Ch 13 Night Intruder

Walter's cooking wasn't that great, but at least it tasted good. Leon even added more meat, like lamb, turkey and pork, so there would be more variation in taste.

“You really splurged, huh! Don't tell me you're a rich guy wanting to experience life who applied here to be a security guard.” Walter looked at the meats and shook his head.

“But this much meat, I'm afraid we can't finish it all tonight, and we don't have a refrigerator, so it will go to waste…” Walter lamented the lack of appliances in the orphanage.

Hearing this, Leon nodded.

“Don't worry, Walter. Just cook all of it and let the kids eat their fill. If there's any leftover, I can eat it later - I'm a big eater, you know!” Leon tried to ease Walter's worry. If there was leftover, he could just dump it into his inventory.

With Leon's insistence, Walter then cooked more food. Everything looked plain, but when Leon picked some to taste, it was good... at least not too salty or tasteless.

Then Walter called for the kids to eat. They started to gather at the kitchen table and began fighting over the food.

“Hey hey, I want to taste that! Give me some!” one kid tried to grab another kid's beef.

“Nooo! I still haven't tasted that one!” Of course the other kid didn't want to share and fought back.

Another kid hid far away and tasted what he could snatch. "Mmm, it's so soft!”

“Hey kids! Don't fight! Line up!” Leon tried to pacify the situation, but to no avail... even though he was the one who bought it.

But seeing these kids eat with such relish, fighting over food... this was really a rare event for them. Maybe there would be a long time before they could eat meat again.

“Can we eat this every day?”

“I don't think so…”

Some kids started to whisper and quietly ate the last bits of meat, like they wanted to savor it to the end. They even licked their bowls and plates clean.

Seeing this, Leon sighed. Not far away, he could see Walter looking at the kids with some pain in his eyes. Well, it seemed Walter still cared about these kids.

Leon walked toward Walter and wanted to say something, but surprisingly, Walter spoke up first. "Thank you... it's just, I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. If you want to do this kind of thing again, I must remind you not too frequently... as I'm scared these kids will never be able to forget the taste of this kind of life."

Leon frowned. “You don't need to worry about meat. I can provide it every single day.”

“But what about later? Are you sure you can always be with them?” Walter cut in and sighed.

“I really appreciate this. It's good once in a while... It's just, maybe I must be honest... no, I don't think it's good.” Walter shook his head, then looked at Leon.

“I hope you can be friends with these kids, but I suggest you don't get too close, as they need to face harsh society later, and they are different, without backing, without money, they must rise from the start.”

Walter's warnings confused Leon, but he could only think that Walter just didn't want the kids to have too much of a luxurious taste since they didn't really know about the future.

In the end, Walter, like usual, left the kids to eat and went somewhere. After the kids finished eating, Leon didn't even need to dump the leftovers into his inventory, as everything was licked clean.

Leon could see some of them already lying down and couldn't move... they had overeaten, which wasn't good. Some even wanted to puke but held it in as they didn't want to waste anything.

In the end, Leon could only leave them lying there in the common room. Some helped the others move to their dorms to rest.

Leon himself went back to his security room. He looked at the CCTV feeds as this was his real job and responsibility.

At 10 PM, Leon could see most of the kids already lying down on their beds, looking pale. “Sigh... I really must hold back, huh? They are kids after all.” Leon didn't know if this was what Walter meant, but he knew this wasn't a good idea.

Leon needed to make new rules when he did this kind of thing again, maybe he need to make it packaged so each kid have one portion, equally.

“Alright, time to see something else…” Leon then opened his phone and scrolled through numerous girls' videos.

But at 2 in the morning, Nova called Leon. “Sir, I detect some movement from the orphanage fence. One drone detected an individual trespassing and currently heading to your rabbit pen.”

This made Leon look up from his phone, and sure enough, from the CCTV feed, Leon could see a human silhouette walking in the dark. From the shape, it looked like a man, but maybe a woman with a jacket or something.

The figure then moved slowly near the pen. But then they walked back and left the orphanage by climbing the fence.

Leon looked at the man's movements closely. “hummm maybe a thief thinking there is something they can steal but found out this orphanage looks so dilapidated and the only valuable thing is just those rabbits…”

"But I need to check if anything is missing. Nova, replay the scene and identify if they stole anything." Leon wanted to be more secure, so he let the high-tech AI detect any suspicious movements from the figure.

“Sir, that person snuck in around 2:02, moved slowly toward the rabbits, lingered for about 45 seconds, then simply walked back out.” Nova paused a bit to make sure Leon understood the timeline of the figure's entry and exit.

Then Nova began explaining her analysis. “No signs they grabbed anything. Nothing was detected in their hands, so there are some possibilities: maybe just a curious wanderer, or someone checking on the bunnies, or like what you said, they found nothing valuable, so just went away.”

Leon looked at the screen where Nova showed every action the figure had taken.

“Okay... from now on, please observe any trespassers more carefully and possibly send some drones to secretly monitor them.” Leon didn't think much of it. He made a mental note to create more contingency plans later, but he didn't think this was a real threat.

Well, who would want to rob or steal from a poor orphanage?

Oh, but he needed to remind Miss Betty and the other neighbors about this so they could prepare themselves if anything happened.

"Let's just do that... or... I can inspect the scene first." Leon stood up, and like the previous night, turned on six flashlights, but this time he had already taken out his stun baton in his right hand, ready to fight if there was a need for that.

Although he knew that the trespasser was already long gone, who knew if a neighbor suddenly asked for help, right?

Leon then slowly walked through the dim corridor and went out to the courtyard, observing the rabbits in case something was wrong, like maybe they were poisoned or something, but nothing had happened.

The rabbits were still alive and kicking and very active, especially with their nighttime breeding…

"Huh, this makes me understand the saying 'breeding like rabbits'... oh wait, or 'in heat like a rabbit'... alright, let's move." Leon didn't really remember the phrase and started to look for other clues.

There wasn't much else, so he walked toward the fence where the trespasser had climbed in and out. He shone his flashlight there and on nearby areas, then cautiously checked outside.

Leon unlocked the gate and came out ready to fight... of course, he looked left and right first before doing anything.

After making sure nothing was wrong, Leon then started to move along the road, trying to see where the guy had come from.

He looked at Miss Betty's house there were only a few spots with light. The garden was so dark that Leon couldn't see anything.

Then he looked to the right and left of the orphanage... nothing. Of course, he didn't find anything. “Sigh... I'm no detective, am I? Can't even spot basic clues like footprints.”

In the end, Leon could only give up and lock the gate again, then slowly walk back into his room. What he didn't know was that from a certain dark corner, a figure could be seen observing his every movement.

…

Back at the security room, Leon was staring at the CCTV feeds, watching for any other intruders with complete focus.

At 4 AM, with nothing showing up on the CCTV feeds, Leon decided to do another patrol round out of boredom. He even made his way to the rabbit pen again.

He made his way to the rabbit pen again and noticed they were still quite active. “Maybe it's not such a good idea to let the kids interact with these rabbits,” Leon thought, shaking his head as he continued his patrol.

This time, he patrolled the whole area, like the dorm corridor, common room, and so on, which reminded him of that previous 'accident.'

"I need to do some more research... the internet has it, but most of it is hoaxes and fakes. Hey Nova, are there any formal ghost hunters or exorcists?" Leon then talked to Nova.

“If we talk about formal ghost hunters, many claim to be legitimate, but none have proven effectiveness. Based on our research so far.” Nova voiced her opinion.

“As for exorcists, any religion can introduce you to one right away, but whether they actually work depends on your beliefs” she added.

Leon could only purse his lips and continue patrolling. Was the mysterious old man a real exorcist? And was Leon actually influenced by a ghost, or just hypnotized by the old scammer? The CCTV footage didn't help him distinguish between supernatural and human manipulation.