Chapter 3: Orphanage Director Subjugation Part 3

Magic.

The moment I first realized that I could use that power, the one that existed in this world, was seven years after my reincarnation.

Luckily, it happened when I was locked alone inside the orphanage’s wardrobe prison.

“What… is this?”

My hair had begun to shimmer faintly.

At first, I thought I was hallucinating from extreme stress.

After all, I had been trapped in a space too cramped to sit properly and too low to stand for three hours now.

But at that moment, I felt something.

‘…What is this?’

A massive force.

A flow.

Or perhaps a law.

But I couldn’t reach it.

‘Frustrating.’

It was like trying to listen to music with earplugs in or attempting to see the outside world while blindfolded.

There was something there.

I was certain I could reach it.

But I didn’t know how.

“Ellie!!”

Doloria’s voice rang out, her footsteps pounding toward me.

“Have you reflected on your actions!? If you just say you were wrong, I’ll let you out of there!!”

And in that instant, I instinctively realized something.

‘I can’t let her find out.’

She must never know that I had touched some kind of power.

That my hair had turned a glowing white.

‘Hide it. Please, let me hide it!’

I had no idea how magic worked, let alone what kind of power I had gained.

‘Black! Black!!! Just a normal black!!’

A desperate cry from deep within.

It wasn’t a refined connection to the world’s power, nor was it a smooth integration.

But somehow, I succeeded in reaching it.

“Ellie!”

With a loud bang, Doloria swung open the wardrobe prison’s door.

By then, my hair had returned to its usual jet-black color.

“So… are you ready to apologize?”

Doloria grinned, baring her teeth.

I stared at her, then turned my head away.

“…Yeah.”

Doloria shut the door again and locked it.

“Then sleep in there tonight. Sweet dreams, Ellie.”

The sun hadn’t even set beyond the horizon yet.

***

And now.

The moment the count’s carriage disappeared from sight, Doloria came charging at me.

“Elliiiiiieee!!!”

Rather than killing Doloria with magic on the spot, I dashed inside the building.

Not to run away, but to ensure I killed her safely and without fail.

Everyone in the orphanage had gone outside to greet the count.

That meant no one would see what happened inside.

“It’s no use running!!! I’ll tear you apart!!!”

Doloria, still under the delusion that she was the predator, not the prey, gleefully chased after me.

‘The second floor.’

If I stayed on the first floor, someone might see.

But on the second floor, that wouldn’t be an issue.

I didn’t care if people saw me using magic.

But there was something that must never be revealed.

‘When I use proper magic, the spell concealing my hair color might break.’

No one could find out that I was the emperor’s illegitimate child.

The truth would be revealed one day.

But it had to be on my terms, in my own way.

Letting the orphanage staff and children spread rumors was unacceptable.

‘Where should I go?’

There were several rooms on the second floor.

The one I needed was—

‘A place with no exit other than the door.’

Doloria needed to believe I was trapped, like a rat in a cage.

Only then would she enter without hesitation.

And there was only one room like that on the second floor.

With a loud slam, I entered the most dreadful place in this orphanage.

Worse than the dining hall, where we only got watery soup and coarse bread.

Worse than the bedrooms, crawling with bugs and reeking of blood and pus.

Even worse than the orphanage’s cemetery, which, despite not being a hospital, frequently received new residents.

The punishment room.

***

Click.

I stepped into the room, thick with the stench of blood and tears, and locked the door from the inside.

Now, Doloria would focus only on breaking in.

That would buy me time to test the knowledge I had just acquired.

‘Calm down first.’

A deep breath.

Inhaling and exhaling just once was enough to steady my racing heart.

“Ellie!! Open this door! If you don’t, I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll rip your eyes out and shove them down your throat!!”

Bang!!! Bang bang bang!!! BANG BANG BOOM! BOOM!!!

Stay calm.

First, a review.

‘The energy filling this world is called ether. When drawn into a person’s body, it becomes mana. And using mana to influence the world is magic.’

The part I hadn’t understood was the second principle.

‘How does one convert ether into mana?’

Ever since I succeeded in hiding my hair color that day, I had tried all sorts of methods.

Hand gestures.

Chanting random words like spells.

Focusing my mind, even praying.

But no matter what I did, I could only sense ether.

I couldn’t pull it in and make it mine.

Like drowning in a river yet unable to drink a single drop.

But now.

‘Now, I understand.’

My approach had been wrong.

It wasn’t that I had failed to find the right key.

The key needed to connect an individual to the world—

Had to be crafted by the individual themselves.

“Elliiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!”

I had to forge my own key.

CRASH!!!

Doloria threw her full weight against the door.

The once-sturdy punishment room door’s hinges shattered.

The thick door slammed onto the floor, sliding all the way to my feet.

“…Ellie.”

Doloria whispered.

Her voice was sweet, as if coaxing a kitten.

“Have you been waiting patiently?”

The corners of her lips twisted upward in an unnaturally wide grin, trembling as if possessed.

Her eyes, stretched so wide they showed the whites all around, twitched uncontrollably.

“I should give you a reward, shouldn’t I?”

Even in the fifteen years I had endured in this hell disguised as an orphanage, I had never seen her this furious.

But rather than a burst of anger, she had grown cold—so cold that it meant she wouldn’t kill me in a moment of rage.

Instead, she would take her time, torturing me slowly until she was satisfied.

***

“What should we start with?”

Doloria stepped forward, her movements deliberate.

“Pulling out fingernails? Ripping open holes? Cracking ribs?”

Foamy saliva dripped from the lips that had curled up in that grotesque smile.

“Smashing your skull? Crushing your insides? You choose, Ellie. Or…”

“…None of them sound good.”

I reached out.

The room was dim, shrouded in darkness, and it seemed Doloria hadn’t noticed the change in my colors.

“Oh my, then I’ll just choose one for y—”

“Doloria.”

Like a judge asking a condemned prisoner for their last words—or perhaps simply to satisfy an old curiosity—I asked:

“Why do you hate children so much?”

I didn’t know much about this world, but if she wanted to make money through evil means, there were many other paths besides running an orphanage.

She wasn’t the type to pretend to be a good person and enjoy praise, either.

This orphanage was too far from town, and Doloria rarely left.

“Hate them? Me? Children?”

Doloria tilted her head to the side.

Like a broken doll.

“I love children more than anyone.”

One step.

“I love their screams. The way their voices go shrill when they cry.”

Two steps.

“I love how soft their bodies are, so my hands don’t hurt when I hit them. How small and light they are, so I can toss them around.”

Three steps.

Now within reach.

“So isn’t it only natural that I became the head of an orphanage?”

“…I see.”

I regretted asking.

I nearly vomited on the spot.

“Now then, let’s have some fun, Ellie—huh?”

Doloria’s murky eyes blinked.

“That hair… What is that?”

***

This was a world where magical talent was inherited through bloodlines.

A person’s lineage was their most valuable asset—more than anything, it was their true legacy.

Thus, a tradition had formed in this world.

When a great mage earned their own land and became a noble, founding a family, they would choose one color for their hair and one for their eyes.

These colors would be passed down through generations, engraved into their very bloodline.

And the one who had risen above all others—the emperor—had claimed these colors:

Hair as pure and radiant as snow.

Eyes as blue as the stars.

“…R-Royalty?”

For the first time, fear flickered in Doloria’s eyes.

But then—

“W-What does it matter?”

Doloria ground her teeth together, the sound like someone chewing on air.

“If I kill you and bury you, no one will ever know. I’ll rip out your hair and burn it, gouge out your eyes—what then?”

“…No more.”

I was done seeing it.

I was done hearing it.

I just wanted to erase this disgusting insect from my sight—no, from this world.

But I had no intention of granting a creature that had inflicted so much suffering on so many children a quick, painless death.

“What are you glaring at me for?”

Doloria sneered.

“Even if you have some amazing magical talent, you haven’t learned a thing. Without knowing the magic language, you can’t cast a single spell!”

It was true.

Partly.

Even though I was from this world, I had lived my life without any connection to magic.

And for people like Doloria, isolated in a place like this, misunderstandings about magic were common.

Doloria stepped toward me again.

“Ellie…”

Her massive frame blocked the doorway, casting the room into darkness.

I took a breath in—

And exhaled.

‘Focus.’

I felt the ether that made up the world.

The belief that one couldn’t use magic without knowing the magic language.

Until a short while ago, I had held a similar misconception.

But after watching the daughter of Count Clyford use magic, I had realized something.

“Ellie… My soft, impudent little Ellie…”

The magic language wasn’t something fixed.

“Now, time for—”

Mages assigned names to objects and phenomena, and those names became what people called the magic language.

Which meant—

If I didn’t know any of those names, I could simply create my own.

“It’s time for you to drop dead, Ellie!!”

She lunged.

Her thick, bear-like hands reached for my throat, ready to snap my neck and crush my flesh.

I opened my eyes.

The stars within them gleamed.

I reached out.

At my fingertips, mana swirled.

[Burn.]

A single word.

But it was enough.