“Lex, mom is here!”

“Mom here!”

“Mom is coming!”

Three children in the orphanage’s playground shouted merrily to the other children as they ran inside the orphanage.

“Hey! Who is your mom?! I am not that old yet!” Lily scolded back. Contrary to her words, she couldn’t stop the smile on her lips.

Lily was considered the second mother of the orphanage in addition to the sister that ran the place.

Although Lily always lamented aloud that she was not a mom, everyone in the party knew that, deep down, she was happy the kids considered her that.

...That was why that unfortunate incident happened in the first place...

After a brief moment, children included the ones that had run inside, appeared, following behind a boy and a girl who seemed to be among the oldest here.

“Hey, mother Lily, good to see you here again!” the boy cheerfully waved at Lily as he approached her.

‘…’ The girl gave a polite bow and silently followed a few steps behind the boy.

“Oh, how is it going, Lex, Cecil?” Lily replied back in a good mood.

The boy is Lex, 13 years old, the leader of the children of the orphanage here. With his cheerful nature and qualities of leadership, he was the one who united all the children together and arbitrated when disputes broke out. Of course, just him alone would not be enough to lead the kids. It was all thanks to…

…Cecil, the girl who silently followed behind him.

She was a very clever, observant kid despite being one of the uneducated orphans. She, with ease, solved problems that occurred between the children by advising Lex on what to do and thought up the plans for the group to earn some pocket money. However, due to her quiet, cold, and calculated nature, she was not fit to be a leader. The girl knew this, so she willingly left the position to Lex while supporting him from behind.

Other reasons were that she was one year younger than Lex and held no small amount of interest for the boy with different nature than her. Due to that, she wholeheartedly supported her little crush as a leader.

Lex also deeply admired Cecil for her ingenuity. And it was an open secret among the more perceptive children that they would eventually become a couple.

“It is going great today! Mother Anne managed to get some meat for us today, so everyone was in a good mood!”

“Oh, meat! That’s good, Lex! Maybe I should also buy your guys some meat again!” Lily said in delight.

“…”

Cecil silently observed and stealthily walked towards the four boys behind Lily while the two were absorbed in the conversation.

“Hey, what happened to Lily?” Cecil asked Rey in a quiet voice, seeing him as the most sensible one.

“E-Eh?! Why do you think so?” Instead, Guts replied, astonished.

“You guys did not do anything when Lily said she would buy us meat,” Cecil revealed.

“Oh, that…” Guts did not know how to respond.

Elvis and Raphael also seemed surprised at her observation.

‘What a scary child.’

Rey thought.

Generally, if Lily were to say such a thing, one of them would nudge her in the side since she still had lots of debts left from the aftermath of that starvation incident.

While the meat for all the children would not be too expensive in itself, it was not that necessary. And even if that were fine, one of them would remind her not to overdo it according to their personality, especially Guts and Rey.

Since, if left alone, Lily would buy too much meat saying there are many children in the orphanage. And, in the end, left some to eventually rot due to her excessive love for children.

That was why it was strange that none of them reacted.

To notice all that in an instant, Cecil was too scary.

“Yes, we caused some trouble for Lily. That is why it would be awkward if we said anything when what we want to do is to cheer her up,” Rey answered after finishing his thought.

Nodding once, the girl backed off and went back to behind Lex again.

The four looked at her with a wry smile on their face.

…It was a pity that she was an orphan.

‘If only there had been some system that allowed smart orphaned children to receive education in this world…’

Rey lamented. ‘That would be impossible in the world we lived in,’ he didn’t forget to note.

Shaking his head once, Rey refocused his attention to the conversation between Lily and Lex.

The conversation had progressed more than he had expected when they were talking with Cecil.

“Have you heard, Lily? The soldier uncles were talking about how a stampede will happen again soon,” Lex said, a little worried.

“E-Eh?! A Stampede?!” Lily cried.

In this world, a Stampede usually happened once every six months to a year. The monsters became overpopulated and invaded the nearby towns and villages.

It seemed that they had missed the news because they were stuck in the ruin for quite a while.

‘Amita should have told me if they were signs of a stampede.’

Lily criticized her close friend in her mind.

…Well, the girl was too surprised by the dead appearance of Lily and her story afterward that she forgot about it.

Meanwhile…

Guts had an ugly expression on his face when the word “Stampede” came out.

The other three looked at him worriedly.

It was well-known among them that Guts absolutely hated a stampede.

Previously, whenever they had to deal with it, Guts acted like a completely different person unknown to them and only went back to normal once everything was over.

Lily, known as “everyone’s mom,” seemed to remember that fact, quickly finished her thought, and turned to face Guts.

“Hey, Guts, I will be counting on you during the stampede! You are our ace attacker, after all.”

She smiled brightly at Guts.

Rey noted that, although it was difficult to notice, her smile was a fake one.

She had been with Guts the longest. It would not be strange if she knew something they didn’t.

Rey just hoped that she or Guts would tell them about it one day. It was uncomfortable to be the one in the dark.

“O-Oh, leave It to me!” Guts fisted his chest with an awkward smile on his face.

After that, Lily played around with the children until mealtime, said greetings to Anne, the sister in charge of the orphanage who just finished cooking, and left the orphanage with her party members after making a donation.

On the way back…

It could not be seen from the four’s positions, but Lily had a stern expression on her face. It was different from her previous spiritless appearance when she was worried about her Class’s name.

First and foremost, Lily was everyone’s mother. It may not seem like it since she had been depressed all this time. However, to the four, she considered herself their mother. And no mother could be happy when one of her children was depressed.

Forgetting about her own problem. Lily pondered on how she could help Guts escaped from his own demon.