50

 Chapter 50: Yeah... I Thought So 

Ring ring, ring ring, ring ring! 

“Intruders!” 

One night, the alarm system in our property detected invaders on 

the premises. It may have just been a normal visitor or a wild animal, 

but it was generally best to expect the worst in these situations. 

...And, even then, reality tended to take you by surprise. 

I was relaxing in the living room with Reiko at the time, so our 

response was quick. I checked the position of the sensor potion 

container that detected the intruder using the surveillance panel 

potion container. I aimed the infrared camera potion container that I 

had installed on the roof and zoomed in. Then I used the LCD 

monitor potion container to... 

Okay, enough! I’m skipping the “potion container” stuff from now 

on! 

Anything that shouldn’t exist in this world was made as a potion 

container! I don’t compromise when it comes to our safety! Safety 

first. That went without saying! 

And on the monitor, we saw... 

“Kids?” 

I saw a boy who was about five or six years old and a girl around ten 

years old on the monitor. The two looked around cautiously as they 

slowly approached the building. They looked a little older because of 

their Caucasian descent, but I was used to seeing that by now, so I 

was pretty good at estimating their ages. Unless they happened to 

be extraordinarily large or small compared to the average size, that 

is. And when determining someone’s age, I also factored their 

environment into the equation. Orphans were often smaller than 

Page | 201  

average because of their lack of nutrition. Fat orphans weren’t really 

a thing, after all. 

“...Orphans?” Reiko asked. 

“Probably.” 

They were pretty much the textbook image of typical orphans. Their 

clothes had probably been decent at one point, but now they were 

looking a bit dingy. They weren’t completely ragged or anything, but 

they probably would have been laundered if they were living in a 

normal household. Judging by the fact that the clothes hadn’t been 

washed, it was safe to assume that they were orphans. Not only that, 

but these kids weren’t even in a fit state for an orphanage. 

...Come to think of it, this place used to be an orphanage, huh. 

“Still, there are five- or six-year-old thieves and ten-year-old killers, 

so don’t let your guard down!” I warned. 

“I know!” Reiko nodded. 

That was just how things were in this world, and it was the same in 

some countries on modern Earth. We were nothing but frail women 

who had grown up in a peaceful country. It was entirely possible that 

someone who had been desperately fighting for their life from an 

early age could take a moment’s opportunity to stab us with a knife. 

There was no guarantee that we could use potions or magic in the 

split second that the blade was thrust at us, either. 

Both Reiko and I occupied more of a back-line role, as long-range 

fighters. Besides, Reiko had never killed anyone before. I couldn’t say 

with certainty that she would be able to do it when necessary. That’s 

why we had to kill the enemy before they got too close. So... 

“The intruders have reached the first line of defense. They are taking 

the main route...” 

Page | 202  

Huh, they were heading straight to the front entrance instead of 

trying to sneak in. They would have been greeted with trap holes and 

all sorts of surprises if they had gone around the side, but we 

obviously hadn’t rigged up the main entrance like that. We may have 

had occasional visitors, after all, and we didn’t want to accidentally 

trigger our own traps. 

But considering the two were coming right up to the front, maybe 

they weren’t here to steal anything. I figured the only time children 

would visit a stranger’s house at night would be to steal or beg. And 

if they were beggars, they probably would have come by during the 

day or evening, when it was more likely that we would have 

leftovers. They definitely wouldn’t have come so late at night. 

I didn’t want to reveal my secret unnecessarily, so I held a dagger in 

my left hand, with a bottle of explosive potion at my right hip. Reiko 

equipped herself with a short sword and a crossbow. 

...Apparently, she had been training with all sorts of weapons in 

Japan to prepare for this day. 

Damn it, I would’ve made preparations if I knew I was 

reincarnating, too! 

In any case, we were fully geared up as we waited for the visitors to 

arrive. 

Knock, knock! 

Some time later, the knocker rang out. It seemed they really were 

just visiting, not burglars. But they were still two dirty-looking 

children arriving at such a late hour with no appointment. They 

definitely weren’t what you’d consider proper guests. 

Still, there was no point in pretending we weren’t home. That would 

just be delaying the issue, and next time they might not try to come 

in through the front entrance. It was better to respond normally—

no, with a friendly demeanor, so we could gain more information. 

Page | 203  

“Coming!” 

So, I opened the door and greeted them cheerfully, and... 

“Eek!!!” 

The two kids fell back on their butts. 

“D-Don’t kill us!” 

Oh. 

I had a dagger in my left hand, and Reiko was behind me aiming a 

crossbow at them. I couldn’t blame them for getting scared... 

 

“...So, you two used to live here?” 

“Y-Yes, I grew up in the orphanage here... I was taken in by a 

merchant in a neighboring territory, but I was put to work as a slave 

instead of cared for as a foster daughter as was originally promised... 

Then I started to feel like I was in danger, so I ran away as soon as I 

had the chance. He was just recently brought in from another 

orphanage, and I took him with me...” 

Oh, that’s heavy... 

It sounded like whoever took them in intended to enslave them from 

the get-go... How evil. 

“And you had nowhere else to go, so you came back here with a 

report on whoever took you guys in.” 

“Y-Yes...” 

The girl had carried that younger boy all the way here, in a desperate 

attempt to escape with her life, and when she finally arrived, she was 

greeted by a dagger and crossbow instead of the caretakers and the 

other children at the orphanage. No wonder she fell on her butt... 

Page | 204  

The nine-year-old girl, who was named Mine, desperately explained 

her story as the six-year-old Aral hungrily dug into his bread and 

soup. 

  

Page | 205  

    

Page | 206  

  

I could have offered them some meat, but I heard that eating 

something that’s hard to digest after eating nothing for a long time 

can make you puke, so I opted to give them some soft bread and 

soup instead. The soup was full of nutritious ingredients, though. 

Mine also had some bread and soup before she started talking. She 

didn’t eat much, so maybe she wasn’t a big eater, or she knew that 

she wasn’t supposed to stuff herself too quickly. But, seeing how she 

didn’t try to stop Aral from eating, maybe she had a different reason. 

Mine’s real name was Minette, but she went by her shortened name 

in accordance with the rules at her orphanage. I found out that the 

kids at the orphanage were given short and easy-to-pronounce 

names, so the young kids could pronounce them, and so the 

caretakers could call them quickly to stop them from doing 

something dangerous. 

If a child’s name was known when they were taken in, they were 

often given a nickname if their name was too long or too difficult to 

say. Long names put you at a disadvantage when it comes to survival, 

anyway. There’s even a Japanese cautionary tale about that called 

Jugemu... 

Anyway, I decided to feed them and let them bathe and stay the 

night. Tomorrow, I’d ask the realtor where the owners of the 

orphanage had gone and then decide what to do about these kids. 

I’d feel pretty awful if they were to die in the streets or ended up in 

the slums just because I threw them out. 

And most people may have seen them as “just orphans,” but to me, 

they were just like Emile and the others from the Eyes of the 

Goddess. Pushing these kids away would be the same as pushing 

Emile, Belle, or Layette away. I had to at least find a place for them 

to stay before sending them off... 

Page | 207  

Come to think of it, this place had been an orphanage. Why had it 

ended up being sold as a vacant house? You didn’t normally see 

orphanages go out of business. They weren’t really commercial 

operations in the first place, so I doubted they’d had a downturn in 

revenue or that a rival company had driven them out of business... 

Considering the country, lord, and people of the city all seemed fine, 

it seemed unlikely that an orphanage would get shut down so 

abruptly under normal circumstances. Maybe their operations had 

been funded by the national government, or possibly the local lord, 

or even donations from local residents, and their source of revenue 

had suddenly gotten cut off? Hmm, it was probably best to ask the 

realtor tomorrow... 

I should have asked why this place had been sold off in the first place 

before I bought it. Maybe there had been some sort of an incident 

here, or it was one of those Oshima Teru properties...