Chapter 128. Christmas Eve Run (3)
“Huh? What’s that?”
One of the children suddenly pointed outside the orphanage.
A red light was darting rapidly back and forth through the blizzard.
At the same time, the falling snow kept bursting outward as though something invisible were blocking it.
Something incredibly fast was clearly racing around and clearing all the snow from the area.
“What in the world...?”
The director could not even find the words to describe the bizarre sight.
Then, through the storm, a massive truck suddenly appeared.
Screeeech!
Despite its speed, the truck stopped smoothly in front of the orphanage.
Victoria, dressed as Santa Claus, immediately jumped out of the driver’s seat.
“Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!”
She laughed boldly at the children.
Nova, dressed as an elf, hurried out of the passenger seat and explained,
“We’re sorry. There was a lot of snow on the way here, so we’re a little late.”
“No, no. I’m just grateful you came.”
Only then did the director smile in relief.
Victoria turned toward the gathered children and called out in a clear voice,
“So, which good children are ready to receive presents for Christmas?”
But the children looked doubtful.
They seemed unable to understand why she had appeared.
A little girl standing at the front stared at Victoria and asked,
“Miss, where is Santa Claus?”
“Where else?”
Victoria confidently pointed at herself.
“Right here.”
A boy beside her immediately protested.
“That’s a lie! Santa Claus is a man!”
“And he’s an old grandpa!”
Victoria did not even blink.
“That’s just prejudice.”
“Is there some law saying a woman can’t be Santa Claus?”
“B-But...”
The boy faltered.
Victoria did not miss the opportunity.
“Think about it.”
“I’m slimmer than that fat old man, so I can move through chimneys much more easily.”
“My eyes and ears are better too, so I can tell who’s a good child and who’s a bad child much more accurately.”
“Who could possibly be better suited to be Santa Claus than me?”
Nova stared at her in disbelief.
“Victoria, why are you getting into an argument with children?”
“The earlier you break gender stereotypes, the better.”
Victoria answered proudly.
“That’s how they grow into adults with egalitarian values.”
Despite Nova’s criticism, Victoria remained completely confident.
Then another child raised a hand.
“The sleigh!”
“You don’t have a sleigh!”
“Santa Claus is supposed to come in a sleigh pulled by reindeer!”
The child looked proud, as though he had finally discovered a flaw in Victoria’s argument.
Victoria simply raised her voice.
“Robert!”
Robert’s eyes immediately flashed as mechanical beeping came from his body.
[I am a reindeer.]
[If this fact is denied, extermination will follow.]
The child stared at him in disbelief.
“What kind of reindeer looks like that?”
Victoria answered lightly,
“He’s a mechanical reindeer I built.”
“Imagine making a real reindeer run around on a snowy day like this.”
“Wouldn’t you feel sorry for it freezing outside?”
“Ugh...”
The child could no longer respond.
Robert chimed in as well.
[I do not feel cold.]
[I am unlike inferior warm-blooded animals whose mobility is restricted by low temperatures.]
Victoria proudly pointed toward him.
“See?”
“I have a cutting-edge mechanical sleigh containing the full power of Santa Claus’s science!”
“It’s far superior to some ordinary reindeer sleigh!”
The children slowly began to believe her.
“Then... maybe she really is Santa Claus?”
“Yeah. There’s no rule saying Santa has to be a man.”
“She might actually be the real Santa.”
Then another voice came from among the whispering children.
“Rudolph!”
It was a little girl with her hair neatly braided into twin pigtails.
She pointed accusingly at Victoria.
“There’s no Rudolph!”
“Santa always brings Rudolph with him!”
The moment Victoria heard that, she shouted,
“Yukgap! Come over here for a second!”
Yukgap, who had still been racing through the blizzard, casually ran over to her.
“What is it?”
The problem was that he was still in his transformed Archon form.
The instant the children saw the beastman combining the features of a human and a cheetah, they all screamed together.
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
“Damn it!”
Yukgap also realized his mistake and quickly stepped back.
Victoria, however, remained completely calm.
“Don’t be scared.”
“He’s my personal Rudolph.”
“That is?”
The child stared suspiciously.
Yukgap was equally confused.
“Rudolph? What are you talking about?”
“It’s for the children’s dreams.”
Victoria whispered quickly.
“Just go along with it.”
Then she pointed toward Yukgap and calmly explained,
“Look.”
“My Rudolph is a cheetah.”
“The fastest animal in the world.”
“How do you think Santa Claus travels all around the world every night and gives presents to so many children?”
“It’s all thanks to Cheetah Rudolph.”
Yukgap looked like he had given up on everything.
“Uh... yeah.”
“That’s right.”
“I’m Cheetah Rudolph.”
The red light he had taken from Robert was still glowing around his neck.
Victoria looked at the children.
“Now do you believe me?”
With nothing left to argue about, the children stopped openly objecting.
Instead, they began believing that Victoria might actually be Santa Claus.
“What do we do? I think she really might be Santa.”
“So women can be Santa too.”
“I’ve never seen a Cheetah Rudolph before! He’s awesome!”
Realizing public opinion had shifted in her favor, Victoria smiled victoriously.
“All right!”
“Let’s go inside!”
“I brought lots and lots of presents for all the good children!”
“Ho, ho, ho, ho!”
“Here you go!”
“The teddy bear you asked for in your letter!”
Victoria smiled brightly as she held out a teddy bear to a child.
Nova immediately snatched it away.
“Wait!”
Victoria blinked.
“Nova, what’s wrong?”
Ignoring the question, Nova carefully swept a metal detector over the teddy bear.
Then she squeezed, searched, and prodded every part of it several times with her hands.
Only after a long inspection did she finally return it with a relieved expression.
“Good.”
“There’s nothing inside except normal stuffing.”
“Of course!”
Victoria stared at her in disbelief.
“I made it myself!”
“What, did you think I stuffed uranium inside?”
Nova immediately answered,
“Honestly, if you made it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it contained something worse.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
The child accepted the teddy bear and looked at them curiously.
“Do Santa and the elves really make all the toys themselves?”
Apparently, after hearing Nova’s words, the child had imagined Santa’s workshop straight out of a fairy tale.
Victoria answered confidently.
“Of course.”
“Look.”
“There aren’t any price tags or barcodes, are there?”
“The elves and I made everything ourselves at the North Pole.”
“Wow!”
The child hugged the teddy bear tightly with delight.
Technically, Victoria really had made it herself, so it was not exactly a lie.
“I’m glad the children like them.”
Yukgap, watching from a distance, muttered quietly.
There had been plenty of twists and turns, but at least the Santa performance was proceeding without any major trouble.
“I know.”
The orphanage director smiled warmly.
“All the effort they put into writing letters to Santa paid off.”
Yukgap hesitated before speaking.
“By the way... I’m sorry about earlier.”
“You must have been startled.”
He was still bothered that he had accidentally revealed his Archon form to both the children and the director.
Victoria had passed it off as Rudolph, but it had still happened because of his carelessness.
“Hohoho. Don’t worry about it.”
The director laughed as though it were nothing.
“After that endlessly multiplying cupcake incident, I already realized Restaurant Shelley probably wasn’t an ordinary restaurant.”
“What matters is that you came here for the children.”
Yukgap awkwardly trailed off.
“Well... that’s a relief.”
“Besides, today is Christmas.”
The director looked toward the large wooden cross hanging from the orphanage ceiling.
“It’s the day we remember the birth of Jesus, who loved everyone without discrimination, no matter who they were or what they looked like.”
“Wouldn’t it be wrong to judge someone by their appearance on a day like this?”
An image of the Son of God crucified on the cross had been carved into the wood.
If you truly love everyone without discrimination...
Would someone like me also be included in that love?
I’m a sinner.
An unforgivable murderer.
With that question lingering in his mind, Yukgap murmured bitterly,
“I suppose so.”
“All right, this Santa Claus has to go now.”
Victoria climbed back onto Robert after the volunteer work ended.
“You all have to stay good until next year, okay?”
The children, each holding the presents they had wished for, answered together.
“Yeeeeeees!”
“Then Merry Christmas!”
“Ho, ho, ho, ho!”
Victoria maintained her Santa Claus act until the very end as she waved goodbye.
The orphanage director watched from a distance with a warm smile.
“This really will be an unforgettable Christmas.”
Meeting such entertaining volunteers this year had already been a blessing.
And because Victoria had made all the presents herself, the orphanage had saved the money that had been set aside for gifts.
Thinking about what else she could do for the children with that money filled the director with unexpected happiness.
“Director!”
“We received another check!”
An orphanage employee suddenly called out to her.
The director looked surprised.
“Another one?”
“Yes.”
“It’s from the same company that donated cake last time and also paid for the children’s toys this Christmas.”
The director accepted the check.
It was the same business that had suddenly appeared and donated an enormous amount of cake after the original cupcake donation had failed.
Then, for Christmas, it had sent money for the children’s presents.
And now it had sent yet another check.
A single line was written on the accompanying letter.
[Please use this for the children. - Abraxas]
The director quietly expressed her gratitude toward the anonymous donor.
“I still don’t know what kind of company Abraxas is.”
“But I’m truly grateful that they keep helping us like this.”
