Chapter 29 - The Orphanage

Chapter 29

The Orphanage

Right now I am looking at a church like building with huge bell tower on the top.

Seems like one of the bell tower was orphanage itself.

When I entered the orphanage, many children came running to welcome Zephy san.

There were also 3 more women there in similar sister outfits as Zephy san.

All of the sisters were human and they were beautiful too.

One sister was 40 years old and other was 35 but they looked like they were 30 at most. The last one was 28.

The children were beast men and humans mixed.

Lily was soon surrounded by all children who immediately took her to play with them.

Zephy san also introduced me as well. The children seemed polite and well behaved.

I was then invited to eat an early lunch with them.

The food was simple soup bread and cheese. But it was delicious.

Then Zephy san gave me and lily a tour of orphanage.

There was a large kitchen, common bath and toilets, and many rooms with four bunk beds placed in each.

There were about 50 children in the orphanage ranging from 6 year old to 14 year old. All were between level 2 and 9. Lily is level 5 by the way.

After the tour ended Zephy san asked me if I too wanted to live there as a helper too.

Actually during the conversation I told her that I was new to the town and did not know much about here.

She was surprised and asked if I had a place to stay.

When I told her that I was living in an inn and was planning to be an adventurer and pay for it, she told me that she could give me an additional job and let me live here in exchange.

When I said that I could not burden them, she said that I could help in various tasks and in return she would even teach me language and magic.

Also Lily would be happy if I stayed here.

When I asked that if she knew how to do magic, she told me that she was quite good at it and had already taught many students who had talent.

She also said that the some kids she taught by her, had successfully become adventurers and knights.

When she told me that, I had certain doubt so I decided to clarify it.

(Umm Zephy san. How do you know Philia san of 3rd platoon town’s guard?)

(Philia….Ah Phi chan, she is a child from here you know. But are you friends with her?)

So, Philia san was an Orphan. Even though she had a surname.

How come nobody took in custody of a noble’s kid.

Or is she an orphan of noble that is from another country.

I will wait until Philia san herself tell me about herself.

I think the reason why Philia san is against prejudice against other species is because she spent her time here in this orphanage…

where children of all races help each other and the director is a dragonoid girl herself.

So that’s why she became so angry last time when we talked about possibility of demon race or vampires being the one behind stampede.

(Yes, I am indebted to her in lot of ways. She helped me and Lily a lot when we arrived here.)

(Oh that’s good to hear. She was always a kind girl…

She always took good care of other children even though she was not much older than her…

Moreover, she had good magical talent, so much that she learnt how to manipulate mana within four months.)

(Is Zephy san magic teacher of Philia san?)

(Only for the basic stuff. That’s all I can teach about magic to others, because my attributes are quite unique...

After she became 12 she went to magic school in the Royal capital…

And after graduation she joined the knights unit here for some reason, even though she had so many good job offers…

She keeps sending most of her salary to us, saying that she is always grateful to the orphanage for paying for her school and taking care of her till she was independent.)

Seems like Philia san has something that she wants to do as a soldier of this town.

I hope someday I will be able to help her with that.

Seems like, Philia san also had a guardian angel or should I say a guardian dragonoid girl.

That’s the reason she turned out to be such a kind girl.

This dragonoid girl is full of love and kindness for children it seems.

Though sometimes she starts drooling while seeing them.

I hope she is not seeing them as future food or something, considering she is a dragonoid. Just kidding.

Also she is a mixed one. Maybe the pure breed ones have some wings and such.

But why is she a kid though. Anyway she loves kids and the drool is just a form of her love expression. I should not think too deeply about it.

(Does Zephy san also know Mary san and Sherry san of towns guard unit?)

(Yeah, I know them as they sometimes come to play with kids and give donations too…

And they too spent some of their initial years here…

They also sometimes teach children how to fight.)

It seems the Greenwich sisters are orphans too. That may be why such noble children are still acting as common soldiers in army.

Otherwise, they would have been given a high rank maybe.

After talking to Zephy san and other sisters, I was sure that Lily can live here happily.

The orphanage is financially supported by the lord of the city.

Also Zephy san being the director herself, contributes a fair amount of her income from working as a magic teacher for noble children.

She truly has a big heart in many ways.

Zephy san teaches the children of lord too. And she sometimes even work as adventurer when she is free.

It seems she is a B rank adventurer as she proudly showed her tag around her neck while puffing her already big of a chest.

Lily was also happy staying here.

When I asked her if she liked it or not. She said that she will be happy to live here until her parents come.

Now I had to consider Zephy san’s offer to live here too.

Honestly there are no demerits in living here.

I would get free food and shelter and will even be taught language and magic.

And in exchange I would only need to do some minor tasks like helping in repairs, preparation of food, maintaining the small field or doing shopping and looking after children.

Should I start living here? I mean I am running low on money so its very welcoming thing but the thing is I always lived alone in my previous life.

So the idea of suddenly living with so many people under same roof was making me anxious.

Maybe I could live here until I learnt basic magic and language so that I could atleast make money.

Its not good to only think only for myself though, so lets also consider that I can help the children and Lilly too.

Considering there are 50 children and only 4 ladies to take care of them, they are always in need of help.

I should help them and after leaving in future, I will also send money here just like Philia san if I make it big.

I asked Zephy san that was she really Ok with this since she didn’t even know me.

But she said that it was fine since I would help them in work.

Maybe they are really short handed and since the most of children are below 10 here, they can’t help much.

Now that I think about it, who did this body of mine belonged to anyways? Or was it custom made by the Goddess?

Also I didn’t see any other ancient species let alone human here.

Was it created from scratch by the goddess as a new species?

Maybe I should visit the Syndell (the religious place here where people pray) that Milli chan was talking about and see if I can find some answers.

But first let’s think about staying in this orphanage or not.

Making my mind, I told Zephy san that I would also live there with the children.

Zephy san was very happy with my decision.

When I told Lily about my decision she too started jumping in joy.

Although I only met her 2 days ago, for some reason Lily has become really attached to me.

I will be moving to the orphanage tomorrow because I have already paid for my room for today.

I left the orphanage saying goodbye to the everyone.

I already asked Zephy san the direction to the Syndell.

She told me that it was near the city centre.

I also asked Zephy san if all the sisters here were sisters of syndell.

But according to her, they were not the sisters the religious sisters in Syndell.

Infact she said that all of them were widowed wives of adventurers or soldiers. This world has a lot of people who loose their loved ones early it seems.

But Zephy san did not say if she was married or not.

And the similar dress they wore were simply because they wanted to copy Zephy san’s style.

After that, I began moving towards the center of the city.

It took me quite long but I finally came upon a huge open place with a lot of important looking buildings.

This place was like a huge town square with gardens and big government buildings everywhere.

There was also a church like building with bell on top.

That seemed to be the central bell tower of the city.

That building is definitely the Syndell as I could see priest like people coming and going in it.

There were also many sisters and priests dressed in purple gowns.

They were covering their heads and had something like small booklet in their hand.

Sisters covered their head with a white scarf and priests with a white cap.

They looked like a typical religious group as depicted in novels.

I scanned most of the people I could see. There were a mix of adventurers and normal residents too.

Surprisingly the priests and sisters were also mix of different races, which indicated that the Syndell too advocated equality of races, which was quite different from the template norm.

I entered the Syndell through its magnificent gate.

It looks like a gothic style church, and the architecture and the size is very magnificent.

The inside was decorated with carpets on floor and chandeliers on roof.

The room immediately after entering was sort of praying room for masses.

Hymn was being sung by a group of female choir. It was melodious and soothing to hear.

The verses seemed archaic and quite different from the common language I usually heard here.

In the center were three magnificent statues.

In the center was a beautiful goddess and her gestures were as if she was creating something by keeping her hands in front of her head and trying to hold something elegantly.

The one on the right was also a goddess holding one had up and other hand down and a light magic tool was placed on top or her hand, creating an effect that seemed like she was casting light magic.

The third one was a male god with two axes in each hand.

The faces of each statue was beautiful and well defined and all three were quite magnificent.

I guess these are the creation goddess, goddess of magic and god of war maybe.

An old priest stood in front of the statues facing the masses, while eyes closed.

He seemed to be praying.