abcnovels
Chapter 277: Orphanage 2
Chapter 277: Orphanage 2
Chapter 277: Orphanage 2
The menu for today’s lunch was a hearty soup with Horned Rabbit meat and a variety of vegetables, and bread.
“They are eating so happily, aren’t they?”
“Fufu, indeed they are.”
While the meal looked normal for me, I could hear the orphanage’s children expressing their delight with sentences such as “So much meat.” and “There’s so many kinds of vegetables in this soup.”, so it seems that today’s menu was a feast to them.
“Do they not eat a lot of meat here, after all?”
“That’s right~ They don’t have enough operating funds for that~”
“No, Rebecca-sama and the other members of the Ruven family have been very generous to us.”
“But after all, the priority is to fill their stomachs with mostly cheap vegetables.”
They have to take care of the lives of so many children with limited funds, don’t they? It must be hard to manage the budget~
“I’m grateful that we have food on the table for every meal. Also, some of the children who have graduated from the orphanage and became adventurers bring us meat from the monsters they have hunted.”
“Heh~ so there are kids who became adventurers as well.”
“Yes, the ones who are staying in this town are still young adults, but they are doing their best.”
Ohh~ they’re such good kids, taking care of the orphanage they were in~
“I’m also an adventurer. It’s possible that we might meet at the Adventurer’s Guild one day. I will keep an eye out for them if I see them.”
“Thank you very much!”
“Fufu, having Takumi-san, who is of a high rank, take care of them would be of enormous help.”
“Oh my, a high ranker! Is that so! Being an adventurer is a difficult job after all, so just giving advice to those kids would be of great help! Please take care of them!”
Perhaps because she heard that I was a high-ranked adventurer, the Director was very delighted. However——
“Ah~ but I’m not a very experienced adventurer myself, and I’m not very active, so please don’t expect too much from me.”
“Yes, of course. If you come across them and they seem to be in trouble, I’d appreciate it if you could talk to them.”
“Well, that much is not a problem.”
“Thank you so much!”
I thought I could at least listen to their problems, so when I gave my approval, the Director was overly happy. I felt that she was way too happy about this, but she seemed somewhat desperate, so I didn’t go into it and asked her about the characteristics of the kids who became adventurers.
“Thank you so much for today.”
“Come to play again~”
“”Byebye~””
After lunch, we boarded the carriage with Rebecca-san after saying our farewells, but Allen and Elena, who had played with the kids and become good friends, looked a little sad.
“Let’s come to play again.”
“”… Yeah.””
Allen and Elena looked like they had a lot of fun, so I decided to come again in the near future.
“By the way, Rebecca-san.”
As we swayed in the carriage, I decided to ask Rebecca-san a question I had been wondering about.
“Do many of the children from the orphanage become adventurers? According to the Director, the children seem to become adventurers on a regular basis, right?”
“We’re trying to improve on this, but when the children from the orphanage try to get jobs in the town, they’re always limited, and adventuring is one of the easiest-to-get jobs.”
Does that mean they struggle with knowledge and skills? In that respect, anyone can register as an adventurer, right?
“That’s exactly why some children become adventurers even if they don’t have the skills to fight.”
“Eh!? Isn’t that too dangerous…”
“Of course it’s dangerous. The Director must be very worried. That’s why she wanted to increase the children’s chances of survival even by a little.”
That’s why the Director seemed so desperate.
Becoming an adventurer with no fighting skills, huh… Yeah, I wouldn’t be able to do that. That sounds too scary.
If it weren’t for the abilities given to me by Syl, I would never think of becoming an adventurer. I mean, I would have died on the spot when I arrived in this world! I was in the Gaya Forest, after all!
“N~…”
“What is it, Takumi-san?”
“Rebecca-san, if I were to make a donation, could you dispatch a teacher to the orphanage?”
“A teacher? Oh my, you came up with something interesting.”
“Children of that age might be reluctant to study. It might even be useless, but I would like to give opportunities to children who are motivated to learn.”
There is no compulsory education in this world, and it must be difficult to study even if you want to.
“What kind of teacher are you thinking specifically about?”
“Anything is fine. Reading and writing, calculations, manners, introduction to martial arts… anything is fine if it could expand the possibilities for the children…——Huh!? Eh? What is it!?”
Rebecca-san suddenly patted my head.
“My son is such a good boy it made me happy.”
Rebecca-san smiled as she continued to stroke my hair, but I started to feel embarrassed.
“”Obaa~sama~””
Then, perhaps envious that my head was patted, Allen and Elena caught Rebecca-san’s attention and offered their own heads.
“My, oh my, Allen-chan and Elena-chan are also good kids~”
Rebecca-san patted the children’s heads with a smile on her face.
“S, so, what do you think?”
“As it turns out, we can send teachers. In fact, I have decided to do it even if you don’t donate anything, Takumi-san.”
“Nonono, I will donate! However, it is up to you and the others to decide what kind of teachers to dispatch and for how long, and whether to dispatch them only as many times as my donation will cover, or whether you will continue dispatching them even after.”
“Sheesh! You really are a good boy, Takumi-san~”
… My head got patted again. Moreover, this time, Allen and Elena were also patting my head together, so by the time the carriage arrived at the Ruven mansion, my hair was a mess!
Incidentally, as soon as we returned to the mansion, Velio-sama was informed about the dispatching of teachers to the orphanage, and he immediately agreed and decided to work out the details right away.