For several days after I left the practice at the nursery school, I couldn’t even count the days.

It was true that the children at Cherryfield Nursery School were more mature than their peers.

After all, children were children, so they couldn’t behave like adults.

More than a hundred children, both male and female, were causing various accidents.

In the first few days, the whole day would pass just by fixing it.

Crying child, oversleeping child, sick child, shivering child, fighting child, screaming child, injured child, messy child, hiding child, running away child.

I had to deal with all the tomboys with different personalities, plus I had to deal with meals and laundry for over a hundred people.

In particular, it might be because the children at the nursery school met an adult other than Hermia after a long time.

He was deeply interested in me and Stella and showed a lot of interest.

No matter how good Hermia was at caring for children, it would have been impossible for her to give enough attention to a hundred children by herself.

As a result, the children were always in a state of being thirsty for affection, and there were many things that they followed around to attract Stella and me from time to time.

It would have been nice if he had just quietly listened to me and tried to help me with the work.

Sometimes I felt the limits of my patience being tested when I ran away after playing a little too much or cried out loud for no reason in front of my eyes.

You couldn’t cast a silence spell on children just because their crying was loud.

That’s why when I couldn’t stand it, I would silently look at Stella’s face next to me.

“Senior Conrad?”

“… … .”

“What are you doing? Is there anything you would like to say to me?”

“… … .”

“Senior Conrad… ?”

“Thank you, calmed down.”

“Yes Yes??”

Stella also spent her childhood in this nursery school, so there must have been a time when she was crying and talking among these children.

It helped to calm my boiling heart to some extent after I thought that a talented person like Stella could appear again among such noisy children.

I wondered if Stella wouldn’t feel ashamed of dealing with children, just like me.

Unexpectedly, unlike me, she always looked after the children with a smile.

Her behavior sometimes made me wonder.

Not only that, but surprisingly, Stella knows how to take care of and discipline children very well.

Is the child crying and screaming right in front of you crying because he really needs help or is he simply making a fuss to get your attention?

She could clearly differentiate between the two cases.

Stella’s appearance of calming a crying child at times and calming down when she has to, and gradually establishing order in the tumultuous nursery school.

It was an unexpected side of me that I had never had a chance to see in my previous life.

The only thing I remember about Stella’s family-like side during the days of the demon subjugation was her stupid image of burning half of the food by making a mistake while cooking.

I see now that she can’t cook. There was no veteran housewife from cleaning, laundry, and childcare.

If the person currently practicing dispatch training with me was not Stella, but Lulu or Xian, how would they react to the children?

While imagining that, I thought of the two of them quietly in my head.

‘Aagh! Okay so please stop crying! You said you’d help me find the doll once you’re done preparing the meal! hey you there! Who wants to run away with carrots?

I’m already busy, but you guys keep interrupting me?! And I told you to stop dragging your clothes! Wow?! What is this pervert kid doing right now… !! If you get caught, your neck will be 360 degrees… !!’

‘I’m sorry, but if you don’t cry and speak plainly, I can’t help you. I’m not a mind reader, so if you want something, look me in the eye and say it properly.

… Did you lose your doll? Then why don’t you just retrieve your memory and find it? I gave you the right advice, why are you crying again?

why are you like that again? … There’s a fight over there, so am I asking you to mediate? Can’t you see I’m talking to this kid right now? I only have one body, but you guys keep making impossible demands on me.’

… I also thought it was good that I came alone.

Of course, there were reasons why he didn’t want to reveal Stella’s secret to the two of them.

It was because I had a clear sense that even if I brought the two of them, the work wouldn’t diminish at all.

More than anything else, I felt like I would compare myself to Stella if I was next to her, so in order to leave good feelings for each other, it was better for me to come alone to maintain a good relationship.

It was even more so when I was watching a girl who had just been crying just now, put her to sleep in her arms, and at the same time sweep the broom.

It was a housekeeping ability that could be regarded as a realm of talent.

“Senior Conrad? What are you doing this time?”

“I was just thinking.”

“What were you thinking?”

“I think that maybe Stella will definitely be a good mother once she gets married in the future.”

“Is that so. Yes Yes… ?!”

The words had already come out of my mouth when I realized that my remarks were misleading.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

It was also the time to put the children to bed after the hard service that day.

“Ten people… 12 people… 9 people… .”

There was one last thing I had to do before I turned off the lights and went to bed.

It was to check if there were any missing children before going to bed, just in case.

Because there were so many children, it was impossible to tell at a glance who was there and who was not.

First of all, I put them in their respective bedrooms and made sure no one was missing from each room.

“Ten people… 8 people… Everything is there.”

Today’s hard day ended with the boys entering and leaving the last room.

I’ve been repeating this for almost a month now, so now I can roughly figure out who’s staying in which room.

In particular, I had already memorized all the faces of the boys I saw every night. Even after returning to the academy, I can still remember his face and name.

Now, after Stella, who is in charge of the girls’ room, returns and confirms that there is nothing wrong, the day will end with the entire building being turned off.

I leaned against the wall in the hallway waiting for Stella to return, then I saw her approaching from the other hallway.

“You did a good job today too, Stella.”

“It’s a big deal, Senior Conrad!”

“yes?”

Now that I saw Stella running in a hurry that wasn’t usual.

It was easy to guess that something out of the ordinary had happened.

“what’s the matter?”

“Bell is gone!”

“Bell, the well-behaved brown-haired girl?”

He was one of the children who left a deep impression on me because he was always a kid who followed Stella and me to help with cleaning and cooking.

“you’re right! I saw them cleaning together until this evening, but now that I’m checking last, I can’t see them anywhere!”

As these children are completely out of control, this has already happened several times.

I told them several times to wait quietly in the bedroom to count, but there are always children who act on their own.

It was only a little surprising that Bell, who listened to her words, took personal action.

“Have you looked for the bathroom? Or the other girls’ rooms?”

“I checked everything again and it is nowhere! Even the kids who share the room with Belle say they haven’t seen them since cleaning time… .”

“Write… .”

Normally, it was common to be found in the bathroom or another room.

It was a story that if it was a place other than those two places, I would have to go around looking for it a little more busily.

“It was the day Hermia-san was out, too, so it became a hassle.”

I don’t know if there’s even Hermia-san who knows every nook and cranny of the nursery school.

It was the day she left the daycare with me and Stella this morning and went out of town to buy daily necessities and groceries.

No matter how early it was, he said he would be back tomorrow morning, so just waiting for her would be quite late.

“What should I do, Senior Conrad?!”

“For now, find a cafeteria or a classroom or somewhere else. I’ll see if I’ve sneaked into the boys’ bedroom.”

“all right!”

Leaving behind Stella, who went down to the second floor and continued the search.

I returned to the bedroom where the boys were staying and carefully searched for unnatural duvets so as not to wake them up.

Most of the bedrooms had bunk beds crammed in as much as possible in a small space, so if they had sneaked in, there was no way they wouldn’t have discovered it at first.

Still, since it could turn into a serious issue, I went through the rooms one by one to check.

“Teacher, what are you doing?”

When I checked all five bedrooms and left, a boy was out of the hallway.

“Chris, why didn’t you come out?”

“I’m tired so I’m going to the bathroom… . But what are you looking for?”

“I heard Bell disappeared among the girls. I was checking to see if I had mistakenly entered the bedroom.”

“Bell, are you gone? Are you nowhere?”

“yes. Do you know where he went?”

With a feeling of grabbing at least a straw, I asked Chris, who was awake at the moment.

The other kids I’ve been with every day before we came might have a slightly different perspective than adults.

“No, I don’t know where it went.”

Well, that was the answer I was expecting.

I wasn’t expecting a very plausible answer.

With over a hundred children living together, there’s no way they’re keeping up with each other’s news.

“yes. Go to the bathroom, go to bed early… .”

“Not Colin, not Henry, not Alice, not Belle. I don’t know where it went.”

I was going to go downstairs after walking him to the bathroom, but Chris suddenly came out with incomprehensible words.

“What?”

“Nella, Tony, Cael, and Ellin. I don’t know where it went.”

“… Nella? Kael? Who is that?”

The first time I heard what Chris was saying, I had no idea what it meant.

The reason for this is that among the names Chris mentioned, all the other names except for the girl named ‘Bell’.

It was the first name I had ever heard among children.

We’ve been eating together under the same roof for a month already.

If the other children from Chris’s mouth were like Belle, they should have at least heard the name at least once.

“Because now is the day someone has to disappear.”

“… Someone has to disappear?”

“yes. There are ghosts living in this orphanage, and they take one of us in every month.”

A cool sensation ran down his spine.

It was a little different from the case I heard from Stella in the past.

In a previous life, she hadn’t told me that when she overpowered the incident at this orphanage, there had already been damage before.

Perhaps an event that even Stella in her previous life was unaware of was already happening.

“Chris, I’m asking just in case. Are all the names you just mentioned the names of the children who disappear, one every month?”

“yes. These are the children who disappeared before Miss Stella and Miss Conrad came.”

Little children are good at lying.

In particular, nursery school students are always thirsty for affection and attention, so they do not hesitate to lie to attract the attention of adults.

Therefore, we should not believe what the children say directly, but at least listen to it assuming the possibility that it is an exaggerated or delusional story.

So what Chris is saying right now is probably a lie that wants to get my attention.

No, I really hoped it was a lie.

Until I saw a mysterious dark figure outside the window carrying a brown-haired girl away into the darkness.