Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: 5. Orphan Awakening System Open
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Fortunately, Laila's Orphan Power didn't skyrocket all the way to 530,000. She didn't even transform into a super orphan beyond the orphan human level.
It was because, unexpectedly, the Mountain Lord raised the white flag quickly.
Honestly, it was a bit surprising. Normally, a spirit like that would be overbearing or arrogant, right? It was like that at first sight, but it acknowledged reality faster than expected.
"Because I learned too well from listening to others. I have no idea what you're trying to say."
...Now that I think about it, Laila's sharp tongue played a big role. Doesn't she have talent for this stuff too?
Anyway, the Mountain Lord, still sneering in back-alley thug style while strong-arming her, looked at Laila with complicated eyes and lowered its massive head to meet her gaze.
"So what are you trying to say───"
"...The Snow King?"
Perhaps sensing through a spiritist's intuition that the Mountain Lord wasn't making strange excuses or lies. Laila's eyes turned serious in an instant.
At the same time, Laila turned to look at me. Since Laila's ownership belonged to me anyway, her will was my will. The Mountain Lord let out a cold sigh and continued.
"Recover? Don't tell me you're in a weakened state?"
"Then the reason you want a contractor is..."
I got it. As I mentioned before, spirits are a race that grows stronger just by existing. It's just that the "existing" takes an awfully long time.
Among the current Spirit Kings, there isn't a single one that hasn't gone through a spiritist. That's not why I call contracts with spirits "employment contracts" for nothing.
It's easy to think the spiritist benefits by freely using the spirit's power, but from the spirit's perspective, they lend their power for just a short time in their eternal lives and grow much faster. It's a profitable deal.
So now, only one problem remained.
"Just who the hell is this opponent you lost to?"
And with that, the whole situation became crystal clear. The Mountain Lord had fought and lost to the Snow King in the past, settled in the snow mountain for recovery, and entered hibernation. But hundreds of years of camping out wasn't cutting it for recovery, so it tried to scam an easy mark of a spiritist.
Of course, with a proper contract, even a mighty spirit like the Mountain Lord couldn't treat the spiritist like a slave, but if the gap was as huge as between the Mountain Lord and Laila, things changed. It was like the difference between a mega-corp chairman and a contract worker at a subcontractor. That's the so-called experience gap.
The fortunate part was that the contract worker's original affiliation was our mid-sized company-level orphanage. Without me, the Mountain Lord would've toyed with Laila with all sorts of words and gotten its way in the end. The reason Laila was holding strong against the Mountain Lord now was ultimately because I was backing her up.
But separate from figuring out the Mountain Lord's scheme, the root cause remained the same.
"The Snow King devoured even the Ice Spirit King?"
"Tch, got it."
Spirit Kings and the Snow King have something in common. They're both called kings. And in an empire where the supreme emperor exists, that carries quite a meaningful weight.
Spirits just have no interest in humans and aren't particularly hostile like spiritists, but beasts are different. They've always been enemies of humanity like monsters, never allies. Yet why does the empire still call them 'kings'?
It's a declaration that these beasts are mere kings, below the emperor of the empire... but put another way, it's because they're so powerful that you can't deny placing mere beasts right below the emperor.
Mountain King, Sea King, Snow King, Demon King, Earth King, Human King, Spirit King.
Each beast called a king is a national disaster, an adversary beyond measure. That's why the empire that unified the continent still pours massive military spending into maintaining its army.
'But even so, devouring a Spirit King? That's on another level.'
Maybe because it's one of the longer-lived kings, but this Snow King bastard had gotten way stronger.
And that Snow King was.
Kwaaaaa!!!
"...No way, it's only been a few days since we repelled them, and already?"
Even from deep in the cave, the rowdy noises from the surface filtered in sporadically. An avalanche—the Snow King's forces regrouping—meant the Beril Count Family was getting busy.
Looked like I needed to head up too. I couldn't let a business partner that owed me so much go under.
"Laila, stay here."
"But Director. This time, I...!!"
"I always want you to be safe."
"........."
This is real. You need to be safe so I can sell you off, and stay intact afterward to run the Orphan Farm or Orphan Net.
For some reason, the Mountain Lord wore an indescribable expression as I placed my hand on Laila's shoulder.
"I... want the Director to be safe too."
"Thanks. But like I always say, my job is to protect you. Until you can protect yourself, that is."
"........."
"You're facing a huge opportunity right now. If you really care about me, think about what's best for you, not me. After all, the protagonist of your life is you, not me."
Got it? You have to make the contract? I'm not forcing you, but do it? Awaken your orphan powers and come back?
Of course, I wanted to meddle all the way to the contract, but a contract between spiritist and spirit is forged in the spirit, not on paper. I couldn't intervene step by step.
The Mountain Lord's true intentions were all out in the open anyway, and given what Laila was doing, she wouldn't get scammed, so this much gaslighting should suffice.
"I'll trust you, Laila."
"...Yes."
I trust her ever-rising Orphan Power.
For real.
After Director Yujin left, Laila stared endlessly in the direction he had vanished. Now, in this vast cave, only she and the Mountain Lord remained.
The Mountain Lord gazed at Laila—its contractor—for a moment before quietly speaking.
"........."
"I don't like them much either."
Caught off guard by the unexpected reply, the Mountain Lord reflexively asked back.
Laila, still staring only in the direction where Director Yujin had been, answered.
"If you've spent even a week in the back alleys, anyone would think that. People are so ugly. They kill, steal, and humiliate others just to survive. Think that's only back-alley folk or orphans? Others are the same."
"And I'm the same."
"Under the excuse of surviving, for my siblings, I've stolen, taken, and run from others. I thought that was all life was, the truth of it. Other orphans too. But..."
Laila paused, as if something welled up inside her.
"The Director is different. The Director... didn't just save an orphan like me. He made me dream. Showed me there's another way to live."
"Anyone could just help orphans out of pity. Like the people who occasionally tossed me food or coins with pitying looks. But making someone dream is different. It's proof the Director truly cares about us, not some cheap pity or sympathy."
What if Director Yujin had just been kind to the orphans? Of course, that alone would be praiseworthy and respectable. But orphans raised that way would never leave the Director's arms their whole lives.
But Director Yujin was different. He didn't just offer kindness and care—he planted dreams in the orphans.
Like Eric chasing his baker's dream and gaining two fathers.
Like pessimistic, quiet Karen changing through magic.
And like Laila wishing to stand equally beside the Director.
Laila recalled the words the Director had left her with.
──The protagonist of your life is you, not me.
People pledge loyalty to money and power. And that's a loyalty that vanishes like a bubble when the money and power do.
But dreams are different. Dreams never vanish and last forever for that person. That's why the respect and reverence offered to the one who gave you dreams endures.
Orphans like Laila had no right, time, or leisure to dream. But now, she was dreaming.
"That baseless slander again?"
Laila scowled. It seemed like since she trusted and followed the Director so much, it was trying to drive a wedge with nonsense, but no chance in hell.
The Mountain Lord tried to continue with a strangely aggrieved look, but Laila turned her head first. Only then did it face her directly and flinch.
"Fine, even if that's true... so what?"
"Even if the Director's actions are hypocrisy, I've been saved by that hypocrisy."
Laila remembered her days in the back-alley slums. When she came out to Lüton streets to beg or rummage trash, countless gazes poured on her.
Not all were disgust or mockery. Rarely, there were pitying, sympathetic, regretful looks mixed in.
But none reached out a true saving hand to Laila. They just occasionally shared food to satisfy their cheap sense of justice.
"So what if it's hypocrisy? Better than pity that just looks down. I like the hypocrisy that acted for me. The hypocrisy that let me dream. Not that it's hypocrisy anyway."
"You can't tempt me with useless talk like that. So just take my hand quietly."
Laila extended her hand to the Mountain Lord. The opposite of their first meeting, when the contract nearly happened on the Mountain Lord's will.
A gesture as if Laila were offering the contract first.
"We're using each other for our own benefit, right? Not a bad relationship, I think."
Precisely because of that, the Mountain Lord could take Laila's hand. The ice spirit, having been through many spiritists, was disillusioned with humans and preferred this over flimsy friendships or bonds.
And so, Laila contracted with the Mountain Lord. It was just one line, but its ripple effect was anything but.
At the snow mountain's peak, the tiger-shaped spirit rises. Breaking decades of silence, it emerges from the snow mountain cave it's been holed up in for centuries and roars.
Its majesty truly that of the mountain's lord. Though defeated before, with a talented contractor found, there was no hesitation.
The moment the Mountain Lord challenged the Snow King once more.
Seeing the colossal ice spirit—even larger than the Beril Count Family's mansion—rise, whipping up a blizzard and roaring, I had just one thought.
'Finally released it.'
[Orphan Awakening System Open]
[1-Star Orphan Laila → Awakened 4-Star Orphan 'Ice Spiritist' Laila Released!]
Re-releasing an existing orphan with just changed stats and looks was shady, but whatever.
'Anyway, I'll just reroll it.'
Pity break? Hard pity? No clue.
Sorry on first meeting, but I'm the type that gets it in one pull...!!