Thud... clatter...

"Did you find it?" I asked, turning back from between the cardboard boxes. I brushed the dust cloud off my clothes and body, coughing slightly from the particles floating in the air.

"No, not on this side," Lydia answered from across the room.

The light above us blinked and flickered weakly.

Mana stones, if kept inactive for a long time, wouldn’t work properly when you tried to use them. Just like in this case. The pale, unstable glow barely illuminated the cramped storage space.

I’d been searching through the place where Seraphina kept the belongings of the children of this orphanage.

Seraphina and her predecessor had a system. They would only give the kids their belongings back under two conditions: if they decided to enroll in an academy far away from Larkshade, or if they were moving out of town by getting adopted.

There hadn’t been a single adoption in this orphanage since it started thirty years ago.

Most of the kids from this orphanage either joined an academy through a noble’s recommendation, since the kids here all had at least a B+ divine gift, or they left to make names for themselves in the military or in a noble’s court as scholars.

Of course, Cass was always diligent enough to make sure they registered under some noble household instead of their actual parents’ names. After all, she controlled more than thirty percent of the noble households in the duchy. It was strategic.

Those were good old days...

I remembered when I’d asked Cass to help me join one of the Sinclair branch households so I could add "Sinclair" to my name. It had seemed like a practical idea at the time... a way to gain legitimacy, connections, power.

She’d looked away immediately and said, "No way."

When I’d probed further, promising I wouldn’t claim rights or try to participate in running for any position within the household, she’d said, "It’s not that..."

She’d objected to that thought seriously, her face earnest.

Then, looking away awkwardly, almost shyly, she’d continued, "I plan to keep you around for the rest of my life... It would be inappropriate if you had Sinclair in your name before... you know... we share it together."

My chest had tightened at those words. Hope, fear, warmth... all mixed together.

She was nothing like the Duchess then. Not cold, not calculating. Just... Cass. The woman who’d looked at me like I was her future.

A small smile tugged at my lips at the memory.

"Umm... why are you smiling?"

Lydia’s voice cut through my thoughts.

I looked up to find her staring at me, eyes narrowed as if she was looking at a complete retard.

"What?" I asked, my smile fading instantly.

"You’re standing there covered in dust, in a dark storage room, smiling at nothing," she said, crossing her arms. "It’s... weird."

"I was just thinking about something," I replied, turning back to the boxes to hide whatever expression was on my face.

"Must have been something pretty good," Lydia muttered, going back to her search. "You looked almost... happy."

Happy..? Huh?

I guess I had been. At least until Cass was executed...

I shook my head, refocusing on the task at hand. The ingot. I needed to find it.

"There’s nothing here," Lydia said, stretching her arms above her head. Her back arched, flexible like a bowstring.

"I’ll go search inside the orphanage... in case the previous caretaker found it attractive and took it out of the storeroom and hid it somewhere."

I paused, considering that possibility. I didn’t think it was likely since the previous caretaker shouldn’t have been able to open the storehouse in the first place. But it was best to be thorough.

"Please do," I said, nodding. "But make sure to stay in stealth. We don’t want people waking up over nothing."

"Got it," Lydia replied, already moving toward the door.

I watched her slip out silently, her footsteps making barely a sound as she disappeared into the darkness outside.

Then I turned back to the dust cloud and the endless rows of boxes, sighing heavily.

Back to work.

*************

I made sure to have my phantom cloak active as I checked through all the available rooms in the orphanage.

I moved quietly through the corridor where the children were sleeping, their small forms bundled under blankets. Then I checked the room where Serena and Sera were sleeping, both of them peaceful and undisturbed.

There wasn’t a box with runic symbols on it anywhere.

I sighed silently into the air, my breath barely making a sound.

What was in that box anyway? I’d never seen Rune freak out that much before. Not even when we faced those four B-rank threat monsters back in that undergrown. Not even when he saw the huge SBV army marching toward us. In fact, he’d handled those situations like they were regular chores.

Well... he did say this life was a repeat of his previous one. But if that was true, why wasn’t the item present where it should have been in his past life?

I sighed again. No point thinking about things I didn’t have much information on.

As I was thinking about reporting back to Rune, I’d already come downstairs and was passing through the lounge toward the main door.

"See? I told you at least someone would be awake."

A voice from beside me froze me mid-step.

I turned instantly, my body tensing.

There were two women in the lounge.

One was wearing armor, with two ex-scissor weapons strapped to her back. She was sitting on the couch with her legs crossed, and her eyes were looking directly into mine as she spoke.

No way.

I still had my phantom cloak on!

My hands instinctively went to the daggers hidden under my skirt.

"Where?" the other woman spoke. She was standing beside the couch, her arms folded neatly before her.

She wore a tight secretary skirt, and her glasses reflected the dim yellow light from the lounge’s mana stone.

"Damn, are those four eyes just for show?" the woman sitting on the couch said, her smirk triumphant as she looked at the one standing.

I inhaled slowly, letting my aura seep through the veins all over my body. I assessed them quickly.

The one standing possessed intermediate aura. Her aura output was less than mine. I could probably take her on if it came to a fight.

But the one sitting...

I couldn’t even tell her tier.

She must be stronger than Commander Tugnier. By leagues. That was the only explanation for why I couldn’t sense her properly.

If that was the case, I should prioritize escape over engagement.

"Umm... excuse me, Mr.... I-can’t-see," the woman with glasses said, adjusting them slightly as she peered around the room.

"Would you be so kind as to tell us where we can find a boy named Rune? We figured it would be disrespectful to wake everyone up here over a kid."

She bowed slightly, her gesture refined and scholarly.

"Pfft, Mr. ? She’s a girl , you four-eyes," the woman sitting on the couch said, teasing her companion openly.

A small twitch happened on the polite woman’s dignified smile.

"Pardon my disrespect," the polite woman said, still smiling at empty air... probably thinking I was standing there.

Then she walked over to the woman on the couch and—

Thump!

Her fist came down on the other woman’s head, digging into her skull with surprising force.

"That’s it! I’m complaining to Cass about your manhandling!" the rude woman, who’d been so confident just a moment ago, now rubbed her head like a kid who’d been smacked by a parent.

"Tsk. All you do is bring disrespect to her," the once-polite woman said coldly. Then she returned to where she’d been standing and bowed again toward the empty air.