“She’s no longer here?” I asked, my voice coming out weaker than intended.
The matron gave me an apologetic look. “Yes, she was adopted a little while ago. I’m sorry.”
An overwhelming feeling of helplessness washed over me. I’d finally managed to handle all of my backlogged work to come to the orphanage for Anna, only to find out she’d already been adopted.
My brain froze for a moment from the shock, but I quickly shook my head and turned back to the matron. “And who adopted her?”
“Well, you see, um,” the woman stammered, “I simply do what the owner of this orphanage asks of me. I don’t have access to the specifics...”
“‘The owner’ being who, exactly?”
“See, a few years ago, the lord of this region passed away, and a relative took over,” the matron said with a troubled frown. “And...well, the new owner isn’t particularly interested in the orphanage. I’ve tried asking about previously adopted children before, but...”
Apparently, this new owner rarely involved themselves with orphanage affairs, only ever responding with “don’t worry about it” when asked about the children’s new homes—and even that took several attempts at contact.
I had no option but to attempt to reach out to this person, however.
“Very well,” I said. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
“Oh, not at all,” the matron replied. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of any help.”
Though I was only a child, she kept a dignified posture when speaking to me. That left me with a favorable impression of her; she must’ve been treating the other children here with sincerity too. Perhaps that was why Anna, despite being an orphan, had been raised so well.
“Mama!” exclaimed a small child with snot dripping from his nose as he jumped onto the matron’s lap. “I wanna play!”
“Now, now,” she told the boy, taking a tissue from her pocket to wipe at the child’s face. “Your nose’s runny again. What did I say about coming out to play before blowing your nose?”
“But this stuff just keeps coming out!” the boy whined, though he let her clean his nose. “My nose gets sore!”
I remembered this child. “Ben, was it?” I asked. He’d been playing with Anna during my previous visit, and had stuck out to me because she’d called him “Snot-nosed Ben.” Seemed his nose was still as runny as ever.
At my words, Ben let go of the matron and turned to face me. “Oh! You’re the guy from the other day!” So he remembered me. He grabbed onto my arm with a bright smile. “Did you come to play today too? C’mon! Play with me!” he pleaded, pulling at me.
“Ben!” the director said firmly. “You can’t just pull people’s arms like that!”
The boy whimpered. “I’m sorry...”
I felt bad seeing him deflate like that, but I had indeed not come to play today, and I was in a hurry to find out where Anna had gone. “Sorry. I’m here for Anna...”
“For Anna?” Ben asked, tilting his head. “Did you know? She loves chocolate!”
“What?” The unprompted information caught me off guard.
Perhaps thinking he’d piqued my interest, Ben continued excitedly, “And, um, she loves counting money! And, uh, she runs real fast! Like, the fastest! And she likes pants because they’re comfy but she actually really loves cute stuff!”
Satisfied with all the information about Anna he’d rattled off, the boy put his hands on his hips proudly.
“I-I apologize,” the matron said, presumably trying to cover up for him. “This boy was close friends with Anna, so he must be lonely without her.” She patted Ben’s head as his nose began to run again.
I took a look at the boy, then made a decision.
“I’ll take him.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“...And that’s how I ended up taking Ben in,” Nadir explained, stealing a glance at Ben, who broke out in a cold sweat. “He didn’t have any more information than that.”
Ben cowered in fear of Nadir’s glare. “I-I mean, I taught you some other stuff,” he stammered. “Like her shoe size...”
“And what’s the use of knowing a child’s shoe size?” Nadir retorted. “They grow quickly.”
Fair point. Ben shrank further.
“I regret picking up a useless boy who can’t even learn how to do his job,” Nadir said.
“Th-That’s not very nice!” Ben protested. Still, if information was the sole reason Nadir had taken him in, the butler really would’ve been useless.
“You kept looking after him anyway, though,” I mused, unable to help a smile.
Nadir furrowed his brows in discomfort. “I did take him in.”
“Oh, Young Master!” a touched Ben exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Nadir. “Please, take care of me forever!”
“For crying out loud!” Nadir exclaimed. “Learn to take care of yourself!”
“That won’t happen! I can’t even tell when I’m feeling sick!”
“You abject moron!”
I took a bite of my chocolate cake as I watched the two of them mess around. I had been wondering why this house always had so many chocolate treats... But I did like them, so I kept that thought to myself. “I can’t believe you took Ben in just to learn more about me,” I said, taking another nibble.
“It’s not like I could find you either way,” Nadir replied with a sigh. “The owner was careless and kept no records. Well, I did end up leveraging that to basically take over the orphanage for free, so there was that.” How very like him to exploit a weakness when he saw it. “And Anna wasn’t even your real name, now, was it?”
My cheek twitched slightly at the annoyed look he gave me. “W-Well, it’s not like children care much about what they’re called, so they gave us simple names at the orphanage. Besides, when a child gets adopted, their parents give them a proper, officially registered name, so...”
That was why Nadir had been unable to find me. Sloppy management meant there’d been almost no information in the first place, and the name he had for me—his only clue—turned out to not even be my real one.
“I-I’m sorry,” I felt the urge to say.
Nadir shook his head, as if to imply there was nothing that could’ve been done. It’d been neither my fault nor Ben’s—simply bad timing all around.
To clear the awkward atmosphere, I decided to ask a question that had been gnawing at me. “Why did you take over the orphanage, though? It’s not even in your jurisdiction...” Not that I minded. As someone who’d come from there, I wouldn’t have wanted it to remain under lousy management either.
Nadir flushed red at my inquiry. “I figured there was a chance you’d come by to visit...”
I couldn’t help but blush too, seeing his embarrassment. “W-Wait... You did it for me, even knowing I might never return?”
“Is that so bad?” he mumbled, unable to hold his gaze and turning his face away. Which was adorable, by the way. I was a simple woman, with simple tastes.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Sure,” he murmured, still looking away.
Nadir really was cute when we were together. I moved closer to him, smiled, and pulled him into a hug. He stiffened at first, but slowly coiled his arms around my back too.
For now, I just wanted to bask in this warm feeling. And so I pretended not to hear Ben whine, “What about me...?”