A Mother and Son Meet

Sophia Noichi had just finished up her meeting with a nobleman, filing away the necessary paperwork for the transferring of the noble’s son into her academy. 

Though she held great reservation towards the boy’s transfer, with all of the pompous pressure the nobleman directed her way, she had no other choice but to accept the transfer. Even though she was the headmaster, she found herself not having the final say.

A loud sigh escaped her lips.

“What’s wrong dear?” said the woman that sat next to Sophia in her private carriage. Her name was Brenda and, as the matching ring on her finger indicated, she was Sophia’s wife in this world. 

A world of Sophia’s own making.

“Nothing, it's just, I wish I could reject Summers’ application. I fear he’ll be nothing but trouble at the academy.” Sophia couldn’t reveal the reason why, even to her wife. Nobody in their right mind would believe her even if she tried.

Brenda wrapped Sophia’s hand with her own, casting a tender gaze at her wife’s face. “I understand, still, the academy is open for any and all students that apply and pass the entrance exam. If those in power were allowed to turn away students based solely on whims, your favorite student could have been rejected under a different headmaster.”

Sophia let out a haughty laugh. “Please, if anyone dared to try and reject Ms. Evergreen, I would sooner burn the academy to the ground with them trapped inside.” Sophia broke into a smile. “Still, I suppose you’re right. Thank you for always helping me make sense of a senseless-” Sophia stopped herself from fully voicing her thoughts.

Senseless world? But I’m its creator.

The world had started off as a pet project of Sophia’s, a game she had been working on back when she was a developer on Earth. A project she had poured buckets of blood, sweat, and tears into.

Thus, if she admitted that things weren’t as perfect as they could be, well, it was akin to describing her creation as well as herself, the head developer, as lacking.

“Senseless?” Brenda repeated Sophia’s last word, snapping the youthful looking headmaster out of her thoughts and back to her current reality.

The carriage had come to a complete stop. Beyond the carriage door’s window sat a large dilapidated building, the peeling grey paint made the whole structure look as rundown and rotted as wood that had been left out in rain days, forgotten and uncared for. Despite Brenda’s past warning and description of the place, the local orphanage far surpassed the image that Sophia had pictured in her mind, and not in a good way.

The sensation of expectant eyes burrowing their gaze in the back of her head made Sophia scramble in answering her wife's single-worded question, causing her to quickly scan and bring in her surroundings to mind as she fabricated an explanation.

“I-I meant that it feels quite senseless to search for a child worthy to be called our own in such a sorry looking place.”

“Sophia, we’ve been over this, I want us to adopt a child, a child that will look to us as their parents and may one day refer to us as their mothers. I’ve stood by your side for the last year, supporting and accepting all of your wild ambitions, now I’m asking you to stand by mine.”

“A child isn’t the same as separating oneself from the royal court.”

Brenda pushed open the carriage door, hopping out gleefully and pulling Sophia in tow. “You’re right, this will be a much more simple and happy affair.”

Sophia allowed herself to be dragged into the building, offering small greetings to the caretaker in charge of the orphanage before sticking to the background of the reception room, watching on silently as Brenda cheerfully interacted with the children present in the large and open hall.

Most of the children had scheming looks to them, at least they appeared to have such looks in Sophia’s eyes. She truly believed that none of them would actually care about how Brenda would feel about them, her desire to become a real maternal figure to any one of those snots, was nothing but a means to an end for them.

Brenda was an easy way for them to leave the orphanage. Sophia didn’t blame the children, no, she’d likely come up with a similar way of thinking if she were in their situation.

At the same time, she found it impossible to forgive such trains of thought; the absolute willingness to take advantage of Brenda could not be forgiven. Again, most of this was just in her head.

As a way to quiet the pessimistic thoughts that hung around her mind, Sophia took the opportunity to instead put some space between her and the children and explore the building, a better use of her time in all honesty.

And so Sophia wandered the halls of the orphanage, peeking her head in every open room of the property and testing every closed door and lock.

She didn’t expect to find anything, certainly not the redheaded boy she found trapped inside a small broom closet.

When Sophia had unlocked the door and discovered the boy, her first instinct was to close it immediately and walk away.

“Wait, don’t leave me here.”

The boy’s words weren’t enough for her to open up the door again, instead it was the continuous pounding knocks that drove her to open it up once more.

“Yes?”

“Finally. You really were going to leave me in here, weren’t you, lady?”

“I can still do so.” It was as Sophia fully opened the door that she noticed the odd air to the boy, something about him felt different. The slightly defiant look in his eye? No other child wore such a look. With her intrigue piqued, Sophia decided to waste a few more moments of her time to continue conversing with the child. "Got bullied by the other children?”

“The opposite, I just came from dealing with some bullies at my high school.”

High school? What is this orphan talking about?”

“Ugh, my head.” The boy clutched his head in pain as he slowly stumbled out of the closet. “Where am I? And more importantly, where’s Amy?”

“No child, the better question is who are you?”

“Me? I’m Paul Henderson.”

Sophia found the fact that the boy introduced himself with a last name surprising. Now, while it wasn’t exactly uncommon for commoners to have a last name, it was much more rare for an orphan to have one.

“Interesting. Paul, do you know where you are?”

“Hmm? Of course not, I just said-my hair,” Paul’s voice erupted as he caught his reflection on one of the windows. “Why the hell do I have red hair?”

Oh, my. Could this boy actually be like me? With a name like his, he must be… but… how did he get here? The only copy of the game was inside of my desk, back in the office.

“Paul, what country are you from?”

“Lady, I have more pressing things to deal with than your questions.”

“Perhaps, but if you answer my question, I guarantee that I can enlighten you on your situation.”

“Look, I get that you’re dressed like a wise old witch, but I doubt that you have the answers I’m looking for.”

“A witch huh? I suppose that was the look I was going for when I designed my character’s outfit." Sophia had spent hours designing her avatar’s clothes, the concept art for her character had been one of the first things she ever worked on at the onset of her project.

“Character? Designed?”

“I believe my hypothesis is right, you’re from Earth, just like me. Though with a name like that… I suppose my work somehow got exported out of Japan.” Paul pointed a finger at Sophia’s face to which the self-acknowledged "witch" smacked away. “Don’t point, that’s rude.” She shook her head. “With how obnoxious you’re being, there is no doubt about it, you were an American.”

“You’re talking like this isn’t-”

“Isn’t back home? Quick on the uptake.” Sophia brought her hand to her chin, contemplating what to do next.

I need to learn more about this boy's story, but if we keep conversing here others may grow suspicious of our conversation. Hmm…

It was as her humming filled her head and began to pour out of her lips that Brenda appeared in the hallway. She broke into a smile once she spotted Sophia.

“There you are. How are we going to pick a child if you don’t stick around and interact with them?”

It was at her wife’s light chastising that a brilliant idea flooded in. Sophia grabbed Paul by the wrist and lifted his arm in the air.

“I’ve picked this one.”