Chapter: 212
It took a full day for her to grasp the situation. For some unknown reason, it seemed she had become one of the orphans being abused at the orphanage where little Lian was.
At first, she was incredibly confused, like someone who turned into a child during a trip to an amusement park, but now she felt somewhat calm.
“Okay, uh—.”
“Ahh…”
She had to keep an eye on the scrawny Lian, who seemed like a baby bird, and there was no time to be lost in her confusion.
Since arriving in this unknown world, there were three realizations she had come to.
The first was that the invisible force protecting her from the god was still there. Thanks to that, when the director tried to kick Lian, who Noah was cradling protectively, he writhed in pain on the ground as if he had kicked a stone.
With broken toes and being taken to the hospital, she figured they were safe for now.
The director, screaming like a banshee, was soon carted away in an ambulance.
When the ambulance arrived at the remote orphanage, a heavily made-up woman and a sharp-voiced, scrawny woman shoved the children roughly into a room, locking them away.
They locked the children up to avoid being caught for the abuse, though Noah didn’t realize that part. In her world, human rights were practically non-existent.
The second realization was that this world was completely different from the one she lived in.
Though she had half a clue while passively watching Lian being abused like a movie, she was certain after seeing the white iron carriage through the barred window.
“Drink some water.”
Noah organized her thoughts and handed a lukewarm cup of water to the munching Lian. He flinched and shook his little head before bowing it low.
“Then I’ll drink it?”
Just then, a rough hand reached out to snatch the cup away from Lian’s side. Noah instinctively swatted the approaching child’s hand away.
Smack!
“Ahhh!”
The kid, who tried to grab the cup, let out a terrified squeal and scampered back. Fear, anger, and defiance swelled in the child’s eyes.
This kid, just like Lian and Noah, was also an abused child but had a rough personality.
With the only adult around being the director, who ruled the orphanage with violence, this was somewhat of a predetermined outcome.
The kid clenched their fist, mimicking what they had seen.
“Why’d you hit me! Why! What did I do wrong?!”
To vent their frustration violently, they swung a punch at Lian, who was closer. Cleverly enough, the kid seemed to want to assert power over someone weaker to show their own strength.
As the uncoordinated hand tried to grab Lian’s hair, he instinctively squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the impending pain.
Thwack!
Instead of pain, a clean sound that could make someone say “That’s refreshing!” rang out. Opening his tightly shut eyes, he looked up to see Noah staring at him with a stern expression while looking behind him.
Cautiously, Lian turned to follow her gaze.
“Ah! Ugh!”
The lukewarm cup of water rolled on the floor, and the kid was rolling around clutching their forehead. It seemed Noah’s thrown cup had struck the child’s forehead.
As Noah glared at the kid with a look of wanting to eat them alive while sneaking her chopsticks, Lian instinctively reached out, grabbing her hand.
The fierce glint in her eyes softened, turning into a cute round gaze.
Lian felt bashful, enjoying the tender look behind her fierce demeanor. Though he wanted to say something, it felt like his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth.
“Ah, are you thirsty? Sorry, I’ll get you more right away.”
She stood up from the little chair made for children to fetch water in a new cup. The furniture was tailored to children to extort money from the sponsors that occasionally visited.
Lian was startled and jumped up when Noah seemed about to step away. His fluffy little fists were restless, gripping his own clothes tightly, while with his other hand, he desperately clung to Noah’s hand.
Noah hadn’t reincarnated into one of the orphans but had merely become younger, resembling the other kids but being considerably taller.
That allowed Noah to gaze down at the little angel—no, the little Lian—who was hesitantly swaying back and forth.
Though his skinny body and the wounds left on him tore at her heart, it didn’t diminish his cuteness.
Little Lian looking up at her with sore, pleading eyes, following her like a chick following its mother, quickly melted away any leftover discomfort she felt.
“Shall we go together?”
“…!”
His previously sulky face bloomed like a flower. Noah grabbed Lian’s hand tightly as she moved to fetch water. Behind the two, unpleasant glances followed them.
More specifically, the looks aimed at Lian felt like unpleasant globs of muck.
The third realization she came to was that for some reason, Lian was also being disliked by the other children at the orphanage. Without any reason at all.
Noah firmly held onto Lian’s tiny hand and pursed her lips tightly.
She didn’t understand why she had grown younger or why she had come to this weird world, but as long as she felt Lian’s soul emanating from the little boy in front of her, she would protect him until the end.
That was her vow.
*
“Why does our daughter seem so weak today?”
Jess scowled as the gorilla-shaped man with an oily expression spoke to her while shoving a piece of meat into his mouth.
Ignoring his words and continuing to eat, the man, referred to as her father, gazed at her in shock and began to whimper.
“Huuhh… You don’t even talk to Daddy anymore… Honey…! Our daughter is!”
“You don’t have to shout so loudly; I can hear you.”
A red-haired woman in a pink lace apron entered, holding a boiling pot in her bare hands. With a cute cat-like face, she looked exactly like Jess. It was apparent which parent’s genes had won out.
“It’s about time our daughter hits puberty!”
“Pu-puberty?!”
The man imagined Jess slamming the door behind her, shouting, “Dad, stop doing my laundry with mine! I really hate it! It stinks!” and turned pale.
“Why are you so shocked over something like that? It’s about time for you to start dating!”
“I-I-I have a boyfriend?!”
Bang!
The man, who had merely tapped the counter lightly, made the table lift off the ground before it settled back down.
“My… beloved daughter… You don’t have a boyfriend, right? You wouldn’t! There’s no way someone like that could exist. Haha! Just a little joke—”
“Yes, I do.”
“Uh…?”
“Oh my.”
Jess confidently placed her chopsticks next to her now-empty bowl and spoke with certainty.
“I have a husband!”
“W-whaaaat?!”
The father, utterly broken, malfunctioned, and the mother, eyes sparkling, gasped.
“Who? Who’s he? Is he handsome? Huh?”
“Yeah! I have to go see my husband, so I’ll be off now!”
“W-wait a sec…”
By the time he raised his hands weakly, Jess had already grabbed her bag and dashed out of the house.
Clunk, ding-ding.
The sound of the door closing echoed like thunder.
“Daughter! Explain! Explain!”
A frantic voice called after her, but for Jess, the priority was to catch a glimpse of her beloved.
‘If only I could stick by his side all day…’
Jess dashed faster than a bicycle, pouting her lips. Two male students raced alongside her, but while looking at Jess as she sped away, they ended up tripping and ending up in the hospital, but that wasn’t something Jess needed to worry about.
Her mind was completely filled with Lian.
As she got closer to school, more students began to appear. Running between the crowded students, some kids tumbled down from the rushing wind. Jess clicked her tongue and lightly jumped onto a house wall to sprint. When there was no wall, she ran across the low roofs.
With movements faster than a cat disappearing in a flash from view, most students thought they were seeing things.
Some students whipped out their phones to capture the moment, but not even an afterimage remained on their screens. Some shouted about seeing a ghost, while others thought they were hallucinating.
Whether the path to school was noisy due to her or not, she quickly made her way to school.
In a flash, she leaped over the green iron gate and strode confidently into the school building.
“Phew…”
Her steps halted in front of the classroom storing instruments on the second floor. It was nearly at the end of the corridor, a rarely visited spot.
“Hey, say something.”
“Got no mouth?”
Just then, a ferocious voice came from outside the window. Since her original destination was the back of the school where the sound came from, she hesitated not at all, flinging open the window and jumping out.
“What the—?!”
“What—what’s happening?!”
Jess landed on top of a delinquent who had been bothering Lian, cushioning her fall. Popping up, she brightly smiled at the stunned Lian, whose eyes had widened in surprise.
“Good morning!”
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