I Am Sought After by Everyone in a Different World Where the Power and Chastity of Men and Women Are Reversed - 17

Chapter 17: Orphanage

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On our way back from the Adventurers’ Guild, we stopped by the market again. I received hundreds of gold coins as payment for treatments today, equal to millions of yen in Japanese currency. But, I only took 10 gold coins with me and entrusted the rest with the Adventurers’ Guild. 

I mean, what a high school student like me is supposed to do with such a huge amount of money?

“Souma, is it alright if you make dinner for us?”

“Sure, I have plenty of free time anyway.”

We shopped for today’s dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast at the market. I finished the treatment earlier than yesterday, so I still had plenty of free time at hand. I didn’t have anything to do even if I were to go back home now. Since everyone seemed to enjoy the breakfast I cooked this morning, I planned on cooking dinner too tonight. 

By the way, the Adventurers’ Guild also  sold food, so I bought some food from there for lunch today. 

“Whoa-!”

“Oops, sorry. Are you okay?”

While I was thinking about what to make for dinner tonight, I accidentally bumped into a small girl when turning at the corner. 

“I’m fine. Pretty Onii-chan, are you alright?”

….Right. In this world, a weak-looking man like me was considered beautiful. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“My bad, Souma. I didn’t notice her because I didn’t sense any killing intent from her.”

“It’s fine, Ferris.”

So Ferris would’ve noticed if there was killing intent…

“Umm… Pretty Onii-chan,would you like to buy one?”

The girl said while holding out a flower to me. Her clothes were tattered and she looked quite thin, as if she hadn’t had enough to eat for days. 

“Sure, I will take one.”

“Yay!~ It’s 5 copper coins.”

5 copper coins was roughly 500 yen. A bit expensive for a flower, but since I received a lot of money today, 5 copper coins wasn’t a big deal for me. 

“Thank you, pretty Onii-chan!

The girl smiled brightly. If I could receive such an adorable smile from a little girl like her for just 500 yen, then 500 yen wouldn’t be that expensive. 

“But, are you eating enough? If you like, I can treat you to some skewers from that stall over there.”

“Really?! Can I??”

Whoa…. She immediately jumped on the offer. Maybe her parents weren’t feeding her properly? In my original world, a grown man like me buying food for a little girl like this could easily make the people call the cops on me. 

I bought two skewers from a nearby stall, each skewer was 5 copper coins each. I then handed both of them to the little girl. She immediately devoured one skewer eagerly.

“So delicious! It’s been a while since I last ate meat! Thank you, Onii-chan!”

“I’m glad you liked it. Aren’t you going to eat the other one?”

“No! I’m going to take this one home and share it with everyone!”

“Everyone?”

“Souma, I think this child is from an orphanage.”

Ah, I see. So this world also had orphanages. She probably wanted to take the other skewer back to share with the other kids at the orphanage. I guess they didn’t have enough food to eat there. 

“What’s your name?”

“Me? I’m Riche.”

Ooh, this was my first time seeing a real tomboy girl. No, maybe tomboys were common in this world….

“Riche, you can eat that one. I will buy enough skewers for everyone at the orphanage, so can you show me the way to the orphanage?”

“Really?! Thank you, Onii-chan! Everyone is going to be so happy!”

“Elmie, Ferris, Flora, I’m sorry but is it alright if we make a little detour?”

“Of course, no problem at all. In fact,  we also want to pinch in for the skewers!”

“Yeah! I just can’t ignore it when I see little kids in trouble!”

“Souma is so kind…”

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And so, we bought skewers and bread enough for 12 children and 2 staff members at the orphanage. We then went to the orphanage with Riche as our guide. 

“So this is the orphanage…”

The orphanage that Riche led us looked so battered, like it was going to collapse any time soon. 

“Director-sensei! I’m back!”

“Riche, you’re late. I was so worried. Oh my? Who are these people?”

A man either in his fifties or sixties emerged from the building. I thought the director might’ve starved the children on purpose, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. The director of the orphanage also looked quite thin. It seemed he also didn’t have enough food to eat himself. 

“They bought my flower and treated me to meat! They even bought food for everyone here!”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Souma. I bought some food for the orphanage. It’s not much though.”

“Really?! Oh… There’s so much food… Thank you so much! I’m Marvin, the director of the orphanage. Well, as you can see, this place is a bit messy, but please come in.”

“Thank you. Pardon the intrusion then.”

It seemed this person didn’t know that I was a healer. We came inside and true enough, the inside looked as dilapidated as the outside. 

“Whoa~ There are a bunch of cool Onee-chan!”

“Adventurers! So cool!”

“Oh! There’s pretty Onii-chan oo!

There were many children in the room. Indeed, in this world, the number of women greatly outnumbered the men. Out of 12 children, 10 of them were girls. Also, not all of them were human. There were demi-human mixed in. I could see a beastkin with cat ears and dog ears among the children. They were all so cute. 

This place was like heaven for someone like me who loved children. But still, it seemed all of them didn’t have enough to eat. All of them were quite thin. 

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