Chapter 414: The Deal
Frowning slightly, Eris suddenly didn’t like the way this conversation was going. Even so, she didn’t interrupt, allowing the woman across from her to finish explaining herself.
Noting to dark look in Eris’ eyes, the Director felt a deep sense of guilt, but she figured that since she had gone this far already, she might as well go all the way.
With a long sigh, the middle-aged woman continued, "The man you saw earlier calls himself Bellamy. I don’t know his last name as he has never used it before. That’s not important though. What is important, is that for the past 5 years, he has been one of the orphanage’s biggest sponsors."
"Every year, he would appear 2 or 3 times, and each time he would make a donation of 10 to 20 Gold Coins, which has always been a huge help."
Hearing this, Eris was actually quite surprised. If what Director Tilly was telling her was true, then this Bellamy fellow actually sounded like a good guy.
Not many would give so much money to a poor orphanage so regularly and expect nothing in return.
Wait, Eris’ thoughts abruptly paused as her frown deepened, "What did that man ask for as... compensation?"
Gritting her teeth, the Director said quietly, "Every time he came and donated, he would choose one of the younger children to adopt and take them with him."
Leaning back in her chair, Tilly wore a look of regret as she added, "The children he chose were always below the age of 10, and he seemed particularly interested in those who were particularly moody or difficult to deal with."
"That’s it?" Eris tilted her head in confusion. Although it wasn’t very savory to ’buy’ children like this, it also wasn’t necessarily anything nefarious or even out-of-the-ordinary as far as the young red-head could tell.
In fact, from what Eris had learned, the practice of orphanage’s only allowing the children they cared for to be adopted after a ’donation’ was made to them was perfectly normal.
There had to be more to this story than her aunt had told her so far.
Sure enough, Tilly covered her face with her hand and muttered, "The money was good, and the children he wanted were generally considered problematic, so everyone was more than happy to let him take them away, but..."
"But what?" Eris prodded, now fully invested in figuring out just what was going on in the darkness of the orphanage.
"But even after all these years, none of us have ever seen or heard from any of those children ever again, which is highly unusual," Tilly confessed, "Normally, children who are adopted will return here once in a while to see their friends, or just to say hello, but for the kids Mr. Bellamy took with him, no one from the orphanage has even spotted them again, much less spoken to them."
"Could it be that Mr. Bellamy lives somewhere far away, and the kids all left with him?" Eris suggested.
"That’s the exact story he gave us when we asked him a couple years back," Tilly nodded, though her expression clearly said she was unconvinced, "He claimed to be a traveling merchant who never stayed in one place for too long, and that the kids he adopted from our orphanage were all living in different cities with relatives or family friends of his."
Pursing her lips, Eris went through it all again in her head, but while there were certainly some suspicious points along the way, nothing Director Tilly told her didn’t make sense.
If so, though, why was she so distraught? A question the young girl posed directly to the older woman.
"Up until recently, we were also satisfied with Mr. Bellamy’s explanations, and considering how wealthy and generous he seemed to be, we felt that the children he adopted were probably living better lives than they would if they had remained here, so we didn’t ask too many questions," Tilly explained, "But that was probably just us trying to justify the situation to ourselves. A way to push down our doubts and sooth our consciences."
"And we probably would have kept doing so," the middle-aged woman said wryly, her fist clenching tight in the next moment as she growled, "Were it not for that man suddenly appearing a month ago, dropping 100 Gold Coins and ’requesting’ we prepare a dozen children for him to take away."
"A dozen? All at once?" Eris gawked.
Adopting 2 or 3 kids every year was already somewhat fishy.
Sure, there were some rich families who could afford to take in that many mouths without any difficulty, but even for them, there had to be a purpose beyond just charity, right?
For a lone traveling merchant with a vague backstory and unknown financial means to show up out of the blue and ask to ’adopt’ 12 underage children from an underprivileged orphanage was more than a little suspicious.
Why would someone want so many children in such a hurry? What would they even do with them?
As she pondered these questions, Eris’ expression suddenly turned incredibly dark as a certain thought came to her, one that was related to a rather unpleasant situation she had recently experienced, one that had led to her gaining a new little brother and sister.
"He’s selling them, or worse, ’training’ them," a young boy’s voice suddenly cut through the silence, startling both Eris and Director Tilly.
He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but having overheard part of the conversation, Toby was also sporting a rather grim expression now as he vocalized what they were all thinking, "That man is some kind of human smuggler, and he’s targeting poor children because he knows no one will miss them."
Grinding his teeth so hard they nearly cracked, the boy slammed his small fists against the table as he shouted, "I knew there was something familiar about him! I knew it the moment I saw him! The way he acted, the way he smiled, the way he looked at Big Sister, and Mabel, and me, like he was evaluating our worth, like we were mere tools or products..."
"It was exactly like those... those bastards!"