3 1.3 Orphanage

"Hello everyone, I am Nara Yan. You can call me Nara. I don't remember much about my past but Andrew found me injured in the forest and treated me."

"Hello, Nara and Andrew. I am Rose, why don't we go inside and talk."

I greeted everyone who was waiting for me outside the orphanage. The one who answered me was Miss Rose, a woman in her early 20s. Rose was a Miko from the temple who also lived in the orphanage to take care of children. The orphanage ran on the donation collected by the temple.

Inside there were chairs around the table in which we sat. I sat between Ronald and Arica. Rose brought some warm drink that smelled like tea and we all started drinking it and eating meat skewers.

"Thank you Rose. How was your day?" Andrew asked Rose while drinking his cup of tea in front of him.

"It was good. I just returned after offering my prayers at the temple" Rose answered while pulling her chair and sitting on it.

"Now, why don't you all introduce yourself to Nara. He will be staying here from today so take care of him, okay."

After Rose asked everyone to introduce themselves. Ronald started the introduction by introducing himself.

"Hey Nara, I am Ronald. I am training to become a knight. If you need help with anything here, let me know."

He was 16 years old which is not much different from my age here. He had a muscular body for someone who is just 16 years old. He had blue eyes blonde hair. Following Ronald a girl stood up she had cute dog ears and fluffy tail.

"Hello, I am Arica. As you can see I am a Dog people. I am also training to become a Knight. I like cute boys so I think we will get along."

Arica said wagging her tail and looking at me with playful eyes. She had cute black dog ears and fluffy tail. Her hair and eyes were also black.

"Uh... I am Marina. I am training to become a magician. Nice to meet you."

Following Arica, a cute girl with pink hair and tail and cute cat ears spoke. She looked nervous somehow. She is probably the type that is shy while meeting new people.

"There is no need to be shy Marina. You should try to have more confidence in yourself."

A human girl who is probably Nina according to the description Andrew gave me spoke to Marina. She then turned towards me and started speaking.

"Hey Nara, I am Nina. I am also training to be a magician. I help with the orphanage works here. Since you are new here I can show you around the town when you are free"

She was a human with beautiful purple eyes and long purple hair.

"And finally I am Sistina you know. I am training to become a Magician too. I want to join the Royal knights someday, you know."

A cute white-haired fox girl with a beautiful white tail spoke. She had a beautiful voice.

They all looked like one big happy family. I was happy to be able to live among them. Ronald and I will be sharing the room since we both were guys. It was a small room with a window and two beds. Ronald used to keep the room clean. I didn't have any clothes so Andrew gave me clothes that were donated to the orphanage.

Since we were in our room after finishing tea. I decided to ask Ronald about various things related to the orphanage and this world.

"Hey, Ronald, how do you usually spend your days here at the orphanage?"

"Usually we help sister Rose with the work around the orphanage and temple. Sometimes Martha comes to help us with the work too. We also train ourselves in the open field behind the orphanage and study magic in the library since all of us want to join the Magic Knight academy which is in the city next year. The village library is free to use for us so we usually go there to study."

'Sounds nice, I think I should join them too.' Since I am not sure if I will even be able to use magic I think I will take it slow and ask little my little.

"Can all the people here use magic? How can you know what kind of magic you can use?"

"Most of the people have the aptitude for at least one kind of magic. There are few who have the aptitude for 2 kinds of magic. The chance of having the aptitude for 2 kinds of magic is 1 among 100."

"How many types of Magic are there?"

I asked another question following Ronald's answer to the first one. Magic is an important part of society here so everyone knows about it. But since I am new to this world I am unaware of these basic things.

"There is 7 total but only six types are common. They are earth, fire, wind, water, darkness, and holy magic. There is Special magic but since it uses spirits instead of mana only elves from the elven kingdom can use it."

"Ah, can you tell me more about the Magic knight academy and knights?"

"Magic Knight academy is a place where young people are trained to become magicians and knights. Every year children who are 16 years or older can give the test to become a student at the academy and only a selected few are accepted. They train in the academy to become knights and magicians who protect the country from monsters and demons. There are various magic knight squads under many nobles. They serve the nobles and their lands and protect people there. There are royal magic knights which are under the direct command from the royal family. And the temple magic knights serve the temple and god."

"Ah, sounds exciting. I think I will also train so that I can pass the Magic Knight academy test."

"Yeah, let's do our best."

After the conversation with Ronald in our room and completing all the work for my stay here I went to the kitchen. It was already evening so Rose and Nina were preparing dinner.

"Hey, Nara. If you are free can you help us with cooking? We are making rice-curry." Nina said when she saw me coming.

"Yeah, I am free. What can I help you with?" I replied.

After Nina called me I decided to join them at work. Since the ingredients were almost the same and Miss Rose explained things to me, I learned things quickly.

After the table was ready we invited everyone else and we all had dinner together. It was my first meal with all these people but it felt like I am finally at home.

"Nara if you are planning to learn magic I can help you with it."

Sistina who was sitting next to me said while wagging her tail.

"Yeah, but I can't read and write so I think I would like to study that first."

"Oh, I can teach you all about reading and writing. Just come to my room after dinner."

Arica said while looking at me with seductive eyes. I am not sure what I will learn if I go there so better not get into this for now.

"Um... how about we go to the library after lunch. We can study there"

Marina made the suggestion while still looking shy. And it was decided that I will go to the library tomorrow with Sistina and Marina.

Next Chapter: Learning Magic - Part 1