A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 237: The Orhpanage

Chapter 237: The Orhpanage

"Come in, the doors unlocked." I heard a delightful and cheery voice call out from behind the door.

I opened said door and entered what seemed to be an office, and inside was the person who I assumed to be Alya, sitting at her desk, looking through some paperwork.

"I’m here to finish my admission into the orphanage and get the tour. My name is Traytora Arizaraa if that helps."

"Yes, it does. I was just looking over your information now. You’re a bit early though, aren’t you?"

"I was just told to come back at around noon." I replied casually.

"Huh... Well, it’s whatever. Come, I’ll take you to your room now, and be sure to remember where it is also. I know that you’re likely old enough to remember, but some people just aren’t good with directions, so I say that just as a friendly reminder."

"That’s fine."

After that, she then led me to my own personal room and gave me a quick, personal tour of it.

In the middle, the main centrepiece was the large bed, which could easily fit tow of me and just about three before it would strain. Then, there were the wardrobes that were built into the wall, and considering this room had enough space for several serpentine to slither about freely, that’s a very large wardrobe.

There was a large mirror to view myself in and a desk beside that with a smaller mirror, meant more for makeup.

There were also several shelves on the opposite side of the room to the wardrobe as well as several display cases. Not sure why, but when I asked about it, Alya just said it was to display stuff like trophies or personal belongings that are important to me.

That’s nice, but... I don’t have anything. Not yet anyways. Which is fine as I can always fill it up later.

There was also a pair of chaises and a table between them for more formal gatherings between friends who just want to hang out.

That was the basic room that everyone got and we were allowed to add whatever we wanted to it provided we followed some basic rules.

I’d be given a small booklet on most general rules about the orphanage at the end of the tour.

Speaking off, the next part of said tour led us to a tour of the many various facilities provided to the people here.

There was a decently sized dining hall along with a buffet to one side which served three times a day. Though, the room may have been a bit too big as the orphanage has never had that many people living here. They’ve been able to fill half of it at most.

I suppose it’s not a bad thing since it’s better for there to be more space than not enough.

After that was the bathrooms. Though, it was more accurate to call them bathhouses.

They were split into four, for four age ranges, those being zero to fifty, fifty-one to one hundred, one hundred and one to one hundred and fifty, and finally, one hundred and fifty-one to two hundred.

All of them were mixed baths and there was a strict no intercourse policy, especially in the zero to fifty range bathhouse.

Don’t know why this was a rule or why they didn’t make a bathhouse specifically for those under the age of twenty since that’s when one’s hormones start to kick in and those urges start to rise up.

But it’s not like I run this place, nor did I help make it so I don’t have a say in the rules of this place.

Anyways, the next place that we went to was a library, which was a little bigger than the dining hall, but also had a second floor as well, and it was filled with tons of book that covered many things, from things like basic communication and etiquette to history and stories.

Apart from that, there was an outdoor exercise are for us to exercise, and next to that, was a playground for the younger children to play on.

And the last place that Alya led me do was a an assembly hall, which was meant to be a place to gather all the orphans for special events, one of which was adoption, when one or more of the other orphans get adopted.

It was also used for other general celebrational purposes such as birthday parties or common and popular festivals. Festivals like Veil’s End, where we celebrate the end of the year, or the festival of the Coiled Moon which is celebrated once a year when the moon is full and at its highest point. It also celebrates the changing of... Something. I dunno what, but apparently something changes whenever it happens.

Anyways, after that, she showed me some of the entrances slash exits to the whole building. And when that was done, she led me back to her office and handed me the small rules book, which was more of just a guide book which told me what I can and can’t do.

"And with that, enjoy your stay here for the next twenty years, you’ll be given a free application form by the end of the month for this branch of The Gilded Ophidian Institute." Alya explained as she handed the guide book to me before returning to her work.

"So... What now? And, where was everyone else?"

"Huh? They’re at school, duh. It’s noon on a Pyronis."

"Oh, right... I forgot... It’s been so long since I’ve needed to remember such info." I said gloomily as I rubbed the back of my head.

Alya looked up at me with some scrutiny but said nothing about my statement and just said, "Why don’t you go to the library and rejog your memory?"

"That sound like a good idea." I said as I left with an awkward smile and an uneasy chuckle.

After that, I went to the library as Aly advised to recover what seemed to be lost knowledge. At least in my brain.

I quickly reached the library and went to the history section as that would most likely have what I was looking for, but no.

Then I noticed the ’General’ section and was able to find it there in seconds because there were several copies of many books here.

I grabbed one off the shelves and went over to a chaise to read it and re-familiarise myself with the calendar system.

We have five hundred and eighty-four days a year, eleven days a week, and fifty weeks in a year, with each month taking five weeks.

The days of the week in order are; Solyra, Lunira, Terravyn, Aquoril, Venthyra, Pyronis, Eldara, Mystara, Florilith Stellithar and Umbrathil, with schooldays taking place from Terravyn to Mystara. The rest are days off for them to hang out or study. That meant six days of school and four days of rest.

Then there’s the months, once again in order; Illyndra, Sylvathis, Faedrion, Arcanis, Vyrnalis, Xylaris, Velarion, Talyndra, Myrvyr and Umbryal.

And something I didn’t know, was that the weeks have names as well. There are five of them for the five weeks in a month, and those are; Dawnveil, Elunthar, Verdanthil, Ignorath and Umbralis.

I’m starting to see a bit of a pattern here. All of them end in a similar style of name. Umbrathil, Umbryal and Umbralis. There’s also Venthyra, Vyrnalis and Verdanthil, and while I know those three aren’t all that similar, there’s still a connection to be made.

But, I wasn’t interested in that, it was just something I found somewhat intriguing. Something that did interest me however was the fact that this book also explained some of the many festivals that are celebrated throughout the world, and not just in this kingdom or even empire.

It didn’t go into exact details, otherwise this book would be a lot bigger, but just went into the general meanings behind the festival itself and some customs for them as well as when they generally tended to happen, as not all of them happened on the same day every year.

There was The Founder’s Flame festival, which is meant to represent the founding of a kingdom, with reenactments of scene’s from our past, mainly about what led to the founding of the kingdom and how it was done.

There was one that I was fond of just by looking at it’s base description, which was the Starlight Vigil festival.

I liked this one because it was all about honouring the dead. People would create small patterns which would then go onto a lantern, which would then be thrown into the air and fly away as they gave a prayer, or rather a message for their loved ones.

This festival happened at least twice a year. Once during the month of Arcanis, at that’s when the mana in the world is capable of carrying our messages into the heavens, and during the month of Myrvyr, as that’s when the veil between realms is weakest.

Unfortunately for me, I had missed the last one as I believe it was currently Vyrnalis. I’m not quite sure about that so I’ll have to double check with someone what the date is, but I remember being born on Lunira the thirteenth of the week of Elunthar of Xylaris in the year four thousand and fifty-two of the Lumerian era.

And if I remember correctly, I was also born on the day of an eclipse... Is that a coincidence or not?

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