258 - Dupre Orphanage 2
...It's a pretty building. I thought it might be dirty everywhere since there are so many children, but...
I step inside the orphanage guided by Jude, my interest piqued as I let my gaze wander around the surroundings. It was a pretty building in the sense of being clean. I don't know how many years have passed since it was built, but I think it's old in that sense. I can see spots where leaky roofs have been repaired, but there are no cracks or stains on the walls. Leonardo said it was in the lower town, but compared to buildings in the lower town, it felt somewhat more sturdily built than those in Grenore.
...It's prettier and more splendid than the houses in Mey Village.
When I think about it again, just how poor was that village? Even the village chief's house was only a little bigger and more sturdily built compared to the surrounding houses.
...Do I feel like there are fewer girls?
Children occasionally peek their faces around corners, all of various ages, and whether it's my imagination or not, I feel there are more boys. Is it just that boys are the ones who peek at us with pure curiosity, or are there really fewer girls? It's a mystery.
...In this world, they say girls are better as heirs, don't they? I wonder if girls have people who take them in.
Apparently the reason traces back to mythology, but in this world, rather than installing a male heir to increase the number of descendants, they value reliably carrying on the family bloodline through a female heir. In my previous life, I think the thinking was that heirs meant boys, and if you were going to adopt an orphan, you'd want them as a baby if possible, but since the basic premises are different, the demand probably changes too. A baby who knows nothing would adapt better to a family, but infant mortality is higher than in my previous life. Taking that into account, I can imagine that girls who have grown up to a certain level of health would more easily find takers.
"...There are fewer girls, aren't there."
I conveyed what I felt as it was, but Leonardo furrowed his brow slightly. Just as I was getting a little anxious wondering if I'd said something strange, Leonardo looked around as if to confirm. A boy watching us from the corner of the hallway, a boy peeking at us from the corridor leading to the kitchen, two boys and one girl looking into the dining hall from the window. When I checked because it seemed unnatural, there certainly were fewer girls.
"Jude-san, aren't there too few girls?"
The probability of becoming an orphan can't be expressed as a gender ratio, but the possibility at birth is one in two. There shouldn't be a bias toward either.
"You don't need to worry. It's not like what the previous orphanage director did."
I didn't know what kind of person the previous orphanage director was, but the tension visibly left Leonardo's shoulders, so it probably wasn't a very pleasant topic. From what I could imagine based on the reality of the orphanage that Leonardo had told me about before, I could connect what the previous director did with the low number of girls.
"Since a few years ago, a kind gentleman has been looking after the orphans here. When they reach ten... or rather, an age where they can exercise judgment, he takes the girls in and educates them."
Apparently, the girls receive the education necessary for professions suited to their individual personalities as maids, cooks, or seamstresses at the place they're taken to, and he even serves as their guardian to help them find employment at better workplaces.
"What a charitable gentleman."
"Doesn't it seem strange that it's only girls?"
To Leonardo, who muttered admiringly, doubts about the gentleman arose in my mind. If he truly cared for orphans out of kindness, then only taking girls would be strange.
"Of course, he sometimes takes boys too. But boys are..."
Just as Jude cut off his words, an avalanche of boys came tumbling into the dining hall. I think they meant to peek secretly, but too many gathered and the ones in front got pushed in.
"...As you can see, boys with good sense are hard to come by."
"I'm convinced."
Even at the same age, the maturity of the heart is completely different between boys and girls. This might come from differences in gender roles, but at three years old, girls are 'women,' while three-year-old boys are 'wild monkeys.' It can't be helped that the treatment differs between girls who can be taught with words and boys who don't listen to words. Of course, there are individual differences, so if the gentleman judges a boy to have good sense, he probably looks after them too.
"Jude-san! That's Leonardo, isn't it!? I saw him at the martial arts tournament!"
"Idiot! You add '-sama' to knights! It's Leonardo-sama!"
"That person gave me candy, can I eat it!?"
"Why is Leonardo here?"
The boys seemed to have decided to brazen it out now that their peeping was discovered. They clamored all at once, pressing toward Jude, and were more than a little noisy.
"This person is Leonardo-sama, the Silver-White Knight. Let's add '-sama' to knights to show respect. We'll receive the souvenirs once everyone is together. The reason Leonardo-sama is here is because this is Leonardo-sama's home."
Answering the noisy boys' questions one by one, Jude introduced Leonardo to them. The boys got excited knowing that Leonardo was a big brother from the same orphanage, excited that he was the Silver-White Knight, and excited about his victory in the recent tournament. There were supposedly twenty-five children in total, and only some of them should be here, but it was noisy regardless.
...It's like there are a bunch of Teos.
It was quite a racket. That said, Teo was the type of boy who became relatively well-behaved in front of someone he admired like Leonardo. He didn't make as much noise as the boys of this orphanage. When it came to boys I knew well, there were also Nils and Lusio, but those two were older and, moreover, already working out in society. They didn't make pointless noise like the orphanage boys did. In Jude's words, they were boys 'with good sense.'
...A strategic retreat.
Unable to bear the noise, I covered my ears with both hands and stood up. Leonardo called out to stop me when I was barely three steps away, but I pretended not to hear and escaped from the dining hall.
...Now then, what should I do?
I fled from the noise, but I don't really have anywhere to go. I could wait in the carriage until Leonardo felt like going home, but that would seem like I'm urging him to "hurry up and go home," which is far too childish an action. But I don't think I can stand that noise either, so I'm troubled.
"Would you like to take a stroll through the orphanage?"
"Is it alright for me to walk around and look on my own?"
"Rather, it would be more of a problem if there were things we had to hide from a sudden visit."
Leaving Leonardo in the dining hall, Giselle had followed me. Lately, perhaps to let Giselle gain experience, Aaron sometimes entrusts the guarding to Giselle when Leonardo is present. Today, since we were inside a building, Aaron was standing guard at the entrance.
"Then let me have a little look around."
Looking out at the backyard from the hallway, I saw sheets and clothes hung out to dry across the entire garden. There were a few children tidying up washbasins nearby, so it seemed the children did their own laundry. Maybe they had a rotation system.
Passing through the hallway while looking at the backyard, I stepped into a room with chairs and tables arranged, more of a lounge than a hall. As I was looking around wondering what room this was, Leonardo caught up, with three boys clinging to him.
...That's my big brother, you know!
The boys seemed to be having fun with Leonardo walking unfazed even with three boys hanging on him, but I wasn't amused at all. The truth is I want to kick them all away and say he's my brother, don't climb on him.
...But I'll hold back. After all, I clearly look like the 'older sister' here.
Since it's something toddlers smaller than me do, I pushed my irritation down into the bottom of my stomach. It's that composure of an elder.
"Tina, you mustn't go off alone without per... guh!?"
I thought I'd hold back on punishing the boys, but I didn't think I'd hold back on punishing Leonardo. Without any warning motion, I baptized his left foot with my custom-made shoes, and Leonardo's face twisted in pain.
"What room is this room, I wonder? Does Leonardo 'Big Brother' know?"
The word 'big brother' ended up more emphasized than necessary, and he must have realized I was jealous. Leonardo's face, which should have been enduring pain, slackened foolishly, so I baptized his right foot too. It must have hurt quite a bit, but Leonardo kept his expression relaxed.
"...This room is a workroom. It also serves as a space for vocational training, to raise funds for the orphanage and to give the children trades."
When he urged me to look and I turned my gaze to the corner of the room, the shelves installed against the wall were packed with various tools and materials like sewing implements and carpentry tools.
"When I was here, a girl who liked cooking would actively help out..."
Peeking into the kitchen while listening to such explanations, there was a plump woman and five children of both genders preparing dinner. Apparently the orphanage doesn't have much leeway in operating funds, but it has plenty of manpower, so the bread the children eat is made fresh daily. Since large quantities are needed every day, buying ingredients and making it themselves seems to be cheaper.
Leaving the kitchen and looking into the dining hall, I could see the boys who had avalanched earlier being scolded by Jude. The boys who had clung to Leonardo seemed to be children who weren't in that avalanche. Having gotten a light look at the first floor, I went up to the second floor. The third floor seemed to be the girls' rooms, and the second floor had the boys' rooms.
"This is the room I used..."
The room he showed me had only two beds and two desks. Even if it was the room Leonardo used, it was just the room he last used, not Leonardo's private room. It was a room shared with someone else. Before that, it was apparently a four-person room with three younger children and one older child mixed together.
"There are no personal belongings."
"Well, basically, the orphanage's things are used communally by everyone. As for personal belongings, if there's something you could bring from your previous home, that would become a personal belonging... I guess?"
If things brought from a previous home counted as personal belongings, then Leonardo probably used this room without any personal belongings at all. I can't imagine the Leonardo who was sold by his parents was given toys for amusement, and even if such things existed, I don't think Leonardo, who abandoned the name his birth parents gave him, would keep them cherished.
...Because you didn't have anything as a child, you give me everything, don't you, Leonardo-san.
Put another way, everything he gives me is probably what the young Leonardo wanted. Leonardo gave me more sweets than I could eat, brand new clothes, giant stuffed toys, even a puppy. His insistence on the family relationship of brother and sister is probably because he wanted his own family.
...Uuuh, I'm sorry for being a violent little sister. From now on, I'll value my big brother a little more and hold back on kicking his legs.
While I was privately reflecting alone, one of the boys who had been idly looking out the window raised his voice.
"They're back! It's snack time!!"
As soon as he shouted loudly, the boy ran out of the room. When I peered out the window to see who had returned, I could see three children coming through the gate. "They're back" probably referred to those children.
"They must be back from the Menhishumi Church. In my time too, we'd go in groups of several, split into morning and afternoon."
Since the children's hands were also involved in running the orphanage, they couldn't send everyone to the Menhishumi Church. So when they reached an age of discretion, they'd take care of the children in groups of several, split into morning and afternoon, Leonardo told me.
When I peered at the returning children from the second-floor window, they didn't enter the orphanage building but first went around to the backyard. Handing bags filled with writing boards and chalk to the younger children who came out to greet them, they began taking in the already-dried laundry hung in the backyard.
...This is the life I wished for right after I met Leonardo-san.
It's also the life my father Saromon assumed I would lead. Because I was taken in by Leonardo, by chance, I ended up living a completely different life from this orphanage, which made me feel somehow very strange.
I have a little more, but I feel like even if I try, it won't end neatly, so I'll stop here for today.
That said, it's been one year since I started serializing. I won't do anything special, but it's the first anniversary. It's planned to end in 11 to 13 chapters total, so we've passed the midpoint. It should end before the second anniversary.
Will fix typos and omissions at a later date. Found and fixed the typos and omissions.