Life of Magic With a Talkative Heart-Chapter 134: Nothing Good Ever Happens in an Orphanage

The kid sat with his back slumped, his eyes nervously wandering about.
"The kids are involved in a sinister plot! I knew it!"
Cyril looked around the lobby, but no one still came after a few seconds. Perhaps everyone else was sleeping, but then why was there no caretaker around? Did she decide to take a nap too?
"Where is everyone?" he asked, finding the silence weird.
"I- I- They must be back soon. They are just doing... something," the kid stuttered in response.
His eyes wandered over everywhere that wasn't Cyril, as if trying to escape.
Cyril walked towards the door, carefully listening in to the silence. Vaguely, on the second floor, he heard the creaking of the wood, but nothing else aside from that.
Coupled with the broken windows, dust starting to gather everywhere he looked, and the absence of all life, it almost seemed like the orphanage was abandoned.
He looked back at the kid, making him hang his head even lower.
...He knows something, but he probably won't tell me.
For whatever reason, the kid had no trust in authority figures. Given that Cyril had introduced himself as a knight and had clearly noble looks, his chances of building a friendly connection were slim to none.
"Change of plans then! Let's do it my way!"
Cyril cleared his throat, his gaze becoming much colder. Since being a reliable figure didn't work, he'll use something else.
"Are you aware that lying to a knight is considered a serious crime? I will find out the truth, one way or another, and I would rather not ruin a life so young." Cyril said, now standing over the kid.
His voice became severe, almost maliciously cold. Hearing it, the kid instinctively sat up straight, shivers running down his back. His heartbeat increased further as his eyes shook.
"I ask again. Have you seen anything suspicious?" Cyril leaned closer to the kid.
The snake hanging on his neck moved, raising her head to look at the kid. With her golden eyes turning ferocious, she threateningly hissed.
"I- I guess. It's nothing big. When I woke up today, everyone was acting a bit shifty. When I asked Aunt Jessica why, she sent me to deliver flowers and told me to wait in the lobby after I was done," the kid weakly whispered, desperately staring at the ground.
"I've been sitting here for some time now, but no one has come still. That's all. That's nothing bad, right?"
The kid gulped, staring at the corner of Cyril's boots. His voice was eager, as if begging for him to say everything was fine.
Cyril remained silent for a moment. Suddenly a new idea for questioning entered his mind.
"...Have you heard about the recent incident in the zoo?" Cyril asked after a pause, making the kid flinch.
The kid cautiously nodded, trying his best to ignore the snake nearby.
"Many dangerous monsters escaped that place. Many of them are capable of parasitizing a human, changing their behavior to suit their needs."
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, the violation.
The kid's face paled as he finally looked at Cyril. Now a different kind of fear emerged in his eyes.
Staring into them, Cyril continued, his voice flat. "Who knows? It could be a leech that attached itself to all the people here and forced them out of the public's eyes. Maybe they are being quietly eaten alive while you sit here and do nothing."
With each word the kid became more and more scared.
He opened his mouth, tears forming at the corner of his eyes. He wanted to scream, but he desperately prevented himself, throwing glances towards the door leading deeper into the orphanage.
"Hahaha! Now tell him he might be infected with the parasite as well! Like, we might have to surgically remove it from him! Hahaha!"
Rhamn maniacally laughed, tears of joy glistening in her malicious red eyes.
Hearing her melodic voice, Cyril shook his head, breaking out of it.
Why am I scaring a child into tears...? He clearly doesn't know anything.
"Because it's funny!"
...
Perhaps the fruitless suspicion he had about Alvin made him more frustrated than he realized. Cyril did feel a bizarre sense of achievement at seeing the child's tears.
He convinced himself it was Rhamn's feelings influencing him.
"Sure, hehe."
"...I doubt there's anything actually wrong," Cyril suddenly said, his voice no longer as cold.
He put his arm on the kid's shoulder, trying to be as gentle as possible. Even Atheris went back to being a comfy scarf.
"I'm just here to investigate. Everything will be fine."
Tigris meowed cutely, and Atheris made a short loop in the air, all in an attempt to cheer up the small child.
The boy's face turned blank as he observed their actions. His eyes were now confused.
Sorry.
Without waiting for him to recover, Cyril walked towards the back door and entered it.
No one is here and the door was open. I am just a visitor who wants to find the caretaker.
Inside was a long corridor leading into a kitchen. In the middle of it, on the right side were narrow stairs leading to the second floor.
The kitchen is unlikely to hold anything. Where is Alvin?
"Morpho says somewhere below us. Perhaps this place has a basement?"
Let's check the other areas first.
Cyril ascended the stairs to the second floor. He didn't try to hide his footsteps. The old wooden stairs loudly announced his presence even to those hard of hearing. Yet there was still no movement.
But now that he was closer, Cyril heard something else.
It was the creaking of the wood in the other rooms, quiet breathing, and a distinct beating of a heart. There were many of them, coming from many different places: behind the walls, behind the closed doors, and from the wardrobe placed at the end of the corridor.
It almost felt like the building itself was a living creature.
"...?"
The butterfly on his shoulder fluttered her wings in warning.
"She feels magic from the wardrobe. There is a spell inside of it!"
Cyril warily walked in front of the wardrobe, paying attention to everything around him. As he focused, he discovered a vague mana presence.
The fireball spell...!
It was weak, but the distinct feel of a spell he used the most was unmistakable for him.
Cyril quickly cast a barrier spell and flung the doors of the wardrobe open.
However, he wasn't greeted with a trap as he subtly expected. Inside, huddled in a corner, was a small girl.
In her hands she for some reason held a cake with the number twelve placed on it.
Seeing him, the girl immediately flinched, flailing her hands. The cake dropped from her grasp, falling right on the wooden floor.
"..."
"Wah!"
The girl started loudly wailing after a second, wiping at her eyes with desperation.
"I- I am sorry! I ruined the birthday cake! Waah!"
She sat down in the wardrobe, continuously wiping at her eyes.
Birthday cake...?
Cyril looked at the mess on the floor, observing the candles with traces of a spell, before glancing to the door at the side, where hurried footsteps quickly came.
It was soon opened, a middle-aged woman coming out of it with a concerned face.
"What happened, Trixy?!"
She froze, staring at Cyril in surprise. The little girl hastily crouched out of the wardrobe, passed Cyril, and ran up to the woman, crying all the while.
Then, all the doors of the corridor were opened, and a small crowd of children emerged.
"Surprise! Happy Birthday!" they yelled at once, as if a carefully recited action.
Though once their eyes had focused on the scene, they showed confusion at the crying girl, then wariness at the blond-haired stranger.
"Children, stay behind me!"
The woman reached with her hand behind her, as if trying to shield as many as possible, all the while vigilantly glaring at Cyril as if he were some criminal.
Cyril wanted to say something at this moment but didn't know what. So, he offered a helpless sigh instead.
"..."