absolute goodness.
From beginning to end, she was portrayed as a warm, kindhearted heroine like sunshine itself.
It was hard to suspect someone like that.
But my instincts keep telling me something’s wrong.
If all these incidents hadn’t happened recently, I probably would’ve ignored the class leader’s warning.
But now, I couldn’t.
The class leader quietly held my gaze before adding in a low voice,
“Whether you choose to be careful or not is up to you. I’m just warning you.”
“…Thanks.”
I had no intention of dismissing his warning lightly.
I once heard that when something feels wrong, it’s your life experience sending you signals.
After saying goodbye to the class leader, I started walking again.
Since Luluka was nowhere else, I became certain she had to be at the last place left—the bathhouse.
I hurried downstairs.
“This still hasn’t been fixed?”
The stairs creaked loudly with every step.
Luluka had said she informed the director, but apparently nothing had been repaired yet.
At this rate, someone really could get hurt.
I’ll find Luluka first, then I’ll personally remind the director again.
I pressed down on the stairs cautiously with my foot.
And just as I was about to move again—
THUD!
“Ugh!”
Someone shoved me hard from behind.
Caught off guard, my body lost its balance instantly.
…Hair dye?
A strong smell of hair dye stabbed sharply into my nose.
At the same moment—
Crash!
My body tumbled violently down the staircase.
“…Agh…”
It hurt so much.
Every bone in my body screamed in agony.
My vision blurred white as my consciousness began fading.
Step. Step.
I heard someone walking toward me as I lay collapsed on the floor.
Through my hazy vision, pale platinum-blonde hair shimmered before my eyes.
Lulu…ka? Since when was Luluka blonde?
Luluka knelt down in front of me, looking completely unfamiliar.
Then—
Click.
She removed the pendant necklace—my mother’s keepsake—from my neck.
“Elia.”
Wearing her usual angelic smile, she gently played with my hair.
The pain was so overwhelming I couldn’t even move my lips.
But perhaps she hadn’t expected an answer in the first place, because she continued speaking to herself.
My pendant…
Luluka wasn’t even looking at me anymore.
She stared only at the pendant with a face full of fascination.
“You know, things this beautiful and expensive…”
After admiring it for a moment, Luluka placed the pendant around her own neck.
Then she slowly stood up.
Looking down at my collapsed body, she muttered with a vicious expression,
“Something like this doesn’t suit a nobody like you.”
