During my ti in the orphanage, prospective parents who wished to beco parents often visited.
Of course, they weren't coming to rescue a child like .
Our orphanage mainly housed children with disabilities, but there were also a few perfectly healthy ones.
They ca to adopt them.
For couples to adopt through normal channels, they had to be on a waiting list for at least five years. However, with private orphanages like ours, adoption could happen imdiately with cooperation from local authorities.
The foundation of our orphanage was affiliated with a fringe religious sect, and they had a tight grip on influential people in the area.
Politicians, military personnel, governnt officials, and so on.
With their support, there was nothing they couldn't do legally or illegally.
The director would make parents pay money under the guise of donations to the sect and sell the children.
We envied the children being adopted.
Seeing people willing to pay so much money for a child made it clear that they were undoubtedly wealthy.
It was evident that they were good people who loved children very much.
We thought those children entering those hos would surely live happily.
Looking back, only that much money couldn't prove soone's wealth.
Paying that much money didn't guarantee that they would raise the child with love.
But for us, who scraped together pennies to pay bribes, it was a fortune that we could barely imagine in a lifeti.
The parents who bestowed such grace for the sake of an orphan seed like saints that would never exist in the world again.
We blessed them as they left.
Wishing them to live happily.
However, so children returned to the orphanage shortly after leaving, sotis within months.
They were abandoned.
Parents who abandoned their children always made excuses like "the child had more problems than expected."
But that was a ridiculous excuse.
Where in the world can you find a child without problems?
Even parents raising their biological children always faced headaches because of their children.
If there were problems, they were with the parents, not the children.
Parents who ca to adopt children were divided into two main types.
Those who had to adopt because they couldn't have biological children, and those who lost a child due to an accident and ca to adopt a child resembling their deceased child.
At first glance, it seed like novice parents would accept a child hastily and then couldn't bear it, but overwhelmingly, it was the latter who returned to the orphanage.
I still don't know what mindset they had when they adopted the children.
It could have been to heal their wounds through the child, or sympathy could have been triggered by seeing the child struggling.
They must have been initially pleased to have a child who would replace the one they lost.
They would have promised to give the love they couldn't give to the deceased child to this child.
But as ti passed, they would have gradually realized.
That the child they brought ho wasn't the deceased child.
They would have discovered that they no longer mourned the deceased child because of the child they adopted and would have fallen into self-reproach.
Leaving a fake doll in place and forgetting about the real child.
When they realized what they had done wrong, it was already too late.
The love they gave to the adopted child was actually given to the deceased child.
It would have been fortunate if they just accepted that the two were completely separate entities.
But there were also parents who denied the existence of the adopted child itself.
The wrong child was receiving the love that their child should have received.
The wrong child was sitting in the place where their child should have been.
It filled the parents with bewildering terror and strange anger.
Clearly, it was their own choice, yet they resented the child.
Especially for soone as proud as Lord Fantastic, living with the daily reminder of his mistake must have been a trendous blow to his pride.
But he couldn't accept abandoning the child.
Because that would an admitting his mistake.
So what he chose was to bla Reyna.
It wasn't him abandoning her, but her abandoning him, ending this fake relationship.
Of course, Reyna had no idea about the background ntioned above.
She wouldn't know the truth until four years later.
I turned to look at her sitting next in the carriage.
She had a solid expression, flawless like a fortress.
But to , it looked like a glass castle that could collapse with a single crack.
Often, as they passed under the streetlights, the light would spill into the carriage, and each ti, she saw sothing sparkling in the corner of her eye.
She glanced at the corner of her eye right away, but…
When our abandoned friends returned, we didn't know how to treat them.
We didn't know whether to welco them back to the orphanage or to laugh together, asking if the food at their new ho was terrible.
Though our blood didn't match, we had ford a strong bond within the orphanage.
There was a family-like connection among us.
But as ti passed, I began to doubt whether the taphor was appropriate.
Becoming a family seed more difficult and distant than becoming like a family.
We couldn't figure out what our abandoned friends had done wrong.
Even now, as adults who understand everything, it was still hard to accept it emotionally.
Like the heart of a man like Lord Fantastic.
"This is our villa. The view from the cliff is really nice!"
"Haha, just think of it as a vacation and relax!"
Yurakne and Sven went to great lengths to entertain the guest.
But she didn't even smile a little.
She still held her chin up and wore a cool expression.
We got off the carriage and stood in front of the alley leading up to the mansion.
Anais's villa, which she had arranged for us, had a garden facing the cliff, allowing the monster mbers to roam around the yard without attracting the attention of outsiders.
Thanks to that, we couldn't drive directly to the mansion and had to walk a bit.
"This place…"
Reyna, who was walking up the alley with , stopped for a mont as she faced a certain cliff.
Continue your journey on empire
I followed her gaze up.
Wasn't that the biggest mansion in the vicinity?
"Why are you like this?"
"That's our lodging."
As she said that, she stared at intently.
It was a face that seed to have realized sothing.
"The Golden Carnival's?"
"Yes."
"Haha, it was close by."
I felt relieved to know that the noble mansion where they were staying was right next door.
But when I saw Ella walking towards the Golden Carnival camp in the hall, I felt anxious.
According to regulations, we could get her back in two weeks.
I knew there were many good people in the Golden Carnival.
Among the 99 supporters featured in TT1, the Golden Carnival had the most mbers.
But seeing Reyna standing there so miserable made worry for no reason.
I wondered if Lord Fantastic was doing sothing to Ella.
"Please follow Ella. You have the qualification of therapist."
"That's right! It's inappropriate to send her alone! I'm worried!"
Yurakne agreed, but Gascon wore a puzzled expression.
"You decided not to treat her, didn't you?"
This old man is acting up now?
I asked him again, this ti adding the word "teacher."
Gascon looked pleased at first, but then quickly regained his composure and nodded.
"No! An old man like has a denture virus, so it's dangerous to approach a teenage girl!"
He said such nonsense with such a serious face.
At first, I thought he was just sulking.
But I gradually realized that sothing was off.
"Are you serious?"
"Oh, co on! Do you doubt my words? This circus troupe is always like this, but can the docunt be forged. Isn't that right?"
Gascon's head turned.
We looked at Sven.
He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing his jawbone.
"Haha… I never thought a few jokes earlier would lead to this…"
"Denture virus!"
Gascon exclaid loudly, rolling his eyes.
I sighed inwardly as I watched him.
It was Sven's Inspira.
His lies, stripped of laughter, exerted a weak hypnosis on those outside the group.
It would wear off over ti.
Even the caretaker of the villa, who had planned a sumr vacation to the Arctic and realized he had been deceived after only three days, had co swaggering to us.
Sven had tried to play another prank on him, but those wary of hypnosis didn't buy it well.
It was a 'weak' hypnosis, after all.
Sven said he had hypnotized Gascon earlier to leave Ella alone for a while.
Denture virus, he called it.
It might have been a light joke, but it only complicated things now.
"What should we do? If we leave Ella alone…"
"If it weren't for the denture virus, I would've gone myself!"
Gascon raised his voice like a drunk person.
He even slled of strong alcohol.
It seed the hypnosis worked better because of his drunkenness.
I realized I had no choice.
There was only one way to undo Sven's hypnosis.
Putting Gascon into the circus troupe.
I conveyed to the organizers that we would 'forfeit' the second selection.
And I accepted Gascon into the circus troupe.
['Gascon Halidon' has been added to the mber list.]
As the notification popped up, Gascon blinked.
He, who had just warned of the danger of the denture virus and told Maya to back off, now grinned.
"What, what's going on?"
I explained to him about Sven's Inspira.
I also taught him that he was 59 years old, not in his 90s.
"You, you son of a skeleton! You really got …"
"Hot, I'm sorry about this."
"Just a while ago, you called the vodka diluted beer…!"
I stopped Gascon from reaching for Sven.
That wasn't important right now.
"Please go see Ella. Right away."
"Oh, got it."
He left for the Golden Carnival camp imdiately.
The power that ca with the business card stating he was the master of the Alchemy Guild and forr manager of the Tomato Greenhouse was significant.
As soon as he identified himself as Ella's attending physician, even the Golden Carnival side couldn't refuse.
Ella's na was still listed in the mber managent roster.
Fortunately, the system still recognized her as part of our group.
This ant we could use the "Voice Chat" through the "Sound Room" and the "mber Quest" function would work too.
Now that I knew she was right next door, I could rush over anyti if things got desperate.
I gave Reyna Ella's room.
She glanced at briefly then nodded her head.
"Thank you. I might be considered an uninvited guest from your perspective…"
I chuckled and extended my hand.
"Haha, no, not at all. Doesn't it suit the circus folks to accommodate jokes? Hoho. Anyway, we're going to trade in two weeks. Don't worry too much. Until then, Reyna, you're our guest."
"…Yes."
"If you need anything, just ring for Ratman. They take shifts even at dawn, so it's no problem anyti."
"…Yes."
I wanted to offer so comforting words seeing her gloomy mood, but I couldn't jest carelessly.
As an outsider, pretending to know about the lady's circumstances would be ridiculous.
Above all, she was playing the "Golden Libra," so she might not accept such casual comfort.
"For now, rest well today. Let's talk in detail tomorrow."
"Thank you."
I closed the door and stepped out.
Just before going down the stairs, I heard sothing like a sob from down the corridor.
It seed to be mixed with whimpering.
I hesitated for a mont before letting out a sigh and descending the stairs.
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