Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: 1. To Start a Business, You Need Products
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Thump. Thump.
The sound of a heartbeat echoed.
She tried her hardest not to focus on it, but she couldn't help it. Laila, pressed tightly against the Director, had a face flushed bright red, yet she refused to pull away from him.
It was far too cold for her to let a mere embarrassment make her move.
"W-Wake up! You can't fall asleep!"
"...Laila."
"Yeah, that's right. I'm here. So don't fall asleep!"
Having seen people freeze to death after dozing off in winter's back alleys, Laila did everything she could to keep the Director conscious. She unwrapped her thick layers of clothing to bandage his wounds, draped them over him like a blanket, and tried her utmost to warm him up.
But despite her efforts, his eyes seemed to grow more unfocused by the second.
"Eek!"
Laila forcibly lifted the Director's hand and placed it behind her head. It looked just like he was stroking her hair while holding her close.
It was the same hand he'd previously swatted her away with when she tried to touch him, but now there was no time for hesitation.
"Don't fall asleep! You said you'd climb the snowy mountain! You said you'd make me a noble!"
"...Noble."
"Yeah! A noble!"
"Noble...pension..."
Pension? Laila was momentarily thrown by the random word, but right now, the important thing was that he was responding.
"Pension! Noble! Pension!"
"Pension...old age..."
"Yeah! I don't really get it, but pension and old age anyway! So don't fall asleep!"
"Hoo..."
How much time had passed since she'd warmed his body as best she could and repeated the words "pension" and "old age"?
In the end, the Director managed to stay awake and regain his senses.
"Laila...are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine. What about you?"
"I think I'm okay for now. Thanks—I survived because of you. But..."
The Director looked around the cave and clicked his tongue at the entrance, solidly blocked by the avalanche.
"...looks like we'll have to wait for rescue."
"Will...rescue come?"
"The Beril Count Family is overseeing this exam, so they'll have noticed the avalanche right away. We just have to pray there's not too much snow piled up above us."
Was that how it worked? Would rescue come quickly?
While she'd been focused on waking him, she hadn't thought about it. But now, the fear and despair of possibly freezing to death here crept in.
Terrified and trembling, Laila buried her face in her knees until the crackling sound made her look up.
"What's that...?"
"Good thing I brought the luggage. At least we won't freeze to death."
He lit a fire using the ignition magic tool and melted snow in a cup.
Soon, hot water was ready, and the Director handed it to Laila.
"Drink. It'll calm you down a bit."
"...Thanks."
Slurp.
She sipped the hot water and turned her gaze to the Director, who was rummaging through the bags while watching the crackling campfire.
Maybe because he'd thrown himself into the cave earlier, his clothes were in tatters. Glimpses of his body revealed it was more toned than she'd expected, and just moments ago, she'd been pressed against that chest—
'Crazy! What am I even thinking right now!?'
They were in a life-or-death crisis, stranded. Life or death! She had to stay calm...
'Life...or death.'
What if they really died here? What if they died slowly without rescue?
Rather than that...
"...Hey, you."
"Yeah?"
"This might be really sudden."
"Go ahead."
"Why...did you take us in?"
"You're asking that after living together for a month? Obviously because..."
"I was abandoned at an orphanage as a kid. I spent years there, and they were the worst days of my life."
"............"
"That director was a monster who whipped us daily and rampaged when drunk. We were chained at the ankles and staked to iron posts, forced to work all day."
She deliberately avoided recalling those memories. They always turned into nightmares.
Nightmares of that director charging at her screaming, dragging her back to that damned chain. Nightmares of the whip cracking down.
She'd wake up drenched in cold sweat every time.
"I barely escaped from there. I secretly dug around the stake for months, covering it up each time... until I finally yanked it out and ran. I heard the director's shouts and the dogs barking behind me, but I got away somehow."
That's how Laila ended up in the back alleys.
Her escape from that hellish orphanage didn't last long before despair hit at the reality of surviving alone on the streets.
"And then...I met my siblings."
"I see."
"I survived because of them. They said they got through the day thanks to me, but it was the opposite. I would've died long ago without them."
Protecting someone. Taking responsibility.
That weight was the only reason Laila had kept going.
"So, I ended up jealous of you."
"Jealous?"
"It felt like you were taking my siblings from me. Like you were stealing my role. I hated it."
If he took them from me...what would I have left?
"That's why I was prickly toward you. Partly because of those orphanage days too."
"......... "
"If we die here...I wanted to at least ask that before going. So..."
"Don't worry, Laila."
"...Huh?"
"You won't die. Neither will I."
With his usual gentle smile, the Director approached the snow blocking the entrance and began digging it out bit by bit.
He brought the fire over to melt it and used his hands or feet to scoop away more.
Even to young Laila, it looked utterly pointless. The snow was piled impossibly high, and no single adult could clear it.
But the Director pressed on desperately, as if he didn't know the word "give up."
"Why?"
"Hm?"
"Why...go that far?"
The Director paused, looking at his hands reddened by the cold snow.
Then, replacing his mask-like gentle smile with a genuine one filled with sincerity, he answered.
"Because I have to make you a noble."
"......... "
Was it because that was her dream? Because that was her happiness?
If so, then you...
'You really...for me...'
Doing all this for orphans like me and the kids? Why?
What do you even get out of caring for the likes of us—
—I'm an orphanage director too. I just care for the orphans like one should.
—It's my job.
'Ah.'
"If you're tired, sleep, Laila. I've got the fire going."
"............"
"Just trust me and rest easy."
She wanted to help. She wanted to give him even the smallest aid. But exhaustion piled on, and his words were so warm and sweet. The crackling fire beside her was so cozy.
Overwhelmed by drowsiness, Laila slowly closed her eyes.
*
"Stop! Stop right there, you wretch!"
"Hah, hah...!!"
It was a nightmare. This dream again.
Laila was running. Dressed in rags, ankles chained, fleeing like mad.
Behind her came the most terrifying voice in the world, accompanied by barking dogs as the director chased.
"You damned brat! I'll break your legs when I catch you! Feed you to the dogs!"
Scary. Terrifying. So frightening.
Directors were monsters like that. Demons like that.
Orphanages, orphanage directors were...
"...Not like that."
What was she thinking? Look behind you. The demon chasing you is proof. Directors are like that. If it catches you, you'll be dragged to hell called an orphanage.
That's common sense. That's obvious.
"...No."
She looked ahead. The endless darkness had given way to a new scene.
A big house on a hill. A vegetable garden with carrots. A kitchen that still smelled of burnt food today.
"Hahaha!!"
"Stop right there!"
There were her siblings, laughing purely and happily. Eyes sparkling as they immersed themselves in what they loved. Kids with dreams for the first time in their lives.
And beyond them...
"Welcome back, Laila."
The orphanage director.
Same title as the monster chasing her now, but...
"Looks like I'll have to rely on you. Will you help?"
A true orphanage director. An adult she could trust and lean on.
That's why...
I...
"...Ah."
It was the first time.
The first time she'd recalled those orphanage memories and woken without cold sweat.
The first time a nightmare ended as a happy dream.
Only then did Laila snap back to reality. Clothes draped over her like a blanket, the campfire nearly died out.
And...
"H-Huh? You?"
The Director lay collapsed at the entrance. The moment she saw him, Laila rushed over.
Bloodstains spread on the clothes she'd bandaged him with. The wound on his head was growing.
...The Director was far from okay.
"Wake up! You can't die!"
You said you'd make me a noble. You said you'd fulfill my dream.
You said you'd make me a picky eater. You said you were a pathetic adult who needed to rely on me.
"Your hands..."
As Laila shook him wildly, her eyes fell on his hands. Nails torn, covered in blood.
The reason was simple. His blood stained the snow at the entrance too.
He'd kept digging until the fire died and his hands became like this.
For Laila.
"......... "
Only then did Laila realize it. Seeing the Director devote himself to a worthless orphan, treat her kindly despite suspicion, prioritize her even in a life-or-death situation.
That Laila's dream was already right beside her.
Becoming a noble wasn't her dream at all.
"...I'll save you."
Having realized everything, Laila moved toward the snow as if entranced.
Just as the Director had worked to make her a noble, for her happiness.
Now it was Laila's turn to work to save the Director.
"We'll get back for sure."
But a child's hands are so small. Her tiny palms struggled against the hard snow, yielding pitifully little.
Laila's hands were soon covered in wounds. Nails cracking, bloodied, sharp pain surging.
But it was okay. The Director had endured this for her sake.
"Together...with Director..."
Laila no longer called him "you." She called him Director.
The man who saved her. The one she'd once envied.
And the one who became her dream.
"We'll...get back!!"
But the world is cruel. An orphan realized her dream, but that was the end of it.
The snow blocking the entrance was enormous and unyielding. No matter how hard a child tried, nothing changed. Just more bloodstains added.
It should have been that way.
Rumble rumble───!!
"...!?"
At the same moment as Laila's heartfelt cry, something collapsed.
And with it, the snow at the entrance crumbled bit by bit. Sunlight filtered through the gap.
"Ah...!!"
No time to wonder what caused the sound, or if it was coincidence or miracle. She vaguely glimpsed a massive beast-like shape, but she only had eyes for the Director.
She hurriedly widened the small gap, then supported the bloodied Director and stepped forward.
A child dragging an unconscious adult. Exhausted and weak, normally she'd cry and give up.
But Laila crawled out of the cave with the Director.
"Pha!"
The avalanche was still there. But miraculously, the snow over the entrance had collapsed again for some reason, exposing it.
Yet Laila focused only on dragging him. Careful not to hurt him more, she climbed the snowy mountain step by trembling step.
Her clothes were all used to staunch his wounds or cover him. Icy wind whipped through her thin garb.
"...Just like Director said."
The snowy mountain really was brutally hard to climb. So brutally cold.
Even so, Laila forced one foot forward.
Thump. Thump.
The Director's heartbeat. Much weaker than in the cave. It whipped her on.
One step, one step.
Step by step upward.
Even as strength faded and she collapsed, vision blurred, toes froze numb.
Relentlessly upward.
"W-We found them! Candidates!"
"Kid, you're safe now. Hand him over to us—"
"...The Director."
"Kid?"
"Save...the Director, so..."
She rambled incoherently. At her physical and mental limits, Laila didn't even notice the knights reaching out.
Nothing visible. No words audible. Vision hazy. Only venomous desperation moved her limbs.
For her, only saving the Director mattered.
Toward the peak he'd spoken of, upward she went.
"The Director..."
"...Kid."
"Step aside."
"My lord! But!"
"If the child collapses, we can help then. For now...let's watch."
The knights parted. Laila didn't even notice. Step by step, she realized she was on flat ground, not a slope.
The Beril Count Family manor. The place she had to reach to become a noble, to save the Director.
Bloodied, wounded, bruised all over.
Yet Laila never let go of the Director until the end.
"Direc...tor..."
She finally reached the summit—and collapsed.
Just as the Director had shielded her in the avalanche.
This time, Laila shielded him.