~Chapter 32~
I couldn’t help but feel annoyed inside.
Right then, Jin nudged my arm with his finger and said,
“Lady, fix your face. Your face.”
He smiled brightly and pointed at his own face. I must’ve had a sour expression again.
I forced myself to smile back at him.
“Wow, that looks so fake, Lady.”
“…”
He adjusted the corners of my mouth with his fingers, then gave a picture-perfect smile in front of me.
“Better now?”
He leaned in slightly and whispered,
“Leave the simple stuff to me, okay? You just sit there and act like a typical noble lady.”
I gritted my teeth and whispered back,
“Got it, so stop nagging.”
“Ah, Lady, your expression changed again. Smile! Haha!”
Just as I was about to glare at him, totally fed up—
“Lady, shh.”
Jin suddenly looked serious and quickly pulled me and Rosalyn into a narrow space between the walls.
Then we heard the sound of footsteps, followed by two deep male voices.
“So, you’re saying there aren’t any decent kids?”
“Sir, we did send some last month. But honestly, it’s not easy finding good ones. There may be a lot of orphans, but it’s not like we’re at war right now. Most kids still have parents, so it takes time to gather them.”
I instinctively looked wide-eyed at Jin.
My face asked,
‘What the hell are they talking about?’
And Jin’s face basically replied,
‘How would I know?’
I raised a finger to my lips and silently told Rosalyn to be quiet.
Her face turned pale with panic.
“…You’re not sneaking them out, are you?”
“Come on! Who would do that with random orphans? There’s no demand for that, so why bother?”
“Make sure you behave. This is an important plan for him.”
“Of course, Sir Carlton.”
The two voices sounded like middle-aged men. Sir?
‘Sir Carlton? Sounds like someone important. But why’s he at an orphanage?’
They weren’t called priests either, so probably not from the Reton Church.
And talking about sneaking kids out… I instinctively looked at Rosalyn again.
If we just asked the kids, we might get an idea of what those guys were up to.
‘No way… They’re not doing anything shady with the kids, right?’
I stared quietly at Jin.
His face looked tense and uneasy.
That gave me a bad feeling.
And from my second-life experience, whenever I had a bad feeling in this world, it usually turned out to be true.
“The lord is working on it too, Sir Carlton. We’ll search all the nearby villages to find suitable children.”
“There better not be any delays.”
“Yes, yes, of course not!”
Rosalyn’s face had gone completely white by now.
Jin nodded like he had a rough idea of what was going on.
His expression was grim.
Mine was too.
I was sitting like some rich noble on a cheap leather chair they tried to pass off as fancy, fanning myself.
Apparently, nobles usually don’t speak directly to commoners.
Honestly, I only ever really communicated with Catherine, so I had no idea what nobles usually did.
“You must’ve read the letter I sent ahead, and know why we’re here, so I’ll keep it short.”
Jin smiled politely.
The head priest looked over Jin’s clothes and immediately brightened up, bowing deeply.
“Of course. Our orphanage is in Pelloton territory, so the children are of good quality. And since we’re close to the Leton Church district, the Leton God surely blesses us.”
I kept fanning myself from my seat at the head of the room.
I was in such a bad mood that if I wasn’t doing something, I’d probably flip the table out of pure frustration.
“It’s an honor to be visited by someone so noble,” the head priest said, glancing between me and Jin’s clothes.
He clearly thought Jin was rich and hoped for some leftovers, eyes sparkling with greed.
Jin had apparently faked my noble status in advance too, so his reaction made sense.
What didn’t make sense was how Jin acted like forging noble identity papers was no big deal.
“So you should show proper manners, right? Right?” Jin said casually, tapping the desk with his fingers.
“Yes, the lady is beautiful, we all know that. But staring at her like that is rude. Focus on business.”
He picked up a contract from the desk and waved it slightly.
The head priest quickly bowed again.
“Apologies. She’s just so beautiful, I lost myself for a moment. Ahem. So, you wanted a child, correct? As requested, we’ve prepared boys aged six to eight.”
His tone suddenly turned cold.
“Well? What are you waiting for? Bring them in!”
I struggled to keep my expression in check.
‘Come on, you’ve been reincarnated here for almost 20 years. You should be used to this by now, right?’ Yeah, right.
Seeing the boys being shoved in by priests made me want to throw my fan at their smug faces.
They say running away from home is suffering—well, this world is no different.
And worst of all, this so-called “priest director” isn’t even considered evil around here.
People probably think he’s some holy, blessed man.
At least the kids were cleaned up nicely, probably since they were being shown to nobles.
“These are all the boys aged six to eight?”
“Not to your liking?”
Jin glanced at the kids, then looked at me.
It was clear—he wanted me to check if Damian was among them.
I looked closely at their faces. None stood out.
I tried to recall Damian’s description from the original story:
[White hair like snow, and red gem-like eyes that looked like they could catch fire at any moment. His beauty was otherworldly, as if crafted by a god. And the madness in his eyes made him even more dangerously captivating.]
If he was here, I would’ve known immediately.
So yeah, he definitely wasn’t among them.
Jin must’ve noticed my reaction and smoothly started talking to the head priest again.
“Hm, it’s not that they’re not good enough, it’s just…”
“Just…?”
“Before I came here, I heard some odd rumors.”
Jin gave me a glance, then pulled a pouch out of his pocket.
I immediately understood what he was doing.
I nodded.
Yep.
Good ol’ capitalism to the rescue.
Jin handed over a pouch of gold coins to the director and asked,
“Is there a group or organization that regularly buys kids from here?”
“…”
The director’s face went pale.
His eyes locked on the pouch.
Jin jingled it open, and the gold glimmered.
The director couldn’t look away.
“Seems like we didn’t find the right kid here.”
Jin snapped the pouch shut and smiled slyly.
“We’ll pay double the agreed price. And if you give us the information I want, triple.”
Jingle jingle. He shook the pouch right in front of the director’s face.
“Well? Are you interested?”
I stayed silent beside Jin, fanning myself and watching him work.
“Think about it. Sure, the money’s great, but…”
Jin tapped the desk again with a smile.
“This is a good deal for you. Really easy.”
The director’s pale face wavered slightly.
“…What kind of information…?”
As soon as he responded, Jin beamed and spread his arms.
“Knew it! I had a feeling we’d understand each other! Hahaha!”
Then he leaned in closer and said firmly,
“As I said. Is there a big organization secretly getting kids from here?”
