Guardian

"Old Director, that's the situation. Sorry for the trouble, but please get there as soon as you can. I need to head back and muster with the others."

At the Rivet Town Orphanage, the Silvermane Guard who had delivered the message said his goodbyes and left.

Outside the director's office, Natasha, the Orphanage's substitute teacher, happened to be approaching. Seeing the soldier come out, she couldn't help looking puzzled.

The soldier also gave Natasha a surprised glance. This gentle-looking young teacher carried herself very differently from the women of the Underworld. She looked more like a young lady from the Upper District.

But he soon dismissed the thought as absurd. How could those noble young ladies of the Upper District ever come down to this filthy, damp Underworld to teach at an orphanage?

Perhaps she was the daughter of some small-time merchant in Rivet Town.

The soldier smiled at Natasha and left.

Natasha reached the director's office. The soldier hadn't closed the door, so she stood in the doorway and knocked a few times.

"Miss Natasha, what brings you here so late?"

A kind, warm voice answered, though it seemed to be holding something back, tinged with a faint, inexplicable sadness.

No lamps were lit in the office. There was only the dim orange-yellow glow of the heater, beside which an elderly woman sat on a sofa, plainly dressed but refined in bearing.

"Old Director, there's something I need to report!" Natasha's voice carried anger. "Chu Mu skipped my afternoon class again! He's clever and gets full marks every time, so I can turn a blind eye if he skips class once in a while. But he still hasn't come back! It's already eight in the evening! He might not think it's a big deal, but other people are worried about him!"

After a pause, Natasha continued:

"During my afternoon class, I asked Xiao Bu, who sits beside him, but she wouldn't tell me where he'd gone. Just now, though, she came running to me in tears, begging me to help her find her brother. She said Chu Mu went to the mines and still hasn't come back!

"Old Director, I really don't understand. What would a six-year-old child go to the mines for? It's so dangerous to play there! Why is he so naughty? He was just grounded for a whole week, and he hasn't changed at all!"

Natasha's voice was full of exasperation at his refusal to learn.

"Natasha, he didn't go to the mines to play," the Old Director said quietly.

"What else would a child his age go there for?" Natasha asked with a frown.

"He went to work for the foremen. He uses his small size to crawl into collapsed mine tunnels and dig out geomarrow. He earns eight Winter City Shields each time." The Old Director closed her eyes in anguish. "That's what Chu Mu went to the mines to do."

"How could that be?" Natasha's eyes widened in shock, as though she couldn't accept what she'd heard. "He... he's just a little child. What does he need to earn money for? Crawling into collapsed mine tunnels is so dangerous. Our Orphanage makes sure he has food to eat, so why does he still need to earn money?"

Natasha couldn't understand! She had been born in the Underworld, but adoptive parents from the Upper District had taken her in when she was young. In her own childhood, she had never thought about earning money, nor had any of the children around her.

Wasn't childhood supposed to be about playing happily?

Then the Old Director spoke again:

"Chu Mu said that since he'd become a miner when he grew up anyway, what difference did it make if he started now? He also said their childhood was painful to begin with."

At those words, Natasha felt as though something inside her had shattered.

Childhood was painful.

What must he have been through to say something like that?

But was he wrong?

Natasha couldn't refute him. She felt only bitterness filling her heart.

She had always thought of Chu Mu as a mischievous child who just wanted to play, but now she saw him in a new light.

"Natasha, have we done something wrong?" The Old Director's words interrupted her thoughts. "I founded this Orphanage, yet I can't give the children a good future. I can't even give them a happy childhood. I've caused them so much suffering."

"Old Director, that's not true at all!" Natasha looked at her and saw tears flowing from the elderly woman's eyes, glinting with grief in the heater's light.

This daughter of a wealthy merchant family in Rivet Town had devoted her entire fortune, even her family's ancestral home, to the Orphanage's charitable work.

Her greatest contribution had been her entire life.

She had never married. Once, she had been a beautiful, radiant young lady who attended high-society balls in splendid dresses and precious jewels.

Now her face had aged, but beneath those plain clothes beat the brightest heart in the Underworld!

"Old Director, I don't know how to put it, but I admire you so much. You're an extraordinary person! Without you, these children's lives would only have been harder!" Natasha stepped forward and took the Old Director's hand, two trails of tears running down her own cheeks.

She continued:

"You say you can't give the children a future, but I don't think that's your fault, or theirs. In an Underworld this filthy, in a Belobog this rotten, what future could children born here possibly have?"

At that, Natasha seemed to reach a decision:

"Old Director, I want to change this world. I'll stay in the Underworld forever. That was my aspiration from the start. If you're willing, I can become the Orphanage's next Guardian."

"My child, you..." The Old Director stared at Natasha in disbelief and shook her head. "You understand the price of becoming a Guardian. My child, you're still young."

"The price is merely never starting a family of my own, never having children." Natasha wiped away her tears and shook her head with a smile. "Old Director, I already have a very, very big family: this Orphanage. All these children will be my children. What more could I want? I'm already the happiest person in the world."

Hearing that, the Old Director knew she could no longer dissuade her.

In Natasha, she glimpsed her younger self, every bit as stubborn.

Now that she was old and her body was gradually weakening, she often thought about the past.

My life could have taken so many different paths. If I hadn't founded this Orphanage, perhaps I could be sitting in a well-heated mansion in the Upper District, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, wearing soft, beautiful clothes, and savoring delicate pastries.

That was the path her father had paved for her back then.

Was I wrong to stubbornly choose another path and reject a life of ease and comfort?

No. I've lived this life without regrets!

Every penny I had went not toward extravagant pleasures, but toward saving one little life after another!

The joy of saving lives had been her first source of motivation, and it had remained her guiding principle all her life.

This was the cause I've worked for all my life! I'm filled with pride. How could I ever regret it?

And now her work had a successor, someone just like her younger self. She believed that this cause would be carried on faithfully, resolving the greatest lingering regret in her heart.

With that thought, the Old Director rose from the sofa, put away her sorrow, and said:

"My child, although I would dearly love to pass the position of Guardian on to you, I'm sorry, but I can't do that just yet."

The Old Director raised her head and looked out the window toward Boulder Town, her gaze as resolute as a warrior's:

"For now, I still need to fight one more battle as the Guardian and bring our Orphanage's little hero home!"