TL/ED – Miso
As soon as I returned to the Orphanage, I locked myself up in the storage room and began formulating a plan.
First, the cards I have. I’m an orphan.
Starting capital… is virtually zero, especially compared to my goal.
Age is 10, which means I can’t even get into manual labor.
…No, really, I don’t have any cards at all.
Begging might actually be the best option.
“Hmm… I guess that’s fine for the beginning, but…”
The first part of the textbook was just a review of what I had already learned, so as long as I could get it, keeping up with the material wouldn’t be an issue.
At least 599 silver in that time…
That’s impossible through normal means.
And even by abnormal means, there’s no feasible way I can see.
No, but seriously, what’s up with these nobles?
Sure, I know they have money. But 599 silver for a single book?
And it didn’t even seem to be treated like something all that important.
On top of that, the higher the grade level, the more books you had to keep buying.
…Now I understand why only nobles are allowed in the library. Even if magic is a privilege exclusive to nobles, this just seems absurd.
While I was deep in thought, I felt the flow of the current again and furrowed my brow.
‘It must be Linmel.’
I didn’t have time to play right now. If I got caught, I’d lose at least two hours, so I crawled into the nearby hay.
Now I could even keep time. Exactly five seconds after counting in my head, the door to the storage room burst open.
Why do they always kick the door open? Linmel appeared with sparkling eyes, shouted, then tilted her head.
“Jern!! I found a golden beetle… huh?”
“What are you doing in the storage room? There’s no one here.”
“Mm? That’s weird… I thought I smelled something…”
“What are you even talking about…?”
Once Linmel, looking confused, left the storage room with the other kids, I crawled out from the hay and brushed off what had stuck to me.
Even though the door had closed behind them, I could see the group of kids heading off into the forest.
To think I could feel not only people approaching but also leaving…
“Fascinating.”
The more I used it, the more it felt like I had become a bat.
Strictly speaking, becoming a Wizard and using magic is a more astonishing thing, but at least the kind of ordinary magic everyone uses isn’t completely incomprehensible.
Of course, things like “overlay your Inner World onto reality”… that kind of metaphysical talk still makes no sense to me.
But just thinking of it as: a place somewhere in my body has formed where mana can be stored, and with that stored power, I can pull out what’s in my head and make it exist in reality, that’s simple enough to understand. I can follow along in class too.
But as for the magic related to the Deep Sea, I have no idea how it works. Since it doesn’t use any mana, it just feels like I’ve grown new limbs.
‘What should I call this?’
At the very least, since creating currents and sensing them were completely different abilities, I felt the need to give them a name.
No need for anything fancy. Maybe I’ll just call it tide-sense.
While playing around with my tide-sense ability, I figured out a few things.
First, it’s completely unusable in crowded marketplaces. Since the waves are already subtle, once mixed together, it becomes impossible to tell what’s coming or going.
However, if I focused on a quieter location and narrowed my attention to something nearby.
If I concentrated on just one single thing, then, at least for that, the accuracy would rise to an unbelievable level.
Could I make use of this?
I put a wooden die used for board games into a cracked brass bowl and shook it around.
Let’s try guessing.
“Six.”
I checked the result: one.
Scratching my head, I rolled it slowly this time.
I could feel the die bouncing inside the bowl. It hit the side, the top, then the side again…
“Three.”
When I opened the bowl- three. Got it right this time.
“Useless.”
But I clicked my tongue.
Even with this ability, taking it to real combat or rather, a gambling den would be meaningless.
There were also too many people around for the tide-sense to work properly, and the dice would likely be rolled much faster than now. If someone tried to cheat, I could notice right away, but would that even matter?
“Wait a second…”
What if I changed the game?
For example, what about roulette?
I dug a few holes into the ground with my foot and threw the die.
Then, just as it fell, I pulled on it.
-Rattle…
No matter how many times I threw it, the die went into a different hole than the one I aimed at with my hand.
It landed exactly where the current had targeted.
“…”
At this point, it was worth seriously considering. I rested my chin on my hand and reviewed several possibilities.
Of course, no matter how many times I thought about it, it was clearly not something a sane person would do.
First of all, with this young body, I couldn’t even enter a gambling den.
And I knew very well how difficult it was to make money in such a place.
I’ve never done it myself, but I know at least a few people who were ruined by it. The moment you start winning little by little, someone from the top will definitely mess with you. They say even a mutt is strong in its own yard, if a gambling den’s dealer decides to scam me, I wouldn’t stand a chance.
Even if I managed to make money somehow, I wasn’t sure I could take it without trouble. Do I have the power to protect it? Not at all. If force were used against me, I’d have no way to respond.
Calculating everything, this was clearly an abnormal method that I should never choose.
“Well, maybe it doesn’t matter.”
Still, among the abnormal methods, this one was the most normal.
After about an hour of pondering, I managed to come up with solutions for most of the problems.
Shall I bring out that money soaked in despair?
Without hesitation, I stepped out of the storage room.
*
“Please, is there really no way you could make an exception just this once?”
“I’m sorry, sir. This is as far as we can go.”
The bank employee, looking at Albus, the Orphanage Director, with pity, handed over the documents.
“As I mentioned, you already have this much in loans, and any further lending… However, if you put the building up as collateral, it would be possible.”
“That’s not an option.”
Albus firmly shook his head.
He could never put the Orphanage up as collateral.
That would be selling the children’s future just to survive in the present. He had no intention of compromising, nor should he.
The employee sighed as if he expected that response and collected the documents.
“Personally, I truly wish I could help you, but it’s unfortunate.”
“…No, it’s fine. Thank you for your time.”
It wasn’t fine, but he bowed and left the bank.
As he walked out with a hollow expression, he looked up at the clear sky and thought to himself.
‘Was it impossible after all…?’
Thanks to the welfare policies of the Princess, it had become easier to breathe.
Fewer children were left neglected. Albus sincerely felt he could kiss the very toes of her feet.
But light is always followed by shadow.
Orphanages seeking profit sprang up like mushrooms after rain. They would gather children however they could, sometimes even ‘create’ them just to fill the numbers.
Temporary buildings that existed only on paper. Children treated worse than animals.
Back then, Albus had been a highly promising Scribe, and driven by a sense of justice, he wiped out all those corrupt orphanages.
But the children remained.
There was no place to house the children who had simply been collected. For a while, the Capital overflowed with kids without guardians.
Albus didn’t know the full extent of it. He handled everything from behind a desk, and the reports he received only said everything was proceeding correctly.
One day, during heavy rain, on his way to the Imperial Palace to receive an award for processing the highest number of fraudulent claims, Albus saw two children hugging each other in a back alley, dead.
He realized then, as he looked at the corpses of children who hadn’t even lost their baby teeth yet.
Surely, those who had committed welfare fraud had locked children behind bars and thrown them slop not even fit for dog food.
However.
It was he who had taken even that slop away.
Albus stepped down from his enviable career path with his own hands and used his remaining wealth to establish an Orphanage.
Perhaps it was his way of atonement. He devoted his entire youth, starting at twenty, giving his all until now at fifty.
Even when warned that no more government support would come, he spent his own money to expand the building and tried to be as mindful as possible about the meals.
The other teachers had warned him several times that if things continued like this, it would be difficult to keep the Orphanage running. Even so, Albus continued to take in new children.
‘My greed was too great…’
Was this punishment for that day?
If it were punishment, he wished it would fall on him alone. As he returned to the Orphanage with weary steps, a few children who spotted him came running with frustrated expressions.
“Director!! Yandil took my candy!”
“What are you talking about? You gave it to me!”
“I said just taste it! What am I supposed to do if you swallow it! No, but why did you really swallow it…? If you do that, there’s no point in eating candy!”
“Anyway, I only took one bite, so w-what!”
“Alright, alright… Don’t fight, everyone. Also, sharing candy with each other can spread sickness. And if you swallow it wrong, it can get stuck in your throat and stop your breathing. You don’t want that to happen, right?”
“Yes…”
“Good. If you both make up and promise not to fight anymore, I’ll give you each a piece of candy. How does that sound?”
“We’ll make up!!”
He had been worried he might not be able to hide his emotions in front of the children, but thankfully, only a genuine smile came out.
After caring for them one by one, he returned to the Director’s office, where Teacher Katli, who oversaw the overall management of the Orphanage, asked with a worried look.
“Director, what happened with the loan?”
“Well… they said it’s difficult.”
“Sigh…”
She let out a sigh as she put down the documents.
If one were to look for the cause, it was Albus’s excessive intake of children. However, Katli couldn’t bring herself to say anything.
If Albus hadn’t been so soft, then surely a few of the children she knew and loved wouldn’t be alive today.
“What do we do now? With the money left, we can’t hold out for even two months. If we cut food expenses, maybe three months.”
“Hmm. I’ll continue looking into other options. And…”
Albus took off his coat as if it were nothing and smiled.
“You know I’m a landowner, right? If it comes to it, I don’t mind selling it.”
“No, Director. That’s…”
Katli shook her head.
The phrase “landowner” was only half true.
Indeed, the land Albus owned in the Northern Plains produced high-quality tea despite being small, so it was quite valuable. It was also the biggest source of income for maintaining the Orphanage.
If they sold the land and slowly scaled down operations, they could wind things down without the children suffering.
However, that land had been passed down through Albus’s family for generations and was also a burial ground.
In fact, a bit away from the tea fields, his parents were buried, so to sell it…
“This is only the last resort. And the children who are still with us need to live, don’t they? If my Mother were still alive, she would’ve told me to do the same.”
“…Truly, you’re incredible.”
“It’s really nothing. Phew, more than that, I’m worried about Linmel. I wonder what the Knight saw in such a small child…”
“You call Linmel a small child? That girl can take down a bear.”
“Eh? What kind of metaphor is that?”
“Oh, you’ve been too busy running around with loan matters lately, so you wouldn’t know. Recently, Linmel went up the mountain and-”
-Knock knock knock.
Just as Katli was shaking her head and starting to explain, someone knocked on the door of the Director’s office.
“Ah, hold on a moment.”
“Hello.”
“Oh, Jern? What brings you here?”
Black hair, short stature. Skin so pale it seemed untouched by sunlight.
And eyes that were far too deep and dark to belong to someone his age. The boy politely bowed.
“I wanted to have a brief consultation with you, Director. Do you happen to have a moment?”
“Ah, of course. Teacher Katli, would you mind telling me the rest later?”
“Yes. Jern, the Director just got back from a long outing, so don’t take too long.”
“Okay. I’ll keep it short.”
After Katli left the office, Jern sat on the nearby sofa.
“Director.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Could you lend me some money?”
“…Oh, money?”
“Yes.”
Albus tilted his head and met Jern’s gaze.
He knew the boy was a good child, but he could never figure out what he was thinking.
But what mattered was that he was a good child.
‘Well, he’s been eavesdropping on classes at the Academy lately… he must need money to buy supplies.’
Satisfied with that assumption, Albus opened the safe and asked,
“How much do you need?”
“599 silver.”
“…?”
He froze in place.
“Uh, that’s…”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I’m not asking for the money you currently have.”
Jern smiled gently and extended a finger.
And then, clang-
As if pushed by an invisible force, the safe door closed shut.
It didn’t stop there. Clack, clack- the handle moved on its own and locked the safe door.
Albus was silently shocked at the boy’s level of growth.
‘I, I knew he went to learn, but…’
He didn’t know much about magic, but he knew enough to understand that doing something like that so naturally without even using an incantation was no easy feat.
He hadn’t even taken formal classes, could he really do this just by eavesdropping?
Meeting Albus’s gaze, Jern answered,
“Let’s do a job together, Director.”
“…A job?”
“Yes.”
It was a thought he should never have had about a child.
“I’ll help you make money.”
It sounded like a devil’s whisper.