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Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
As Connie declared that the Marchioness wanted to offer the children at the orphanage write a letter to her daughter on her death anniversary, the elderly nun smiled happily and readily gave her consent to go in.
“I think the children will be happy too.”
She showed no signs of doubting Connie, who had disguised herself as a maid. Connie felt a prickling pain in her heart.
―――Just a few hours ago, Connie borrowed a spare maid uniform from Martha. She had told Martha that she would be a baking raspberry pie at Kate’s house. Baking sweets was Kate’s hobby and Connie’s job usually was to help out in the Lorraine family’s kitchen and do taste testing. That’s why she would borrow a maid uniform, which would be fine to get dirty, from time to time, so this time too, she was able to leave home without anybody suspecting anything.
The alias “Letty” was Scarlet’s idea. Of course, she was also the one who came up with today’s plan. This place, Maurice Orphanage, was originally a municipal hospital that was built during the decadal war and was abandoned due to its decay. After that, the church bought the building in order to rebuild it as an orphanage, but it was the Orlamunde family which provided them with the huge amount of money needed for the renovations. That fact created a big connection between the two and as it happened, this orphanage turned out to be the place where Lily focused her efforts before she passed away.
◇◇◇
The children were running cheerfully in the yard with a fountain. The ones making merry loudly were those who would be considered young even within the facility. The older children were writing letters to Lily with the stationaries that Connie had brought.
Lily Orlamunde was using this orphanage as the school and teaching the children how to read and write. In the corner of the room was a well-used stone slab and the blackboard chalk. The impression she got from Scarlet’s stories was so strong that she’d forgotten this, but in her mind, Lily’s actions were indeed very praiseworthy.
While she was waiting for the older children to finish writing letters, Connie played with the younger kids who couldn’t write yet. Of course, she was giving her all. She ran around while still holding all the children she caught during the game of tag in her arms and even showed her masterful skills at hopscotch by kicking the stone in the circle with her heels while facing backwards. She received the eyes of admiration and the title of the hero in the blink of an eye. Even Scarlet praised her, saying that every person had at least one thing they were good at.
When children were exhausted from playing, Connie decided to make her move.
“Was Lady Lily nice to you all?”
Connie had two important missions today.
“Yup!”
“Did she ever seem down? Like, worrying about somethi ―――”
“Nope!”
“For real?”
First one was to investigate what had happened to Lily Orlamunde, which ended in failure just a second ago. As she dropped her shoulders in disappointment, she noticed that several of the older children, who seemed to had finished writing the letter, were looking towards her. Their somewhat scared expression caught her attention. The moment she tried to go to their side, Scarlet declared.
『We don’t have the luxury of wasted time.』
Yes, the first mission was a failure. And as for the second one ―――
Connie wiped the sweat off her forehead, pretended to slip and jumped into the fountain.
“―――I’m sorry, a nun’s habit is all we have. Although, we some spare clothes for children too, if you’d prefer that.”
“Not at all, this is fine. I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble.”
Rather, this is what I was after―――Unable to say those words, Connie, who had changed from her soaked garments to the nun uniform embroidered with the emblem of Maurice Orphanage, received a letter of thanks from the director and the letters from the children and left the Orphanage after thanking everybody.
The closer days got to Summer, the stronger Sun shone even during the rainy Marta. It was even more striking on a fine day as this and Connie, who was holding her luggage, was fully experiencing the scorching sunlight on her skin.
『Well then, the next is to buy flowers. 』
In contrast, Scarlet look refreshed. She probably couldn’t feel any heat.
“Huh? You mean like this?”
The maid uniform that sucked up water became bulkier than expected and her play-weary body was exhausted. Frankly speaking, Connie wanted to go home already.
However, this peerless villainess nodded with an all-knowing face, as if she had experienced all those beforehand.
『Listen well, the more time passes, the easier it is to uncover this kind of lie. The key to the success is to finish up everything before the truth goes out and quickly retreat. 』
◇◇◇
“From Maurice Orphanage?”
As the man said so and raised his face, he frowned in suspicion.
―――After leaving the orphanage, Constance Grail went on foot to the Orlamunde family. Or to be more precise, to the guard station that accepted sudden visitors who appeared without making any appointment in advance.
“Y-yes, I’m Sister Con- no, Letty.”
After introducing herself, Connie showed an envelope imprinted with the seal of Maurice Orphanage. It was the letter of thank from the director she had received just a while ago. After that, she added that the children insisted on writing Lady Lily, who had taken a big care of them, letters no matter what and that today she was there to deliver their letters and offer the prayers to Lady Lily. She even showed off the bouquet of white flowers she had just brought.
The man carefully inspected both Connie and the envelope. The envelope definitely belonged to the Maurice Orphanage and the habit with an embroidered Maurice orphanage emblem on it should have been the same as the ones the sisters who visited before wore. Even so, she Connie felt like her heart was about to burst. The guard slowly took out the stack of papers from the drawer of the desk, then chose one out of many and started comparing it with a magnifying glass to the envelope that was handed over by Connie. After a while the man raised his head and told her to wait while he went to arrange matters with somebody from the house.\n
\n\n“I-I don’t feel alive.”
Connie, who was trembling in fear over the thought that she might’ve gotten caught by the military police at a moment’s notice, patted her chest in relief after finding out that she would be safely let into the mansion. Nevertheless, her heart was still beating loudly and she was sweating rivers.
『But―――It all went well, right? 』
In contrast to the nervous Connie, the eyes of Scarlet, who still looked like usual, were shining like the eyes of a little girl who had succeeded in her mischief.
—\n
<b>Notes:</b>\n
Oh the irony of “Sister Con’
Marta (or possibly Malta) above is written as the “6<sup>th</sup> month” in kanji but read as what I’ve written down. It is also, funnily enough, written the same way as Martha’s name so there’s a chance that she might’ve been named after the month. I’ll come back to her name after we have more context.
I also changed the last sentence in the previous chapter from “I was sent to help” to “I was sent on an errand” because that’s closer to what she said…I think.
As usual, don’t forget to notify me about mistranslations, typos and awkward grammar so I could fix it right away.
I wanted to finish the chapter this month, but alas. Two more parts + a small interlude left until we go to chapter 3.
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