For the next several days, the work consisted almost entirely of hauling away debris and cleaning up the site. Unfortunately, none of the scrap materials uncovered so far were suitable for reuse, so there wasn’t much for me to do besides cook.
That said, feeding a crowd of craftsmen and adventurers was no small task. Preparing the ingredients alone took a tremendous amount of work.
“All right! Pull it over!”
“““One, two… heave!”””
CRAAACK!
BOOM!
The orphanage demolition continued without a hitch. The roof had been completely removed, and the workers had now moved on to tearing down the walls.
While the energetic voices of the workers, who had eaten lunch and were full of energy, were echoing, the voices suddenly stopped for some reason, and the work came to an abrupt halt.
“Hey, kid! Come over here!”
One of the adventurers supervising the demolition waved me over, so Toria-san and I headed toward the orphanage together.
“Here. We found this up in the attic.”
The adventurer held out a small wooden statue of a goddess.
It looked incredibly old, yet despite its age, the carving remained remarkably well preserved, with every feature still clearly intact.
“Maybe this little statue is what protected the orphanage all these years.”
“I believe so as well. Perhaps it’s thanks to this statue that the orphanage never collapsed.”
It seemed Toria-san had come to the same conclusion I had.
If that’s the case… I’d like to clean it up.
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than Ao raised one of his tentacles, as if proudly declaring, Leave it to me!
“Oh… that’s incredible.”
The adventurers stared in amazement. The moment Ao’s tentacle touched the wooden statue, only the grime coating its surface melted away.Without harming the wood itself in the slightest, years of accumulated dirt vanished, revealing a finish that looked as pristine as the day it had been carved.
It was as if the statue had become brand new.
“All right. We’ll check the rest of the attic before resuming work.”
“In that case, I’ll take this statue of the Goddess to the Mother Superior.”
“Oh! Then I’ll come with you.”
After briefly letting Sue know where we were going, Toria-san and I headed back toward the mansion.
“““Yay!”””
The moment we returned, Shiro and the others spotted us and came running over with bright smiles. The children were playing energetically in the mansion’s garden as always. They had adapted to their new surroundings surprisingly quickly, which had been a tremendous relief for all of us.
Thinking that, Toria-san and I headed into the detached building that was serving as the orphanage’s temporary home.
“Oh? Shun, is that you?”
When we entered the Mother Superior’s room, we found the priest and one of the sisters there visiting her. I handed the small wooden statue to the Mother Superior and explained where it had been found.
“So… it was this statue of the Goddess that has been watching over us all this time.”
“This is a precious statue indeed. We’ll keep it safe in the church for now, and once the new orphanage is complete, we’ll return it to its rightful place.”
“I think that’s for the best. Even in a new home, the Goddess will continue watching over the children.”
With both the Mother Superior and the priest in agreement, it was quickly decided that the statue would be entrusted to the church until the orphanage was rebuilt.
I’m sure that, wherever it was placed, the little wooden statue of the Goddess would continue watching over the orphanage and its children for many years to come.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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