Carsen’s face flushed red with anger. He’d finally realized that Ellie had sent them to the warehouse on purpose. “You!” He and his gang marched up to her. “How could you do this to me?” He grabbed her shoulders hard. Damian immediately got up but was interrupted by a sharp voice.

“What is going on?”

Everyone looked toward the door. It was the teacher who’d caught Carsen and his gang at the warehouse last night. As the children hadn’t come down after the bell rang, she’d come up to see what was going on.

“What are you doing?” Her face hardened when she saw Carsen grabbing Ellie’s shoulders. “You still haven’t learned your lesson, have you?”

“N-no, ma’am! She started it first!” cried Carsen.

“She called us idiots! She’s the one who should be punished!” another boy yelled.

They were all shouting in a panic, but the teacher wasn’t buying it. Ellie was always quiet, while the boys were constantly causing one problem after another. It was easy to choose who to believe.

“Hey! You all heard her too! Tell her!” Carsen looked around, trying to get the others to speak up, but the kids kept their mouths shut and looked away. They weren’t going to say anything.

Although Ellie usually preferred to be alone, she was always nice to them when they came to her. When Carsen and his friends harassed them, she would even come to their rescue by directing the bullies’ attention elsewhere. They all liked her for that. There was no way they were going to speak up against her.

“You little...!” Carsen clenched his teeth.

The teacher saw the glare in his eyes and pulled at him. “Stop speaking nonsense! You always resort to violence, that’s why no noble wants you!”

“But I’m telling the truth! Ellie’s the one who sent us to the warehouse last night!”

“Please believe us!” This time, they really hadn’t been in the wrong. Their voices trembled with the beginning of tears.

The teacher frowned and turned to Ellie. “Ellie, is this true?”

For a moment, nobody said anything. Ellie finally broke the silence. She spoke carefully, faking hurt and sorrow. “I was just talking back to Carsen because he was saying nonsense.”

“What do you mean?” asked the teacher.

“Last night, Damian was really sick. He had a fever.”

Damian? The teacher was momentarily puzzled, but then saw the boy behind Ellie and nodded. “And?”

“So I wanted to go to ask for medicine... But Carsen kept saying all the teachers had left to go to a gambling house.” The teacher’s mouth clamped shut. She had, in fact, been at the gambling house last night. “But I knew you wouldn’t leave us kids on our own at night, and most certainly not to go gambling!”

“That’s...”

“Right, ma’am?” Ellie ducked her head, her eyes full of crocodile tears.

Now all the kids were looking at the teacher, and her face turned red. It was time for the finishing blow. Ellie asked, “But ma’am, was the door to the warehouse left unlocked last night?”

“What?”

“The director sent me there to fetch something yesterday, so I was the last to lock the door. Then I left the key at the director’s office, so there’s no way the door was open for Carsen to go in.”

“Oh, um, that’s...” the teacher stammered. She was the one who’d taken the key to the warehouse without the director’s knowledge so she could enjoy a secret date with one of the other teachers.

Reading her dismay, Ellie said sadly, “Then I must have lost the key. I’m so sorry.”

“No, no. It’s okay. You don’t have to blame yourself—”

“No. I made a mistake, and it’s my fault. I’ll report to the director with Carsen.” She took a step forward.

But the teacher couldn’t let the director find out about all this. “No!” she yelled, then stopped, surprised by her own hasty reaction. “That’s, that’s...” In her panic, she lashed out at Carsen to divert attention from herself. “Carsen, is she telling the truth?”

“Ma’am?”

“The gambling house? Why did you tell such a lie? Because of you, Damian couldn’t get the medicine he needed. He could have gotten seriously ill!”

“No, I never said that! Ellie’s lying!”

“You will be punished for your lies. Follow me.”

“No. I swear!” The teacher didn’t bother to listen anymore, dragging Carsen and his gang out. The door closed behind them, and silence returned.

Ellie immediately dropped her act. The sorrow in her eyes turned to contempt, and then that too faded away. “Well, we should be heading down,” she said to everyone with a smile. “Or we’ll all get punished by the director. Go wash up.”

The tension vanished at her words.

“But what about you?” Betty asked.

“I’ll be with you in a moment.” Ellie playfully tickled her, making the little girl squeal and laugh.

“Okay, I’ll see you downstairs!”

“Yeah.”

Betty was the last out the door, leaving only Ellie and Damian in the room. He still couldn’t understand what had happened. They’d been together last night, but she’d never gone looking for the teachers. Instead, she’d picked the lock to the director’s quarters so that he could take a bath in there. She would know better than anyone that the teachers had really gone out. Then why...

At that moment, Ellie turned to look at him. He flinched when their eyes met. With a smile, she said, “I told you, didn’t I? When you get revenge, pay back at least twice what they’ve given you.” She paused, but he didn’t say anything. “I got revenge for you.” She grinned.

“F-for me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s the price for my life.”

He didn’t understand what she meant by that.

“Besides, grown-ups are supposed to look out for kids,” she said, even though she was a kid too. “I know you’ve never met a grown-up like that yet, but...” Pausing, she gave him a soft smile. “There’s someone out there who’ll help you. I know it.”

Damian didn’t know how to respond.

“And that person is someone you can trust.”

Sunlight streamed through the windows into the room. Her hair shined in the bright light. Damian blinked dazedly at her. “If I do...” he abruptly asked. “If I do trust them, what will happen?”

It was the first question he had ever asked her. She pondered how to answer it. Thankfully, the answer came easily. She beamed at him. “Then you’ll be happy.”

His heart skipped a beat at her smile. It was happening again. He was getting that strange feeling. He looked down, even though he knew she couldn’t see his face behind his hair. He just felt like he should look away.

His ears turned red, worrying Ellie. Not again. Did he really have a cold? She bent her knees to look into his eyes. “Are you sure you don’t have a fever?”

“No, it’s just that, it’s hot in here...” he mumbled, stopping mid-thought. “Not really...”

“Huh?”

“I’m not that sick, not really.”

“So you are sick?” I knew it. She let out a sigh as she lifted his long hair. “Let me see.” She looked at his white face, clear eyes, and fine eyelashes. He was blushing. He gazed steadily at her, though he looked a little embarrassed. His face is not good for my heart. She resisted a sudden urge to poke at his cheek. “You do have a fever. I’ll give you medicine after breakfast, okay?”

He nodded. Then they heard footsteps. Tommy came in and shouted, “Ellie! You need to come down! The director’s awake!”

“Ugh. Already?” She took her hand away from Damian, making a face.

“Oh...” He gave a small, sad sigh, but she didn’t hear it.

They couldn’t linger, or the director would be mad at them. “Let’s go.” She took his hand.

He hesitated but then grasped hers back firmly. His hand was hot, as if the fever on his cheeks had migrated down to his limbs.

Ellie. Ellie. Over and over, he mulled over her name in his mind. It required a great deal of courage for Damian to dare to speak a name, but there was no way for Ellie to know.

* * *

“That brat’s going to pay for this...” Carsen muttered between his clenched teeth, gritted in anger at being locked up as punishment. He was punished for two days in a row. None of it would have happened if it weren’t for that boy. He balled his fists and glared at the locked door. But why the hell does Ellie care about him?

Every kid at the orphanage belonged to one of two groups: those who hoped to be adopted, and those who had no chance at adoption. Ellie was the latter. More accurately, she couldn’t care less about being adopted. Even when nobles came to look for kids to adopt, she never tried to be noticed by them. Carsen was fascinated by her. The reason he bullied other kids was to attract her attention, because she would look at him in those moments.

But this time, it was different. Ellie was looking out for Damian as if he were her own brother. But that won’t last long. He was going to make Ellie lose interest in the new boy, one way or another.

Carsen ground his teeth at the memory of Damian standing right behind Ellie.