Chapter 15: Want to Play?
Hours later, when the door finally opened, the children were the first to react. A group of them rushed out in a mad dash, eager to be the first in line for food.
Anna watched as they pushed and shoved each other in their race, filling the hallway with laughter and shouts. She, on the other hand, stood up more calmly, though she couldn't help but join the flow of people heading toward the dining hall.
As she left the room, the orphanage greeted her with a much more rundown appearance than she remembered.
The stone walls, blackened with dampness and time, showed cracks that seemed ready to give way at any moment. The wooden floors, covered in dirt and soot, creaked under the weight of the running children.
The windows, if they could even be called that, were more like holes barely covered with old rags, letting in just a bit of light through their layers of grime.
The air was thick with the smell of mold and dust, reminding her that this place hadn't been cared for in years.
'This is worse than I remembered,' Anna thought, noting how her memories had softened the harsh reality.
As she moved forward, she noticed other rooms full of children. In some, several were already sitting on the floor, eating directly from small, dented metal plates.
As Anna walked by, she caught their quick but uninterested glances, children used to the routine life of the orphanage.
Seeing some of them eating in there made her think that finding Edrick might not be as easy as she had hoped, especially since, in her past life, he had been the one to approach her first.
Now, it seemed like she would have to put in more effort to find him.
When she finally arrived at the dining hall where the food was being served, an unpleasant smell of boiled cabbage and stale bread hit her. The pots they used were large and worn, with a thick layer of grime clinging to the edges.
The meal was a watery, grayish broth with chunks of what looked like cabbage, withered carrots, and poorly cooked potatoes. The bread, hard and dry, looked more like a rock than something edible.
Anna frowned slightly at the poor quality of the food, and her stomach turned at the thought of having to eat it.
With her plate in hand, she searched for a place to sit. When she finally found a free seat at one of the long, splintered wooden tables, she plopped down on the bench and looked at her food with a mix of resignation and disgust.
'This is... much worse than I remembered,' Anna thought again.
Cautiously, she brought the spoon to her mouth, and the food tasted exactly as it looked: bland and stale.
The broth was practically just hot water with a faint taste of cabbage, and the bread was so hard she had to soak it in the soup to soften it a little.
Even so, she couldn't help but notice how the other children ate quickly or indifferently, already used to the misery that each meal in the orphanage represented.
As she tried to swallow another bite, Anna got lost in her thoughts, wondering what she should do next.
Where could Edrick be?
She hadn't seen him anywhere since she had awakened in this strange and unsettling return to the past.
Maybe she should wait for him to come to her, like he had the first time... But what if he didn't?
Anna felt disoriented, unsure of which path to take.
It was then that she sensed someone sitting next to her.
She turned her head and saw Leo, wearing his usual serious expression.
He greeted her with a brief, "Hey," but his tone was dry, almost distant, as he began eating his own portion of the same bland food.
Anna greeted him back, though she noticed the coldness in his voice.
It was clear that the atmosphere in the orphanage didn't lend itself to friendly chats during mealtime.
Both of them ate in silence, the sound of spoons clanging against metal plates the only accompaniment to their thoughts.
As Anna tried to distract herself from how bad the food tasted, something caught her attention: a group of kids sitting in a corner, near one of the broken windows.
They were playing cards, a small improvised game that clearly entertained the few participants.
Leo had noticed them too, his gaze fixed on them for several seconds before he turned back to his plate.
Anna, for her part, looked away from the card game, trying to focus on something else.
But the sight of the children playing inevitably reminded her of the days when she, Leo, and Edrick used their wits to win money by gambling.
Anna thought again of Edrick, of how he had always been the one to find opportunities in the most unexpected moments.
'Where could he be?' she wondered, feeling a slight frustration at not having seen him anywhere yet.
Suddenly, Leo broke the silence between them.
"Wanna play that?" he asked, nodding toward the kids playing cards.
Anna felt her stomach tighten a bit at the question.
She tried to swallow the last bite of her stale bread, but the discomfort she felt wasn't just from the food.
Leo's question echoed in her mind, and for a moment, she didn't know how to answer.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone