Chapter Ninety-one: Orphans’ Request 4
“It’s true, Harald has very little magical power. It was so minimal that it couldn’t even be detected by our magic measuring device.”
“Huh? But the orphanage’s magic measuring device can detect even F-rank magical power, right?”
The orphanage’s magical tools were of low quality, so ironically, children with high-ranked magical power sometimes couldn’t be measured properly.
“It means he’s below F-rank… That’s probably why he was abandoned.”
“No way…”
Karen already knew this wasn’t something unheard of. Earl Horst Brahm, who had once held full control over the Ehlertt territory, was exactly such a person. Though he wasn’t abandoned, he developed a twisted ideology because of it.
“I never knew there were foods that could be poisonous to those with little magical power. I’m embarrassed by my ignorance.”
Jutta held her head in her hands and sighed.
Sara tilted her head slightly.
“I thought abandoned children often had low magical power. As the director of an orphanage, weren’t you aware of this?”
“The children in the orphanage in the adventurers’ district are basically all surviving children of adventurers, so they are more likely to have lots of magical power. Since this is the only orphanage I’ve ever known, I wasn’t aware of that.”
“I see, so there are places like that too.”
Sara said with curiosity. For Sara, it seemed common knowledge that certain things could be poisonous to children with little magical power.
“That child arrived recently, so he’s not from the adventurer district, right?”
“Yes. Harald, despite his appearance, is already fifteen years old.”
“What?! He’s of age?! He looks like he’s about the same age as ten-year-old Tim…?!”
“I know, right? But since he’s technically reached adulthood, the orphanage he was in kicked him out. I felt bad leaving him in that condition, so we took him in.”
In Sieg’s case, he had too much magical power which prevented his body from growing, but apparently having too little magic also hindered proper growth. In this world, somehow there was a feeling of pressure when magical power was depleted. Karen had checked several times, but it didn’t seem to be a matter of gravity. Perhaps something lingering in the air was inhibiting growth.
“Please keep Harald’s age and magical power a secret from others. He said he intends to find work in this place where nobody knows him. I heard he was an incredibly hard worker where he came from. He’s intelligent too—taught himself to read, learned calculations and etiquette by observing merchants, learned proper speech… But he was known for having little magical power since childhood, so he had nowhere to go. But in the royal capital, nobody knows him, and unless someone mentions it, his low magical power won’t be exposed under normal circumstances.”
“Alright, I won’t tell anyone…”
Karen nodded, still somewhat dazed.
“That child said he wanted to work for me to repay my kindness. He seems interested in learning alchemy, but alchemy requires magical power, and even I have barely enough with my D-rank. Why would he want to learn it?”
“We’ll have to ask him directly to find out.”
Just as Jutta said this, the director’s office door burst open with a bang.
“Teacher! Tim and the new kid are fighting!”
“Harald hit Tim even though Tim was apologizing!”
Small children spoke one after another. Though it was hard to understand exactly what they were saying, it was clearly an emergency.
“Let’s go stop them, Teacher Jutta.”
“Yes, let’s. Harald is still recovering—I wonder what Tim did.”
The children were blaming Harald, but Jutta seemed to think Tim had done something wrong. In the common room where the turmoil originated, Tim and Harald were grappling with each other. If anything, it looked like Tim was being one-sidedly beaten.
“Stop it! Harald! You’re still recovering!”
When Jutta shouted, Harald immediately stopped hitting Tim. He got up from where he had been straddling Tim and looked up at Jutta with dark eyes.
“Sorry… I really am… sorry…”
“Didn’t you hear me telling you not to apologize?”
Harald gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at Tim, who was apologizing with a swollen face. The children looked up nervously at Harald, who was trembling visibly.
“How terrible to hit Tim when he’s apologizing.”
“Why is Harald so angry anyway?”
“Tim was saying something about feeding Harald poison—”
Karen held her head. After asking Tim to bring the mushroom porridge and empty magic stones, she had him leave the room. But apparently, Tim had been hiding outside the room or somewhere, listening to Karen and Sara’s conversation.
“Both of you, come to my’s office. Follow me.”
“Teacher! Tim didn’t do anything wrong!”
“No, Tim did something wrong.”
Tim hung his head dejectedly, his cheek swollen. The mushrooms Tim had gathered from the dungeon were poisonous to Harald. Upon learning this, Tim, being essentially a good child, probably wanted to apologize to Harald. So he apparently apologized to Harald, who had returned from the infirmary to the common room. But Harald had refused the apology.
“Hey, Harald, I’m really sorry—”
Even on the way to the director’s office, Tim continued to apologize to Harald. Despite being beaten badly, he apparently didn’t hold a grudge against Harald. As for Harald, he glared at Tim who kept apologizing, but didn’t say anything more. Upon arriving at the director’s office, Jutta first looked at Tim.
“Tim, you have something to apologize to Harald for.”
“I didn’t know it would be poisonous to Harald, so I fed him mushrooms! He was only supposed to eat porridge for a while, but I thought they’d taste good, so I mixed in mushrooms on my own—”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Huh?”
Harald growled. Looking at Tim’s confused face, Harald said while trembling:
“Don’t say that in front of everyone…! Do you have any idea what it means not to be able to eat what everyone else can eat?! It’s because my magical power is too low! You! You revealed to everyone that I have little magical power!”
“Eh? Ah—”
“Do you think all the children can keep a secret?! Do you think adults who know about my low magical power will hire me?! Do you think I can find a job that will let me work?!”
People are first judged by their magical power. Even when it had no direct relevance to job duties, it was common for those with high magical power to receive favorable treatment while those with low magical power were treated poorly.
“I-I didn’t know about that…!”
“Didn’t I tell you not to apologize several times?! Don’t say anything here, stop it! Didn’t you hear what I said?!”
“I heard you, but—”
“You felt uncomfortable about doing something wrong, so you wanted to apologize to feel like a good person and clear your conscience! Because you wanted to feel better about yourself, you’ve ruined my future!”
Harald shouted with a bright red face. Tim, finally understanding everything, broke down in tears. Harald glared at such a Tim with eyes full of disgust.
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