The Saintess's Orphanage

Florence and the Shikai Tribe boy stopped in front of an old building with a large garden.

It showed considerable age, but there were no weeds or vines to be seen; it was a stone building that appeared to be carefully maintained.

When they passed through the gate, a group of children playing in the garden spotted Florence and ran over.

Among them were several boys with black hair and black eyes.

“It’s Sister Flo!”

“Sis, let’s play together!!”

“I drew a picture of Sister Flo! Look!”

“Hey, who’s the kid next to her? Is he going to live with us? What’s his name!?”

“He has the same hair color as me! He’s one of us!”

“E-everyone, please calm down… This child is your new friend from today on. He’s hungry now, so first he’ll have a meal. But you can wait until dinner time, can’t you?”

Florence asked the children, and they cheerfully replied, “Yes!!”

――This was the orphanage run by Florence Cuticle.

Becoming a member of the Knights of the Stigmata grants authority and a salary equivalent to a bishop.

Florence decided to use that money to operate an orphanage.

She purchased a vacant property perfect for an orphanage, hired caretakers to look after it, and continued sending funds so the children would never go hungry.

Thanks to that, ten children were already living happily in the orphanage.

“Lady Florence, welcome.”

“Is this child a new orphan?”

Noticing Florence’s visit, an elderly couple appeared from the building.

They were the caretakers Florence had hired for the orphanage.

“Yes, please give this child a warm meal.”

“Understood.”

“It’s okay—he’s not scary.”

Gently pushing the boy who had grabbed onto Florence’s cassock, she entrusted him to the old woman.

The old woman took the boy’s hand and led him into the dining hall.

“Also, a visitor has come to see you, Lady Florence.”

“For me?”

“Yes.”

The remaining old man told Florence the visitor’s name.

Upon hearing the name, Florence hastened to the reception room.

＊＊＊

“Lady Sheena!? Why are you here!?”

“That’s my line, Flo.”

The visitor in the reception room was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail.

She was the foster parent who raised her after her parents’ death, and also her mentor—the Third Stigmata, Sheena Aytel.

“Children caring for children—what a world. Doing this without consulting me.”

It seemed Sheena had learned somehow that Florence was running an orphanage and had come to inquire.

Her reproachful tone toward Florence was tinged with exasperation.

“Indeed, I should have consulted you first, Lady Sheena. However, I am no longer a child. I am one of the Knights of the Stigmata. I have been granted authority equivalent to a bishop, and I can take responsibility for my own actions. Therefore—this is a decision I made on my own.”

Though only twelve years old, Florence lamented the fact that the Shikai Tribe still faced discriminatory sentiment.

However, Sheena’s aversion to the Shikai Tribe was particularly notable among the clergy and had reached a pathological degree.

There was no way she could consult Sheena about operating an orphanage that even accepted members of the Shikai Tribe.

“Ha… you really are—so much like Lady Frances.”

Hearing Florence’s defiant proclamation filled with strong will, Sheena sighed as if resigning herself.

“To your mother… is that so…?”

“Lady Frances was an extraordinarily gifted user of healing magic—thus she was called the saintess who killed the most of the Shikai Tribe. Yet she was also someone who, to the very end, opposed the Shikai Tribe hunts. In truth… she cared for the Shikai Tribe more than anyone.”

Sheena looked distant, recalling her former master.

She overlaid the image of the Saintess of Mercy onto the young girl before her.

Those determined eyes were—indeed—the Frances she had known.

“Then… Why did my mother persecute the Shikai Tribe…”

“Because the College of Cardinals took you hostage.”

“Hostage…?”

Twelve years ago, the College of Cardinals appointed Frances Cuticle as commander of the Shikai Tribe hunts.

However, Frances, who at the time was the Third Stigmata of the Knights of the Stigmata, refused.

But she could not defy the College of Cardinals, the highest officials of the Holy Church, and they took Florence, who was then an infant, as a hostage.

The Cuticle family had been a lineage of clergy registered with the Holy Church for generations.

She could not abandon her faith and choose a secular life, so Frances had no choice but to obey the Cardinals’ orders.

In two years, Frances annihilated three tribes of the Shikai Tribe, and then lost her life in the war with that third tribe.

And on her deathbed, Frances entrusted two-year-old Florence to her subordinate Sheena.

“This building—used to be the orphanage Lady Frances ran.”

“M-my mother did!?”

Sheena looked out the window from the reception room.

There, children who were not hungry played innocently.

Among them were members of the Shikai Tribe, yet among the children there was neither discriminatory sentiment nor a sense of being discriminated against.

It was proof that Florence’s upbringing had been thorough.

“That elderly couple of caretakers too.”

The elderly caretakers were the first to come when Florence put out a call for orphanage managers.

But she had never heard that they had once worked here.

“And I—was raised in this orphanage.”

“…What!?”

Stunned by the shocking fact, she couldn’t organize the information.

This building had once functioned as an orphanage.

And the operator’s name had been her mother, Frances Cuticle.

Furthermore—Sheena said she was from this orphanage.

“I’m truly surprised. Everything is just the same.”

Sheena stroked the reception room table nostalgically.

Florence barely remembered Frances.

Nevertheless, as if inheriting her mother’s will, she opened an orphanage and began protecting the Shikai Tribe, as if to atone for the sin of the Shikai Tribe massacres.

Despite the fact that in the past Sheena had persistently and exaggeratedly lectured her about the harmfulness of the Shikai Tribe.

Therefore Sheena had no choice but to yield.

“I never opposed you from the start. If that is the path you have chosen, do as you please.”

“Lady Sheena…”

“But be mindful. If you merely wish to help visible orphans and Shikai Tribe members to satisfy your pride, then what you are doing now is fine. But—if you say you want to eradicate all the hunger and prejudice that pervade this country—then that will be a path of carnage that many saints have aimed for and fallen midway through.”

“—I am already aware of that.”

“Heh, I thought you’d say that.”

Sheena rose from the sofa and patted Florence’s head.

“Lady Frances opposed the Shikai Tribe hunts to the very end—even in the midst of war—but still I will not forgive the Shikai Tribe that killed Frances. Therefore I will not help you. Struggle as much as you can—aim for the end of endless salvation until the moment you exhaust yourself.”

“…Yes!”

Florence answered with eyes that had steeled themselves for the task.