Published: August 3, 2025
From the day after we went shopping for clothes, the task of carrying the items ordered from Benno to the temple was added to the duties of the children at the myne workshop. The children, now dressed in thicker clothes, loaded the newly purchased carts with goods and went back and forth between the Gilberta Trading Company and the orphanage.
About half of the items were for my room, but there were also things intended for use at the orphanage. Furthermore, tools for the pig meat processing day began to be delivered one after another.
"Myne, where should we put these?"
"I asked Fran and Wilma to have the apprentices clean the orphanage basement, so put them there."
"Basement? ... Wait, did you pry it open?"
Lutz blinked and muttered in a daze.
There was a door in the floor leading to the orphanage basement, but it had been sealed shut with boards nailed on, so no one could enter. Although we had noticed the basement's existence during a thorough cleaning of the orphanage, we never thought to pry open the nailed boards.
But once we needed storage space, that was a different story. Since the tools purchased for winter handcrafting had arrived, I immediately tried prying it open.
I was nervous, wondering if something dangerous might come out, but it turned out it was just unused space with nothing special—a relief, to be honest.
"Open the packages here, and for the items meant for my room, hand them over to the guild. Then, put firewood and food in the basement of the girls' dormitory, and firewood and tools in the basement of the boys' dormitory."
Fran, inspecting the cargo on the cart, assigned items to be delivered accordingly.
The division of items was because soup was made in the girls' dorm basement, and the boys' dorm basement was the myne workshop.
Wilma, who manages the girls' dormitory, was also put in charge of the food. To prevent unauthorized use, the food storage was locked. Since this food would be precious during the winter, losing it midway would cause trouble for everyone.
The gray priests and shrine maidens carried items to each basement, and the children happily helped with the work, laughing and chatting.
Watching this, Lutz suddenly looked at me.
"My family is going to help too."
"Huh?"
"It's for the orphanage pig meat processing. Dad didn’t say it clearly, but he seems to feel grateful to the high priest."
Lutz smiled faintly as he spoke. Uncle Deed, who was stubborn, skilled, and taciturn, apparently appreciated that the high priest had arranged a meeting to discuss things.
"But you know, the high priest is a noble, so they can't really thank him directly, right? So, instead, he said something like 'We'll help the orphanage.' That’s how the whole family got mobilized."
"The whole family...? Isn’t your uncle still going overboard?"
Lutz's family has four brothers, all male, so having them help with this kind of work was really helpful, but I was quite curious whether the family was really on board.
"It's alright. My brothers just had a resigned look, like 'It can't be helped,' but Mom's enthusiastic."
"I see. If your family is helping, it should work out. I'm starting to look forward to the pig meat processing."
I chuckled, and Lutz squinted his eyes, sighed with exasperation after looking at my excitement.
"Myne, you’re obviously staying home, right?"
"Huh?"
His words dampened my excitement, and I blinked a few times.
"Of course. You always catch a fever around this time, and last time you actually collapsed in the cart and had to be carried to the gate. There’s no way you can come along with a bunch of beginners like this."
"Well, that’s true... but Mom’s pregnant, I’ll be an older sister next year, and I really want to participate and learn the work for once this year."
I had finally gotten to the point where I could watch the dismantling work without crying and even pull out the guts, but I couldn’t join the pig meat processing.
I had planned to rehearse with the orphanage pig processing so I could properly help with the neighborhood pig meat processing later.