Eira looks down with a sad face at the heavy Leticia's dialogue. The straightforward dialogue should have raised all sorts of questions, but I can't ask them.

　I too, "Why? I couldn't ask.

　No matter how you look at it, there is no good future beyond Letitia's choice. It's a choice that will not save anyone.

　But perhaps they had no choice but to do so.

　As I thought that and pushed back in silence, Yuri spoke up.

''You sold yourself and satisfied your children's hunger as a temporary measure................................I can't help but wonder. Well, why couldn't the other choice have been made? There would have been many ways to work and earn wages, to recruit new donors, and so on. Above all, if you are a Calistocrat who regards giving to the less fortunate as a good thing, I'm sure there would have been a different outcome if you had offered to help other churches.

　And easily, Yuri asked something that was hard to hear. It's true that it's important, but if this is what Leticia has been talking about selling her body all this time, you don't know what kind of face to make.

　However, Leticia answers Yuri's question with a dark face.

I've pleaded with the priest and asked for help from churches in other towns countless times, but it didn't result in any results. Even when we have been able to increase our donations, it's not much because of the high value of money in this country...

　Unable to finish, Leticia slurred her words and lowered her eyes. She could see tears glistening in the corners of her eyes in a thin layer, and it made her feel even heavier.

　Leticia tried desperately to do everything she could to help, but in the meantime, she couldn't bear to see her children dying.

　If she had spent such hellish days, she certainly might not want to return to that city.

　Suddenly, a new question arises there. It's Leticia's afterwards.

''........If she was sold as a slave, why is she here. How did you escape?

'Yeah, yeah........Aifa! The way you say it, it's a bit...

　The question that popped into my head was asked by Aifa instead, in a bang. However, I couldn't help but plunge in at the way he asked so boldly.

　What a direct question.

　However, Leticia didn't seem to care and nodded while wiping her eyes.

''Ah, ha, yes. I became a slave and was sold in a slaver's shop. Perhaps because of the rarity of being a former nun's slave, a nobleman buyer came along the next day and made me get ready for the next day. For some reason their clothes were still in their monastic robes...or maybe they were examined, cleaned up, and placed in a carriage. Apparently, a fairly high-ranking nobleman bought it, and the destination was deep inside the nobleman's district, so the procedure took some time when we passed through the inner city gates.

So that's where you got away.

　When Aifa asked, Leticia vaguely nodded her head.



Murdered? Slaves.

''No, no........it's about a mercenary who had his family enslaved, and he had a grudge to settle. Apparently, he was quite a rogue merchant, and when he found someone who was likely to sell for a high price, he would sometimes enslave them in a way that was on the edge of the law.......

　The more I hear about Leticia's heavy past, the more regret I feel about coming to this country.

　I should have made the country brighter and more fun. No, it looked like a terrific city to look at with a farsighted camera.

'I was a debt slave, so I only had a temporary contract with the slavers. It doesn't happen very often, and since I was dressed as a nun, I was able to escape to the outskirts of the city, but I can only say that it was a real stroke of luck.

　I look at Leticia who quietly says this and I nodded my head in agreement.

''So these children are the orphans who were under your care?

'There were only five orphaned children I brought with me. The rest were eight children, but I stopped them because I thought it would be safer than outside the city, as we could manage with that number of children in the church. The other children were all lost outside the city.

What, out of town?

　I look at the children, surprised. Obviously, there are more than fifteen of them, but apart from the first five, does that mean that you have already sheltered more than ten of them outside the city?

''........Could it be that you've been living here for many years now?''

　When I asked her that, Leticia understood what I meant, she laughed in annoyance, shook her head from side to side, and stroked the head of the child she had laid next to her.

　It was the child who had collapsed, covered in wounds. He was still lying there, but his pulse was steady, so he should be fine.

　With that child at her side, Leticia opened her mouth.

''No, it hasn't even been a year yet.......There are so many people coming and going in this city that it's unbelievable, so many people are lost on the streets for that reason. Unfortunately, some choose to abandon their children who are slowing them down and embark on a new journey rather than have their entire families starve to death. There are often parents who sell their children as slaves...

A parent should not...

It's sad to say, but there are plenty of stories in other countries about reducing children's mouths and selling them to the slave trade.

　Hearing that, Leticia laughed as she closed her mouth and let out a breath of air. When I looked at that situation with my head tilted back, Leticia smiled a gentle smile.

''You are a kind person, aren't you? To be moved that much by talk of slaves and slackers, you must be a high-level aristocrat who is far from the common people, right? And yet you see slaves and orphans like us as human beings... and if everyone was like you, this country would be like you...

　Letitia said sadly, and her eyes were downcast.





　I let out a deep sigh as I left Letitia and her friends' house.

　It's easy to help because I have the money. But that won't solve the problem in a fundamental way.

''Well let's just go back to the city for now. I want to get to know this country in so many ways.

　He muttered and turned around, and everyone nodded with serious expressions.