Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 156: The Royal Capital Orphanage
The more I looked at it, the more impressive the orphanage seemed. Its appearance was plain, but it didn’t feel poor in the slightest. It looked like a decent little inn in town. If it were standing among ordinary buildings along a street, I doubted anyone would guess that it was an orphanage.
Of course, there was an orphanage in the territorial capital too. It simply wasn’t anywhere near this large.
“Come now, please step inside. There’s no need to stand on ceremony.”
The priest led the way into the building. The interior was wonderfully clean; it looked as though every corner had been carefully swept and scrubbed. Somehow word of our visit must have spread, because the children being raised there began gathering around us.
“Good day, Father. Who’s that gentleman with you?”
The child who spoke appeared to be the oldest among them, and probably their leader. He looked about my age, and his manner of speaking was remarkably composed. They seemed to be receiving a proper education here. The other children watched me without making a fuss.
Their eyes were shining as if they were staring at some rare animal.
…This was a little uncomfortable.
“This is Lord Julius, the son of Margrave Heine. Make sure none of you behave rudely toward him.”
“We won’t!”
A chorus of lively voices answered him. Yes, they really did seem like straightforward, well-behaved children.
“Nero, would you show Lord Julius around?”
“Leave it to me.”
The child who had greeted the priest first turned towards me and smiled.
…He was a boy, right?
His hair was short, but it was a silky pale blond. No matter how I looked at his face, he looked like a girl. His voice sounded like a boy’s, though. Probably.
What should I do? Ask him?
No, that would be rude.
Hmm.
“Well then, Lord Julius, I shall take my leave here. When you’re ready to go, please have Nero guide you back to the entrance.”
“Understood. Thank you for taking the time to show me here.”
I bowed, and the priest watched me with a gentle smile, nodding several times. When I glanced behind me, the children were still staring at me as if I were some sort of rare beast.
“Lord Julius, this way, please. I’ll show you around the building.”
“Thank you, Nero.”
“Just Nero is fine.”
Nero smiled brightly.
He still looked completely like a girl to me. What was I supposed to do with this?
As I followed him, several of the other children came along too. Perhaps this was considered part of their education.
Nero greeted the sisters we passed as he showed me the dining hall, common room, bath, and children’s bedrooms.
The dining hall, common room, and bath were all large. In sheer size, they were almost comparable to the corresponding rooms at the Heine residence. Naturally, the furnishings and quality at our house were much better, but I was still a little surprised.
The children’s rooms were generally shared by four people, though there were also two-person rooms and single rooms. From what I could tell, the older the children became, the fewer roommates they had.
Nero even showed me his own room. It was extremely simple, with no decorations at all. He seemed to own almost nothing personally.
“I’ve been wondering about something. Are you the oldest child here, Nero?”
“Yes. I’m the oldest. Children can stay at this orphanage only until they’re ten.”
I see. That explained why I hadn’t seen anyone older than Nero.
Ten still sounded rather young to me, so I asked about it. Apparently even in ordinary commoner households, children started helping their parents with work from around that age.
Still… he used boku when referring to himself.
I thought he was a boy, but there were girls who used boku too. This was getting difficult. If he’d casually said ore instead, there would have been no room for doubt. Then again, he could hardly speak that roughly in front of a noble.
I returned to the dining hall still wrestling with the question.
The children sitting at the tables seemed strangely restless.
What was going on? Was something about to happen?
As I wondered about it, a plate of biscuits was carried in. They were plain-looking, simple biscuits with nothing particularly fancy about them.
“I don’t know whether they’ll suit your tastes, Lord Julius, but please have some if you’d like.”
Nero offered them to me while continuing to pour tea. The other children were helping as well. Only the youngest group seemed to be exempt from serving.
Those little ones were staring so hard at the biscuits that they looked ready to drool.
Cute.
Just watching them was soothing.
Ah, now they were making me think of Mira.
I might be more seriously afflicted than I’d realised.
Since they’d gone to the trouble of serving them, I reached for a biscuit. The instant my hand moved, my servant hurried forward and ate one first.
The children who saw him immediately began eating too.
Ah. They definitely thought he was just a greedy servant who couldn’t wait.
I glanced at his face. It had gone red.
There was almost no chance anyone could have put poison in these anyway. The other children were eating the same biscuits, and I’d only decided to visit the cathedral this morning. There couldn’t possibly have been enough time to prepare poisoned biscuits specifically for me.
I checked with Appraisal just in case.
Yes. They were safe.
The biscuit tasted exactly as simple as it looked. A faint sweetness spread through my mouth.
Until now, I’d eaten almost nothing but expensive sweets, but lightly sweetened, simple treats like this were good too. The flavour felt strangely nostalgic.
Sugar was fairly precious and correspondingly expensive. They probably couldn’t afford to use very much of it. Even so, the children ate their biscuits with obvious delight.
“These biscuits are delicious.”
“They’re, aren’t they, Lord Julius? My big brother made them!”
A girl with the same hair colour as Nero turned proudly towards him. Her beautiful hair fell all the way down her back, and in her case there was no question at all that she was a girl.
And she’d said, “my big brother.”
Nero was a boy.
No doubt about it.
His slightly embarrassed smile was incredibly cute.
…He was definitely a boy, right?