Chapter 2

It’s been six years since I entered the orphanage. 

Currently, there were 20 children including myself. There were also four adults, along with the male director and the female vice-director who picked me up. These two who were supposed to take care of us, unsurprisingly, neglected us. They prioritized drinking outside more than our well-being and safety. The other two employees on the other hand only did the most minimal of work with eyes full of disdain. 

All the children in the orphanage were of excellent appearance, and the purpose of gathering us children was clear. It was to sell us for lots of money at the right time. Unfortunately, some children had already disappeared. 

‘I’ll run away before I’m sold.’

I’ve been preparing a lot. 

An example would be training the power of the warrior deep inside me and practicing the mana to help keep my body firm. However, no matter how much I rested well and trained, there was a limit because I currently bore a child’s body. 

Furthermore, I was about the same size as children about four or five years of age. Although I was already seven.

I was too small and too thin. 

‘Is this the aftereffects of over-using mana as a baby?’

The exact reason was unknown. 

‘I would have definitely grown taller if I ate good food. If only I hadn’t been kidnapped…’

I remember hearing the word Lord before I was kidnapped. Perhaps, my birth mother is the master of a noble family. If I were a child of a noble household and I hadn’t been kidnapped, I would have definitely grown up eating nutritious food, at least three times a day. 

‘What were my parents like? I don’t think my birth mother was in good shape, but surely she’s not dead?’

It was a question that I had thought about countless times. But as always, I couldn’t think of an answer. I was at a loss. It felt like I was trapped in a space full of darkness without even the lightest starlight. 

‘After all, I have no relationship with my family anymore…. You’re just making yourself feel bad. Stop thinking.’

At night I started to move. 

At the age of seven, I was able to use some magic including subspace and invisibility magic. To help my nutrition, I often visited the Lord’s Castle either late at night or early in the morning using magic to steal food. 

‘It’s still the same today.’

The Lord was snoring on the bed, deep asleep. 

When the children who suffered because of this pathetic excuse of a human came to mind, the thought to kill him right there went through my mind.

I could easily kill him now. But… If I touch anybody in my state right now, my pursuers would be able to catch me right away. 

I had no choice but to put up with it. 

‘What is the Emperor doing that this piece of crap is still able to live well?’

In my previous life, the Cardinal abhorred the Emperor to the extreme and didn’t mention him at all. It was only after I got out of the temple, that I heard a few words about the emperor from someone else. 

‘The current Emperor was born as the second prince, the Cardinal’s half-brother, and he had a common maid as his mother, right?’

Nevertheless, it was said that he was excellent enough to become the Emperor by beating the Cardinal, the first prince born by the body of the Empress. But that was just how an Empire was. 

‘How come? I got rid of the Demon Lord, so there should no longer be any big problems.’

After my reincarnation, I tried to get a lot of information from the orphanage. However, there was only very little information about the pope, the warrior, and the emperor. It was because the Lord caught and tortured all the people who talked about those of high status. 

It’s been a while since I died and reincarnated yet I still don’t know what age I’m currently in. 

‘It should be around a year or two after my death..?’

I couldn’t figure it out. 

I glared at the Lord and approached the table cautiously. Outside, the people were starving and yet the table was filled with all kinds of luxurious food. 

I’m going to need to store down all the food and accessories on the table where the Lord can’t see. With some food packed, a sign of someone standing in the hallway outside the room was detected. I could only see its silhouette, but it seemed like that of a big adult man. That man, like me, was secretly approaching the Lord’s office using various different magic. 

‘You’re clearly a spy. So what information are you going to steal?’

I thought it would be better to know just in case. Just like that, I followed the spy carefully. The spy moved a large picture in the office to open the safe and then took out a thick notebook from inside before starting to read it.

The book contained a bunch of item names and their number. 

‘I’m definitely in the books. Are they looking for evidence of corruption?’

It was in that moment of questioning that a cold blade touched my neck and a thick voice rang behind my back. 

“Release your magic and show yourself!’

Of course, I didn’t do what was asked. In an instant, I turned around and faced the man who threatened me with a powerful defensive spell around my neck. I was faster than any human at that moment. I then jumped up the floor and kicked the target as hard as I could. More specifically, the biggest weakness of a male…

“……!”

The man who must’ve been in great pain didn’t groan even a tiny bit. But for a moment, I felt my body weaken. I ran immediately at the gap in reaction, out of the castle and into the orphanage. It took only five minutes to get back. 

I covered myself with a blanket and organized my breathing. 

‘It’s hard….?’

My heart thumped and my head was in a mess. 

‘Who are those two men?’

The first man who searched the safe was weaker than me and didn’t know I existed. But the second man who put the knife to my neck wasn’t in the least bit weak. 

At only seven years old, that man is an opponent I couldn’t possibly win against. 

‘Did he see me?’

It didn’t seem like it…

It was dark, so he wouldn’t see me just like how I could only see the spy’s silhouette. 

‘I couldn’t have been caught.’

You would never imagine that an orphan child would be sneaking in and out of the Lord’s Castle using multiple spells. 

‘All right, let’s go to bed.’

I had to rest quickly to recover. Thus, I hurried to sleep. 

I could never in my wildest dreams, imagine who I just met….

***

It wasn’t until the next afternoon that I recovered a little. I suddenly had this thought. 

‘I shouldn’t have come back to the orphanage right away yesterday.’

However, seeing as he didn’t come, it looks like he wasn’t able to track my whereabouts. It was a relief, but I shouldn’t use magic nor go out for the time being just in case. 

I sat on the bed blankly.

The staff and the children didn’t care about me at all. Mostly because I kept my distance intentionally. I didn’t want to talk because it was awkward, especially since I had been silent for more than 10 years in my previous life. Besides, I’m bound to leave this place in three years anyways. I didn’t want to give my heart to someone and suffer later. 

‘I’m a little lonely but….’

There’s still a lot of work to do. 

I have to practice magic, review the knowledge from the book I stole from the Lord’s Castle, and I haven’t even begun to think about how to get revenge.

I can’t even think about the Cardinal rationally.

‘I was fine when I was in the Temple though…?’

However, reality was different. 

Whenever the thought of the Cardinal came to mind, all I could think of was the cruel pain of my past life that tore me apart. 

A deathly pain. 

In the end, I had no choice but to put off forming a specific plan for my revenge. When I get older and strong enough to withstand the pain of my past life, I’ll think of it then. 

Thinking of the Cardinal was too hard. 

It was scary. 

I was afraid. 

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‘….Let’s stop doing that. You can’t do that.’

I took a deep breath and calmed my heart. 

“Diamond.”

Suddenly the Director called me. My back shivered. 

Based on this pattern of being called by the director at this time… It means I’m finally being sold. 

‘Don’t tell me… It’s time already…?’

Anxiety weighed on my soldiers, but I took a deep breath and pushed it down. It’s okay to say that I’m being sold. I can handle some mana, so if things get difficult I can always just run away. 

‘Everything’s gonna be alright. It’ll be okay…’

But as soon as I saw the man in the Director’s office, I lost my mind. 

It was a very ordinary man with a face and physique that I could forget in just a matter of seconds. 

But I could tell. 

‘He’s using illusion magic.’

Not just his face, his actual body shape was very different from what he was portraying right now. 

“Diamond, I have someone who wants you. You’re happy right?”

The director kneeled and rubbed his hands against the man. It was clear that he had received enough money to satisfy his disgusting greed.

“Let’s go.”

The man extended his right hand to me with an expressionless face. This feeling was undoubtedly the second man from last night. 

‘I can’t believe you didn’t follow me right away at night and instead came when the Director was at work.’

It looks like he paid for me so that he can officially take me. 

‘I’m sure you paid a lot of money for me because I’m useful. You won’t kill me right away.’

It had only been a short period of time, but I analyzed the situation carefully. It was fortunate that I wouldn’t be killed but I didn’t like holding hands, so I just bowed my head and stood by the man. 

Then, the man did something unexpected. 

He laid his right hand gently on my back, used his left to carefully support my hips, and lifted me up. 

‘….Huh?’

The man was so muscular that all I could feel was stiffness. However, there was no awkwardness in his movements at all, as if the action of hugging a child was familiar to him. The stable hug made me feel very comfortable, but I was deeply embarrassed. 

‘What? Why does he hold me so normally?’

No, rather than normal, he held me as if a father were holding his child. Not one person in my two lives held me like this before. 

I curled up like a hedgehog with its guard up. Then, the man softly patted my back. 

It was gentle. As if trying to comfort me. I realized what he was trying to do in an instant. 

‘He’s trying to get my guard down!’ 

It must be that. 

“Diamond, do you have anything you want to bring?”

The man’s question was said in an amiable tone. I shook my head. 

“Do you want to say goodbye to your friends?” 

I shook my head again. 

“Then can we go just like this?”

I nodded this time. 

The man spoke in a clear voice towards the Director. 

“Please erase all records of this child.”

“Yes! Of course! When we let go of one of our children, we completely erase them from our records. Not even a single mention of their name will be left!”

The director groveled. 

The man gave the director a cold look and hugged me out of the orphanage. I turned my head and stared at the orphanage that grew smaller with each step. The place where I lived for over six years. But it wasn’t home.

‘I have to come back.’

To punish those pathetic excuses of human beings called the ‘Director’, ‘Vice-Director’, and ‘Employees’. For the children.

‘Will I be able to do that?’

I was nervous because I was being held. 

The man stopped walking only after going deep into the forest on the north side of the orphanage. It was dark because of the trees abundant with white and lush leaves, but it was to some extent still possible to identify objects. 

There was an artificial tree in front of us. 

‘Is someone pretending to be a tree with illusion magic?’

There was some weak mana. 

It was the mana of the first man who was looking through the Lord’s account yesterday. 

“I brought it,” said the man who was holding me.

The illusion magic that was harboring the image of a tree disappeared and a different object appeared. Two triangular tents the size of which could be used by two or three adult men popped up. 

A man came out of the tent on the right. 

“You came earlier than I expected.” 

As expected, it was the first man. The man then conjured up a ball of magic light the size of a fist. As the surroundings brightened, I could finally see the man’s face. 

‘Hyuk.’

I saw the man’s silhouette yesterday, so I knew the first man was as big as a bear. The man looked about 20 years old, he was a good-looking man in terms of his facial features. However, his cheekbones stood out, his eyebrows were thick, and his eyes were puffy. It was a wild-looking face. Furthermore, the energy naturally emanating from his large muscular body was also tremendously strong. 

If it was a normal kid standing in front of him, they would be scared enough to burst into tears. 

I was a little surprised too. 

“Hmmm… You’re definitely not an ordinary kid, seeing that you don’t respond despite seeing me like this. Hi, what’s your name?”

I didn’t open my mouth. So instead, the man holding me replied. 

“Diamond.”

“They named her after a jewel?”

“Yes. I heard the names of the other children as well. They are all named after jewels.”

“Those are some pretty names to think of for the garbage director of an orphanage that sells children. How are you, Diamond?”

I kept my mouth shut. 

“Can’t you speak?”

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The first man reached out one hand, grabbed my right cheek lightly, and then opened his eyes wide. 

“Wow! It’s so soft!”

He grabbed my cheeks with both hands and pulled them sideways. It didn’t hurt, but I didn’t like it. So, I opened my mouth and snapped at the man’s right finger. 

“Argh!” 

The man jumped. In fact, I knew the man would soon punch me right away.