I Only Want Your Child - Chapter 21

A strange suspicion occurred to him that the emotion contained in those eyes, which he had assumed was hostility, was deeper and more complicated than that.

No, perhaps they were closer to emptiness, devoid of any expectation or hope.

He couldn’t understand why she looked at him with those eyes, or why those eyes bothered him so much.

Kallion irritably swept back the hair that had fallen over his forehead, then approached the window as though feeling stifled and threw it wide open.

* * *

The servants of Baldomer couldn’t close their mouths at the sight of the guild’s goods filling the estate.

Even at a glance, there were high-quality ingredients and alcohol. There were all kinds of spices and expensive decorations as well. As rare goods they might see only once a year, if that, were brought inside, everyone looked both puzzled and amazed.

The head butler who oversaw the servants was no exception.

“G-Good heavens, all of these goods were purchased within the budget?”

Leaving the bewildered head butler behind, a man who appeared to be the representative of the guild that had transported the goods approached me with the item list in hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Madam. My name is Jacques, and I’ve been put in charge of transporting the goods from the Vas Guild to Baldomer.”

“Nice to meet you, Jacques.”

“I’ve compiled a list of the items we transported. Please look it over, and if anything is missing, feel free to let me know.”

“Alright.”

As I accepted the documents Jacques handed me, I noticed another sheet of paper tucked among them.

I accepted the documents without showing any reaction and casually tucked them against my chest.

Then I quietly returned to my room and sliced open the enclosed envelope hidden among the papers with a letter opener.

It contained the information I had requested from Vas about the orphanage and the culprit.

The orphanage’s year of establishment, and the fact that Baldomer had continued sponsoring it for nearly twenty years.

What stood out was that many of the children raised at the orphanage eventually entered service in Baldomer or one of Baldomer’s vassal houses.

Heloika Orphanage was located in territory governed by Baldomer, but I hadn’t known their relationship was this close.

And beneath that was the most important information about the culprit.

I did my best to ignore the sweat gathering in my palms as I calmly read through the words.

[ Unfortunately, at present, it is difficult to uncover information about the man you requested. However, we did learn one thing. There are reports that a man with a scar on his face occasionally visits Heloika Orphanage. He is said to be extremely elusive, so tracking him is difficult. ]

There was no real information about him.

Only the faintest lead that he might be visiting the orphanage.

And yet my heart began pounding wildly.

Unlike in my previous life, when the orphanage had burned down before I could learn anything, it was still intact now. The culprit might even be coming and going from that orphanage.

It would be three years from now when Denion would be murdered and when I would be attacked. At the thought that I might be able to find the culprit before then, my heart began pounding violently.

I still hadn’t discovered anything concrete about the man.

But.

There might be more clues about him at Heloika Orphanage.

It wouldn’t be easy for anyone who wasn’t directly involved with the orphanage to obtain its records. But it would be a different matter for the lady of Baldomer, the house sponsoring the orphanage.

Having organized my thoughts, I immediately rose.

I had more than enough justification.

* * *

“You want to inspect Heloika Orphanage yourself?”

Kallion asked with a frown.

“Yes.”

“There’s no need to go that far.”

“The donations that have been paid consistently for twenty years also come out of the estate’s budget and are part of its assets. I believe there’s a need to periodically check whether the donations sent to the orphanage are actually being used for the orphanage, or whether they’re leaking elsewhere.”

“Couldn’t you just send someone else for something like that?”

I had expected him to respond like this.

“That’s not the only reason. To ordinary people, orphanages are like festering wounds. Painful and difficult to ignore, but wounds they deliberately turn away from because they don’t have the means to care for them themselves.”

I saw Kallion raise an eyebrow as though surprised. I continued as if driving the point home.

“If the lady of Baldomer personally looks after wounds that even they can’t properly tend to, the people’s perception of Baldomer will improve.”