The Extra Decided to Be Fake

Even if the heroine disappeared, time went by.

A day was enough for Swan to be buried in a pit as deep as her height.

It was not surprising that a child who had not survived the winter in the orphanage died, and since Swan was naturally weak, the children were not greatly surprised.
Someone must have guessed this situation since Swan was bedridden with a fever.

Maybe that’s why? Even after Swan’s death, the orphanage was frighteningly normal.

Except, for one thing, the director who favored Swan ran for a long time.

“How did you take care of her when she died?”

Bang! The director hit the desk violently.
Even after doing that, he seemed to be still angry, so he threw the vase next to him and broke it, then he stood with his back in a fit of rage.
Thanks to this, it was natural for the teachers standing in front of be very nervous.
Among them, one of the teachers who paid a little more attention to Swan spoke up.

“Oh, but, sir.
We also did our best.
Don’t you know that Swan was very weak?”

“Yes, I know.
So I didn’t even buy that damn expensive medicine at my own expense.
She shouldn’t have died if everyone else was dead! What kind of girl is she!”

No matter how much he thought about it, the director shook the newspaper he was clutching wildly and shouted as if it was absurd that he had missed the rabbit he had caught right in front of his nose.

“It’s already been 10 years since Duke Maynard left for the battlefield, and it’s already been 10 years since we took care of Swan.
How surprised I was when I found out that the princess who had disappeared was in my hands.
I thought the Duke would come back after finishing the war! The kid dies right before we rip it?!”

“Jeez, calm down.
Didn’t you raise other dark-haired girls just in case of this? There is also ‘that stuff’… ”

“No matter how many fakes there are, they can beat the real ones! I just wished I could breathe a little longer! Damn it! What would I do if he found out she wasn’t his daughter!”

The director was the person who knew the highest aristocracy best in this orphanage.
It might have been natural since he was the kind of person whose job it was to get donations from the orphanage and cling to high-ranking aristocrats.

What mattered was that he knew very well what Duke Maynard was like.

Nevertheless, Cedric Maynard, the current Duke of Maynard, is famous for the mercy in his hands.

Since he lost both his wife and child and spent 10 years on the battlefield, if the number was wrong, and he realized that the child I presented as his daughter was not his real daughter, he would not hesitate to slit my head.
But it is also true that now that the child is dead, there is nothing else one can do.

Pak, the director, nervously threw away the newspaper he was holding.

On the front page of the newspaper, there was a big article with a clumsy picture.

[Duke Maynard ends the 10-year conflict with Halo… Report on his return]

This paper was from last week.
Considering the timing of the arrival of reports from Halo, the frontier, it is now calculated that there are only a few days left before the Duke’s return.

In other words, the high ground is in front of you.

‘I’ve been doing this for ten years, and I can’t let it go now.’

Still, the thought of the dead child excites him, but he still does not want to miss the luck that has rolled into his hand.

If only Swan were alive, everything would be perfect!

About 10 years now.
As usual, the day when young children without parents arrived at the nursery school.

While looking around the children, he picked up an object that had fallen beside a cradle.

It was a small locket, but at first glance, it looked like a high-end item that didn’t go well with such a shabby nursery school.

But it wasn’t the price of the item that opened the director’s eyes.

It was because of Maynard’s inscription embossed on the outside of the locket and a small portrait of a couple in it.

The woman’s face was the first I’d seen, but the man’s face was instantly recognizable.

Rarely has anyone had such a strong impression?

The identity of the strange object, the newborn children who had flowed into the orphanage, and the disappearance of the child from Duke Maynard’s house, which had been heating the water for a while, were quickly put together in the director’s head.
The answer is not very difficult.

For some reason, the child who had disappeared from the Duke’s residence had flowed into the nursery school I run.

Although I wasn’t sure which child it came with, as the item fell on the floor, it didn’t matter too much.
The black hair had been the symbol of the Maynard’s family for quite some time, and there was only one black-haired girl in this room.

Since then, the director has devoted all his heart and soul to raising Swan.

He could have knocked on the Duke’s door a little earlier, but it was because the director’s goal was not to simply receive a reward and end it.
From extorting child support payments to raising Swan to making Duke Maynard the patron of the orphanage.

If a great aristocrat like Duke Maynard became the sponsor of the nursery school, and even if the princess who had disappeared grew up in this nursery school, it was clear that everyone would be anxious about not being able to sponsor the nursery school or adopt a child.

‘Goodbye to the situation where I have to wipe the old lady’s feet to get a few pennies like now.’

To do that, I had to have ‘Maynard’s missing daughter’ in my hands.

Whether it’s swans or not.

“… Yes, there is nothing we can do about a dead child.”

It was such a waste, but it was spilled.

One good thing was that the director had, as the teachers say, a few more girls with dark hair in case of this.
Of course, those children were more of a messy color, a bit darker and darker than gray, rather than completely black like Swan’s hair.

But what about it? As long as it matches the color of the hair, that’s enough.

If you show the locket to ignorant children and whisper that you are the missing daughter of the Duke, they will believe it.
Just like the dead Swan did.

After trying to catch his breath, the director opened his mouth with a calm and solemn face.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen the kids’ faces.
How many dark-haired girls are there?”

“There are three of them, sir.”

“Yes.
I’ll talk to them after the meal, so get ready…”

Suddenly, the director cut off his words.
The teacher, who had been bowing his head, raised his head in wonder.

For some reason, the director’s grim gaze was fixed on the door.

“Curtis.”

“Yes, yes?”

“What are the children doing now?”

“Yeah? Ah, it’s mealtime.
We have good control, so no children will escape the restaurant.”

Curtis, the teacher who was called, tried hard to explain, but the director’s shoes were already facing the door.

Tumble, tumble.

They heard several dull footsteps in the quiet room, and then the door was thrown open.

“…”

The dim hallway was dimly lit by the light from the room.
The director quietly looked around the hallway, where not even the footsteps of rats could be heard, and then closed the door.

When I said something that should never be leaked out, he seemed a little oversensitive.

Click.
The door closed behind him, and the director, who returned to his seat on the road, looked at the teachers with ferocious eyes and said,

“Prepare the dark-haired children.
When Duke Maynard returns, we will proceed as planned.
If this job is successful, we can all change our lives.
Get ready without a hitch.”

The best is gone, but there is still a second best.

Greed glistened viciously in the director’s eyes.

***

Tak-tak-tak, hasty steps climbed the stairs.
A person was running away from the light, covering her mouth with both hands for fear of making a sound.

Her short brown hair swayed around her cheeks, and small footsteps echoed through the hallway faster than her heartbeat.

‘As expected, the director knew!’

Tears dripping down my cheeks wet my dry cheeks without even having time to wipe them.

The person’s name was Lillian.