Chapter 411: Recent Renovation
Eris, Mabel, and Toby all exchanged a brief glance before the red-head turned and thanked the older woman, "That would be great, Aunty Tilly."
Finally flashing her usual kindly smile, Tilly half-guided, half-dragged Eris over to a nearby room with a stone floor, a large barrel of water, a small metal stove and pot, and some ragged washcloths.
There was also a box over to the side made from wood and waterproof resin that held several bars of soap.
This makeshift bathroom was a recent addition to the orphanage, a renovation that had originally been Eris’ idea.
In order to hire the necessary craftsmen and labourers to do this, Eris had first taken out her own savings. Then, when that wasn’t enough, she went around asking for donations from everyone she knew in the Manor, the Raging River Legion, and all over Misty City.
The amount of money Eris collected actually allowed her to build new bathrooms in all of the orphanages in the southern district, fix up some of the more broken-down buildings, and purchase new pots, pans, beddings, and other essentials for the children.
It was the first time Eris had ever tried doing something like this, so she ended up heavily relying on those around her for help, but no one chastised or criticized her for this. In fact, many people even volunteered their time and expertise to assist her on top of donating money, feeling like this was a good cause.
Of course, with this being an effort to improve hygiene, Lucas also got heavily involved. It seemed the young boy would not rest until everyone could properly clean themselves every day.
Building a set of proper bathhouses in the southern district would have been preferable, but with the bathhouses at the Manor still in the construction phase, with a lot of issue needing to be resolved with both the boilers and water delivery systems, that wasn’t possible just yet.
Still, even this simple bathroom, where the kids could scrub themselves down, was a huge blessing to the poor orphans, and it only made Eris more popular among the people knowing she was the one who had pushed to make this possible.
Familiar with the setup, Eris stripped out of her dirty clothes then pulled a bar of soap from her Space Bag. Lucas had insisted that she always carry a bar on her at all times, something Eris normally found a bit strange but was currently thankful for.
As for why she didn’t just use the soap already in the bathroom, that was because the new soap factory was just starting to ramp up production, so the amount that could be provided to the orphanages free of charge was limited.
Every bit of soap was precious to the kids, while Eris never lacked for it, so naturally she used her own.
While Eris was carefully mixing a bit of hot water from the pot on the stove in a bucket of cold water from the barrel, Tilly grabbed her dirty clothes and ran off to get them cleaned.
Eris felt this was unnecessary and tried to object, but the middle-aged Director wouldn’t hear it.
Shaking her head wryly, Eris quickly began scrubbing off the mud, her mind slowly drifting back to the odd feeling the man responsible for her current state had given her.
Unfortunately, try as she might, Eris couldn’t recall where she might have run into that man, nor did she understand why she felt so unnerved by his mere presence.
.....
Eris wasn’t the only one who felt something was off about this unexpected encounter as both Mabel and Toby had also sensed something was wrong with that man.
For her part, Mabel had only found the black-haired man unpleasant, but since he had nearly hit her big sister and caused her to get all messy, the little girl didn’t find it odd she didn’t think well of him.
Toby, on the other hand, other than worrying about Eris, had been somewhat lost in thought since he laid eyes on that man.
If Mabel had started taking after Eris, Toby much more closely resembled Lucas after having lived with his new family for several months. Perhaps this was because Toby looked up to Lucas immensely and saw him as a role model, despite the latter only being a few months older.
The young boy was certainly concerned about his big sister, and he was also angry at the strange man for what he had done, but that wasn’t why he was suddenly at a loss for words.
Just like Eris, Toby had noticed something off about that man, but his reaction was even more visceral than hers. It was like just looking at him had sent a chill up his spine and caused his skin to crawl.
However, Toby also swore he had never seen this man before, so he didn’t understand why he would feel so disgusted by him.
What was even more puzzling was that it was after the middle-aged smiled and apologized that Toby felt most unnerved.
From an objective perspective, it wasn’t that man’s fault he had opened the door right when Eris was standing in front of it, yet he still offered an apology and even gave her compensation for dirtying her clothes.
Sure, just before he saw them, the man was yelling some rather harsh words, but when it came specifically to how he interacted with Eris, it was difficult to find anything to criticize him over.
To any outside observer, that man would probably seem like a relatively upright fellow, but Toby couldn’t help seeing him as a dangerous snake.
Before the boy could reason through his thoughts, however, he and his little sister arrived at the orphanage’s main hall, immediately drawing several young pairs of eyes to them.
"Brother Toby and Sister Mabel are here!" The shout rang out, echoing throughout the entire building.
A second later, the sound of rumbling footsteps could be heard coming from all around. A stampede was approaching, one that demanded the young siblings’ full attention to deal with.