Chapter 128
Chapter 128: Cursed Children
Even with Little Red Riding Hood’s explanation, Yu Sheng still found it hard to understand or imagine life inside this Orphanage, or how it worked day to day. He could not picture what the Cursed Children here thought about or did each day. He also could not imagine what the “council employees” sent here actually did, or how the Council that ruled the whole Borderland viewed such a special Orphanage.
After all, he did not really understand how the huge Boundary City ran, or what the mysterious Council was like. The only “officials” he had met were from the Special Affairs Bureau, and that Bureau was only one part of the Council.
There were so many things in the Borderland that felt wrong to him, and the place where Little Red Riding Hood and her friends lived only added another question to the pile.
Foxy, who had followed them in and stayed quiet since they came through the door, suddenly spoke up: “Why doesn’t the Special Affairs Bureau or the Council set up a dedicated department and take over the whole Orphanage?”
Little Red Riding Hood looked at the fox maiden in surprise.
Foxy blinked, then scratched her hair in a nervous way: “Did I… say something wrong?”
“Not… wrong,” Little Red Riding Hood quickly returned to normal and shook her head, “it is natural to think that. But do you know how many groups or Organizations like ‘us’ exist across the Borderland?”
Foxy opened her mouth and then stayed silent.
“I said before, most Spirit Realm Detectives and Investigators only ‘changed careers’ after getting pulled into an Otherworld incident. The Cursed Children of the ‘Fairy Tale’ Organization changed because of the ‘Otherworld-Fairy Tale’ influence too. In essence, every child you see here today is either already working as, or will become, a Spirit Realm Detective. We are one among hundreds and thousands of extraordinary Organizations in the Borderland, so a lot of things have to be handled the way extraordinary Organizations handle them.
“Of course, the Special Affairs Bureau once considered giving children like us ‘special care.’ That was a long time ago. Just like you said, they planned to create a special Orphanage fully supervised by the Council and directly managed by the Special Affairs Bureau. They would gather every child touched by the Fairy Tale, protect them together, guide them together, and have a ‘lord’ take care of everything, instead of our current self-rule. But later… something big happened.”
Yu Sheng frowned. [Seven or eight plots from horror films, shows, novels, and games popped into his head.] He said: “The Cursed Children were treated inhumanely, and then the Fairy Tale spun out of control?”
“No, the opposite,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head, “the Special Affairs Bureau and the Council were not foolish. They knew that when the Otherworld kills, it does not follow any human rules. According to the records, they did nothing wrong at the time. They cared for the children with great attention, took each child’s case to heart, and did nothing inhumane. But they forgot one thing.”
Irene poked her head out of Foxy’s arms and asked: “They forgot one thing?”
“‘Fairy Tale’ does not like lords,” Little Red Riding Hood said in a calm voice.
Yu Sheng looked thoughtful. [He felt like he understood what she meant.]
Foxy also nodded after a moment, as if the point finally clicked.
Irene stared and protested, lifting her chin: “Wait, what does that even mean… Why do you all look like you get it? What did you get?”
No one answered her.
Pointing ahead to a building, Little Red Riding Hood told Yu Sheng: “This in front is the East Building. The Orphanage’s main structures are two buildings. The East Building, the first one you see after you come in, is the main lodging and activity area. The cafeteria and the ‘classrooms’ for the younger kids are here too. The other one is the West Building. Inside there are safe rooms and treatment rooms. When a child’s condition is unstable, they go to the West Building.
“Originally the two buildings had two connecting passages. Later the underground one had a problem and was locked, so now you can only cross by the skybridge on the upper floors. Of course, the West Building also has other normal entrances.
“That open space over there is the Open Ground where the kids usually play. We built those slides and swing sets ourselves. We dug the sandbox ourselves too. The sand was delivered by trucks from the Special Affairs Bureau. They did not charge us. There was a little mess at the time. We dug the pit too big and too deep. The plan was one truck, but after three trucks came, it still almost was not enough. The people from the Special Affairs Bureau suspected we wanted extra sand to sell…
“And over there, do you see those trees? We planted them with our own hands. I was ten at the time. The ‘guardian’ who helped me plant them is gone now.”
Yu Sheng listened quietly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw several curious faces peeking from the doorway of the East Building. A few older kids squeezed in with some younger ones, bunched up at the doorframe and stealing glances at the “guests” in the Orphanage. They whispered and pointed now and then, probably trying to guess who these visitors were.
A bigger girl came from the back and shooed the Cursed Children away.
“How many kids are here?” Yu Sheng asked, then added, “I mean including you ‘guardians.’”
“Seventy-six,” Little Red Riding Hood said, “is that fewer than you thought?”
“It is… a bit fewer than I expected.”
“It is almost always that number, with only small single-digit changes,” Little Red Riding Hood said as she led Yu Sheng into the East Building and toward the sitting room, “new ones come, old ones leave. The Fairy Tale only accepts children who meet its rules and drops old ones without hesitation. So compared to our numbers, this facility is a bit lavish. Many rooms above the fifth floor on this side are empty, and most of the West Building is empty too.
“Out of the seventy-six, sixteen are ‘guardians.’ About half are between eight and fourteen. The other half are younger. Overall, girls are about three quarters, boys one quarter.”
“I noticed most of the ones I saw were girls,” Yu Sheng nodded, then asked, “why?”
Little Red Riding Hood smiled a little: “Because princesses fall into danger more easily. Village girls like ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ too. You have to learn to analyze this place through the Fairy Tale’s eyes.”
Yu Sheng thought about that.
Led by Little Red Riding Hood, he, Irene, and Foxy reached the sitting room at the end of the corridor.
Yu Sheng noticed more peeking eyes at the doorway. Little figures darted back and forth in the hall. They were clearly curious about today’s new guests but did not dare come close.
Seeing this, Yu Sheng lifted the bags of cookies and candy he had brought and said to Little Red Riding Hood: “I brought some gifts for the children, please share them.”
“Thanks, you were thoughtful,” Little Red Riding Hood said with a happy grin. She waved to a teen by the door: “Hui Hui, take these to the cafeteria and hand them out at dinner.”
A girl of about thirteen or fourteen, the one called Hui Hui, ran in with a big smile. A few five or six year olds slipped in after her, circling the table. Some of them shouted: “I want chocolate, I want the gold one.” “Do you have gummy bears?” “Thank you, uncle.” “Sister Hui Hui, Ya Ya stepped on my foot.”
A tiny pink-faced toddler popped out from under the table, stared up at Yu Sheng and Foxy with wide eyes, then pointed at Irene: “I want to hold this one too.”
Irene threw up her arms and bared her teeth: “I am not a gift.”
The toddler froze, then burst into loud tears.
A whole pack of human cubs scattered with squeals and wails, racing around the room in a storm of noise. It sounded exactly like what Yu Sheng had imagined that morning, a room full of Irenes all at once.
He went numb on the spot. [He could only stare.]
The chaos lasted only a short while. Little Red Riding Hood stood up and settled the little ones with just a few words. Hui Hui smoothly took over, coaxed and herded the dollheads back into the hallway, and closed the door on the way out.
Yu Sheng stared, stunned by how fast disorder turned into calm. After a moment he said as he looked at Little Red Riding Hood: “You are really good at this.”
“You get used to it. The Cursed Children here are very sensible. They still have small habits like kids their age, but most of them calm down faster than normal and listen to the older kids. They understand why rules matter,” Little Red Riding Hood said with a soft smile. “We all grew up this way.”
For some reason, hearing that only made Yu Sheng feel worse. [His chest tightened a little.]
“Tell me about the Fairy Tale,” he said, shaking his head and changing the topic fast, “I mean that ‘Otherworld’ and the ‘Black Forest’ I saw. What is it?”
“The Black Forest is one ‘child’ of the Fairy Tale. But before I explain its structure, I want to start with the basics,” Little Red Riding Hood spoke slowly. In that moment, Yu Sheng again saw the early, calm, and steady Spirit Realm Detective he had met when they first knew each other. She asked: “Let me confirm first. Do you know how many kinds of Otherworld there are?”
Yu Sheng thought it over, his face turning serious: “I do not know.”
Little Red Riding Hood stared: “…”
“I remember that part sits near the front of the database,” she said, looking at Yu Sheng with a complex expression, “were you not told to read that as soon as possible?”
Yu Sheng looked a bit embarrassed: “I was just really busy these two days.”
“What were you busy with? Did the Special Affairs Bureau assign you something again?”
Yu Sheng kept a straight face and ran through his last two days in his head. He had opened new land in the Otherworld, planted vegetables, cleared rubble and mixed cement, raised chickens, cuddled Foxy at home, worked with Irene on building more Irenes, and even thought about how to make more Irenes with rebar and No. 42 cement. [If he said that out loud, his dignity as a lord would vanish.]
“Yes, the Special Affairs Bureau reached out,” Yu Sheng said with full seriousness, “they talked to me about the Dark Angels.”
Every word of that sentence was true.