Chapter 1: How is the sponsored location an orphanage…?

The Bible has a verse.

‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’

Even God knew early on that ‘farming’ was essential for living

I loved children.

As the saying goes, “What’s better than a child? An even younger child.”

I believed that tiny, little kids were more precious than anything else.

Their youthful, not-yet-matured, and therefore more beautiful features.

Their chubby cheeks, still full of baby fat.

The purest, most radiant smiles in the world that only children can make.

Children like that were lovely—truly, utterly lovely.

There’s no strange meaning to this.

I simply enjoyed those heartwarming moments of watching children play and smiling at their innocence.

“…But I never expected I’d become one of those children myself.”

Let’s go back to a long time ago, to the moment I first opened my eyes in this world.

“Huh?”

I clearly remembered falling asleep in my bed at home, yet when I woke up, I was lying inside a shabby, unfamiliar building.

To this day, I still don’t know the reason.

I hadn’t been drinking.

I hadn’t left a lengthy hate comment anywhere.

All I did was finish a quiet little party with my parents to celebrate my discharge from the military, then go to bed.

But then I woke up in this strange, old building.

No, “shabby” was putting it lightly—it was ancient.

The building was entirely made of wood, from the floor to the ceiling.

Cobwebs—dozens, if not hundreds of them—decorated the place, making it clear the structure had been abandoned for a very long time.

“Umm….”

What on earth is going on here?

Scratching my cheek in confusion, I glanced around and noticed a large shard of glass in the corner.

It was slightly warped but mostly intact, likely a fragment from the broken window nearby.
In its reflection, I saw a tiny child.

A small girl, mimicking my every move in real-time.

A white-haired little girl who looked freezing, clad only in an oversized dress shirt.

That girl was me.

I waved my arms around.
Thin, delicate arms moved naturally, though a bit stiffly.

I pinched my cheek.

The soft, stretchy feel of it was fascinating—completely unlike my usual self.

My cheeks were so squishy and fun to poke; I couldn’t help but enjoy it.

Still, the slight pain I felt, the rice cake-like softness beneath my finger, and the two suns I saw outside the window— all of it told me that this was a different world, not a dream, but reality.

“Oh.”

The shocking truth was impossible to process, and I collapsed face-down, sitting in a daze for hours.

As I zoned out for what felt like an entire day and night, the overwhelming storm of emotions that had consumed me slowly began to settle.

My gender had changed.

My height had been halved.

And I’d been inexplicably dragged into a strange world the moment I left the military.

Yet somehow, all of it just felt so absurd now that I stopped caring altogether.

“Life…”

May 5, 2025.

On Children’s Day, I Became a Child to Celebrate My Discharge.

What finally snapped me out of my daze after idly killing time was none other than hunger.

Grrrrrr…

“Ugh…”

I clutched my increasingly aching little stomach.

I was hungry.

Really hungry.

It felt far worse than the time I went three straight days without supplies during training.
But of course, this was to be expected.

Back then, I was an adult. But now, I was a young girl.

A tiny, needy body that would constantly demand food, no matter how much it ate.

For a body like this to go without food for hours, let alone nearly a day, it was surprising I hadn’t collapsed sooner.

“I’m so hungry. Is there anything to eat…?”

I couldn’t afford to starve to death like this, so I desperately searched the entire building for something edible.

I checked every nook and cranny—rooms that looked like bedrooms but were completely devoid of blankets or pillows, the kitchen, the bathroom, the storage room, and even the lounge.

Every single door, aside from the exit, I opened.

While rummaging through the building, I discovered a few new facts.

At first, I thought this place was just an enormous, abandoned warehouse.

But it turned out to be an old, decrepit orphanage.

Of course, it wasn’t like there were any signs of children living here.

All it had was a rusty nameplate reading “Orphanage” on the door.

There were no clothes, toys, playgrounds, or books—none of the essentials you’d expect to find in such a place.

Still, I managed to accomplish my goal of finding food.

Inside a cupboard in the kitchen, I found a single loaf of bread that looked pretty tasty.

Except… the bread was a little… no, a lot… hard.

When I lightly tapped it on the floor, it made a bang, bang sound, like hammering nails with a mallet.

Is this a brick or bread…?

“Guess I can’t eat this.”

How long had this thing been left sitting here?

I stared down at the bread, which had gone beyond dry and hard, reaching a state of outright durability.

But still, bread was bread, right? Maybe it was edible after all.

Closing my eyes and steeling myself, I took a big bite out of the brick-like bread to appease my starving stomach.

Crunch!

“…Ouch.”

Yeah, no, this wasn’t happening. It hurt.

“This is really bad… seriously…”

After that, I rummaged through every cupboard and drawer that might hold food, but unfortunately, there was nothing remotely edible aside from that brick of bread.

No, scratch that—there was nothing at all.

All I found after searching through the countless cabinets were a few clumps of who-knows-why-it’s-here dirt and some random scraps of fabric that looked like they’d been left untouched for years.

“What’s with this place…?”

It felt like everything was wrong—very, very wrong.

How could a place calling itself an orphanage have absolutely no food?

There weren’t even signs of anyone having lived here recently.

Even if I somehow solved my immediate hunger problem, it was painfully clear that surviving here long-term would be nearly impossible.

For starters, there wasn’t even any bedding.

I wasn’t expecting luxury or soft mattresses, but at the very least, I’d hoped for an old blanket to cover myself with, or even a lumpy pillow to support my head.

The large wardrobe in the bedroom completely shattered my faint expectations.

I mean, how could something that big have absolutely nothing inside?

Oh, wait—there was something, a pillow.

Made of solid wood.

“Ugh…”

At this rate, I was genuinely about to starve, unable to solve even my immediate meal problem.

Should I just gnaw on tree bark or something? That grim thought crossed my mind.

But just then, I found a glimmer of hope.

“What’s this…? Could it be… money?”

Inside a worn-out cupboard that was so old its door was barely hanging on, I discovered some shiny, sparkling coins.

I didn’t know the value of the currency here yet, so I couldn’t tell how much these coins were worth.

But surely, it’d be enough to afford a meal for a starving child, right?

“One coin, two coins, three coins…”

Thinking that way, the small coins in my hand began to feel like priceless jewels.

But a question arose at the same time.

Why were these coins, of all things, so well-preserved and shiny compared to everything else?

“Oh, right!”

My curiosity didn’t last long.

A vague memory suddenly flashed in my mind—the scenery I’d seen through the window earlier.

It was a small, rural village, with smoke rising from chimneys in every house.

If I brought these coins and went to that village, maybe I could finally ease my hunger.

After all, it was common sense that villages usually had places where you could buy food.

“Alright.”

With trembling hands, I carefully counted the precious coins one by one before slipping them into my pocket.

I didn’t forget to securely tie the opening of the pocket, just in case.

What was I waiting for?

After double-checking the jingling coins in my pocket, I immediately swung open the orphanage door.

Creak!

The wooden door opened slowly with a groan, as if it had never been opened before.

Bright sunlight streamed in, as though the twin suns outside were eager to remind me of their existence.

“So bright…”

Unlike the dim, gloomy interior of the building, the outside world was dazzlingly bright.

It was the complete opposite of my somber mood—blue skies, a few clouds scattered here and there, warm sunlight.

The breeze was cool, perfect for kids to run around and play.

Stepping out from the stuffy, oppressive building and taking in the fresh air, I felt an immediate release of the tension that had been weighing on my chest.

Even my gloomy feelings started to lift a little.

“Ah…!”

But just as I was marveling at the weather.

CRASH!

Behind me, a loud bang echoed as the door I had just opened shattered to pieces.

The wooden door, upon hitting the ground, broke into fragments, disintegrating into a state beyond repair in an instant.

It seemed the rusty hinges, long neglected, had finally given out.

“Without that door, I’ll have to sleep with cold night winds blowing in…”

“Ah…”

Life is seriously…