“Ryu-nii-chan!”

As soon as I arrived at the orphanage, the little ones swarmed around me.

The orphanage (church) was even more dilapidated than my apartment. I wanted to at least fix the walls and floor, but Sister stopped me.

She said it was enough as long as it could shelter them from the rain and wind.

I persisted, but she said,

“If the exterior is nice, people will think we’re wealthy and target us for robbery. If we’re attacked, the children in the church could get hurt.”

I understood her point.

You see, this place is near a slum. (It’s a borderline area between the slum and the regular city, and it’s commonly called Border Town.) It’s always overflowing with people who’ve failed in life and fallen into poverty, and crime is commonplace…

If I really wanted to protect the church, I could move it to a safe place away from the slum and hire guards. I had the financial means to do that, thanks to selling the dragon and the materials from the dungeon.

But if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to protect the new orphans who would continue to appear in the slum.

There’s always a constant influx of people who’ve fallen into poverty and failed in life in the slum. Many of them sell or abandon their children. Many children who’ve lost their parents in wars or monster attacks end up there too.

Sister wanted to continue protecting the church in the slum as a refuge for such children.

I understood her feelings, so I started going to the church whenever I had time and bringing food.

Since I can use storage magic, I can make it look like I’m going to the church empty-handed even though I’m carrying a lot of food.

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The church doesn’t have a refrigerator.

(Refrigerators aren’t common in this world, not just in churches.)

So even if I donated a lot of food, it would spoil because it couldn’t be stored for long.

Therefore, I decided to create a subspace warehouse using storage magic in the small food storage room in the church basement. I made the entrance a “door” to the storage room.

Not the “inside” of the storage room, but the “door” itself. The door itself is like a magic storage item, and even if you open it, the inside is just a small storage room.

Sister can touch the door and focus her mind to take out whatever’s inside. If she touches the door and the item she wants to store at the same time while focusing, it will be stored.

Normally, magic storage is usually in the form of a pouch, bag, bracelet, or ring, but I intentionally made it a stationary door because I was worried someone might discover it and steal it.

Magic bags and other magic items with storage magic attached are very expensive and are often stolen.

If Sister were known to have such a magic item, someone would surely try to take it from her.

It would be fine if they just stole it, but in this world, people will gladly kill Sister and the children to get it.

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“Wow, Ryu-chan is a magician!”

Sister Anne is the only one who calls me “Ryu-chan” in this world.

I’m embarrassed, but it also feels a little good.

Just to be safe, I set it so only Sister and I can use this “storage door”, but I strictly told Sister to keep the existence of magic storage a secret, not even telling the children.

No matter how many times I tell them it’s a secret, they’re still children after all. There’s a high chance they might accidentally slip up. It’s better to not tell them at all.

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Since time stops inside the storage, the food I put in won’t spoil. In a way, it’s a more amazing storage than a refrigerator—the ultimate storage.

I stored a lot of monster meat that I had dismantled and the food I bought in this “storage door”.

The children who were once thin and poor have regained their color.

They were poor and thin until recently, so it’s suspicious for them to suddenly become fat, but Sister is carefully controlling the amount of food they eat, so they’re healthy but not fat.

Sister keeps their daily meals simple, but I’m allowed to give them luxurious meals and snacks when I visit.

If information leaks from somewhere, it’s fine because people will only target me if it’s said that “Ryu-nii-chan” is giving them food.

In those cases, Sister makes sure to give the children who are out a portion later (of course, she tells them it’s from me).

※The older children often work outside doing various chores to earn even a little money, so only the younger ones are left at the church.

Today, I put all the food I brought into the storage door, played with the younger children who were left at the church, and then left to return home.

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― ― ― ― ― ― ― ―

Catherine and Layla came to visit me.

They somehow managed to reach my apartment, but I wasn’t there.

The people in the apartment said they saw me leaving a little while ago, so we must have just missed each other.

But they couldn’t just leave after coming all this way.

They aren’t just children running errands.

One of the residents told us I probably went to the church.

So, they decided to head to the church.