Let’s Block the Ruined Route in Advance Chapter 48

“Human, why are you looking for the children?”

 

“I’m not Human, I’m Eileen, and I told you it was a coincidence that I found the kids.”

 

“Ha, you expect me to believe that?”

 

“No. No windows. How bad is that for their lungs? Are they eating well?”

 

“What do you care about?!”

 

“Look at their belly!”

 

“Snakes are naturally elongated!”

 

Lua and Moa looked back and forth between Laquerta and Eileen with puzzled faces.

 

“Sis, is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

 

“I think it’s good because Brother Laquerta is at least talking to people, right?”

 

Moa shook her head in confusion as the two young snakes felt a tingling sensation in their heads, and then, with a poof, they transformed into tiny children. Lua was a girl with lemon-colored hair that reached her waist, and Moa was a boy with hair that reached his neckline.

 

“Whoa, they’re back!”

 

The children tumbled out of the basket and began to put on the clothes in the basket. 

 

Eileen thought it was a collection of tablecloths or something, but it turned out to be a pile of clothes.

 

*Twist, twist.*

 

Eileen’s face grew darker and darker at the sight of the humanized children. 

 

White, mismatched rags with barely an assortment of clothes. Their greasy hair and dirty fingernail tips suggested poor hygiene.

 

‘At least they’re well fed, and thankfully not too thin.’

 

The children weren’t big, but their chubby cheeks showed that they weren’t starving.

 

“Big brother, I’m hungry.”

 

Moa, who looked to be about six years old, rubbed his belly and looked at Laquerta, who glanced warily at Eileen and opened his bag. Eileen watched, swallowing hard.

 

“Well, let’s see what you’re feeding them so well.”

 

Laquerta unwrapped a piece of furoshiki, revealing a lunch box that looked familiar to Eileen.

 

“…Isn’t that a lunchbox?”

 

Most of the meals at Verotanis Academy were eaten in the cafeteria, but for students who had a lot of work or weren’t feeling well, the school would pack meals for them if they wanted.

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Right, so you packed the kids’ lunches like this every time?”

 

Laquerta handed over the lunch boxes, and the children, who cheered when they saw the menu, sat down in the corner and began to eat. There was only one lunchbox, but it was generous enough that it didn’t look like they were running out.

 

After watching them for a moment, Laquerta spoke with a hint of pride in his voice.

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Then what do you eat? I mean, how do you manage to deliver meals to the kids every time, when you have classes to attend?”

 

Eileen’s face was a mask of pure curiosity. It didn’t make sense that the academy would have packed him two meals, and it didn’t make sense how he’d gotten from the academy to the street when he needed permission to leave each time.

 

“It’s just a swim across the lake.”

 

“What?”

 

Eileen’s face contorted into a quizzical expression. She couldn’t believe they’d swim across a lake so vast that sailboats traveled it, and the bridge required a horse-drawn carriage.

 

“That distance, and it’s undetected?”

 

“You just have to be the first one there for breakfast and cross it when the water is foggy, and the last one there for dinner and swim in the dark. If I can dehumanize, I can swim ten times faster than lowly humans.”

 

Eileen groaned silently at how easily and happily he shared his secret, and she could see why she never saw him in the cafeteria.

 

“You’re a really good swimmer!”

 

“It’s because he’s a royal lizard! He’s so cool, like a dragon!”

 

Eileen felt an intense headache as the children shouted excitedly, shoveling scrambled eggs into their mouths.

 

A giant monitor lizard swims through the thick mist and darkness with a lunchbox tied to its head, and she remembers a story Felix told her a few days ago.

 

“There’s a monster in the lake.”

 

Eileen realized what the monster was.

 

“So you only eat for lunch?”

 

“It’s more than enough if I catch a fish on the way back.”

 

There was nothing more to say. Eileen thought of the original Cordelia with the children.

 

She didn’t know the details, but it was clear that Cordelia had helped improve their circumstances.

 

‘But that’s no longer the future.’

 

Cordelia’s day-to-day sword training made it impossible for her to be out on the streets every day to look after the children.

 

‘Wait. Doesn’t that mean I’m supposed to help with the kids?’

 

If Eileen took care of them herself, nothing could go wrong with them, and maybe she could score points with Laquerta and save Jessie.

 

She glanced back at the children, who were eating hungrily. They had only one set of utensils, a fork and spoon, and they were eating as if they were each taking one and shoveling it in.

 

‘Reminds me of Tommy and Lily when they were little.’

 

It was a risky move if she didn’t have the skills, but Eileen was confident. Taking care of children was what she’d done best since the orphanage.

 

“Do you want to make a deal?”

 

Laquerta’s mouth opened slowly as he considered her words.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Laquerta clamped his mouth shut as she watched the children devour their lunches. Her ears burned a little.

 

“Stupid.”

 

Looking into her harmless orange eyes, he found himself spilling the beans.

 

‘It’s the handwriting.’

 

He remembered Eileen disappearing a few days ago, leaving the note in the cabinet. When he realized that it was the same person he had seen in the alley while searching for the children, he let his guard down.

 

He couldn’t believe he’d answered the human so obediently.

 

“Lizard cub. Look away with those creepy eyes.”

 

His mother, who gave birth to him, met his father in a drunken, casual encounter and was ashamed for the rest of her life that she had a child with a Suyin.

 

‘Ha, who told her to give birth to me? I’m not going to admit that I’m her bastard child.’

 

He was his fathers’, nothing else.

 

The mistake of one day, when human and water man mingled, belonged nowhere, and enriched the world.

 

‘Reptilian monsters have no feelings,’ he thought, ‘see how they abandon their offspring and never look for them again. That’s why they’re called a forbidden tribe, they used to be sold into slavery.’

 

The maternal grandfather who took him in as a baby gave him a name that meant “lizard”. Then every night, as if reading a fairy tale to Laquerta, he would tell him gossip about the Suyin.

 

Every time he heard it, he thought to himself. ‘If the reptilian Suyin doesn’t have feelings, then what am I feeling right now?’

 

The child hid his expression, feeling his heart crack open, scarring him forever. But when the feelings that had built up in his small chest could no longer be contained, it spilled out. He decided to drop everything and run away.

 

‘Those eyes and scales. They’re creepy and give me all the goosebumps.’

 

He hadn’t been taught by the adult Suyin how to hide his true form, so he couldn’t help but unwittingly reveal his eyes and the scales on the nape of his neck.

 

‘It will be just as big as my father’s,’ he said, ‘but what does a reptile without blood or tears know?’

 

Laquerta cried a lot when he heard that. He hid his tears away and wondered if they were really tears at all.

 

“A healer’s gift? It’s certainly a valuable one, but I doubt anyone who looks like that will ever be able to heal.”

 

The temple was dedicated to supporting talented orphans, but the priest’s gaze as he looked down at him was not unlike that of someone appraising a flawed product.

 

As the venom accumulated over his wounds, he grew sharper and sharper, unable to believe in his own worth. It was his rebellion against the similarly scarred Lua and Moa twins he had encountered on his way to the Academy that led him to take them in.

 

‘I’m different. Not like irresponsible parents or emotionless monsters. I’ll prove it by raising them.’

 

He didn’t know if it was right, but his devotion to the twins was genuine.

 

It was a day of eating one meal a day and ripping open the loin of a raw fish to fill his empty stomach, but the harder he worked, the more he felt like he was proving himself to be different from his parents.

 

At the academy, he was still treated like an animal, except for now…

 

“Won’t you make a deal with me?”

 

His eyes turned cold as he looked down at Eileen.

 

“You have a purpose after all.”

 

He hadn’t met a human who hadn’t said something offensive since the old priest who’d sent him to the Academy, so maybe he’d been secretly excited and said more than usual.

 

“Humans are all the same.”

 

Eileen’s mouth opened again as Laquerta’s eyes sunk into her own as she recounted the wound.

 

“If you eat three good meals a day, I’ll help the children live in better conditions.”

 

“What?”

 

Laquerta’s face twisted as if he’d heard the wrong thing.

 

“What does it have to do with you if I eat well?”

 

“Because I have a disease that doesn’t allow me to see people starve.”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous, there is no such thing!”

 

“You’re fooled. I thought you’d be easy to fool.”

 

Scratching her cheek lightly, she muttered again.

 

“There is— it’s called K-Granma’s disease…”

 

Eileen interrupted, watching Laquerta blush rapidly, ready to lose his temper again.

 

“No, it’s not your loss, I just want to get to know you and the kids!”

 

Laquerta’s jaw dropped at the words, the blood rushing to his veins slowing to a crawl.

 

“Seriously, you know it’s not good for them to be in an environment like this. There should at least be a window…”

 

“I don’t believe you.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Laquerta grabbed Eileen’s forearm with a frosty coldness and dragged her to the door.

 

“Stop, wait.”

 

“I won’t be fooled by your pity again.”

 

He glared out the door, as if chastising himself rather than her, and shoved her out into the hallway, slamming it shut behind him.

 

“No…”

 

Eileen stared at the closed door in disbelief, then slowly rose from her seat. Apparently it was too much to convince him in one day.

 

“But it doesn’t hurt.”

 

Eileen lightly rubbed her forearm where he’d grabbed her. Unlike the bruises on her wrists from the first time she’d been caught in the alley, there was not the slightest discomfort this time.

 

She left the hallway with a slightly lighter step. The long game was familiar.