Chapter 179
TL: Zimmings
After opening the box, Icould see a jewel the size of a baby fist.
It has a deep, vivid red color that looks like rubies. I know because I had lived in the temple in my first and second lives. This is a red spinel.
It is commonly mined in the spinel mine owned by the temple, and has no other function unlike the blue spinel that could contain divine power.
For this reason, miners called red spinel a residue.
“Wait, Leblaine. That’s-”
I heard Adrian’s voice, but I had already reached my hand out for the jewel.
It was the same feeling as when I first held the newt, the first time I summoned a devil. My hands moved on its own, as if someone was controlling my body.
When my finger touches the jewel…
Boom-!
A huge roar was heard from all directions as if it was an earthquake.
A dazzling light emanated from the jewel, and the light soon wrapped around my body.
Power drained from my body in an instant. The power that had been absorbed even in a small amount through the mana stones was also swallowed up in the blink of an eye.
“Ugh…!”
My head feels like it’s going to break, and I’m choking. Blood rushed to my head as if I was strangled.
[Something like chestnut…… I eat it…]
[Hello, Leblaine… please.]
[The kid…… Gya!]
[Regardless of your purpose, I… …mean.]
[Call me…… child.]
The distorted voices of my family and Lea pass through my mind one after another.
I know this feeling. The problem was that I knew it all too well.
It happens when a regression begins again.
The roaring kept ringing in my head as if it was a warning.
‘Stop, no…!’
The voice couldn’t get out of me. At that moment, the tears that filled my eyes were about to fall.
“Leblaine!”
Adrian hugged me.
As soon as I could feel the warm embrace, the sound that occupied my head suddenly stopped.
As my breathing gradually became stable again, the light that engulfed my body disappeared.
And then I felt my body float and my vision went black.
***
At that time, Johann, the eldest son of Dubblede, arrived in an abandoned village.
It is the home of some victims of the emperor’s tyranny, those who lost their home due to war against immigrants, and those who committed crimes.
They lived secretly, hence it was called an abandoned village.
Knights from Dubblede, accompanied by Johann, knocked on the door of a house made of planks.
After a while, a man in a shabby blanket raised the tent slightly with a wary face.
“Who is it?”
“Are you the mayor of this abandoned village?”
“What mayor… will there be a mayor in a town like this? I’m just the oldest person who lived here.”
“Alright then. I need some help. I’m looking for a person.”
Johann pulled out a small portrait from his robe.
“It’s a portrait from five or six years ago, it shouldn’t be hard to recognize.”
The man took the portrait with trembling hands.
After he examined, he shook his head and opened his eyes wide.
“Well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone like this.”
“He used to work in a nursery. Haven’t you heard of him?”
“Have never heard or seen. Look. Most of the people in this village have sinned. Would such a person easily give out their former identity easily? If it’s a successful caretaker, I’m telling you-”
Johann grabbed the old man’s neck with one hand before he could finish speaking.
Bang! The old man who pushed against the wall with the sharp sound, struggled.
“Why, why are you like this!”
“I only called the person in the portrait a nursery worker, never a successful caretaker.”
Anyone can get a job at a private or public nursery, but state-run nurseries are different.
Since the state nursery was directly managed under the imperial palace. They usually send a person from the imperial palace administrative office, so the workers there were officials before.
That’s why people called state-run nursery workers ‘successful caretakers’.
“Th, that…!”
“You better say it quickly. I’m not very patient.”
The man’s eyes trembled in front of Johann’s sharp gaze.
“A hut under the mountain. He’s teaching the children of this village there…”
Johann immediately released his strength from his hand.
The knights who checked the map nodded their heads.
“It’s not far from here.”
“Let’s go.”
The man who was sitting on the floor and coughing shouted.
“Why are you looking for him!”
“…….”
“He escaped to this town because he committed a crime, but he wasn’t that bad. He is good natured enough for us to entrust him with the children. ……Asital!”
Johann answered without hesitation.
“I won’t do any harm if he told me the truth.”
Asital Duval was the only clue he had found.
Johann scoured around in the area near Leblaine’s nursery, but found nothing unusual.
When he thought that his father’s assumption was not true, he realized something strange.
Leblaine had no record of her life even though the other children had them.
To be precise, there was no record of her life until she was two years old.
It is often referred to as a journal, and was usually given when a child was adopted, but its most important role is to be used as documentary evidence of the state subsidizing the orphanage.
Although the private nursery is not directly under the state, it does receive subsidies.
Some used this to their advantage.
Sometimes they would forge or add journals to receive more subsidies.
“You said she was abandoned in an orphanage as soon as she was born. But why are there no records of it until the age of two?”
“That… No, young master, don’t look at me like that. It’s not that we didn’t write it, it went missing when the baby was sent here from the state nursery…”
“State-run nursery? She was there? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“It’s not a great story, so I don’t have to say it… wait, wait! Put the sword down first. I’ll tell you. I will! So there’s a secret between the orphanages…”
“Secrets among orphanages?”
“State-run orphanages must somehow keep the adoption rate below 90%. Otherwise, the manager will change. So, problematic children are sent to private orphanages, which is nothing bad in private orphanages. The money we receive when they send a child from the state-run orphanage is great.”
“…….”
“That is why it was done in secret. Especially since we’re keeping this secret away from the imperial palace.”
It was sad to hear that Leblaine was treated like garbage that moved constantly, or used as a trading tool for greedy adults.
He was angry, but more importantly, he received good information.
He immediately found the state-run orphanage that Leblaine had been living in, but it had already been closed a few years ago.
The caregivers at the time did not remember Leblaine.
“I’m not sure. It’s hard to say if the child was transferred to a private orphanage…there are quite a few children like that.”
“Am I in charge of records? That’s only what the child’s caregiver does. Raising a newborn baby is hard work, so newbies do it.”
“Let’s see. At that time, the newbie… Ah! That’s Asital.”
He found out about the worker who was in charge of Leblaine. This one was the last clue.
Johann walked for a long time with the knights and headed down the mountain. A shabby hut could be seen from afar.
***
“……ne. Leblaine!”
Someone shook and woke me up.
When I came to my senses, I forcibly lifted my heavy eyelids.
Before I could even look around, I felt my body was in terrible pain. My whole body throbs as if I had been beaten.
‘Strange. It hurts a lot more than usual when I collapse due to lack of divine power…’
The throbbing was usually not this much. As I looked down at my arm that hurt the most, blood was seeping through my dress.
‘I’m really hurt! No, aside from the blood, why am I so wet?’
Seeing that, my whole body trembled. I rubbed my arms and turned my head. Likewise, Adrian, who was all wet with water, looked at me.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. But where are we? Weren’t we in the Imperial Palace?”
I looked around. This was the first time I saw this cave.
“I do not know. We were moved here as soon as you fainted. I think it’s because of Blasio’s jewel that you touched. We were swept away by the current as soon as we moved. I just got us out of the water and found the cave.”
“You saved me. Thanks…”
I always seem to be a nuisance to Adrian. As I grew pale, Adrian said.
“It’s alright. I think it’s more important to check where this is.”
“I have a communication device. There is a tracking spell on it, so if I contact my family…”
After saying that, I pulled out the communication device.
But it was strange. The call was not connected. Adrian shook his head.
“I tried to communicate with the Imperial Palace, but it didn’t work.”
“We, we’ll be fine though! If the jewels were the magic tools from the temple, it wouldn’t have been able to travel far. It can’t travel long distances. And the only mountain near us is Mount Redgus behind my mansion.”
‘Let’s get out and go back to the mansion.’
“Let’s go.”
When I said so, Adrian got up after me. We walked on the mountain path together. However, as time went by, I felt something was strange.
‘Since when is Mountain Redgus this big?’
Besides, the haro flowers were blooming.
I quickly covered my nose with my sleeve.
I had a severe haro flower allergy. Knowing this, my family tried to cut every haro flower in sight, including the one on the mountain.
“This is not…….”
As I said that, Adrian narrowed his brow and looked somewhere.
When I looked where Adrian gaze was at and saw…
‘Dubblede’s mansion back home.’
So we traveled this far?
‘No way. The temple would not be able to travel long distances.’
Just then,
“Who is it!”
Footsteps were heard from some directions along with the shout. When I turned my head, I saw…
“……Lea?”
It was Lea who was covered in blood, and she was pointing her sword at us.
By the way…….
“Why do you look so young?”
“What nonsense…”
Lea frowned and spoke fiercely.
“How did you get into the mountain? If you don’t want me to spill your guts, say it.”
“You shouldn’t say such cruel things in front of the little miss.”
My Lea said this before…
I opened my mouth and at the same time, a woman wearing a robe came running to Lea.
“What are you doing? We need to find a place to give birth right now!”
“But, sister. These guys…”
Sister? By any chance was it Reina, who died while protecting Lisette and the youngest child?
“Would such a young girl be our enemy? Hurry up.”
The woman bit her lips tightly. Then I realized
The red spinel moved me and Adrian to the past when the youngest child was yet to be born.
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