48. Wizards and Knights (2)

The only orphanage in the royal capital had no name. Everyone just called it an orphanage. Because even its founder didn’t call it anything.

Before orphanages were established in the capital, orphans wandering the capital were kidnapped by backstreet criminals if they were unlucky, and taken in by good-hearted shopkeepers or nobles if they were lucky. If it doesn’t fall under those two, it usually turns into a pickpocket targeting the pockets of merchants and aristocrats, or is found frozen to death on the street in the cold winter.

The only place that was interested in saving people was the church. A minister who succeeded in obtaining a large sum of money from a certain nobleman bought land on the outskirts of the royal capital and built a monastery. And the monastery began to take in and protect orphans wandering the streets one by one.

A building with only stones piled up and a roof placed on it. The only sign that the building was built by the church was a small cross hanging over the front door of the orphanage.

The number of unlucky orphans living in the royal capital decreased. The number of orphans taken by criminal organizations has also decreased. The noble ladies who were interested in raising an orphan found an orphanage and took the child who fit their taste.

Christine was lucky.

Like most orphans, she doesn’t remember her birth. And there was nothing to be curious about. It could be the child of a cheap courtesan, the child of aristocrats and commoners, or the child of a family that could not afford to raise a child.

The only thing that mattered to her was that she had no way of knowing her real mother or father, and that the only people who raised her were the nun who was the director of the orphanage and the pastor she used to visit from time to time.

“By the way, flowers are a bit like that.”

“You will love whatever you buy.”

Christine muttered as she looked at the flowers in the flower shop.

“Today, the lavender bloomed beautifully.”

The flower shop owner put out a bonsai with a friendly smile. Purple petals hung like bells from thin branches. Christine unwittingly accepted the bonsai.

“It is difficult to grow, but if you grow it with care, it will have a very good fragrance.”

Christine looked at the tip of the lavender, which swayed slightly.

“I’ll buy one with this.”

Christine, who had bought a lavender bonsai in the end, tilted her head as if in trouble as she picked up the pot.

“Are you pretty? I wonder if the director will like it too,”

Maxim said, looking at the flower.

“I bought it, so there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t know if the director will really like it…”

Christine sighed and started walking down the street. Following that step, the lavender petals gently shook their heads.

“By the way, it’s okay if you don’t follow me, senior. Even though I insisted on asking you to come with me and did this, but…”

Hesitantly, Christine turned to Maxim and said,

“Even though I know that well.”

“No, that’s all right. Just go.”

At Maxim’s words, Christine inflated her cheeks.

A 30-minute walk from the main street leads to a quiet street with sparsely populated residential areas. The orphanage was located on the outskirts of a quiet street. After passing the cart full of milk cartons and passing the alley where you could hear the barking of big dogs, you could see the orphanage right away.

In front of the orphanage was a dandelion field. Among the yellow blooming dandelions, the children found a dandelion with white bleached spores and were blowing on it. Christine was looking at the innocent children with a nostalgic expression.

“uh? Christine’s sister?”

One of the children running around spotted Christine standing in the distance and called out loudly. Christine gave the child a warm smile and waved. The children, who were looking for dandelion spores together, raised their heads one by one and called Christine’s name in a shrill, high-pitched voice unique to children.

“Sister Christine!”

“sister!”

The children ran up and ran to Christine. Maxim took a sneaky step backwards at the sight of them running, but Christine did not care and greeted the children accustomedly.

“How has everyone been?”

The children express dissatisfaction, not dissatisfaction, to Christine with a bright expression.

“Why are you here so late!”

“Sister, the director yesterday…”

“This, this is what I found?”

As Christine moderately calmed the children, the front door of the orphanage rattled open.

“What’s going on, boys?”

The one who opened the door and came out was a younger-looking nun than I thought. Christine lifted her head away from the children and met her eyes with the director of the orphanage.

“Director.”

The Mother Superior came over to Christine, her eyes wide open in surprise.

“…Oh my goodness. Who is this?”

“It’s been a while since I came.”

Christine suddenly handed the bonsai to the head nun. The head nun received the lavender bonsai and smiled happily.

“Lavender… I brought a child who is in full bloom.”

“It’s similar to the director’s eye color… so I bought it. are you okay?”

The nun smiled even wider and nodded.

“I like these flowers. Thank you so much, Christine…”

The nun turned her head away from Christine to see Maxim. As Christine said, her eyes were purple, similar to the color of lavender.

“It’s been a while, Maxim.”

“Yes, it’s been a while.”

Seeing Maxim’s awkward reply, the head nun let out a laugh.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been with Christine. Would you like to go out for dinner? Are you going to dinner, Christine?”

Christine nodded at the question of the abbot. Maxim laughed and sympathized with Christine.

“I’ll go eat.”

The headmistress smiled brightly. She returned to the orphanage with the children who followed her, saying teacher, teacher. Christine gave Maxim an apologetic look and followed the abbess. Maxim followed Christine as she walked along, wading through the dandelions with her feet.

The only common space in the orphanage was divided into two parts. The wider side was structured like a classroom. At the back of the space lined with desks, podiums, and chairs, there was a blackboard with white chalk marks. The other part of the divided space was the dining area. Although it was a space full of one large table that could accommodate many children.

Maxim dealt with the children clinging to him with their eyes shining with curiosity.

“Maxim, are you leaving the capital now?”

“Come more often.”

“Are you marrying Christine?”

Maxim laughed at questions that were difficult to answer. As for the last question, it was burdensome to look at the director as if she was also interested.

Stew was served for dinner. Maxim stirred the thick, white broth with a spoon and mixed the ingredients. The Mother Superior looked at Christine and asked a question.

“Wouldn’t it be difficult to come here now?”

Christine smiled bitterly and nodded at the Mother Superior’s question.

“It is already difficult. I don’t have a lot of work these days, so I can come here like this… but it will probably be difficult when work starts again. Today could be the last day of the year.”

The head nun raised the corner of her mouth as if she understood.

“it’s okay. Thank you for coming, but I don’t want it to be a burden on you.”

“sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.”

How long had it been since he’d seen Christine be intimidated by someone like that? Maxim laughed in a fresh mood.

“Senior… don’t laugh.”

Christine said with flushed cheeks. Despite that, Maxim simply smiled at Christine.

On the more secluded outskirts of the royal road, the sounds of insects could be heard better. Although now the sound of cicadas occupied most of it. The sun has just begun to set. Maxim was alone in the dandelion field outside the orphanage, waiting for evening prayer to end.

Above the dandelion field, there was a tree that could be said to be out of the blue. It was an apple tree with one or two unripe apples. Maxim snooped near an apple tree and sat down under it.

It was cool.

Maxim closed his eyes and quietly felt the shade and the wind blowing. Now, all of this situation did not give Maxim a sense of reality. No-man’s-land, no one’s own curse, no Marion and Bordain, no Theodora.

Clouds drifted across the reddish sky. The door to the orphanage suddenly opened, and the nun, the director, walked out. It seemed that the evening prayer was over. Maxim found himself and saw the abbess nun approaching with slow steps, then stood up and dusted off her pants.

“Here you are.”

Maxim shyly leaned against the apple tree.

“Are you done praying?”

“Yeah. Christine is talking with the children inside right now.”

The nun looked back at the orphanage building and nodded. Maxim nodded. I didn’t want to go back and get tired. Maxim let out a small sigh. As if she had read Maxim’s mind, the head nun smiled.

“Then let’s talk for a while.”

The nun then went and sat across from Maxim without hesitation. Maxim was fascinated by her easy-going appearance, where she could not find the piety of a nun.

“I don’t have faith, don’t you feel sorry for me?”

“I am not teaching you to reject people without faith. If there had been such a teaching, my faith would have disappeared.”

The nun smiled.

“If it’s Christine’s story, you won’t be too against it, right?”

When the nun spoke in a clear voice, Maxim could only smile and nod.

“Christine was put in this orphanage when she was a baby.”

The head nun said, looking back on the distant past.

“I was a young novice nun at the time… It wasn’t until Christine grew up that I became the official head here.”

“It must have been quite a mess, right?”

The headmistress smiled and shook her head.

“No, as you might be surprised to hear, Christine was a precocious child. He didn’t talk much, and he liked to think to himself.”

Maybe that’s why I opened my eyes to magic. The headmistress said that and closed her eyes.

“Did you learn magic here?”

Mother Superior shook her head.

“Rather than having mastered it… The wizards who brought Christine said that they learned mana at a very early age without any help. I heard that he was not a child with special circumstances… but he had great qualities. To be honest, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

He was called a genius for a reason. Maxim focused on the story, thinking it was interesting because it was the first time he had heard her back story.

“It was only a few short years of caring for Christine. After that, he took her right from the Magic Tower…”

Mother Superior shrugged. Then he looked down at the floor with longing eyes.

“A few years after Christine left, the finances of the church began to deteriorate. We were also struggling to manage our daycare center together. A few years ago, Christine suddenly took care of all those financial problems. I paid off my debt right away, and I got enough money to not worry about it for the next few years.”

“Christine…?”

“I don’t know where they got that much money, but… we got it all done before we had time to say no. Even if you don’t want to take the money, you’re going to leave it…”

The abbess nun’s smile changed to a wry smile.

“We didn’t get it either. The time when I couldn’t run an orphanage without borrowing her hand. I don’t know if Christine was overdoing it too.”

Maxim narrowed his eyes and looked at the orphanage. Although she had been friends with her for several years, there were still many things she didn’t know.

Christine stared out the window at Maxim, who was leaning against an apple tree. Maxim got up from his seat as the head nun approached and started talking. The fact that I owe him so much comes to me most vividly when I am in this place.

If he had rejected the offer of the strange nobleman who came to see him in the Mage Tower, would he have been a little more open-minded? Or, was it just that the tragedy that befell Maxim had simply disappeared?

Christine bit her lip.