Rebuilding the orphanage would need six months to complete. At least, that was what Maria had thought, but the job was ultimately completed in one third the time. A contributing factor to that was all the help Ristia provided the carpenters here and there. Not only that, but the old orphanage was removed in literally a second—the blink of an eye. She said that she would bring it back out if they ever wanted to reminisce on the past, a statement which neared the lines of insanity in itself. It was all logically impossible, yet normal to Ristia. Maria and the others were slowly but surely adapting to this illogical form of reality presented to them. The important thing was that the orphanage was officially rebuilt. On the night of its completion, Ristia told all the children, including Maria, to gather in the cafeteria, and they did as instructed. They were told to come there dressed in the clothes that she gave to them, but Maria was handed a maid outfit with a short skirt. She had amassed a lot of trust toward Ristia in the past two months, so she wasn’t going to refuse changing clothes, but she pondered why she was given a maid outfit in the first place.
“Thanks for waiting, little ones. Ah, I see you’re all finished changing.” Ristia herself arrived late to the shop floor of the cafeteria, clad in a gothic dress. Leaving her silky smooth black hair natural, she had the appearance of a regal princess. Maria found herself entranced by Ristia’s appearance despite being a girl herself.
“Maria?”
“...Huh? Y-Yes?” Maria said, flustered, realizing that Ristia was now staring straight at her face.
“I was asking you if there were any problems with the outfit.”
“O-Oh no... It’s fine. It’s extremely comfortable. But... why a maid outfit?” Maria asked out of curiosity.
Incidentally, the other girls were also in maid outfits, and the boys were dressed as butlers. It seemed that the children liked the choice in clothes, but... Maria was still unsure as to why these clothes were the attire for a cafeteria, and so...
“‘Why’? I mean, when you think of a cafeteria, you think maids and butlers, don’t you?” Ristia replied as if she was questioning why she would even ask that. She had lived in a castle all of her life, so her perception of cafeterias included maids and butlers on staff. Ristia had said it in an extremely earnest way, but since Maria wasn’t familiar with her upbringing, she was left clueless as to what she meant.
“Well... I’m going to be in the kitchen anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.” When Ristia delivered the news that they would be working in the cafeteria, Maria panicked. Even among other girls, she would end up reflexively brushing away any hand that came near her if someone suddenly touched her. It also didn’t help that she would panic if any person of the opposite sex and older than her so much as came near her. In all, Maria was extremely unconfident that she would be able to work the floor. Ristia, however, seemed to take her feelings into consideration and taught her how to cook so that she could work in the kitchen. She broke the rules of logic in many regards, but she was an extremely considerate and kind older sister-type of girl—that was Maria’s assessment of Ristia. Granted, she would never call Ristia, her savior and the person managing the orphanage, ‘Big Sis’ or anything informal like that, so she kept her true feelings a secret and called her Director Ristia instead. If Ristia knew, she would have pleaded in honest tears, “Just call me ‘Big Sis,’ then!”
“I had a few goals in mind in building this cafeteria.” As soon as Ristia broke the ice and started talking, all of the children closed their mouths and gave her their undivided attention. In these past few months, Ristia had won over the trust of all of the orphans.
Wish it didn’t take so much longer for me, though, Maria thought, a tiny bit jealous. And above that, she felt proud that Ristia, the person who saved her, was such an incredible person.
“The first goal was for you all to gain some working experience.” Ristia started by explaining that she was trying to teach the children a trade for later in life. It didn’t seem to immediately click with the other children, but the reasoning made plenty of sense to Maria. The orphans would have to eventually leave the nest; the same went for Maria herself. And when that time came, the number one problem they would face was finding a place to work. But if they gained experience while they lived in the orphanage, it should be easier for them to work in the future. To Maria and the others, it was extremely welcome news, but their orphanage was smack dab atop a hill on the outskirts of town. Not only did it seem that people stayed away from the orphanage due to the unsavory rumors surrounding it, it was pretty much in the worst spot for traffic. It was extremely hard to think that they would gain enough customers to even turn a profit. Although, knowing Ristia, she seemed likely to say that she didn’t care about turning a profit—it was an obvious fact that Maria had already predicted. The problem was that if no customers showed up, none of this would serve as any kind of work practice. Just as Maria started to brainstorm how to alleviate that issue, Ristia started to speak.
“I am establishing one rule to everyone working on the floor. That is that you must call every customer who comes to our establishment ‘Big Bro’ or ‘Big Sis,’ respectively!” Ristia boisterously declared.
The other children had blank stares in response, but the moment that Maria heard that, on the other hand, she was impressed.
Very smart, Director Ristia. Maria believed that because, after the countless number of times she was made to volunteer her services, she knew from experience that the older men enjoyed it when she called them “Big Bro,” “Daddy,” and similar nicknames. The children in the orphanage were wrangled up as prospective child slaves for the purposes of illicit volunteer services, so they all had a lot of hidden potential. In addition to that, Ristia’s intervention allowed these children to come out of the rough and shine like the diamonds they were, transforming the facility into an orphanage filled with beautiful young girls and boys. If people were being called “Big Bro” or “Big Sis” by those children—especially Ristia—they would come even if it was on the outskirts. As a note, Maria used to be forced into calling people “Big Bro,” so various things concerning that sparked up some tough memories for her. However, Ristia had arranged it so that Maria could work in the kitchen, and if anything were to happen, Maria had faith that she would protect her. With the events over the past few days, Maria’s trust in Ristia had grown exponentially. I’m sure she’s doing this out of consideration for me as a rehabilitation process to help me recover from my trauma. That was her interpretation of Ristia’s actions. A beautiful, kind, considerate soul with a wellspring of ideas—I want to always be by my big sister Ristia’s side, Maria thought from the bottom of her heart. And so, with a heart full of respect for such an honorable person, she replied, “I read you loud and clear, Manager Ristia.”
It was a reply that, for whatever reason, made Ristia wilt and collapse.