Day 65 Late Morning, The Capital, Slums

With the village gone, and mom and dad dead, I was brought here.

Its hungry here.

We share a thin soup that is more like water, and pieces of stale bread, but it doesnt fill the stomach.

Its cold here.

Its all crumbling, with a cold wind blowing through. Wrapping in thin blankets we sleep shivering and hungry.

Its miserable here.

Kids, both little and big, are doing their best working, but still cant buy proper food. No matter how hard we work, nothing changes.

I head back after finishing my morning work. The city is big, but this is the only place I can return to. I earned only a bit of money, but it has to be spent on food, the younger kids are waiting with empty stomachs.

Even if we start working while its still dark outside, even if we work until late at night, even if everyone works hard all day long, we are still short on food. Everyones stomachs are growling from hunger.

Will we be able to buy enough food today, was what I thought as I turned the corner to the orphanage The orphanage?

Where did the orphanage go?

Ive lost the place I can go back to. Even though I dont have anywhere else to go, the orphanage is now gone.

A large mansion stands in its place. What happened to the little kids that lived there, where did they go?

Having no other options, having no other place to go, I went through the surroundings of the mansion, looking for the little kids.

Sis, over here~. There is tasty food, you can eat as much as you want.

The little kids were waving at me.

And of all things, from inside the mansion. If they ate the food from such a splendid mansion without permission, mere apologies wouldnt be enough.

Rushing there, I immediately apologized with all my might, I asked for forgiveness, asked to pardon the little kids, told them that I will definitely pay for the food, and offered all the money I had on me..

Over and over I bowed my head, repeatedly apologizing again and again.

Then, someone hugged me. A very pretty older girl with pitch black hair and pitch black eyes. She was very soft, with a nice smell to her, reminding me of my mother a bit.

Its alright. You can have all the food. We brought this for everyone to eat. Eat as much as you want.

I was brought to another room that had an entire feast ready. Numerous delicious looking dishes that Ive never seen before were lined up there.

Both little kids and big kids were eating them with smiles, beckoning me to join.

In the back, a black-haired dark-eyed older boy is making food. One after another, delicious-looking dishes are set up on the table at an amazing speed.

Eat plenty~? Or rather, if you dont eat and grow big, there is a high possibility of something unfortunate happening, like not getting big? But man, you do eat well considering already being pretty unfortunate No, I didnt mean it like that! I didnt say that yours are small at all, I just thought that while the power of imagination might be infinite, the potential might not be there anymore? No, I didnt see anything, I didnt see the potential or anything! I mean, how could I see anything, if there is nothing to begin witHOOOA! Why do you have a morning star? Eh? Armored Pres-san lent it to you? So thats why this morning star looked so familiar, wait, why does attacking me always have to be done with a morning star?!

It was fun. Smiles everywhere, everyone is smiling, and I was smiling too.

I ate a whole lot. When I said that its my first time eating so much or eating something this delicious You havent seen anything yet. The true fear is having to do ONE MORE SET, getting hit with immense regret eating even tastylicious snacks, but lately, there are more and more people, who overeat on manju so much that ONE MORE SET is not enough anymore GUOOUHGHAA! No, really, why is the morning star such a hot rental item here? Or rather, how come you always have it ready? I just upgraded it with mithril the other day, so getting hit by it is really no joke, you know? I mean, with Armored Pres-san dressed in nurse uniform saying stuff like Ill do it if you mithrilify it~, being a highschool boy, I immediately mithriled it without a second thought! Like, all the way to the brim! I mean, a nurse in a miniskirt uniform will be doing that~, do you get it?! Wait, GYAAAH! , so lively, so fun, and so delicious, and so warm.

Getting hugged made me so very happy.

And holding hands together.

And having my head patted.

Its alright, you did your best, efforts have to be rewarded, or it wouldnt be fair, right? And if there is no reward, then it can be just ripped off? So this is the reward for working hard until now, you did your best for so long, so of course, there will be more and more rewards from now on too, or rather, thats the course that I chose, so Ill be ripping it off? Well, as some famous person also said, most things in this world can be solved by either hitting or ripping off? Well, not sure if they actually said that or not, but since I dont even know who they are it doesnt really matter? I guess?

Its a reward, he said. A reward for doing my best all this time.

And then he patted my head over and over.

Im so glad I worked so hard, after all, there was something this nice ahead.

With this, I feel like I can keep going.

After all, if I keep working hard, there might be something just as nice ahead too.

Little kids and big kids are all laughing through tears and crying with smiles already.

Turns out, tears can come out from having too much happiness, too much fun, too many nice things happening at once. That surprised me.

The tears were always brought by hunger, coldness, or loneliness, but this time it is tears of happiness.

When its hard, painful, or bitter, tears come flowing, but when Im happy, its tears again?

I was guided through the mansion, but they also said that its an orphanage and not a mansion, and so that its our home.

There was a bath. Ive seen a bath before, when I went to chop firewood, but this is Amazing.

Its amazing, Im sitting inside a bath.

Getting washed by the black-haired older girls, everyone is sparkling clean, like children from good houses.

Next, we are going to wash your heads, come one by one.

Okaay.

Everyone is still crying. Its hard to believe after all.

I mean, we get to take a warm bath after eating a whole lot of delicious stuff.

What should we do with so much happiness coming all at once? What do we do from tomorrow on?

Its alright. Its all good now, so its alright.

Because big brother in black mantle said so, didnt he?

He hates seeing unhappy faces, so he needs to have everyone smiling!

Thats why everything is already alright. He will make it so you can keep smiling.

He is definitely going to make everyone happy, so just resign yourself to happiness, ok? That big brother is not going to give up.

Everyone is bawling their eyes out. Both little kids and big kids were all crying.

After all, we are already perfectly happy. So much so that its hard to believe.

And yet, being told that we are going to become even happier and it will become our everyday life, we couldnt hold back from crying.

We are already completely happy, so happy that we will never ever ever be able to forget such happiness.

And they also added a big door plate.

The big brother in the black cloak is getting scolded for shouting CAPTUURED!?

The orphanage became Souvenir Store, Sort of Orphanage Branch? Kind of?.

From tomorrow on, we can have delicious food everyday if we help around while wearing nice clothes.

Both little kids and big kids received the same pretty clothes. They said its a uniform.

The big brother in black cloak is getting scolded after shoutingYahoo! Labour force secured!?

People outside the orphanage were crying too, getting lots of food and having their homes prettied up.

Everyone was crying.

Little kids, big kids, grown-ups, everyone was in tears.

Its not cold anymore.

A warm and soft bed.

There is no wind coming through the cracks too.

And my stomach is so full I almost feel sick.

By the time we fell asleep no one was crying anymore. Even though everyone was crying so much, today, no one was crying at night.

Even little kids went to sleep with smiles, today, for the first time, no one was crying.

Sleeping in a warm bed with a full stomach is bliss.