“So? What’s your name?” Silas was getting impatient with Ann who proceeded to ‘doze off’ instead of introducing herself back. What a manner she had!
Ann was clueless that her ‘favorability rating’ just took a minus point, so she just casually introduced herself, “My name is… Lea. My little sister’s name is Faye. It’s nice to meet you, Silas-san.”
“Lea, huh? Just Silas is fine. I don’t like formalities,” Silas said.
Ann smiled, “Alright, then, Silas.”
She also loved people who won’t fuss with formalities.
As they were walking to Grace’s room, Ann recollected the information she knew on Silas. Silas was perhaps the most ordinary capture target in the game, and he was much like your typical young man. His simplicity was one of his strong points that earned him quite a lot of fans in modern world.
In his ending, the player and Silas would get settled in a simple yet comfortable home near the orphanage, as they continued to help the orphanage. Such a warm ending that left most of the modern people in love with his route. Most modern people yearned for simplicity and warmth that Silas’ route could provide.
More importantly, there was this fondness of childhood friend turning into lovers!
Even so, to Ann, Allen was still his favorite in the game. Despite that, she wasn’t a huge fangirl of stuff by nature, and she liked everyone equally. If she were to simplify it, if the others scored 85, Allen would be 88-89 at most.
With that said, she knew Silas liked kind and honest people, so she was quite confident she could be good friends with him.
Ann and Faye thought they’d be going to a room, but Silas directed them to the backyard instead!
As Silas opened the door, a beautiful scene of children playing came to a view. Among them, two adults were present.
“Sis!” Silas called out.
A young woman with similar features to Silas—the same brown eyes and brown hair a shade lighter than Silas—turned to look at Silas, Faye, and Ann. She then turned to the other adult, signaled something to her, then moved to approach Silas.
“Silas, who might they be?” The woman asked Silas as she smiled gently at Ann and Faye, “Hello, I’m Grace, this orphanage’s owner.”
“Sis, they said they’d like to volunteer here,” Silas said.
“I’m Lea, and this is my adopted younger sister, Faye,” Ann said. She chose to include the word ‘adopted’ so she won’t get questioned about how Faye and her were way too different to be biological siblings.
“Oh my, a new volunteer? Come, come to my room,” Grace led the two of them to the room. Meanwhile, Silas seemed to be going elsewhere.
Grace sat on a sofa, letting Ann and Faye sit on the sofa opposite of her.
As formalities dictated, and perhaps she was also used to it, Grace began by introducing herself and the orphanage to Faye and Ann, giving them a photo album to see.
From the photos she saw, Ann could safely say that this orphanage was a good one. The children were genuinely smiling in the pictures—well, there were some pictures of them crying too, but they were hilarious pictures. She was liking this orphanage more.
Grace also asked Ann and Faye a few questions about themselves, and Ann managed to lie flawlessly on the spot.
“I came from a simple commoner family. My mother passed away a few years ago, so I was just living with my father. One day, during my mother’s death anniversary, my father and I encountered Faye. We thought that it might be destiny, so my father took Faye as his own. Her existence’s been helping us cheer up quite a lot, and we’re happy to have her,” Ann said.
Just as they finished the introduction, the door was opened and Silas entered with a tray of tea.
He seemed pretty used to doing this whole thing, as he set down the teacups on the table.
“We hope you enjoy it,” Silas said, as he sat next to Grace.
“Thank you, Silas,” Grace thanked Silas.
When Ann saw Silas after she just lied by telling a long story, she felt a bit guilty. Silas liked honest people, but well, in this case, hers was a white lie, right? It should be okay, right? Nobles hiding their nobilities seemed like a common thing to do if they wanted to go incognito…?
“That’s a wonderful story, Lea. But what made you want to volunteer here?” Grace asked.
“That… Our family’s been much happier after we took Faye in, so it crossed my mind that I’d like to give back to the world by helping out other orphans,” Ann said.
“My sister can read, write, draw, count, and a lot more! She’s so talented! She taught me how to read, write, and count, too!” Faye enthusiastically added.
Ann patted Faye’s head while thinking in her heart, ‘Good job, Faye! Two thumbs up for you!’
“Oh my, is that so? We’d be really happy to welcome you to teach the children. Not many commoners can read, write, and count. Silas and I can do them, but it’s quite hard for us to teach all of the children on our own. Your help will be greatly appreciated. You can come any time during our visiting hours,” Grace said as she clapped her hands happily.
“That’s good! We’ll try to come here as often as possible. Sometimes, my father needs us to be at home, you see…,” Ann said as the image of Allen crossed her mind.
Hmm, yes, let’s just say he’s ‘our’ father…
“Alright then! Let’s introduce you two to the children! They’d be so happy!” Grace said.
“Note that I’ll be monitoring you during the first few days. Wouldn’t want anything to go wrong,” Silas suddenly spoke.
“Ah yeah, I forgot to mention that. It’s not like we’re suspicious of you or what, but it’s just the standard procedure to make sure everything is alright,” Grace said.
“No problem, I understand. I’ll definitely do well so I won’t trouble you two,” Ann said.
Grace and Silas proceeded to gather all the children and other orphanage workers or volunteers that were present to a hall that was enough for all of them. There were at most thirty children whose age varied. The infants and toddlers, as well as their workers or volunteers, were excluded from this.
“Children, we have a new teacher and her sister here! They are Lea and Faye. They will be coming here often,” Grace announced.
The children were all excited.
“A new teacher? What will we learn?”
“Ohh, a new friend! Can we play together?”
“The new teacher is so pretty and young!”
Ann was quite happy to hear the children’s welcoming remarks to both her and Faye.
And among all of the reactions, there was…
“Eh, Teacher Lea seems to be as old as Silas! Are you two a couple?” An innocent young child asked.
“E-eeeeh?” Ann was quite flustered hearing that.
“That’s not true. I just met her,” Silas said to the child who felt a bit dejected since her guess was incorrect.
Silas then turned to Ann and said, “Don’t mind them. It’s quite rare for us to have young volunteers like you, after all.”
“Ah, is that so…”
After the initial uproar, the children introduced themselves one by one. There were some siblings among them.
Ann wasn’t someone whose memory was strong enough to remember them one by one in a short time, so she sighed in relief upon seeing the little nametags that the children were wearing. Apparently, there were temporary volunteers who would come by from time to time, so the children were wearing the nametags for them.
As for Faye…
“Ah, do you still remember me?” Faye suddenly came to a few children and asked. The children looked to be around the same age as she was, but they were confused at Faye’s question and turned to look at one another.
“Oh… I might look so different. I’m Faye, you guys played with me in the streets before,” Faye tried to remind them.
The children were still clueless.
“You shared your bread with me before, and that helped me so much,” Faye pointed to a girl and said.
“Me? Wait, could you be that girl…?” The girl seemed to have an idea who Faye was.
“Yes, I am!” Faye was happy that she was able to become friends with the children who were willing to play and share their food with her when she was wandering along the streets.
“Oh my, you’re now adopted?! I was so worried when I didn’t see you in the streets!”
“Congratulations! We were thinking about how to put you in our orphanage when you always ran whenever we tried to call an adult…”
Faye immediately clicked with the children and had funs playing with them.
During the first day, Ann was mostly familiarizing herself with the place and how it worked. Silas told her the schedule for the day and how it was usually.
Ann read some books to the children and tried to introduce them to the alphabets during the first day. Silas was monitoring her all the time. At first, he wasn’t sure if this girl could be a good teacher for the children, so he was floored when he saw how good Ann was to the children.
Birdie remained by Ann’s shoulder and somewhat helped Ann attract the children’s attention, although some wanted to touch Birdie so bad… Unfortunately, Birdie didn’t want to let them touch her, and she retreated.
When the children sulked from not being able to touch Birdie, Ann quickly gave an excuse that soothed them.
“Oh my, Birdie is shy around strangers! You wouldn’t like it if some strangers were to pet you suddenly against your will, right? But worry not, as we spend the time together, she might let you pet her!”
The children were satisfied with that, thankfully. Ann was glad that most of them were good children.
Ann and Faye returned when the sun was setting. The two of them were glad that everything went smoothly, and they were glad they decided to go there.
Ann was so excited to share the news and her new experience, so she talked about it with Allen during the dinner. Meanwhile, Faye was questioned by Gwen who was initially worried, but she was relieved after hearing Faye’s story.
It was Allen’s first time hearing a story that Ann willingly shared, and it was also his first time seeing how bright Ann was. He was a good listener, so Ann was also satisfied.
After dinner, Allen received a report from his subordinates who were following Ann—their stories matched.
Going by his understanding of Arlea, Allen felt conflicted. But for the time being, he told his subordinates to continue as he would ‘wait and see’.
This, Ann’s days as Lea, the volunteer teacher at The Heart’s Wings Children’s Home officially began…
Trial version first, though, for she was still monitored by Silas.
But she didn’t mind that much, for she wanted to befriend Silas!
