I Only Want Your Child - Chapter 24

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Layla had stepped away for a while to inspect the orphanage facilities.

As I sat in the director’s office looking out at the children playing outside the window, a thick book was held out before me.

“This is the list of children who have passed through this orphanage, as you requested.”

I flipped through the book with a faint hope, but I couldn’t hide my disappointment.

This was before photographic technology using magic stones had become widespread, so the records contained only names and brief information. There were no photographs by which I could recognize anyone’s face.

There was no way I could find a man whose name I didn’t know and whose face was the only thing I knew from this list.

When I sighed and closed the book, the director asked curiously.

“Is there a child you’re looking for?”

At the director’s curious question, I hesitated for a moment before finally parting my lips.

“I’m looking for a man who stayed here about twenty years ago.”

“What is his name?”

“I don’t know his name…”

“Oh dear, then it would be difficult to find him through the records.”

Seeing the director’s apologetic expression, as though sorry she couldn’t help, I hesitated before continuing.

“Are there any former residents who are now adults and still visit this orphanage from time to time?”

“There are many. To those children, this place is their home, and the children here are their family.”

“Then, perhaps… among those people, is there a man with a scar on his face?”

“A man with a scar on his face?”

The director tilted her head and thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands together as though something had occurred to her.

“Ah! There is! He lost his family after being attacked by a bear when he was young, so he had a large scar on his face. He still has that scar now.”

My heart immediately began pounding wildly.

It might be him!

“Do you know when he’ll come here again?”

“Actually, it is about time for him to visit the orphanage…”

After saying that, the director looked at me with a somewhat wary gaze.

“But why are you looking for him?”

For a moment, I was at a loss for words.

Because he might be the culprit who would kill my child and me?

No, more precisely, I needed to find out who had ordered him to kill Denion.

There was no way a mere man from an orphanage had orchestrated something like that on his own.

There had to be someone behind him controlling him.

The man was only a chess piece anyway.

Unless I captured the king, a pawn could always be replaced. So discovering the identity of the person behind him was the priority.

Even if this was still before the man had met whoever was behind it all, if I made contact with him first, I might be able to uncover the person who had targeted Denion and me.

I was hesitating as I tried to choose an appropriate answer for the director when the area outside the door suddenly became noisy.

“Uncle!”

“Uncle! What did you bring us today?”

“Play hide-and-seek with us, Uncle!”

“You little rascals, let’s greet the director first before we play.”

When I looked outside the window, the children who had been playing were nowhere to be seen. Apparently, they had all run over to the person they called Uncle.

Just as I was looking outside in puzzlement, the door to the director’s office flew open.

“Director, I’m here.”

At the sight of the man who entered with a cheerful voice, I froze where I sat.

“Oh? It seems you already have a guest?”

The man wore an awkward smile, and he looked both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.

There was no way I could fail to recognize him.

He had a warm and good-natured appearance rather than a cold and sharp one, but there was no way I could fail to recognize him.

A scar that ran from his forehead, across his eye, and down to his cheek.

It was unmistakable.

It was unmistakably the face of the assassin who had come after me.

My entire body tensed, and sweat began gathering in my palms. Merely seeing his face made my breath catch, and I felt as though I had been caught in a trap, unable to move.

The man who might have killed my precious child Denion in my first life.

The assassin who had tried to kill me through countless regressions.

That fact alone made every cell in my body freeze with tension.

Then, killing intent began boiling inside my rigid body, which had stiffened with fear.

Now that he didn’t know who I was, I could kill him in one blow while his guard was down.

If I use my ability now…

The hand I had clenched from tension began trembling for a different reason.

Before I knew it, I had completely forgotten the fact that I needed to uncover whoever was behind everything. That was how deeply this man’s existence embodied fear and chaos itself to me.

Just then, Diaz came scampering through the half-open door and clung to the man’s leg.

The child hung onto his leg with innocent eyes and stared directly at me. At that gaze, the killing intent boiling within me abruptly cooled.

Only then did I open and close my sweat-soaked hands and regain my composure.

What was I about to do in a place full of children?