Chapter 2-2:
The Orphans
“WHY DO WE HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF DOGS, anyway?” Oscar sighed.
He stared at the black puppy that circled around his feet. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for their demonic master to force them to undertake unusual tasks, but this mission seemed especially strange. Before they headed for bed, the six orphans gathered in a room to converse. It was their only time of enjoyment and relaxation, away from the harsh training.
“I’m taking her words at face value,” Lewis said. He stroked his brown puppy. He liked dogs and was very eager to raise one himself. “I think she wants to teach us something through raising thesedogs.”
“Teach us?” Oscar replied. He slumped his shoulders. “What can she possibly teach us aside from pain and suffering? I feel like death is the only concept that she hasn’t touched upon. Every day is filled with surprises, and I don’t mean that in a good way.”
“Yeah,” Isabel agreed. “I’m surprised that she can think of so many new things every single day.”
She cradled a white puppy, gingerly touching a burn mark on her arm. The mark would fade away rather quickly, but she was proud of her pale and beautiful skin—this blemish bothered her. Isabel had received the injury just the other day when the group underwent training for proper posture. They were forced to balance metallic containers filled with boiling water on their heads for thirty minutes. Truthfully, this was pretty much a new form of torture under the guise of training.
Naturally, they had to start over if they dropped their containers. Every time Isabel and the other orphans dropped them, Serena laughed heartily, clutching her stomach.
“What kind of life did she lead to turn into such a heartless, inhumane lady?” Isabel wondered. “His Grace is very kind.”
The duke was calm and always kept a smile on his face. He treated even the orphans with kindness, a feat that wasn’t so easy for high-ranking nobles. The higher the rank, the more superior and detached they felt from commoners. One could say that he truly was a respectable man in that regard, and the orphans could hardly believe that he was Serena’s father.
“I’m guessing Her Grace had an affair with the devil,” Oscar surmised. “The duke and the duchess don’t seem very close.”
Occasionally, Oscar would extract some information from the maids who worked in the manor. He still retained some of his boyish innocence, but his handsome face garnered some secret attention from the ladies. Once he’d learned etiquette, he was able to carry himself with an elegance that only made him more appealing to women.
“I don’t think Lady Serena is as awful as a demon,” Lewis said, gently coming to Serena’s defense.
“What did you just say, Lewis?” Isabel asked. “Did you misspeak? ‘Not as awful as a demon,’ you say? You mean that she’s even worse than one, right?”
Isabel’s pretty face was stern as she threw Lewis a pointed glare. She made it clear that she wasn’t open to any objections.
“But the puppies all loved her,” Lewis insisted. “It’s very rare for someone to be so loved by dogs, and you know what they say, dogs only like good people. I’m starting to feel like she’s not as bad as we think.”
Richard allowed one of the larger puppies to play with his hand as he raised his voice. “Lewis, if she weren’t a bad person, there wouldn’t be any criminals in this world. Prisons would be barren of people, and the prison guards would all lose their jobs. My dad would also be happily released from jail. Don’t you think so?”
It seemed Richard had already deemed Serena the greatest force of evil in the world.
“Richard’s right,” Oscar said. “You think a person’s good just because they’re loved by dogs? Then why don’t we let the dogs run our judicial system? Would a person have all charges dropped against them if dogs go running to them? You know that’s not how the world works. Come on Lewis, face reality. You’re just being tricked by her appearance. Sure, she’s pretty, but she’s a miasma in the shape of a woman.”
Oscar clasped Lewis’s shoulders and shook him. Lewis let out an awkward smile.
“Lady Serena is a very good person,” Alice said.
The unexpected voice of agreement filled the room as she quietly read beside a heaping mountain of books. A reddish puppy silently sat next to her.
“She lets me read so many books,” Alice said. “There’s no other master in the world as fantastic as her.”
Alice had already accepted Serena as her master when she was given countless books to read. As a matter of fact, all the texts that Alice was given were grimoires written in an ancient language. In just three days, she had mastered the tongue so that she could read through all the books. Her magic instructor quivered with fear at such talent and referred to the girl as “a monster.”
“You’re always treated so horribly during the day, but is it all water under the bridge as long as you get to read books?” Richard asked wearily.
Alice didn’t have much stamina, and she would often be exhausted during running training. However, she learned quickly. Her talent had been especially apparent when she was given a few books on manners and etiquette to read, quickly amassing knowledge that allowed her to surpass even her instructor.
“As long as I’m given books to read,” Alice replied, sounding very calm, “that sort of thing isn’t at all an issue.”
“Not an issue, huh?” Oscar replied.
He thought back to their training a couple of days ago. Serena had shown them six jewels lying on the palm of her hand and tossed them off a cliff. Their task was for each person to retrieve a jewel. There was a forest below the cliff, and monsters lurked about too, though they weren’t very strong.
The six orphans banded together. Even if one of them retrieved a jewel, they didn’t head back and instead remained together until all were found. They defeated monsters and trekked through the forest for many hours. However, try as they might, they couldn’t find the last one. When the sun had set and the dangers of the forest only grew, the orphans decided that they had no choice but to bring the five jewels back and beg for Serena’s forgiveness. When they did so, she opened one of her fists and revealed the sixth jewel nestled inside.
“You’re not perceptive enough,” Serena said. “I only threw five jewels from the start and kept the sixth one in my hand.”
Her smug, sneering face was unforgettable.
“Alice, you searched for the jewel so long and hard that you almost fainted,” Oscar pointed out.
“But Lady Serena is right,” Alice countered. “It’s vital for us to be perceptive, no matter the situation.”
“She definitely just tacked on that excuse afterward. She just wants to watch us suffer.”
However, it was true that since that day, Oscar and the others had grown more alert and observant as they studied their surroundings more carefully. When they were more attentive of other people’s actions, they began to notice and see things that they hadn’t before. However, Oscar was reluctant to give all the credit to that training.
“Oh, but I had fun on that training,” Emma said. She had been quiet until now as she had been running around the room with her gray puppy. “I got to run around the forest and climb a ton of trees.”
Her face was suntanned, demonstrating how outgoing she was. Her athleticism made it apparent that she just wanted to just keep moving around.
“Don’t compare us humans to monkeys like you,” Isabel said coldly. “Besides, Emma, you were treated poorly during etiquette training.”
Emma and Alice were on opposite ends of the spectrum. The former excelled at physical training while the latter was adept at retaining knowledge. A combination of the two made the perfect balance.
“Yeah, I don’t like studying,” Emma said. “But unlike the orphanage where we went through the same routine every day, at least we get all sorts of variety here. It’s fun.”
She hopped around with her puppy. At first, Isabel had often scolded Emma to sit still, but she’d already gotten used to it by now. Emma wasn’t one to change anyway.
“You’re the only one in the world who can enjoy that sort of self-punishment,” Oscar said.
“Emma’s got a point,” Richard chimed in, a sarcastic grin on his face. “It’s better to be here than the orphanage. If I’d stayed back there, I would’ve gone to jail. Oscar, you would’ve become a swindler, and Isabel, you probably would’ve been a harlot. Maybe Lewis would’ve been a priest, but God knows what Alice and Emma would become.”
Once the children reached a certain age and left the orphanage, a thorny path of life awaited them. If they were lucky, they would find the path of God and become monks or nuns, but they would only lead that life if they had some aptitude for healing magic. Since the orphans had arrived at the duke’s manor, they’d learned that Lewis did have that capability.
Serena’s private instructors had praised Richard for his combat prowess, and Alice and Emma had also shown growth in their specialized fields. Oscar and Isabel, who experienced a more balanced development akin to jacks-of-all-trades, received high praise from the servants of the manor. Only Serena refrained from ever praising them.
Even if these orphans failed to become her squires, they would likely have no trouble finding new workplaces. Oscar and Isabel grimaced, understanding their situation. However, they refused to admit that they were lucky to be here.