Chapter 23

"Good morning, Mr. Tien... um..."

When the teacher called out, Tien, who had been lying down at a distance, suddenly sat up.

"..."

His face had improved in color and looked much healthier compared to before.

It seemed he had managed to pull himself out of the state where he was about to collapse.

I wondered if it could change so much with just one meal, but his previous diet must have been that bad.

He walked over with a steady gait and bowed to Nina.

"Thank you. You are my savior. I will never forget your kindness."

"Th-that's... too much, really."

The heavy words of being a savior made Nina wave her hands in panic.

"If things had continued like this, Tien would probably have died in a few days."

"Eh, eh!?"

"It really saved me. I want to repay your kindness in some way."

"That's right, Miss Nina. As a convent, we also want to repay your kindness. Tien is no longer in the orphanage, but he is still one of our children."

"Teacher..."

Tien looked at the teacher, then at Nina.

"Tell me anything."

Under his intense gaze, Nina said,

"Then, I have one request."

"Sure. What is it?"

With a preamble of "I might be presumptuous," she conveyed her request.

She wanted a tour of the mine.

"......Huh?"

"No, no, I'm sorry! I must be a bother. Intruding on your work like this..."

Not only Tien but also the teacher was stunned.

Seeing this, Emilie and Astrid laughed.

"That's just how she is."

"She really wants to see inside the iron mine. Purely out of curiosity."

Hearing this, Nina became even more flustered.

"S-Sorry... I just want to see it because I've never seen one before..."

"......"

Tien looked at the teacher and nodded.

"That's a small favor. I can arrange a tour without prior application through a friend who works in the mine. When would you like to go? Tomorrow? The day after?"

"Ah, tomorrow! Please, tomorrow!"

"In that case, Tien, you should stay here tonight."

"Why? Teacher?"

"We can't let such a distinguished guest go in a dirty state. Besides, you might want to eat the leftovers of the meal Nina made, right?"

At that moment,

——Rumble...

Tien's stomach growled, but the sound was much more restrained, almost apologetic.

△

The next day was overcast, making it a cool day suitable for going out.

It could be called a good day for a mine tour—though, since they were going into the mine, the weather didn't really matter.

"Good morning, Mr. Tien... um..."

When Tien arrived at the square in the mining town in the morning, Nina's eyes widened.

In just one day, Tien's complexion had improved so much.

He must have taken a bath, as his body was clean and his hair had a healthy shine.

Even though he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, they were freshly washed by the nuns and looked clean.

This alone made Tien look like a beautiful girl.

Nina couldn't help but blink at the transformation.

"Good morning, Nina... Am I really that different? The teachers were acting strange too, grinning."

"N-No, no, no! You look cute! Really! Right, Emilie, Astrid?"

"Wow, you've really transformed."

"Even better than I imagined."

When Emilie and Astrid praised him sincerely, Tien lowered his head.

"S-So, let's go. Follow me."

He started walking to hide his embarrassment.

Although Nina and the others had become familiar with the town layout over the past few days, they had never visited the mine area.

As they walked, Tien explained things only someone involved with the mine would know.

"That building stores various records of the mine. It smells of old paper. The receptionist wears heavy makeup and smells."

And,

"There's a tram running on this back street. It runs at fixed times, but we can't see it now."

And,

"The ore processing plant is further ahead. We'll see it later."

Nina asked questions like, "Wow!" and "What does the ore processing plant do?"

Tien, who seemed to be a serious person, answered each of Nina's questions. For things he didn't know, he even said he would check and tell her later.

"That's the management office. I'll apply for the tour permits."

"Can we go inside?"

"It's fine, but... it smells."

Tien's standard seemed to be whether something "smelled" or "didn't smell."

"If it smells, I'll pass."

"I'll go get some drinks."

Emilie and Astrid opted out (or rather, wisely avoided it), so Tien and Nina entered the management office alone.

The office, which was usually crowded in the evening for collecting wages, was quiet in the early morning.

At the reception, there were two people: an office worker and a site supervisor, chatting idly.

"Good morning. We have three people for a tour, so we'd like to get tour permits."

"Sure, sure... Wait, who are you? You're wearing our work clothes, but—"

The office worker looked at Tien with a puzzled expression, not recognizing him due to the drastic change in appearance.

"I'm Tien."

"——You, those black ears! Are you a ghost dog!?"

The site supervisor recognized him and shouted loudly.

The office worker, realizing who it was, gasped and fell silent.

"I just came to get the tour permits."

"A, ah, yes..."

"Hold it. What did you do yesterday? You didn't earn anything, right?"

The site supervisor stopped the office worker from processing the permits.

"There's no need to explain what I did."

"There is! I'm the site supervisor. If something happens because of a suspicious person like you, it's a problem! You didn't have any money, but now you look different. There's only one thing you could have done... Where did you go and what did you steal?"

"......"

Tien's eyes narrowed at the accusation, but before he could respond,

"......That's enough."

Nina, with a suppressed voice, spoke up.