The Baby Raising A Devil - Chapter 51

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 51

“The orphanage where Young Lady lived was more run-down than other facilities. The children were overcrowded too. They say six or seven children slept together in that room.”

Isaac was deeply shocked.

Six or seven kids slept together in a place less than half the size of his dressing room?

‘Is this place hell?’

Leblaine was selected as the Child of Fate in the middle of this year and only moved to the Imperial Palace in autumn.

That means she lived in such a place until this year.

Come to think of it, Leblaine had aspects that weren’t childlike from the beginning.

She rarely begged for toys, coveted anything, or threw tantrums. Having grown up in such a place, it made sense she wouldn’t know how to want things.

Isaac’s face was gloomy as he left the Administrative Office, and Henri’s eyes were dim.

“I scolded the Little One at first, asking if she even knew how to eat carrots…”

“…”

“She grew up in a place where she’d have to starve if she didn’t eat even carrots.”

Beside Isaac, who was muttering gloomily, Henri was also feeling regret.

“Do you think being adopted makes you really my sibling? Don’t be ridiculous. Where is there anyone who truly considers an orphan with not a drop of shared blood as family?”

Why did he say such things?

His chest ached as he remembered Leblaine blinking blankly after hearing those words from him.

“I’m going to teach the Little One that she can now beg for toys all she wants and stay in a nice room.”

“Yeah.”

Both of them clenched their fists tightly.

* * *

After eating until my stomach was about to burst, then sleeping for another twenty straight hours, my mind finally returned somewhat.

And as soon as my mind returned, I clutched my head.

‘I must have gone crazy!’

“Lebu’s room is small and dark. So it’s not my room. This one is big and pretty, so it’s not my room!”

Remembering myself saying that while sobbing made me incredibly embarrassed.

“Here, Young Lady, please have more. I brought this without Lady Lea knowing.”

I rolled my eyes at Yuni, who was offering me a donut with a determined expression.

“I don’t want to eat anymore.”

“It’s okay to want things like this! A big, pretty room, delicious snacks – it’s okay to want them…”

Yuni’s eyes welled up with tears as she said this.

‘No, it’s not that – it’s because I ate too much…’

Even for me, eating five pancakes and then adding donuts on top would be too much.

Because of yesterday’s incident, the way people looked at me had become terribly pitiful.

The maids piled up snacks and gave them to me while tearfully saying, “If you need anything else at all, please be sure to tell us.”

The retainers also sent me toys and food.

After yesterday’s incident, it seemed how I had been living had spread publicly.

Wherever I went, there were only teary-eyed gazes, making me feel burdened to death.

‘Let’s escape.’

I should kill time in the greenhouse until the moisture disappears from those gazes.

I grabbed my elephant bag and stealthily backed out of the room.

Only after putting down my bag in the empty greenhouse did I let out a sigh.

‘I should think about the trading company business.’

Seria and the Duke had struck a deal.

Even after securing enough Spinel, the Duke said he would buy all the Spinel being mined.

It seemed he was planning to use Spinel to have a power struggle with the Temple.

‘Then I’ll be the only one benefiting from this whale fight.’

If the Duke buys tons of Spinel, my warehouse will be bursting.

The Temple will be screwed and have no choice but to sell the Spinel Mine.

If I buy up the mine too, I’ll have a Spinel monopoly!

I laughed with an “ehehe.”

I bought Spinel Transformation Paper and funded Seria’s trading company launch, so I’m completely broke right now, but I’ll be rich soon.

“Hmm, hm, hmhm.”

Humming a tune, I scribbled on the letter paper I had prepared in advance.

[To Seria.

I’m glad to hear you’re doing well. I’ve decided on 【Hope】 as the trading company name. Please use this name for future transactions.

I’m looking everywhere for people to escort the trading company. The chairman’s soldiers are Dubbled Territory residents, so they have to record entry and exit every time they come and go. He said they might get their tails caught, so it would be better to find people from outside. I agree with that idea.

And I heard you first met the chairman a few days ago. Why on earth did you two fight? You’ll be working together from now on, so I hope you get along well.

P.S. Seria called the chairman an annoying old goat, but I think he resembles a leopard more than a goat─]

─I was writing up to that point when I sensed someone’s presence and startled, quickly stuffing the letter into my bag.

“Ah, there you are.”

It was Isaac. Seeing me, he waved his hand frantically and shouted toward the door, “Elder Brother, she’s here!”

Then he ran over to me.

“Isaac, hello.”

“Hello.”

“But what’s that?”

I tilted my head looking at the jewelry he was holding.

“They said you were the only one who couldn’t play with this kind of thing at the orphanage?”

How did he know that too?

There were jewelry toys at the orphanage, and they were very popular because they were quite elaborate for children’s toys.

The leader-type kid monopolized them and only let his favorite kids play with them, so I never got to play with them even once.

“Yeah.”

“Now play with them to your heart’s content.”

Saying that, he thrust the jewelry into my arms.

‘Are these toys?’

They looked exactly like the real thing. I picked up what looked like an amber necklace and was examining it closely when I flinched.

‘Isn’t that a beetle in the center?’

Amber is a gem formed when pine resin hardens, and sometimes insects get trapped inside like this.

Having insects and such inside actually makes them more valuable.

Do they really put real beetles in children’s toys?

As I examined it closely, I flinched.

“I, I, I, Isaac.”

“What?”

“Th, these are real… real gems!”

“Of course they’re real?”

How can you tell a little kid to play with real gems?

I quickly returned the gems to Isaac and clutched my pounding heart.

‘Calm down. I’m going to be rich. Once Seria safely completes the deal, I can buy ten of those things.’

I tried to think that way, but having been a beggar in my past life and never even seeing such gems in my first and second lives, I couldn’t easily calm down.

“Don’t you like the amber? Then play with diamonds.”

He then handed me a diamond so large I needed both hands to hold it.

It was a huge, enormous diamond that would belong in the Imperial Consort’s jewelry box.

‘Even with money, I couldn’t get something like this.’

“Isaac, if you bring things like this carelessly, His Excellency will scold you.”

“It’s not His Excellency’s. It’s mine.”

“Huh?”

“I brought it from my second jewelry storage.”

“…How many jewelry storages do you have?”

Isaac blinked as if asking why I was saying something so obvious.

Henri, who had entered the greenhouse, saw me trembling while holding the diamond and scolded Isaac.

“What did you do to make Leblaine so scared?”

“She doesn’t seem to like my gems.”

“That’s why I told you to get them from my third warehouse. Yours are just big.”

“Then let’s give her this too and bring better ones from Elder Brother’s warehouse.”

“Okay.”

…I felt sorry for myself for thinking I had become rich.

The aura of truly rich people was dazzling.

* * *

“Little One, so what do you want to do? Should I buy you clothes?”

“How about bringing a dessert artisan from the Imperial Palace?”

“I’ll build you an amusement park.”

I glanced sideways at the two people shouting about doing this and that for me.

“It’s okay.”

If I enjoy too many things in the Empire and then go into exile, my standards will only get higher.

Spinel is enough for me.

‘So I need to quickly find merchant group escorts and establish trade beyond Dubbled.’

Isaac’s eyebrows drooped.

“Should I kill the orphanage director for you?”

“Why the director?! (Why the director teacher?!)”

I asked in surprise, and Isaac frowned.

“You said they made seven or eight people sleep in such a cramped, dirty room. The orphanage must receive government support, so if the rooms were that dirty, they must have embezzled the funding.”

“That’s because the orphanage wasn’t run by the government.”

This country’s orphanages are divided into three categories.

1. State-run orphanages that receive Imperial support.

Orphanages built by the state, with administrators sent down as operators. So the facilities are good, and the support is decent. When they come of age, they even provide settlement funds later.

2. Public orphanages that receive support from temples or nobles.

Orphanages that have received suitability evaluations from temples and noble families. It depends on who’s supporting them, but they’re generally good places.

3. Private orphanages run by commoners.

Orphanages built for the purpose of subsidies. Since even small amounts of tax money are used, they do receive inspections, but it’s mostly just for show.

Above all, since commoners can’t operate them like state-run or public ones, they’re naturally the worst places.

Unlike other places, they’re completely unmanaged, so hardly any children get adopted.

So parents who can’t raise their children, or parents who don’t want to pay child taxes, leave them there and come back to pick them up. These parents were the private orphanages’ second source of income.

And the place I was at was exactly the third type of orphanage.

They raised real orphans like me because they needed them to keep up appearances, but we didn’t receive much attention.

The director took care of children in order of how much money their parents paid, and children whose parents would definitely come to pick them up.

‘That’s why I tried so hard to be loved by Duke Amitie and Duke Valois.’

Still, it was thanks to that orphanage that I survived without dying every time until I went to the Empress Dowager.

‘Wait, orphanage?’

Mentioning the orphanage, something suddenly flashed through my mind.

In the future, there are four knights who reach the pinnacle of all knights.

The knight rumored to have slain a dragon, Duke Amitie.

Isaac, called the genius of the century.

Surir, the holy knight known as the nightmare of the battlefield.

And Zachary, the master of military strategy.

Zachary is from a private orphanage.

He was said to be a gentle and thoughtful person.

‘If it’s Zachary, I could trust him with merchant group escort duties.’

And coincidentally, the orphanage he was supposed to be at was nearby.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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