The Extra Decided to Be Fake

“… Whoa.”

After several gagging, Lillian managed to stand up.

I felt very uncomfortable in my stomach, so I ate nothing but eventually vomited.

It wasn’t that Theo had said something blunt earlier, or that she was offended by the teeth marks on the potatoes she had accepted.
Especially since Lillian had memories of quickly picking up anything that fell on the ground and eating it when she was hungry.

It was just that the harmony in front of my eyes made me uncomfortable.
It was hard for me to bear what the children gave me and how they laughed and played in front of me.

It’s been a while since Swan died, and it’s embarrassing for everyone to act as if nothing happened.

I feel like saying that I’m the only one who remembers her…

‘…what happened to my personality?’

I’ll have to say sorry to Dennis later for taking the potatoes,

Thinking so, I’m going to start moving again.

“Hey!”

My wrist was caught.

When Lillian turned around, Theo, who looked unfazed, was holding her by the wrist, breathing heavily.
With the tips of his eyebrows raised, the boy gasped and let out an annoyed voice.

“What’s the matter with you? Are you doing this because I took a bite? I’ve been thinking about it, but-”

“Say it right.
It was Dennis who thought of me, not you.”

“Yes.
Dennis may be able to starve himself for you, but I am not.”

Theo said, frowning his tanned nose, and finally sighed and ran his hand through his messy hair.

“I didn’t even want to come looking for you.
The kids came out at me because they said you went out because of me.
I won’t take your potatoes from now on and I won’t care about you, so go in and tell them it’s not because of me.
They said, don’t come in until I bring you in.”

His words were blunt, but the hand holding her wrist was as cold as ice.

It must have been because he had been searching for Lillian for a long time.

I knew it, but Lillian’s voice was still cold.

“… Great.
Sleep outside because I’m not going in.”

“You’d rather freeze to death? Don’t say that.
Hurry… Hey! Where are you going?”

“Why do you care?”

Lillian said that and tried to free Theo’s hand from holding hers, but Theo was firm.
When Lillian didn’t seem to want to go in, he tried to persuade her to go in instead of letting go of Lillian’s hand.

“Hey, yes, I get it.
It’s my fault.
You did that because you were annoyed.
I’m sorry.
Huh? So stop being stubborn and let’s go.
The lights will turn off soon.
And then you-”

“Even me, what?”

Lillian cut Theo off.
Lillian’s foot took a step forward.
As much as the distance narrowed, Theo’s furrowed eyebrows relaxed.
Lillian’s gaze reached the shadow between his eyebrows, then returned to Theo’s eyes.

Eyes full of worries and annoyance that can’t be hidden, even though they pretend not to.

Lillian asked, staring at it as sharply as an awl.

“Do you think I will die too?”

“… Hey.”

“Your friend is dead too.”

“Hey, stop it.”

“Other kids might think Dylan was adopted, but I know.
Dylan actually-”

“Stop!”

“Why? If your body is weak, you will die, and if you are lucky enough to be adopted, you will leave.
There is no difference.
Or would you be dying like that every time someone goes?”

Eventually, the hand was shaken off.
Lillian sighed and looked up at her opponent, who was glaring at her to death.
Theo, who was taller than her.

Lillian knew why Theo had said that to her, and why he reacted so curtly to Swan’s death.
It was by accident that she found out about it.
Like most truths do.

At night, while sneaking out of her room to visit Swan, she witnessed the death of Dylan, a close friend of Theo.

―This kid is pretty and could have been handed over to an aristocratic family, but it’s a pity.

―Of all things, he had a lung disease…

At the time, it wasn’t just Dylan’s death that Lillian saw.
She also witnessed a person on the other side who was listening to what she was hearing while hiding.

He seemed shocked by the death of his best friend and didn’t see Lillian, but Lillian was able to see who the shadow belonged to.

A boy who always showed his fangs and laughed mischievously when he was joking, insisted on wearing ankle-length pants even in the hot summer, saying that shorts were embarrassing.

Another child had to lose his childhood one night.

Lillian read the worry and anxiety on Theo’s face as he made a face that said he would die of annoyance.
It wasn’t hard for her to figure out what it was from.

As soon as she noticed it, Lillian had a burning intuition.

“Theo, I’m leaving this nursery.”

I’m going to use this kid.

***

Theo’s eyes widened at Lillian’s words.

“What? Leaving the orphanage, what do you mean all of a sudden?”

“It’s literally.
I’m going to visit my parents.”

Theo’s round eyes narrowed again.
With the tone of being a little fed up.

“You’re saying that, too?”

Maybe it was natural.
This was an orphanage, and in other words, a place where orphaned children would be heard sobbing at night, wanting to see their parents.

Theo ruffled his hair annoyed and shook Lillian’s hand roughly.

“We don’t have parents! Don’t you know that? Even if we did, they abandoned us.
Why would they do that―”

“What if they didn’t throw us away?”

“What?”

“I’m asking you.
What if they didn’t throw us away?”

“Why are you asking me that? If they didn’t, they’d have come looking for us earlier.
Isn’t it natural to see that they haven’t been looking for us?”

“There may have been unavoidable circumstances, or going out to a far away country, or bad luck.”

“That’s their problem.
Anyway, I’ve been rotting here for over ten years, should I even consider that?”

Yes, you are right.
That’s why I’m leaving to find them.
Anywhere would be better than here.”

Even if it turned out to be fake, I had no intention of returning to this nursery school.

It’s terrible that the director only uses the children to fill his interests.
Upon learning the truth, this place became so disgusting.

‘If it hadn’t been for the director’s greed, Swan would have lived.’

No matter how much you favor Swan and bring her good things, can you compare it to the treatment of a great noble like Duke Maynard?

If the director had been a little less greedy and had only taken Swan to the Duke of Maynard’s family early, Swan would have been able to live as Maynard’s princess until her death.

It was the director who killed Swan.

‘I’ll make them pay for their sins.’

Lillian bit the inside of her lip and let go.
It seemed to Theo that she was determined to simply leave the orphanage, but she sighed in annoyance and waved her hand.

“Yes, go.
A.
As long as you could go anywhere and make a good living, don’t make a noise because you got caught running away for nothing.”

“You?”

At Lillian’s question, Theo raised one eyebrow.

“What?”

“Are you going to stay here?”

“Then should I run away too?”

“I know you weren’t adopted this time either.
If you can’t find an adoptive place by the time you’re 15, Loubet will take you.”

Going to Loubet, farmland with no end in sight.

It was the ending that most nursery school children avoided.

It was only until the age of 15 that the orphanage had children, and if they couldn’t find a place to adopt them by that time, they would sell them cheaply as laborers to Loubet, who lacked labor.

Aside from the arduous farming work, the problem was that the orphans who went to Loubet were treated as so-called slaves who did the hardest work.

“You heard that brother Chris, who went to Loubet the year before last, was caught and beaten to death while trying to escape at night.”

“You’re too young to know so much…”

“How could you not know that the older sister Chris was dating cried so much?”

“Damn it.”

“Your fifteenth birthday is less than a month away, Theo.”

Eventually, Theo’s mouth came up with a curse.
If Swan had heard it, she would have been surprised and blocked Lillian’s ears.

But Lillian was nonchalant.
She touched Theo’s weakest spot twice today and in different ways.

Even in the dim light of the hallway, Theo’s eyes were red.
Theo held back his anger as he touched my eyes, then chewed and spit out the words.

“So, what do you want to do?”

“I’ll help you avoid being sold to Loubet.”

So help me instead