Chapter 49: Late Night

As a result, we had a feast for lunch and dinner that day. The administration of the orphanage was sketchy, but the liveliness of the children went to show that the environment was fine. Continuing the subsidy payments shouldn’t be a problem.

“Well… not like being so energetic is an issue.”

I was rolling around alone in bed. In truth, I wanted to run away before dinner but the children grabbed hold of me and threw a tantrum crying all the while. It was so bad that even Cortina felt sorry and started crying as well.

Eventually, Cortina persuaded me to rest in bed as she spends the night in the garden. Even so, the room we were given was pretty basic.

But they’re the same with the priest. It was a problem to hear that a celebrity like us were going to camp out in the garden. Eventually, it was decided that another room would be prepared, I couldn’t help feeling sorry about the extra burden.

And then suddenly I remembered why I came on this trip in the first place. I had come with the expectation to redo my proposal to Cortina. However, I spend the day being dragged around by the children.

“What the hell man, I didn’t do anything!”

Luckily there’s still time. It’s past the kids’ bedtime but Cortina should still be up at this hour.

I got up and walked to the room where Cortina was staying.

I used the lamplight to walk down the corridor and down the stairs to the chapel. The boy’s rooms were on the east side of the chapel while the girl’s rooms were on the west. They took care to prevent childhood indiscretions by strictly marking off each gender’s area like this.

A shady guy sneaking into the girl’s dormitories trying to erase his presence. If someone were to catch me in this situation, I’d be in danger of losing my title of Hero. Even so, I’m disregarding that danger, all for the sake of meeting her.

“Huh, if it isn’t Reid. Wh-what are you doing here at this hour?”

I spot someone acting suspiciously, though it’s the same for me. It’s like they were sneaking into someone’s room.

“Same to you Cortina, what are you doing at the chapel at this hour?”

I’d forgotten about it earlier, but the truth is my mind’s been a mess after the rejection a few days ago.

Thanks to the children’s frankness, I was able to not think about it at all during the day but now that it’s just the two of us, it’s the only thing on my mind. I want to make up as much as possible but for now, I just keep turning over Cortina’s question.

“I’m not that tired.” “Th-that so?”

We somehow lose our words when we’re together and stay silent. A dark chapel with the starlight falling through the window. It’s like a scene from a play.

“S, Say Reid…”

Cortina who usually gives out orders decisively started speaking bashfully. But my ears caught something else. A faint screaming voice.

“Hold on, something is…” “Wha?”

I stop Cortina with my hand so it’s quiet enough I could hear a pin drop. Just then, I picked up a muffled scream.

“Gasp!” “There, did you hear that Tina!?” “Uh, Wha, but I didn’t hear anything…”

Cortina notices something’s up with me and tries to figure out what’s going on without asking for an explanation. I looked towards where I heard the voice and saw a hidden passage under the chapel’s rostrum.

“What’s a hidden passage doing here?” “We thought this orphanage was fine, but this is a pretty big problem isn’t it?”

You don’t put a hidden passage somewhere unless you have something to hide. Orphanages tend to be hotbeds for things like human trafficking. They can especially become a den full of a certain type of degenerate.

“We have to investigate.” “Yeah, I’ll take point.”

The request was an orphanage inspection so both of us only had the most basic of equipment. I was only carrying civilian clothes my favorite mythril thread and some training gauntlets. Cortina meanwhile only brought a wand to assist in her chanting.

Even so, we can’t just ignore the screams. There are a bunch of defenseless children here. If they’re in danger, we have to rush to help them as soon as possible.

The hidden passage led underground, after moving forward a bit we found a torch set up. It seems to be set up away from the entrance so the light wouldn’t leak out and the passage wouldn’t be found out. I advanced forward while keeping my threads at the ready and using my stealth gift to hide our presence.

I couldn’t completely remove my presence since Cortina was with me. As long as we’re together it would be meaningless.

There was a door with light leaking through the gaps out of it at the end of the passage. At that point, the child’s scream rang out again.

“Reid!” “Yeah!”

This time it was Cortina who reacted immediately to the voice. The scream came from a girl, the same girl Cortina had spent the day with. I could only keep thinking “What if she’s hurt?”. I couldn’t think that there were the screams of a kid playing around during the day.

Judging there wasn’t a moment to lose, I kicked the door open and ready my threads. There I found a gleeful priest standing over a girl’s corpse.