Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 2.1 - Chapter 12

The Reality of the Orphanage 

Many days passed since Delia began doing her job. I was going to the temple every day, excluding the Earthdays that Mom, Tuuli, and everyone else in the world had off too. That was because the stuff I had ordered through Benno was arriving, I needed to write new recipes on boards for the chefs, and most importantly, I wanted as much time to read as possible. 

Over the course of those days, my attendants had more or less found a fair split of the work between them. Delia took direct care of my person in the form of cleaning the bathroom, washing my expensive clothes, and keeping the second floor tidy in general. She had recently learned how to make tea from Fran, and was now making it for me in his place. 

Gil mainly cleaned the first floor and the outside of the chambers, plus kept an eye on the chefs. Fran was in the process of beating proper language and manners into him. When I told him that Lutz had learned to read and do math over the winter, his competitive spirit ignited and he started saying he’d do the same thing. But he had a mountain of things he had to learn from Fran first, apparently. 

Meanwhile Fran was doing everything else, including double-checking the other two’s work. He went with me to the High Priest’s room in the morning to do paperwork, carried our lunch’s leftovers to the orphanage, informed the chefs of the afternoon menu, checked that we had the ingredients, and went to the book room with me. He managed my health, informed the relevant people when Benno came over, trained the other two attendants (as they were apprentices), and taught me how to live as a noble. Fran was doing it all. He was even reading the recipes to the chefs and double checking the storage room to make sure nothing was being taken, apparently. 

I asked Fran if he had too much work, worried that he was overworking himself, but he said he had it easy since I wasn’t summoning him unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Fran was just way too good for me. My gratitude for Fran and my trust in him was shooting up, as was the salary I intended to pay him. I was so grateful to the High Priest for assigning Fran to me that I didn’t know how I could ever repay him. 

Today was supposed to be a day off for me, but I went to the temple anyway. What I once thought was a storage room on the second floor was being installed with a marble bathtub, which was apparently popular about nobles lately, and I needed to be there to pay. It would be a lot of work to heat up water in the kitchen and bring it all the way to the bathtub, and I was already washing myself at home with Tuuli, so I didn’t need a bathtub like that. But when I said “Won’t a tub do just fine?”, Delia got mad at me, yelling in reply “Geez! What are you even saying?! Even the High Bishop’s attendants use proper bathtubs!” 

Delia wanted to use the newly installed bathtub as soon as possible. I told her she could go ahead and use it, but she once again got mad. “Do you expect me to use it without my master?! Geez!” Apparently, blue shrine maidens got wood to heat up their water, but gray shrine maidens only got cold water. 

“Would you prepare it for me, then?” It seemed to me that carrying hot water up from the kitchen would make preparing the bathtub a miserable experience, but Delia did it happily. Well, if she’s happy, who am I to stop her? 

Delia washed my hair with rinsham, put on my clothes, combed my hair, and after blissfully touching my hair to confirm that it was silky smooth, excitedly went into the bath herself to use the rest of the warm water. I could imagine that she put a lot of effort into polishing her appearance. 

“Sister Myne, please take care not to trust Delia too much. She still has ties to the High Bishop,” warned Fran with a displeased expression as he brought me drinks during Delia’s bath. I giggled a little at how serious he looked. 

“I know that. She just told me happily that she got to talk to the High Bishop’s attendants again.” She’d puffed out her chest with pride and said “I knew he would never abandon someone as cute as me.” But she would still be living in my chambers, rather than the High Bishop’s. It would be better that way, both for her job and for getting information from me. 

The High Priest’s chambers had two adult gray priests, three adult shrine maidens, and three apprentices like Delia. In other words, the three apprentices had to take care of six people, including the High Bishop. But Delia only had to take care of me when she was here. Plus, she didn’t have to do as much for me as she would for the other blue priests. And on top of that, Fran didn’t trust Delia, so he gave her significantly less work than the High Bishop’s gray priests did. 

All in all, serving me afforded Delia much more time to hone her skills and appearance, which was a large boon to her since she hadn’t given up on being a mistress when she grew up. She told me that she didn’t want to serve someone as an apprentice her whole life. She wanted to be on the winning side, the side that got to use other people. That didn’t seem to be an entirely healthy mindset to me, but I appreciated how much effort she put into accomplishing her dreams. 

“Delia might still be tied to the High Bishop, but if she takes her job seriously, that’s fine with me. I’ll be careful about what things I tell her. Though I’m not completely sure what information I should be hiding from her, to be honest.” 

“Sister Myne, that is hardly reassuring.” Fran sighed and said not to tell her much about Lutz or my family, explaining that they were my biggest weakness. 

Once Delia got out of the bath, it was time for lunch. Today’s lunch was fluffy bread rolls, vegetable and bacon consommé soup, and herb roasted chicken. Gil and Delia took turns serving each meal, while the one not serving ate lunch at the same time as me. Fran was excluded from being a server as he was going to the orphanage to deliver the divine gifts, and because he had to stay with me in the book room. 

“Sister Myne. I will be taking the divine gifts to the orphanage.” 

“Yes, thank you.” 

The wagon waiting outside of my chambers had the still-warm soup, bread, and meat leftovers stacked on it. Delia and Gil yet lacked the strength to push the heavy wagon, which meant Fran was the only one who could do it. 

“Huh? Is Fran already gone?” After Fran left, Gil came out of the kitchen carrying a basket filled with some bread. He checked outside, saw that the wagon was gone, and looked down at his basket. 

“What’s wrong, Gil?” 

“Delia said this was way too much bread to eat, so I thought maybe I could catch Fran before he left. No point saving them for dinner, either, ’cause the chefs are saying they’re baking more bread later.” 

“There haven’t been many divine gifts for the orphanage lately, correct? I think it would be better to carry the bread to them than to throw it away.” 

“Yeah, sounds good.” Gil laughed and readjusted his grip on the basket. No doubt those in the orphanage would be glad to get even just four extra rolls of bread. 

“Actually, Gil. Would it be acceptable for me to go with you? I would like to see what the orphanage is like for myself at least once.” My chambers had a different entrance, but as it was still a part of the orphanage, I would have expected for me to see some of the children by now. And yet, I hadn’t seen a single one. I had seen apprentices like Delia and Gil cleaning the temple, washing clothes by the well, taking care of animals, and so on, but I hadn’t seen any of the pre-baptism orphans. 

“Alright, I’ll take you there. I know a shortcut. Follow me.” Gil sounded proud as he headed to the gate, like someone about to share a secret. A shortcut would be perfect for someone without stamina like me. 

He spun around the building, then went down the stairs in front of the chapel. The summer sun made the white marble stairs gleam brightly. I normally only walked in the morning or in the evening when it was cool out, but noon was hot as you would expect in the summer. 

“The orphanage’s dining room is in the girls’ building. The girls’ building has pre-baptism kids, gray shrine maidens that aren’t attendants, and apprentices. Boys go to the boys’ building after being baptized. When giving divine gifts, it makes more sense for working boys to go to the girls’ building than for girls and kids to go the boys’ building, yeah?” 

I followed Gil down the steps while listening to his explanation, and eventually we came across a somewhat hidden entrance to the orphanage built into the side of the staircase. There was a bar lock on the outside of the door, which made it seem like it was there to keep the people inside from getting out, rather than to keep outsiders from getting in. 

“Most people don’t know this door opens. From the inside it just looks like part of the wall, and nobody ever opens it.” 

“How do you know about it, then?” 

“When I was little, it opened just once, in the middle of the night. Someone gestured at us, then a gray shrine maiden went running off. It closed real soon, but ever since then, I started to really want to go outside. I thought maybe somebody would be waiting for me.” 

Gil grinned nostalgically and set the bread basket on the ground to take off the bar. He then pulled on the door hard, using all his weight since the hinges were rusted and the door just wouldn’t move. 

When it finally burst open, a wave of heat and an awful smell came rushing out, making me reflexively grab my nose. Gil did the same with a grunt. It was a smell too awful to bear even for someone used to the smells of a city. 

With the door open and letting light in, we could clearly see the inside of the room. Atop a layer of moldy hay covered in urine and fecal matter were several naked young toddlers, sprawled on the floor with lifeless expressions on their faces. It didn’t seem to have any windows, so even with the bright summer light streaming inside, it was still dark. 

“...Divine gifts?” Upon noticing the smell of the gifts, some of the toddlers let out cracked voices and came crawling toward us with gleaming eyes. Black stuff was stuck to the bare skin that clung tightly to their bones. They looked like starving African refugee children that I had only ever seen in photos before, and the sight of them crawling toward me made me feel more horror than pity. I felt an indescribable sense of fear and froze in place, my teeth chattering. 

“...N, No...” I squeaked out fearfully, which seemed to knock Gil back to his senses. He hurriedly shut the door and put the bar back on the door. We heard the sounds of their fists hitting the door, but they were weak strikes without much strength to them. Far from enough strength to break the door open. 

As the relief of having escaped the terror mixed with the disgusted horror of what I had seen in the orphanage, and I collapsed on the floor, my head going completely blank. 

When I came to, I was in my own room. I was resting on something hard, and a touch revealed that I wasn’t on a cotton-stuffed mattress that nobles used, or a hay-stuffed mattress that I used at home. I was resting on the plain board that had been left in the abandoned director’s chambers. I looked to my side and saw that Gil was sitting on top of a chair, hugging his knees as if trying to shrink into as small of a ball as possible. 

“...Gil?” 

“You’re awake? Thank the gods. I’m so sorry, I...” Gil looked at me with tearful eyes, but before he could finish his sentence, Delia started yelling from the other side of the bed. 

“What were you thinking, taking Sister Myne to the girls’ building?! And the back entrance at that!” 

“It’s not my fault! I didn’t know things were like that there now!” 

Gil’s words stirred my memories of what I had seen in the orphanage. The closed room. The hay covered in urine and fecal matter. The starved, bony toddlers without a scrap of clothing on. That was simply not a place for raising children. Given the lack of airflow, it was worse than even an unkempt farm stable. 

The second the memories came back to me, goosebumps covered my skin and I felt the contents of my stomach lurching over. I jumped up and swallowed hard to keep from throwing up on the spot. Fran, seeing me covering my mouth to hold back the vomit, pushed his way past Gil to be by my side. 

“Forgive me, Sister Myne. I apologize from the bottom of my heart for allowing you to see that embarrassing sight. Please forget everything you saw.” Fran calling the horrible state of the orphanage “embarrassing” and telling me to “forget” it threw me off, so I looked at Gil. 

“That was really the orphanage? It wasn’t anything like what you told me.” 

“I moved to the boy’s building after being baptized, so I had no idea what was going on in the girls’ building... That place wasn’t like that at all when I was there, Sister Myne.” Gil lowered his eyes and spoke in a weak voice. 

Delia glared at him and let out a “hmph,” then explained. “It’s because when the blue priests left, a lot of gray shrine maidens left the temple too. Little kids started dying all the time without people to take care of them. I just sat down there waiting for my baptism, so I could move up to the first floor. But well... I only know what it was like there a year ago. It must be a lot worse now. I don’t even want to think about it.” Delia too lowered her eyes, trembling slightly. 

Gil was ten years old, so he was baptized three entire years ago. Delia was eight, and apparently things were pretty awful even when she was baptized a year ago. According to her, gray shrine maidens started leaving one after another a year and a half ago, and without anyone to take care of them, the orphan children were abandoned and only brought food twice a day at best. 

“When I was brought out for my baptism, I was told by a gray shrine maiden that I was too dirty to be presented to the blue priests. She scrubbed me clean so hard my entire body hurt. But the moment all the filth was off me, she started talking about how cute I was and how I’d grow up to be beautiful. Right after my baptism, I was taken to the High Bishop. There were three kids with me. I got to be an apprentice attendant, but the other kids didn’t get picked and were sent back to the orphanage.” Upon learning why Delia was so attached to her own cuteness and why she avoided the orphanage so much, I felt my heart get even heavier. 

“Sister Myne,” interjected Gil. “Please save them. I’m begging you, please.” 

“Stop, Gil. Sister Myne, you must not get involved with these matters.” Fran rejected Gil’s pleas with a harsh look on his face. I honestly didn’t want to actively get involved with the orphanage since just remembering the orphans made me sick, but I hadn’t expected Fran to reject the idea so firmly when he himself was from the orphanage. 

“Why not?!” yelled Gil, as if speaking in my place, and Fran gave a firm reply. 

“It’s too dangerous. Sister Myne has a tendency to grow extremely protective of those close to her, of her allies. As seen when she used her mana on the High Bishop to protect her family. If she gets involved with the orphanage, and considers herself their ally, then she might stand in opposition to the blue priests in order to protect the orphans. It would be wise to minimize the chance of her subconsciously unleashing her mana.” 

With Gil pleading for my help and Fran opposing the idea, I reflexively turned to Delia to hear what her thoughts were. 

“...If they can be saved, I think you should. But I don’t want to get involved and I don’t want to remember them. I want to forget it all,” said Delia with a stiff expression before turning her head away from me. 

Gil scrunched his face up, hurt to learn that nobody was on his side. He grit his teeth and looked at me with wavering eyes before slowly getting on his knees and crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Sister Myne, please. Save them.” 

I tightened my lips at Gil’s wholehearted plea. In general, I wanted to help the suffering when I could. For example, if someone asked me to do something specific in concrete terms to help, and it was within my power to do so, I would. But if someone asked me to spend the rest of my life helping, or if someone asked me to help without explaining how, I would be at a loss. 

In my Urano days I had participated in charity drives sometimes, but generally only did community service when my college demanded it since I was only interested in books. Furthermore, ever since becoming Myne, I was constantly relying on the help of others due to my sickness and weakness. I could offer advice based on my life experience on Earth, but anything that required moving would have to be done by other people. Ultimately, it was hard to think that I would be much help to the orphanage myself. 

“Right now, I like doing my job because you praise me for it, Sister Myne, and I like working hard because I get paid more. The food’s good, I get to eat as much as I want, and I can sleep with my legs stretched out in my own room. My life’s great now. But they’re... they’re stuck down there, like... like that...” 

“I’m sorry, Gil. There’s almost nothing I can do for them. I’m not a true noble, and I don’t think I can ignore Fran’s advice so lightly.” 

Gil looked up, his expression hurt. But I was just a commoner who had narrowly earned the right to wear blue robes through leveraging my mana and money in times of trouble. I couldn’t promise to save the orphanage so easily when I knew so little, and I couldn’t bear the responsibility of looking after the orphanages from here on out. 

“But at the very least, I will ask the High Priest about this. If there’s any idle gray priests, I’ll ask if they can work in the orphanage, or maybe I’ll see if there’s a bit more room in the budget for food... I’ll see if there’s anything the High Priest can do to make the orphanage’s situation better.” 

“Thank you, Sister Myne.” 

The High Priest was handling the budget and inner workings of the entire temple himself. He should be able to send more money to the orphanage or search for caretakers if asked to. I sighed in relief, thinking he might just solve everything, but Fran lowered his eyes and shook his head. 

“There is no need for you to get involved, Sister Myne.” 

“I am just asking the High Priest for help, nothing more. Please arrange a meeting with him.” If the High Priest couldn’t do anything, I surely couldn’t, and he might be able to give me advice on what to do going forward. At the very least, it would be a lot better than worrying on my own without even knowing what options are available to me. 

I repeated my request to Fran, and he hesitantly agreed to arrange a meeting.