When the Mad Emperor Suddenly Becomes Sweet

9

Time felt like stale water in a puddle, and it seemed like it was flowing nowhere. A year later, many changes had taken place in the orphanage where Freya lived. The imperial court had ordered that everything making the streets dirty was to be gotten rid of. Therefore, a wandering merchant with a whining child was a direct blow to the royal order.

Sophia became frantic when she heard the news. “What in the hell are we going to do? We barely have enough to eat.”

The orphanage was a relief organization that cared for children who had lost their parents, but when they investigated, corruption was prevalent. And only a small amount of the subsidies received from the empire were allocated to buy food for the orphans. And the only heated rooms were those that belonged to Sophia and the owner. The rest of the subsidies went into the owner’s pocket, and Shiloh stole all of the profits that he had earned from the pickpocketers and the begging that he had forced the children to do.

The order from the imperial court made the children anxious because they had suddenly stopped going out to work. And Lotty, who wouldn’t stop walking circles around Freya, asked, “Freya, it feels weird not working.”

“Well,” Freya started to reply but decided that she couldn’t give Lotty the comfort she wanted since the two were not family. I’m just waiting for the day that we part ways. However, Freya found it hard to completely ignore her since she followed her around everywhere.

Accidentally, Freya dropped a piece of doughnut she had kept in her pocket, and Lotty asked excitedly, “Hey. Is that for me?”

The doughnut had been left in the kitchen by Sophia earlier, and Freya had thought of Lotty. She knew she was a sucker for food, but she hadn’t given it to her as yet. When Lotty picked up the half-eaten doughnut with a bright look on her face, Freya replied bluntly, “I don’t know. I guess it was already there.”

Later in the day, Freya wandered around the orphanage looking for a place to knit quietly. The small orphanage building was full of children who didn’t go out to work anymore, which bothered her whenever she walked around. Because there was a rumor that the orphanage’s attic was haunted she settled on going there. “No one will find me there.” She brushed her hand along the chipped wall as she climbed the old creaky stairs. “Look at all the dust!” The creaking noise sounded foreboding, but it didn’t deter her from continuing upwards.

When she reached the top of the staircase, she barely managed to squeeze through the wooden door leading to the attic. As she entered the room, the inside was dimmer than she’d thought, so her vision became slightly impaired. “How am I supposed to knit in the dark?”

With the children unable to beg for money, Sophia gave them side jobs that they could do with their hands, like knitting. Everyone except for the young ones had to meet a quota, and the ones who couldn’t fulfill it, wouldn’t be given anything to eat.

Although there was a tiny window, she couldn’t see what was in front of her because there was a thick layer of dust covering it, and the sunlight couldn’t reach the inside. Freya felt around on the floor, trying to find a place to sit down, and as she tried to adjust her eyes to the darkness, a small light flickered from across the room.

“A ghost?” But Freya didn’t care. What she feared were living people, not the dead ones.

Then, a tiny voice spoke from the same side as the flickering light, “I am not a ghost.”

Looking closely, she was able to glimpse hair the color of a yellow forsythia flower. Oh, I guess it’s that boy I saved. She had been so busy at the orphanage that she had forgotten about him. Freya felt sorry for no apparent reason, so she said gently, “Sorry for bothering you while you’re alone. I will only do this, and then I’ll leave.” She didn’t know if the boy could see her, but she lifted her ball of yarn to show him.

“You can stay.” His depressing voice was full of loneliness, and it was clear that he had fully adjusted to his life in the orphanage.

It was hard to see anything good about him if he acted like that, and Sophia hated children who behaved unpleasantly or were overly friendly. Freya didn’t feel good when she thought about the scars on the beautiful child’s face, but it had nothing to do with her. Freya had to take care of herself first and then started to knit in the dark. If she didn’t make the required amount of knitwear, she would have to go to bed hungry. Therefore, this was an important task, but knitting was very boring and difficult to do, which irritated her to no end.

Sophia had said that the items made at the orphanage were popular with the ladies.

One day, Freya had overheard a woman saying that the item was made by some poor kid. This woman, who was willing to pay a high price for sympathizing with orphans, was praised for her generosity. Freya felt strange when she thought that the little woolen hat that she’d made was talked about like that, and the words ‘poor child’ stuck in her mind. People felt free to say that she was miserable and poor, and Freya didn’t like that side of them. They’re so annoying!

Silently watching her hand movements, the boy sat still, and she wondered why he was acting like he didn’t exist. Freya didn’t like a nuisance, like Lotty, but she also didn’t like someone that was too quiet. “What are you doing over there?” Freya couldn’t stand the silence and was the first to speak. She was curious about him, and she guessed it was just the thought of not being able to see the boy who had such marvelous good looks. There was another long silence between the boy’s coughing and him answering, probably because his body was weak.

“I am helping Aunt Sophia with her work,” he replied shyly.