Chapter 35
Merai took Ranen and Meri to where the other children were. This was also the first place Ranen had been to since being confined in the basement. Ranen, who naturally thought they would go to the bedroom, was appalled upon seeing the interior.
"Good children, you've been quiet just as I said."
The children were huddled together in one corner, crouching down. They were frightened by the scene in the room. Unlike the basement, which had its gloomy corners but was still somewhat livable, this room was particularly terrifying.
The weapons hanging on the wall showed signs of use with their sharpened edges, as if they weren't merely decorative, and there was a chair of unknown purpose. The entire room was filled with a fishy, rusted, and aged smell. Ranen gagged.
"Yulma...."
Even more horrific was that Yulma was tied up. That tomboyish Yulma was slumped down, seemingly exhausted. Fortunately, she appeared to have no injuries, as if only restrained.
"Because you disappeared, Yulma was punished for not taking good care of the younger ones."
The headmistress whispered in Ranen's ear. Then she pushed Ranen and Meri into the room.
"If you act rudely again, know that you'll be punished like Yulma."
The headmistress's voice still carried the warmth of a lullaby sung on nights after nightmares, praying for peaceful sleep, and Meri felt tears welling up.
"My beloved children, you know well how much I cherish you, right? I have something to fetch, so I'll be back shortly. Until then, you must all wait quietly. Shut your mouths and stay as silent as the dead. Understand?"
The headmistress made eye contact with each child as a warning, then locked the door and left. Ranen waited until the sound faded, confirming the headmistress had gone far, then tried turning the doorknob, but only confirmed with a click that the door was firmly locked.
Meri hurriedly ran to Yulma.
"Y-Yulma, what do we do...."
As Meri was about to burst into tears, one of the younger orphans went "Shh" and warned her with a tear-stained face. Meri, being the older one before her younger sibling, nodded and clenched her mouth shut.
Meanwhile, Ranen grabbed what looked like giant tongs from the wall. Pushing aside the curiosity about what purpose this served to a corner of his mind, Ranen cut the rope with the tongs. After removing the gag that had been covering Yulma's mouth, Yulma spat and exhaled heavily.
"Because of me... it hurts a lot, doesn't it? I'm sorry, Yulma...."
"Haah... you weren't the one who tied me up, yet you're apologizing for everything."
The headmistress had rambled on with all sorts of reasons, saying Yulma was being punished as a representative for the children, but Yulma wasn't one to accept such things at face value.
"Any injuries?"
"No. She just tied me up saying she was punishing me."
Ranen helped Yulma sit up. When the children gathered around Yulma, asking if she was okay, Yulma dismissed them saying it was noisy instead of thanking them.
"But is it okay to untie you? She said she'd be back, won't you get punished more?"
"It's fine."
Ranen conveyed that he had just heard footsteps of Troy entering with others, and that the headmistress had been very anxious because of it.
"She probably went upstairs. Maybe... Troy might save us."
"That's nonsense, Troy? If that bastard returns empty-handed and the headmistress comes back?"
"Then I'll handle it."
Through Ranen's answer, Yulma realized that if the headmistress returned, Ranen intended to use the tools hanging on the wall.
Is this crazy? Is harming someone an easy thing to do in one's right mind? Moreover, the opponent was the headmistress they had followed like a parent their whole life, even if they now felt betrayed.
Ranen had followed the headmistress most devotedly among them. Even if he swung a weapon instinctively, he would be consumed by considerable guilt afterward.
Irritated, Yulma sneered.
"Then after that, where will you take all the kids? To another orphanage? Or to Daisy?"
"Do you have another way? Stay here and get who knows what done to you? Yulma, you're smart, you know well. All the tools here have been used before."
Yulma and Ranen had thought they would be sold. Even after being confined in the basement, meals were regularly provided and there was no physical violence.
But being brought to a room like this meant there might be punishment in the future. Perhaps some of the orphanage children who disappeared, supposedly adopted, had already experienced this.
"And there's Troy."
Ranen doesn't understand why he trusts Troy so much. Yulma touched the scar on her arm. This wound was made by Troy. Because of the injury, the planned adoption was cancelled, and Yulma had remained in the orphanage ever since.
Rely on Troy, who every time he opened his mouth shouted about orphan bastards and how this damn orphanage should be destroyed?
For a moment, Yulma reached the thought, 'Did Troy act like that on purpose?' If he returned to an empty orphanage and even brought others along, then his misbehavior all this time might have been intentional. Is this too hopeful a wish?
"Fine... alright. As you said, staying here won't help at all."
Still, there was no other way but to trust once. Once Yulma was persuaded, everything proceeded smoothly. Yulma turned to the children and told them to go to the corner.
"No matter what sound you hear, you must never look back."
There was no need to make the younger ones share collective responsibility.
"Yulma, I hear a sound. She seems to be coming back."
Ranen stood right next to the door, holding a weapon. Yulma swallowed. Soon after, the lock released and the door opened.
***
The children thought the headmistress had gone upstairs, but she was actually standing before a man entangled in chains. After continuously scratching his arm, blood droplets formed and ran down his arm.
"It's already been ten days. Aren't you hungry?"
"I'm always hungry."
Especially when the scent of blood is wafting right in front of his nose like now, how could his appetite not be stirred? Melek swallowed.
"But why don't you eat?"
The headmistress tilted her head as if she couldn't understand at all.
"I told you, I never eat people, especially not children."
"You don't eat?"
The headmistress's lips curled grotesquely. Soon, she burst into laughter at that joke.
"Hahahahahahat! That was truly the funniest thing I've ever heard."
She laughed so hard that tears formed in her eyes.
"You demon. You who 20 years ago enjoyed chewing children alive and watching them burn, why do you refuse the sacrifice now?"
When the headmistress was still called Merai, 20 years ago, Merai was an orphan at the Ainoa Orphanage.
Merai was an exceptionally clever child, and the headmistress at that time found Merai's cunning behavior, smooth as a tongue in one's mouth, very impressive.
So much so that she shared those filthy deeds she had been doing with Merai.
The first day going down to the basement, she saw a bratty child who had been boasting just two days ago about being adopted by a wealthy old couple, now barely clinging to life in the underground torture chamber. Besides that one, children who were said to have left the orphanage were suffering in agony underground.
One sound of laughter covered all the screams, groans, and gasps. The demon that the headmistress served so devotedly was smiling as if watching a comedy while viewing the horrific scene.
The headmistress held Merai's head so she couldn't turn her gaze away and said.
"Merai, that is a demon who grants wishes. If you please the demon, you can receive a reward. The food you eat and the clothes you wear were all bought with money from the demon."
And when the short play for the demon alone ended, the demon would give a tip to the owner of the theater.
"You know well that I think specially of you, right? Merai, you too will help the headmistress from now on."
After that, Merai helped the headmistress serve the demon. For a full two years. By then, there were no children older than Merai in the orphanage.
The ordeal that seemed like it would continue forever ended when the Great Temple started catching sorcerers.
At that time, countless people were executed on charges of being sorcerers or collaborating with them. The Ainoa Orphanage couldn't escape the crackdown either.
The headmistress locked the door to the basement and hastily disposed of all kinds of documents.
"Merai, did you report this? You didn't, right?"
Nevertheless, somehow they found out, or perhaps someone planned to frame someone, the headmistress was sentenced as a sorcerer and burned at the stake.
Merai inherited the orphanage and the useless children. This was because she was legally the headmistress's adopted daughter. Merai ran an orphanage again in that building. The children who lost their guardians clung to Merai, the oldest among them, and she had no choice.
"I'm hungry, big sister."
"Big sister, what do we do now?"
In the beginning, she could manage a decent-looking orphanage with the money the headmistress left. But as money gradually ran out and she gave birth to Troy, everything went wrong. The children starved and were cold. Money was lacking.
Wracking her brains, one day Merai thought of the headmistress, and with a hopeful mind, she opened the door to the basement. The demon wasn't there. It couldn't tolerate boredom, so it wouldn't have remained.
With no demon, Merai chose the next best option. She sold the children to slave traders.
Someone might be watching, so very secretly, without the children noticing, and to avoid following the headmistress's path, she even bribed a priest from the Temple. As time passed, rather than through brokers, she gained regular customers through word of mouth.
Merai fed and raised the remaining children with the money from selling children. However, the price of just one child could barely last half a year. Even that was disrupted several times as Troy repeatedly interfered. She never told Troy the truth, but she didn't know how he figured it out.
When he was young, it stopped at that level, but Troy's rebellion grew increasingly severe, and recently he threw a tantrum, claiming he had borrowed a large sum using the orphanage as collateral and demanded she hand over the building. Telling her to quit this damn orphanage right now.
That wicked son, doesn't he worry about the children who would starve to death immediately without Merai?