Reincarnated as the Villain Who Experiments on Orphanage Kids – Why Are the Test Subject Girls Begging Me for "Night Experiments"?

Chapter 21: The Orphanage and the Knight

The city had taken way more damage than I ever imagined.

The academy was one thing, but near the church smoke was still rising, and the market looked like the ground had been torn up pretty bad.

I watched all that from up on a roof, then headed straight for the orphanage without thinking twice.

On the way I spotted monster corpses lying around everywhere, but weirdly I never ran into a single living one.

I made it to the orphanage with zero fights.

“Everyone… looks okay, huh.”

The grounds seemed fine at first glance.

No sign that Rebellion people or monsters had broken in.

For now, that was a relief.

But no matter where I looked inside the orphanage, I couldn’t find those three kids anywhere.

A few other children were missing too.

“No way…”

Priere and the others had formed that silly secret group called the SJO Squad.

But they wouldn’t actually jump into this fight… right?

Please, just stay out of extra trouble.

Still, a really bad feeling kept nagging at me and wouldn’t go away.

Knowing Priere, she might say something like “I wanna show off my strength” and rush right in.

“Well… where should I go now?”

Now that I knew the orphanage was safe, I had two choices: go clean up the Rebellion or go look for Priere and the others.

Either way, the places I could head to were limited.

The academy, the church, or the market. Those three spots.

The damage was clearly worst there, so fights were probably happening in those places.

Out of the three, the spot with the least connection to the original story was definitely the market.

“Guess I’ll head to the market.”

Plus it was the closest from here, so it felt just right.

I took a step forward right as—

“Guh… finally made it, huh.”

A voice came from the other side of the fence.

It wasn’t a kid. It was a grown man’s voice.

I turned my head without thinking.

In the dark, a man climbed over the fence and stumbled toward me.

He was covered in blood from head to toe, breathing hard through his shoulders, swaying as he walked this way.

And on his chest was a badge I recognized.

Yeah, that badge. It glowed orange with a star-shaped mark right in the center.

“!?”

The second I saw it, a scene from the original story popped into my head.

It was the part where the protagonist comes to rescue the kidnapped princess.

The first strong enemy who stood in his way was this guy.

A high-ranking member of Rebellion—Jimbara.

He used to work as a knight.

Even back in his knight days his skills were top-notch and everyone around him thought highly of him.

He was that talented, yet why he joined Rebellion was still a mystery.

He probably had some complaints about the Holy Sword.

This country is ruled by the Holy Sword, for better or worse.

The stronger the faith, the stronger the backlash.

Well, that part didn’t matter.

The real problem was why an important Rebellion executive had shown up at the orphanage of all places.

In the original story, Jimbara should have been with the princess.

He was supposed to face the protagonist head-on when he came to save her.

That was how it was supposed to go, but—

“Cough, cough… geh…”

For some reason he was here at the orphanage.

This was clearly different from the original.

But what felt even weirder was that this guy, supposed to be one of the strongest in the story, was on the verge of death.

He kept glancing behind him over and over, acting like he was running from something.

The differences from the original were so big I couldn’t hide my confusion.

—Maybe there’s another strong fighter out there?

If so, I had to stay on guard.

Handling Jimbara was one thing, but fighting two at once would be pretty tough.

—Enemy of my enemy… friend or foe?

Either way, protecting the kids came first.

That was my job as the director.

※

[Side: Jimbara]

Honestly, that girl was a total monster.

I couldn’t see her moves at all, her power was crazy, and worst of all she showed zero mercy.

She beat the crap out of me like I was some lab rat.

I was pretty decent back when I was a knight.

Maybe I got slower with age.

But experience should count for something, right?

Somehow I managed to escape before she landed a fatal blow.

Luckily the city was in chaos and the low-ranking guys in the organization were fighting back, so I shook her off.

Having that hidden passage was a stroke of luck too.

“Heh… cough.”

Well, I’m already about to drop.

Blood’s pouring out of me everywhere, my body won’t listen, and my head’s getting fuzzy.

That’s probably why my feet carried me here to the orphanage.

“…Brings back memories.”

I can see the building.

It hasn’t changed at all since back then. Everything looks exactly the same.

Staring at it, old memories suddenly came flooding back.

“Jimbara! Let’s aim to become knights together!”

“Knights?”

“Yeah! Knights! The job where you protect people!”

“Sounds like a pain.”

I spent time here with one friend.

That guy could do anything.

He was perfect, strong, kind even to someone like me, a really good person.

He wanted to become a knight.

An orphanage kid becoming a knight was normally impossible, but every day he swung a wooden stick for practice and kept challenging me to play-fight with swords.

Those were the days.

“Jimbara! Put some real effort in!”

“Sounds like a pain.”

“You’ve got the talent, don’t waste it.”

“I’m not interested in that stuff. Eating every day matters more than protecting people.”

“Yeah, but knights who protect people are cool, right?”

“It’s just a pain.”

“Jimbara! You don’t get it at all. I’ll teach you the way of the knight myself.”

“That’s exactly what’s a pain.”

He dragged me into it whether I liked it or not.

Every single day he made me do swings and join his annoying training.

It was honestly annoying, but at the same time those days felt full.

He was so bright I never even worried about the future.

But this world is all about Holy Sword supremacy.

Your whole life depends on whether you have aptitude for the Holy Sword.

In the end, I had the aptitude. He didn’t.

That’s how we got separated.

I went to the academy. He stayed at the orphanage.

But in this country you can’t become a knight without graduating from the academy.

So his dream ended right there.

“I’m not giving up. I’ll make a name as an adventurer, get a special exception, and become a knight. So you better graduate properly and become one too, okay?”

Even so, he never lost heart.

He became an adventurer, hunted monsters, and tried to get stronger.

Because of that, I worked hard enough to become a knight too.

I kept imagining the day he would finally become one. That was all I wished for while I trained.

But in the end he got killed by a monster. Not even a body left. Probably eaten.

In the end, having or not having the Holy Sword decides everything.

Talent, dreams, fate—everything.

—The whole world revolves around the Holy Sword.

I got sick of a world like that.

So I quit being a knight.

And I joined Rebellion.

“…Brings back memories.”