24. Orphanage (1)
24. Orphanage (1)
A month has passed since the Padix Kingdom Knights were annihilated.
Padix dispatched adventurers and knights to Mederun City again, and they arrived safely.
The problem is, they didn't launch an expedition into the Forbidden Forest where the spider monster Ners are; they just issued a massive "keep out" order.
There are many reasons for banning expeditions to the Forbidden Forest, but the fact that Ners lurk underground was the biggest issue.
They were able to enter Mederun City by teleporting using massive magic stones imbued with mana.
You might ask, "Why not just teleport from the start?" Well, one person is fine, but to teleport a large number of people, you need so many magic stones that even a kingdom would take a huge financial hit.
First of all, Mederun is a valuable trading city for the Padix Kingdom, so they dispatched adventurers and knights to prepare for the unknown, even if it meant taking a big hit to their finances.
They didn't decide to go out into the Forbidden Forest. Because there was no way to prepare for Ners' attacks, which could erupt anytime, anywhere, and anyhow.
Nevertheless, Mederun City quickly regained stability.
S-rank adventurers and the Padix Knights were always patrolling the city, giving people peace of mind, and for some reason, the Ners' attacks suddenly stopped.
Because of that, there were many opinions—some saying they should attack now, others saying they shouldn't poke the hornet's nest—but they judged that the knights' casualties were too dangerous given the Ners' ability to lurk.
Citizens think the spider monsters stopped attacking because they were full, but even if they attacked again, the city quickly regained its vitality because there were knights and adventurers to stop them now.
And the one who played a huge part in calming the citizens' anxious hearts and quickly restoring vitality was none other than the appearance of the Saint.
The title of Saint is a position that only nuns chosen directly by the Goddess in the Holy Kingdom can obtain, but the people of Mederun City called her, who appeared out of nowhere, the Saint.
Just like a hero appearing in the worst-case scenario, the Saint appeared when Mederun City was engulfed in anxiety.
Her appearance, as if the Goddess herself had sculpted it, was so beautiful that anyone who saw the Saint for the first time would be stunned and unable to say anything for a while.
Her personality matched her beautiful appearance; she smiled at everyone, never lost that smile, and made everyone feel warm and cozy.
Such a Saint raised a crumbling orphanage that hadn't received any support.
And not just any orphanage, but one that supporters had given up on and fled from because there were so many vagrants.
People were very worried at first. But just as a hero has a companion by their side, the Saint had a reliable adventurer by her side.
It was an adventurer who was evaluated as having the skills to become an S-rank in the future, having just moved up to A-rank.
The Saint's Holy Power was more powerful than any healer seen so far, and there were rumors that the strength of her Heal magic could even save dying people.
Because of that, adventurers and knights who often got injured frequently stopped by the Saint's orphanage.
The Saint healed those people without asking for much in return. Only what the orphanage needed. She received payment for the people of the orphanage, and sometimes that payment wasn't money, but small things like food or cleaning.
Because of that, adventurers and knights naturally came and went, protecting the orphanage.
Even so, because it was an area where vagrants lived and crime occurred endlessly, citizens were worried, but the Saint made even the vagrant area warm, as if embracing everyone.
The Saint didn't discriminate when performing healing activities.
Even if they were vagrants who had done bad things, the Saint healed them with a warm heart.
Before long, the underworld had declared the orphanage where the Saint lived an inviolable zone, so the Saint's influence was huge.
Of course, that didn't mean crime didn't happen.
But at least on the streets near the orphanage where the Saint was, you could no longer find corpses.
==
It's been over a month since I woke up as the Queen of the creatures.
A lot has happened in that month, but there are two most important things.
The Breeding Farm and the Orphanage.
First, the Breeding Farm.
We kidnapped about 1,000 humans and are running the farm with about 300. The remaining 700 were, of course, all used as food.
Over the course of a month, about 90% of the 300 became pregnant. I finished talking with Evolute to make the remaining 10% food if they don't get pregnant by next month.
Pregnant human women are being cared for by Yui and Erina, along with Evoluta.
You might wonder how Yui, who had her limbs cut off, can do such work.
Yui is moving with a creature that has turned into limbs. A creature that can freely transform its body, like the one Amber is wearing, is acting as Yui's limbs.
Amber is living in the orphanage with me.
The crumbling orphanage was an abandoned small two-story church. It was really just a ruin, barely an orphanage.
We used all of Amber's assets for the last meat, but it wasn't the same for Yui and Erina.
Adventurers usually said they deposit their money in a safe managed by the Adventurer Guild.
So, when Amber received the safe keys from Yui and Erina, we got all the money the two had saved up until now.
It's a bit strange that they just handed it over just because she brought the keys, but they say it's a common occurrence in this world.
Adventurers often die, and if they are declared missing—which means dead—during a quest, you can collect the money if you bring the keys like this.
There might be several reasons for this policy, but I don't really know.
Honestly, if you put your mind to it, couldn't you just kill them and take the safe keys?
Anyway, the money Yui and Erina had saved in the safe was quite a lot, perhaps because they had been active as a B-rank adventurer party for a long time.
The currency of this world is divided into the world's standard—copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, and platinum coins—like 100 won, 1,000 won, 10,000 won.
10 copper coins = 1 silver coin.
10 silver coins = 1 gold coin.
100 gold coins = 1 platinum coin.
Usually, 1 gold coin is a fairly large amount, enough to cover a month's living expenses for a family of four.
I think 1 gold coin is roughly equivalent to 1 million won in our money.
The money Yui and Erina saved together was about 300 gold coins.
Roughly 300 million won.
We are using most of that money to rebuild and maintain the orphanage.
For reference, half of the money Yui had saved was given to Yui's family.
Because Yui is my pet human.
It didn't take long to get the orphanage running normally.
I gave quests to adventurers to clean, repair, and renovate the orphanage neatly.
Once the orphanage was completely finished, I operated the orphanage with Amber, pretending to be a nun as much as possible.
Even if I built an orphanage, I had to act so that the surroundings wouldn't be suspicious.
Of course, I didn't manage the humans and children by myself. No, if you think about it, I'm just the face.
The humans I hired actually manage it.
Then what do I do?
I'm just rolling around on the bed. Sometimes I wander around Mederun City to see this world, eating the food of this world one by one, just playing like I'm on a trip.
Just because I'm in Mederun City doesn't mean I'm not managing the Colony.
With my cheat ability, Hive Mind, I can share the senses of all creatures and even communicate, so I don't necessarily have to be at the Colony to manage it.
Although I left it all to the kids, I still managed the Colony through the kids' eyes from time to time.
Dagos continues to increase the number of creatures, including Ners, to strengthen our military power; Evolute manages the Breeding Farm and Breeding Ground to increase humans and evolve creatures; and Gluttony guards the security of the Colony.
Thanks to that, I can play hard.
Even if I just turn my eyes away from the bedroom, I only see creatures—creatures swarming, bustling, rustling, fidgeting, and shashashak. Mederun City, where there are humans like me, was heaven itself.
Smiling at the children in the orphanage, healing the humans who ask for healing, and then going outside to enjoy myself with the money earned and donated by Amber, Yui, and Erina.
This is what this world is about.
In the basement of the orphanage, we made a huge cave like the Colony, and that cave is naturally connected to our Colony.
If I wanted to, all the creatures in the Colony could come out to the orphanage.
Through that cave, we are sending all the corpses of humans who died pitifully alone without family in Mederun City to the Colony.
Occasionally, criminals who no one would look for, too.
Once the area around the orphanage becomes safe and starts to grow, I plan to create an environment where human children can study.
Among the children, there are those who possess mana. As those human children grow up excellently and deliciously, I plan to establish an educational institution like a school next to the orphanage.
These are things I thought of because the orphanage started doing quite well, better than I expected, and started receiving a lot of donations.
If the children grow up and mature excellently like this, it was clear that they would become quite delicious humans among humans.
When is a human most delicious?
You can tell if you know the age when human aging begins.
Humans usually start to age physically after they pass 20.
Usually, they maintain themselves a little until their mid-20s, and after their mid-20s, their bodies start to age.
20, when both the body and brain have finished growing. That means 20 is when they are most delicious.
The orphanage doesn't just take in young humans.
We are taking care of various humans from 1 year old to 20 years old. The orphanage's policy is to let them know how to live in this world on their own and let them leave at 20.
At least, that's the policy.
Knock knock.
"Yes~"
"Lea-nim. A new child has arrived."
"Understood."
I went to the mirror in my room, rubbed my face with my hands, checked my expression by lifting the corners of my mouth with my fingers to make a smile, and followed Amber downstairs.
A quite pretty and cute human girl is fidgeting.
I smiled at that human girl and said.
"Welcome."
