“I'm talking about orphanages.”

Hearing Fran's words, Rina reflexively looked at the rubble, that had once been the orphanage in the past. But then, she realised, that the entire situation with the villagers that morning had been for nothing. After all, if Fran had known orphanages were the key, then they wouldn't have needed to ask the villagers.

“But wait... then why did we ask the villagers and the chief this morning if they had seen the cloud?”

Fran scratched her cheek awkwardly at the question. “I'm sorry Rina... I wanted to see how you would react and if you still wanted to fight for people who hate you. After all, I knew they don't like you... though the intensity of their hatred for you was more than I thought... sorry, Rina.”

Having said that, Fran expected Rina to glare at her reproachfully, but instead, she only saw Rina looking down. So, feeling how her heartstrings tugged by guilt, Fran reached out her hand, stroked her pupil's red hair, and smiled. “I am pleased to tell you that you pass remarkably, my dear pupil.”

At that, Rina looked up at the elf and smiled back. “I see... thank you.” And with that, she just stood still and let Fran pat her like this.

Unfortunately, Marianne, the guard dog employed by an overprotective mistress, intervened by removing the caressing hand from the red-haired girl's head. Then, as if to counter the glare that Fran shot at her for this action, she brought up the earlier topic again. “So you are saying that all villages with orphanages will one day face a demon attack from the cloud?”

Fran clicked her tongue very subtly so that it was only audible to Marianne before she answered the question. “...That's right. After I found out about this, I placed informants in villages where orphanages are operating... unfortunately, I didn't arrive on time in all cases...”

“If you have that money to pay informants, then why didn't you appoint guards in the first place? In fact, why were you personally travelling around the country to fight off the spawning demons? Even if you're capable, you can't be everywhere.”

The elf simply shrugged her shoulders in response to Marianne's. “I don't have the money to pay fighters who can win against demons... please remember, one demon is capable of setting an entire village in flames. Besides, you probably won't be able to find any free professional fighters anymore as they've all been hired by nobles already.”

Marianne and Rina could both clearly hear, that Fran's last sentence was full of hatred and disgust, probably directed at said nobles. Furthermore, the elf's usually beautiful face also showed that she was not in a good mood. So they decided to remain silent and wait for Fran to continue.

Fortunately, the former High Priestess's face softened shortly afterwards. “Well... even though I said informants, they were only caretakers of the orphanages, which by the way are mostly run by the temple.”

“I see... So, even though you've been discarded as the High Priestess because you've outlived your usefulness, your ties to the faithful have remained. Understood.” As Marianne finished the elf's explanation, she was careful to be particularly spiteful in her choice of words, in return for the tongue-clicking she had received moments ago.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on whose point of view it was, the potential fight between the two was de-escalated before it could even start with Rina's intervention. “Wait! Fran, does it mean that you knew the caretakers here, too?”

Rina's distress was so obvious that Fran had no choice but to drop the other matter with Marianne and focus on this instead. So, to answer her pupil's question, the elf nodded her head. “That's right, I think I know most of the people who worked here before the orphanage was destroyed.”

“Then... um...” At first, Rina hesitated to continue, stumbling over her own words out of nervousness. After all, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to know the answer to her question, because, sometimes, not knowing was better than the other option. Unfortunately, in this case, she had to find out, so after gathering her courage, she went on, “Do you know Sister Baal, and what happened to her?”

Stolen novel; please report.

When Rina saw the state of the orphanage, she suspected deep down that Sister Baal might already be dead. And even if her death had not been caused by the Demon-Spawning-Cloud or any other reason for the building's abandonment, Sister Baal had been already very old, before Rina had left.

However, instead of getting good or bad news about the person she considered her godmother, Rina saw how Fran just tilted her head in confusion.

“Pfffffff... consider your age and appearance, old hag! That gesture might look cute on Rina, but not on you.”

The old hag in question royally ignored Marianne's remark and kept her eyes on the red-haired girl. “Ahem... Rina... I didn't know you had a sister?”

“... Ah...” At first, Rina couldn't understand the origin of Fran's words, but then she remembered, that she had unconsciously called her caretaker named Baal, as Sister Baal.

The reason for this was that Baal had been wearing an outfit similar to that worn by nuns on Earth. And those nuns, to Rina's knowledge, were often referred to as 'Sister' or 'Brother' depending on gender, but regardless of age. It seemed, that her knowledge from her past life had influenced her behaviour to some extent.

So, to clear up her teacher's misunderstanding, Rina corrected herself, “I'm an only child... apparently, but that's not important. Sister Baal was one of the caretakers who was especially good to me... Although I called her 'Sister' she was an old woman... I just addressed her that way, but her name is Baal... I'm sorry for the confusion.”

After receiving Rina's apology, Fran shook her head to show that she didn't mind. She then brought her hand to her chin and thought deeply about the redhead's words, trying not to show her inner distress to the two younger girls. 'Old woman!? This orphanage was run by a bastard Baron, who only employed beautiful women to play with them, wasting all the money and leaving the children to fend for themselves... As far as I know, there was no old woman here. What's going on?'

Fran glanced at her pupil, who just stared back, waiting for an answer. 'No... this girl didn't lie to me... Damn it, there's something wrong here.'

“F-Fran? I-Is something wrong?” As Rina waited for an answer, she saw that Fran was gradually getting paler and paler. So, she got worried. “Are you okay?... Or is it maybe... that Sister Baal is... you know...?”

Under the gaze of Rina's crimson eyes, Fran was pulled back from her thoughts, and reflexively shook her head in response to Rina's question to ease her worry. But then Fran realised that shaking her head alone was not enough to answer a question with two given options. That was why she added, “I'm fine, I was just thinking... and I'm sorry, I don't know anything about your caretaker.”

“I see... Um... do you know why the orphanage is in this state in the first place? And since when? And what happened about all the children here?”

“That... I don't know either... sorry... But what I can say is, that the orphanage was abandoned before the Demon-Spawning-Cloud had appeared. After all, the cloud can drive people insane, but not destroy physical objects... though... It is possible that someone touched it, went mad, and destroyed the building as a result, but I find that possibility highly unlikely.”

“I see...,” was all Rina could mutter after hearing the elf's explanation. After all, she didn't get any useful answer from Fran at all. On the one hand, it could mean that the children and Sister Ball were still alive. But on the other hand, not knowing about their fate was bothering her mind immensely.

Marianne, who had been only watching the whole time, noticed Rina's inner conflict and thus decided to change the subject, or rather to ask something, that had been on her mind all along. “By the way, I still don't understand, why small villages in the first place?”

“What do you mean?” Fran's attention shifted from Rina to Marianne.

“Aren't there also orphanages in bigger cities? I mean even in Valhale, I know of at least three of such institutions.”

“Hmm... yeah, that's still a mystery. As I said, we still know nothing about the Demon-Spawning-Clouds.”

“But it's really strange...”

“Why?”

“I mean... If I were a demon and wanted to eat children or something, I would appear in a big city where there are many more children than in villages.”

Hearing that, Fran looked at Marianne as if she had grown a second head. “...”

“W-what?” was the only word Marianne managed to stammer out under Fran's judging gaze.

“Have you ever seen a demon before?”

“Haaah!? Of course not! Who do you think I am? I grew up in a brothel and only managed to leave that place three years ago. And since then, I've been working in a noble family's house... there's no way I could have seen a demon.”

At Marianne's exasperated answer, Fran frowned quite visibly and massaged her temple as if to get rid of her oncoming headache. “Shit... I completely forgot about this... what a blunder...”

Meanwhile, Rina's thoughts were entirely elsewhere. Since Marianne had joined the conversation, Rina started to realise something that she had overlooked throughout her childhood. It was about the one, who she considered her godmother: Sister Baal. And the more she thought about Sister Baal, the more she felt how sweat was forming on her back.

'Why didn't she find it strange that I called her 'Sister'?'