TPFR 08

Chapter 8

Only after seeing that expression did Vianna run away as if fleeing outside, leaving Prim who had fallen on the floor behind.

Prim remained frozen for a moment. Then she sighed and used the strength in her arms to barely climb onto the chair. The empty box was lying on the floor, but she no longer had the strength to pick it up. The arm she had strained trembled slightly.

The children came back with their arms full of wild raspberries. The children who ate the sour ones that were not fully ripe scrunched up their faces and waved their arms around, while those who ate the sweet ones smiled brightly.

“Prim? Did you drop this?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I dropped it by mistake.”

Rosien, who had brought a wooden bowl filled with wild raspberries, picked up the box of violet candies from the floor and looked around.

“What happened to your hand?”

The spot where she had been pricked by a hangnail had turned red.

“Ah, I don’t really know. I guess I scratched it somehow.”

Rosien’s expression went blank for a moment before returning to normal. He smiled brightly and said,

“Here are the wild raspberries. I picked a lot, so we can eat them until tomorrow.”

The freshly picked wild raspberries sparkled transparently, as if each one were made from a red ruby. Prim thought to herself.

It would be nice if we could make jam out of them and preserve them.

But sugar was a precious thing in such a poor place, so they probably did not have enough to make something like jam right now.

As they sat side by side on the bed, popping the sweet and sour raspberries into their mouths, Rosien suddenly said as if he had just remembered something.

“Vianna was the only one who didn’t come to pick raspberries.”

“……Oh, was she?”

“Where did Vianna go?”

Prim felt strangely embarrassed, so she stuffed more raspberries into her mouth and mumbled something like, “I don’t know.”

Rosien only swung his legs and enjoyed the raspberries with Prim without asking any more questions.

“It’s always so terribly remote whenever I come here. Priest, if you don’t have the ability to do it, shouldn’t you just stop running the orphanage? I’m saying this for your sake. The children suffer, and so do you. Goodness.”

After greeting the orphans and returning to the office, the Baroness spoke sympathetically as soon as the door closed.

“I will do my best with everything I have.”

“And I didn’t even know that my Varin’s temple was still here until I came here. I was even saying, ‘Who was Varin again~?’”

The Baroness covered her mouth with a fan and spoke with a face full of sympathy.

Priest Marceria could only force a smile.

If it were not for the money she secretly earned by selling recommendations for the perfumer qualification exam, and the donations the Baron and Baroness had willingly given, it would have been difficult to survive the winter.

‘Varin, please forgive me for remaining silent…….’

While Priest Marceria silently prayed in her heart for a moment, the Baron, who had been quietly looking at the children gathered outside the window, finally spoke.

“So, about that. We would like to adopt a child now, Priest.”

Priest Marceria brightened.

It had already been several years since they first began visiting.

“Oh, Varin. Is that really true? Varin will also praise your mercy. Then, Viann……”

The Baron interrupted Priest Marceria with a sly smile.

“We would like Prim.”

“What?”

Priest Marceria asked in surprise.

The Baron tilted his head as if he could not understand why the surprised priest was so confused.

“Why are you like that, Priest?”

“Ah, no…… I just…… What about Vianna? I thought you two liked Vianna very much.”

Priest Marceria knew very well how much Vianna had been waiting for the Baron and Baroness to visit.

Hadn’t the two of them even indirectly suggested that they would take Vianna as their daughter?

Of course, ever since Prim came to the orphanage, the couple had only paid attention to Prim, but still……

“That child isn’t bad either. But how should I put it? She’s too calculating. Goodness, every time I see her, it’s so obvious that she’s trying to make us like her. It gives me the creeps.”

For a moment, a deep wound formed in Priest Marceria’s heart.

Why do you think that child wanted you to like her? It was all because……

“Priest, just because we go around doing good deeds doesn’t mean we’re fools. It’s obvious what those children are trying to do.”

The Baron explained it as if teaching her something.

The Baroness raised one eyebrow and asked in a somewhat doubtful tone,

“Surely, Priest, you don’t favor only Vianna and think that Prim, who hasn’t been here long, can just be adopted later because it doesn’t matter, do you?”

“What? Ah, no, no! Of course not. What do you mean?”

“Are you angry with us right now?”

“It’s not like that……”

Priest Marceria swallowed and hurriedly explained.

“Of course I care about that child too. I’m very…… very happy that such a good opportunity has come to Prim. But Prim is almost like siblings with Rosien……”

“My goodness, Priest! Don’t even say such outrageous things. I’m only overlooking that unpleasant red-haired boy because I respect your face. Isn’t he a mixed-blood of a magical beast? No matter how neat and handsome he looks, it only gives me the creeps. That’s all because he’s trying to charm humans, isn’t it?”

“That is a misunderstanding among the people. Having red hair has absolutely nothing to do with being related to magical beasts……”

“Enough. You only need to give us Prim.”

As Priest Marceria looked at the couple asking her to ‘give’ them a child, she struggled to maintain her smile.

Even after the Baron and Baroness left, the orphanage remained somewhat chaotic until the next day.

Priest Marceria spent another entire day pacing around.

Only when evening came and the sun was about to set did she finally sit Prim down in front of her and bring up the subject.

“Those two people…… said they want to adopt you.”

Prim remembered the Baron and Baroness leaving after paying attention only to her until the very end.

And she remembered Vianna, who had finally shed tears after secretly watching them.

The time had come.

“Priest.”

“Yes, Prim. Tell me.”

If she said she did not want to go, Marceria would not send her away.

She would do so even if it meant refusing the money the people who adopted orphans provided as support.

Just as she had done in her previous life.

“I actually have a dream.”

“A dream? What kind of dream?”

Although it was a strange thing to bring up while talking about adoption, Priest Marceria listened carefully to Prim.

Prim spoke each word carefully.

“I want to become a perfumer. I want to become a perfumer and offer fragrances to Varin.”

“Oh, my! Varin will be so happy too! That’s right, Prim. You have talent. You could always identify every fragrance, couldn’t you?”

“So, Priest, I want to take the perfumer qualification exam that will be held soon.”

Priest Marceria had been excited about the future dream of the orphan she was raising.

But after hearing Prim’s calm plan, she became embarrassed, slowly lowered her arms, and covered her cheek.

“Uh, that perfumer exam……”

There was no age restriction, but wasn’t Prim far too young to take such an exam?

Even if she took the exam being held next year, Prim would only be eleven years old.

But before that concern could fully take shape, Prim spoke first.

“I heard there is an amazing perfumery at the Baron Corvas’s villa. They said they would let me use it if I wanted to. So, how about I practice there and take the perfumer exam next year?”

Even as she spoke, Prim was a little nervous.

She knew herself that what she was saying was somewhat unreasonable.

The only time Prim had shown anything resembling talent since coming here was when she could identify spoiled ingredients.

Other than her determination right now, she had not proven anything.

But Priest Marceria smiled warmly.

“Yes, that will work! Then I will come to get you when it is time to take the exam.”

The perfumer qualification exam was administered by Luminoxia Isla, and a recommendation letter from the relevant diocese and the recommending priest were required.

Even a poor and insignificant diocese had the authority to write recommendation letters because it was still a place where a temple of God existed.

That was why Marceria had secretly sold those recommendation letters until now.

Once a year, after selling a recommendation letter, she did not have to worry about putting bread into the mouths of the orphans for a while.

Even though her expected income had suddenly disappeared, Priest Marceria still had a smile on her face.

“I am very happy to think that an excellent perfumer will come from our diocese.”

Prim gave a faint smile.

The reason Prim brought up her dream of becoming a perfumer was not only to honestly tell Priest Marceria about her dream.

Now Priest Marceria would tell the Corvas couple.

She would tell them that Prim planned to take the perfumer exam and that she would soon come to take Prim away for the exam.

If that happened, then at least until just before the perfumer exam, Baron and Baroness Corvas would not do anything reckless.