Chapter 002 - The Future in Her Plan
After breakfast, the other children started their morning class just like always, while Alina picked up breakfast and went to take care of Banetiz, who was recovering from cold in bed.
The orphanage wasn't big, and Benitez's room was only a few minutes away from the dining room.
It was a room made of wood, which was unique in the English region. Although it's firm, damp proofing was rather horrible.
Alina pushed the door open and immediately felt the dampness in the room that was built close to a lake. The girl frowned as she put down the tray and opened the window.
The cool morning breeze swept the dampness away and refreshed them.
"Good thing that you are here, otherwise the orphanage would be a mess already. Sorry to bother you with all these."
A deep voice sounded from behind Alina. She turned around and saw Banetiz supporting himself up from the bed as he half leaned against the wall. Although he was still looked somewhat pale from cold and headache, he seemed much more energetic than a few days ago.
"If you sneak to the underground fist fights for money again without telling me, I swear I will just leave you be next time."
The girl with silver hair humphed as she approached Benitez's bed in an imposing manner, her lake blue eyes were filled with blame.
If there was an award for the goody-two-shoes, Benitez would definitely top the ranking.
Benitez was born into a big, poor family, and his parents didn't have money to send him to school. He did drugs, and he had always been a rebel. When he sought help from the priest, he was chased out of the church. Luckily, a Spanish brother took him in, educated him, and made him become a priest.
Benitez recalls his childhood full of helplessness; he decided to build an orphanage next to his small church. Relying on government funds, charity from society, and his own salary as a priest, he could take care of the children in the orphanage.
Alina was one of the orphans he took in from the streets of London. When Alina just reincarnated in this world six years ago, she wasn't even fluent in English yet. If she wasn't lucky to have met Benitez, it was difficult for her to survive in this world.
But as the children grew up, the orphanage's spendings became tighter.
Benitez was unwilling to give up on the orphans and worked part-time jobs in the nearby towns for money, and a few days ago, he even snuck to the underground fistfights in the city.
If his headache wasn't so bad from the cold and forced him to confess to Alina that he needed help, Alina might still be completely in the dark, and she would be enjoying her luxurious meals at ease.
Alina picked up the bowl and passed it to Benitez angrily as she fired away at him.
"We should still have a lot of money from the bets at the World Cup last year. Why did you go to underground fistfights? We had a promise that I will think of ways to sustain the orphanage financially. Drink the soup first-"
Although she wasn't a devoted fan in her previous life, because of the song "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," she faintly called that Maradona led the sad Argentine, and she earned almost six thousand pounds by betting the outsider.
Even if they renovated the orphanage's dorms and raised the standards of their three meals so logically speaking, they shouldn't be so poor that Benitez had to go to the underground fistfights.
Benitez blew into the bowl in his hands, took a small sip, and replied calmly.
"I helped you saved those six thousand pounds; the cost for the renovation and the meals are taken out from the orphanage's savings."
"Why?! Who told you to save that money!"
The silver-haired girl waved her arms in the air angrily like an angry cat after she heard the reply and glared at the man in front of her.
If she didn't put his health into consideration, Alina felt the impulse to beat him up.
Benitez shrugged as he swallowed the scrambled egg down slowly. He looked at Alina's threatening gestures but pointed at the empty bowl and asked curiously.
"Then tell me what this is first. You should know that the Wild Animal Conservation Association came because you were bombing the fishes in the lake. And, I don't know since when a new species called the Scotland round face fat chicken appeared near here."
When he asked this before, Alina always found an excuse and tried to fool him, so Benitez was always curious about where these free chicken soups came from.
Alina shrugged with her hands spread on the side and confessed naturally, "Well, it's actually owl stew."
"O... Owl?! Are you satan?!"
Strange noises escaped from Benitez's throat. His mouth was so wide that he could shove an egg in it as he looked at Alina with a shocked face.
He thought that it was some kind of other animal as all sorts of birds resided by Lake Loch Lomond throughout the year.
"In other words, these few days… Oh, Jesus Christ! You are satan!"
Benitez was almost recovered, but his head began to hurt again. He lifted his left hand and rubbed his forehead, "Luckily we are not in the Medieval times, you will be treated as a witch and be sentenced to death. Only witches in the stories would eat owls."
"No. According to what I know, people in the East ate it before too, but owls have understood protection there now. Enough with this, doesn't it taste good? And I promise that they aren't some wild animals in the protection area by the lake."
Alina blinked and smiled in an attempt to please him. She lifted her right hand to make the promise and continued to explain with honest expressions.
"Owls have great medicinal values. It nourishes the liver and replenishes the essential body fluids. The meat is more tender than normal chickens, and it can be added to medicines entirely after removing its organs. The key point is that owl meat can help with pain relief. Well, I saw that you've been having headaches recently, and after pondering about it, I thought that owl stew would be the best to help replenish your body. However, it is a shame that the Gastrodia Elata is only found in the Asian regions. Otherwise, the taste would be wonderful if I add it to the owl stew. Tsk tsk tsk..."
Bang.
At this moment, a strange noise sounded by the window. It sounds like someone accidentally hit the half-opened window.
Alina stopped the conversation in alarm and looked outside the window. She saw a brown and black striped tabby cat fell down from the roof and landed on the half-opened window sill.
She didn't expect it to be a clumsy wild cat as it tripped over itself when walking. Life must be hard, isn't it?
Alina blinked and picked out a piece of meat from Benitez's bowl and squatted down, placing the meat in front of the wild cat and smiled.
"Eat up, kitty, eat."
However, it was outside her expectation that the tabby seemed to be extremely offended when the meat dropped. It immediately growled lowly and seemed furious.
Looking at it closely, there was a strange line of fur around its eyes like two squares. At first glance, it looked like a pair of glasses.
Aline frowned and looked into the cat's eye. She didn't know if it was her illusion, but she seemed to read anger and blame in the cat's glittering eyes like s human.
A faint idea appeared in the silver-haired loli as she always thought that she forgot about something.
Oh well, it shouldn't be anything important. It didn't take her food and got angry, kitties like this aren't cute at all.
Aline shook her head helplessly, and the look in her eyes suddenly stopped. She stretched her hand out like a strike of lightning and precisely picked up the black cat up by its back neck and threw it outside the window mercilessly.
"Meow? Meow!"
It was troublesome to get a rabies vaccine in this era, so it was best not to get scratched by a wild cat.
After the small incident, Alina clapped her hands and looked back at Benitez unkindly.
"All in all, I confessed my part, and it's your turn. Why are you working so hard and even going to the underground fistfights to make money?"
Benitez straightened his back and looked at the girl he brought back from the streets of London six years ago in silence before speaking.
"You wanted to leave here and study in America, don't you?"
"Huh?!"
"You… I worried about you when you were small; you were always talking in your sleep."
Benitez looked at her gently and continued, "Although I don't quite understand you, I can recognize some repetitive words."
Dream talk?! Luckily she always talks in her dream in English. Alina felt lingering fear but immediately looked at Benitez in confusion, "Words?"
"Mhm, such as Harvard University, Silicon Valley, Microsoft, Wall Street…" Benitez frowned as he tried to recall what she said, "The rest is just strange words. Such as Apple, Blizzard, Amazon, Facebook, Tencent, Alibaba…"
Those are not just strange words. The light in Alina's eyes flashed.
In another ten years, they are the things that make the entire Internet. As a reincarnatior, she almost pondered everyday of how to ride the train to the peak of the era.
Benitez paused for a while and ruffled Alina's silver hair, "It's not cheap to study overseas, you shouldn't be stuck with me here in Scotland. If you don't mind, I can think of a way to apply for adoption."
"Dad…"
The silver-haired loli felt overwhelmed and grabbed the big hand on her head with complicated eyes as she was about to talk.
Knock knock knock.
Someone suddenly knocked on the door and along with Bran's intimated voice.
"Father Benitez, although I've repeated many times that you are unwell, this madam called Minerva McGonagall insisted on visiting you, saying something about Sister Alina's entry for school…"
⊙?⊙! Wait… Who was it?!
Alina's eyes suddenly widened.
About Alina's entry to school? Benitez replied loudly without hesitation before Alina could oppose it.
"It's fine; I'm almost recovered. Alina's here too; please invite Madam Mcgonagall in."
Benitez didn't notice that in this instant, Alina suddenly shivered and almost subconsciously climbed up the window sill and escape instead of confidently talking about her future plans.
Minerva McGonagall?!
That cold-faced professor from Hogwarts?!
Alina abruptly realized what the faint idea that flashed through her mind for a second was.
——Professor McGonagall was an Animagus who could turn into a cat.
In so, the tabby cat who heard the recipe for "Scotland round face fat chicken" and the cat that she threw out…
Oh dear, she was a goner!
She didn't want to experience getting turned into an animal due to school rule violations and not mentioning anything else first, but also as a woman, Alina knew that Professor McGonagall wouldn't be so generous to forget what she had done before.
Now that even if they hold a knife against her neck, getting starved to death on the streets, or getting run over by a car, Alina swore that she would never take one step into Hogwarts.