An AU I thought of while listening to Isabella's lullaby on repeat a few weeks ago.
What if everyone who was shipped actually got adopted but because of the person in charge was corrupt, he wanted the mother's and sisters to hint at a worse fate like what we actually see happen when someone's 'adopted'?
But in reality, the only reason he did that was because they had previous runaways who later died due to natural causes. So when the kids successfully escape and survive, get the anime ending basically, they find everyone who was shipped like Conny and Leslie (the mandolin boy).
Since Ray is Isabella's son, he was also given the same information so he believed that until their escape.
For the demons, they also aren't a thing, instead they're wild animals who can actually pose a threat to the children. They were also a way of threatening the kids to stay within the walls, not wanting them to meet the same fate as many others have before them. Due to the kids overactive imaginations and possible paranoia, they see demon-looking creatures due to them only seeing other animals in the books they've read. As for the demon village they meet Norman in, it's a regular village with people but they perceive them as demons since they're pretty much strangers who could pose a threat to them and they try to blend in by wearing cloaks over their actual clothes as to not stand out. When they get to the headquarters for everything, the people/ demons they've encountered actually do help while everything that happens inside is still pretty much the same.
When Norman, Ray, Emma, Sonju, and Mujika travel they're trying to bring more awareness in a sense to what's been going on and helping more people in similar situations.
Anyways, enjoy.
