Chapter 5: The Villain’s Tears Were Warm

Someone is shaking my body. I frowned and raised my head, and I saw Alice’s face.

“Why.”

She pointed to the dining hall. She sometimes drags me to the dining hall to eat a late-night snack.

It’s normally not allowed, but I’m still young, so I get hungry at night.

“Can’t you just hold it in today, for once? We’ll be eating until we’re full at the birthday party tomorrow.”

Shake, shake.

She means no. She’s saying she wants to go to the dining hall with me no matter what.

‘Come to think of it, dinner today was steamed potatoes.’

Steamed potatoes were the first food Alice ate when she came to this orphanage. Since then, she has eaten steamed potatoes the best.

While she eats other foods calmly, when she eats potatoes, she peels them and eats them in a hurry.

“Okay. Let’s go, let’s go.”

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, the two of us headed to the dining hall upstairs. When we entered the dining hall, we went to the kitchen, opened the pot lid, and took out the potatoes.

Because it’s a warming pot, the potatoes were still warm.

We munched on the potatoes. Unlike the first day, Alice ate well, skillfully peeling the skin.

“…Alice.”

When I started to speak, she stopped moving her mouth and looked at me.

“You, are you getting adopted?”

I didn’t mean to ask, but the time of night made me emotional, and I unknowingly brought up the adoption story.

Alice stopped her mouth for a while, blinked her eyes, and then gently shook her head.

“The adoption story came up, right?”

“……”

Since she’s silent, she must have received an adoption offer. And she seems to have refused it.

For some reason, I felt relieved.

‘What kind of trashy thoughts am I having right now?’

It’s normal to congratulate an orphanage child if they get adopted. Even if the orphanage takes good care of the children, it’s not as good as receiving the full love of a family.

But I was relieved to know that Alice refused the adoption.

“Why didn’t you accept it? You’ll live in a much better place than here.”

Words opposite to my true feelings came out.

Alice focused on the potatoes again as if she didn’t want to talk. I also gave up on asking further and chewed on the potatoes.

Then, a strange sight appeared in my vision.

The window, which should be dark, is dimly lit.

‘It’s night now?’

Sensing something was wrong, I approached the window. Only then did I hear the faint shouts that hit my ears.

The rising red flames filled my vision.

“Huh…?”

When I hurriedly opened the window, the sensation became much more concrete and I recognized it.

“When will the police arrive!”

“There’s no water pipe nearby!?”

“How could a building like this not even detect a fire properly!”

I was stunned. My head turned white at the sudden emergency. I dropped the potato I was eating on the floor and shouted at Alice.

“Alice! It looks like there’s a fire in the building right now! Let’s go down quickly!”

We are in the dining hall on the upper floor, so we don’t know the situation on the lower floor. We need to check whether the other children and teachers have evacuated.

Alice also realized the seriousness of the situation and quickly got up and followed me. When I opened the dining hall door and went down the stairs, unprecedented heat hit my face.

“Ugh!?”

I made a groaning sound and hurriedly retreated. Black smoke was rising from the lower floor. I lowered my posture and stuck to the floor.

‘It’s hard to escape right away because of the heat. To last as long as possible… the bathroom, I have to go there, wet a towel, and cover my airway.’

“Alice. Let’s go to the bathroom and get wet.”

Alice immediately understood why I said to go to the bathroom, and this time, she took the lead and ran to the bathroom. When we arrived at the bathroom, we wet the towels and wrapped them around our faces.

I ran back to the dining hall and opened the window. It was quite a high altitude, so jumping down would be suicide.

“There’s someone here!”

When I shouted with all my might, I heard sounds from around.

“Th, there’s a child in the dining hall!”

“Firefighter! When will you enter the dining hall floor?”

“There’s an arsonist with a weapon on the floor below the dining hall right now! We can only enter together when the police arrive!”

My complexion turned pale, to the point where I could feel it, at the conversation I heard from outside.

‘Weapon? The police haven’t arrived yet?’

There was no police station nearby, and there was no wide road to the orphanage, so the arrival of the police was delayed than expected.

“…Alice.”

“……”

“As you just heard, it’s hard to go down because of the heat on the lower floor, and there’s a bad person. We… we might have to hold out here.”

Alice pointed to the bathroom with her hand. I nodded at her words.

“Yes, there’s a ventilation fan and water.”

As Alice suggested, we headed to the bathroom. Just in case, we filled the bathtub and sink with water and lowered our bodies as much as possible.

The coldness of the bathroom floor came up through my skin.

My body trembled.

I don’t know if I’m shaking because of the cold or because of the arsonist.

Then, Alice took off the top of her pajamas and wrapped it around me.

I could feel her scent strongly.

I looked at her with a puzzled look. Her expression was different from usual.

Her eyes were even more rigid, but the firm determination felt in her blue eyes was conveyed to me.

The feeling that she would protect me no matter what.

The first time I feel a woman’s dependability in this world where genders are reversed.

She went to the front of the bathroom door and waited.

As if she would block anything that might harm me if the door opened.

I just stared blankly at her back.

“When are the police coming!”

“They say they’ll arrive soon!”

“That’s why you shouldn’t build buildings in places where the land price is crap! They don’t even follow the building code properly and build buildings like this!? Don’t they know the fire code!?”

While the residents and officials were arguing, the flames rose more and more, and the scenery of the orphanage became desolate.

The vice-principal was pacing anxiously and counting the number of children.

“Ah, tw, two are missing. There are still children inside!”

When she shouted and tried to enter the building, a firefighter pushed her away.

“It’s dangerous!”

“There are children inside! I, I definitely brought everyone out of the bedroom!”

“Anyway, civilians should not enter! The firefighters have entered up to the floor directly below where the arsonist is, so if something happens, they will enter!”

Then, the sound of a siren was heard, and a police car filled the narrow alley.

The police officers who got out of the police car in a hurry talked with the nearby firefighters and received equipment.

“What were you doing to come now!”

Because even the nearby buildings were damaged by the arsonist, some residents pointed their fingers at the police.

The police officers silently armed themselves, equipped themselves with firefighting equipment, and entered the building with the firefighters.

The vice-principal looked at their backs and prayed with her hands clasped together.

‘Please… Maru… Alice… What sin did those young children commit…?’

How much time has passed.

Black smoke began to seep into the bathroom ceiling. Seeing that, I gripped the towel even tighter.

Alice was still staring at the bathroom door without moving.

“Alice. You can take the clothes now.”

“……”

“It’s a bit hot now because the flames have reached here.”

Despite my words, she pretended not to hear and did not react. She was chewing on her lips and bowing her head deeply.

Thud.

Thud.

Footsteps.

Excessively calm footsteps are heard.

The sound of stepping on the stairs and going up.

Walking leisurely in this urgent situation.

Not calling our names and looking for us.

Not a firefighter.

Not the police.

“Alice. Come back.”

I muttered quietly.

“Close the bathroom door and quietly come to my side.”

Alice closed the bathroom door.

And stepped back.

She doesn’t come to my side.

Still in front of me.

“Alice, just in case, don’t think of anything rash.”

“……”

“Don’t do anything stupid on your own.”

When Alice still didn’t move, I started to get angry.

But I had to do what I had to do.

“If a dangerous person breaks in here…”

I organized my thoughts for a moment and continued speaking.

“We can’t both be attacked. When one person is attacked, the other person must somehow get out and ask for help.”

Even though it’s a world where genders are reversed, the common sense of my previous life that still remains in me, and my mature mental age, forced me to sacrifice myself.

“I’ll hold that guy.”

Shake, shake.

“I can’t get out anyway. I’m not as athletic as you.”

Shake, shake.

“You have to go. There’s no other way.”

Alice just kept shaking her head.

She didn’t speak and only repeated the same action, so it suddenly looked funny.

The growing footsteps stopped right in front of the bathroom door where we were.

It was strange to have the bathroom.

All the doors are open, but only the bathroom is locked.

Click.

Because we locked it from the inside, they can’t come in right away. And after a while.

Bang!

The doorknob is shaking crazily. It seemed like the doorknob would break and the door would be forcibly opened at any moment.

It’s only a matter of time before we’re discovered. I prepared to rush at the unidentified person. Whether it’s a firefighter or an arsonist, there’s no harm in preparing.

Bang!

The door flew grandly and passed by, hitting Alice’s forehead, who was right in front of it.

Alice fell to the ground, clutching her forehead, unable to even scream.

I caught sight of a woman in a hoodie who didn’t budge even after seeing Alice injured. A pungent smell of oil permeated the air, as if she had been wrestling with an oil drum.

With this, it was confirmed that this woman was our enemy.

I, who had been preparing in advance, rushed towards the woman’s stomach with all my might.

I aimed for a mount position, but my weak physique was not enough to knock down an adult woman.

The woman only lost her balance for a moment, but she regained her posture and struck my shoulder with the hilt of the knife.

Because I was covering my airway with a towel, I couldn’t hear a scream, but this level of pain was the first time in my previous life and this life.

“There’s an arsonist here!”

The hilt of the knife struck my shoulder blade again.

“Arsonist… Ugh!”

To prevent me from shouting, this time the hilt of the knife hit my mouth.

I fell back, feeling a fishy taste of blood.

In the meantime, the woman looked at Alice, who was on the other side.

Alice was swinging a tool to unclog the toilet, aiming for the woman’s back.

The end of the tool hit the woman’s eye area.

“Ugh! You brat!”

The woman, who was injured by Alice, got excited, knocked Alice down, and climbed on top of her.

Alice wrapped her legs around the woman’s waist and tried something, but she just struggled because she lacked strength.

The woman choked Alice’s neck and raised the knife.

“You fcking b*tch!”

Then I hear sounds from downstairs.

“I heard a sound! It’s the bathroom!”

“The police officers are entering first!”

I hoped that the culprit would be embarrassed by the words of the rescuers and try to escape, but my expectations were wrong.

The woman still aimed the knife at Alice and tried to stab her.

From the point where she didn’t escape from the burning building and found us, she was already not a human with normal thinking.

It’s too late for people to come.

In the end, I rubbed my aching mouth and put my body between Alice and the knife.

Something warm flows down my arm.

Without time to focus on that sensation, I grabbed the knife handle with my other hand so that the woman could not pull the knife out of my arm.

The woman frantically dug into my arm to pull out the knife.

Muscles are torn and bones are scraped everywhere.

My mind is hazy, so I can’t even hear the arsonist’s shouts well now.

Alice’s appearance, punching the arsonist’s chest with her fist, has also become blurry.

“…Surrender!”

“Even now…!”

“…The kids first!”

The words were cut off here and there. My forearm was covered in red water, so it was really warm.

The last sight I saw before I completely closed my eyes was Alice’s face.

Something warm falls on my face.

It was a different kind of liquid from what was flowing from my forearm.

If the blood from my forearm was a chilling warmth, what was falling on my face was a warmth that made my heart feel cozy.

“…won’t.”

“……”

“I’m sorry…!”

Alice, who was shedding tears, was sobbing and holding my face.

Repeatedly apologizing.

It was absurd that my lips were rising even in this situation.

‘Your voice is surprisingly good.’

The thought stopped there.