Chapter 3The System Assigned Me to Win the Villain's Heart. I Chose to Start When He Was a Toddler.

On the day Haven Children's Home officially reopened its doors to the public, I brought Robin with me to welcome the new kids.

I had read the files. Likely due to the gravitational pull of the original plot, Robin's former childhood sweetheart and future white moonlight, Chloe Bennett, was among the new arrivals.

Her parents had both died in a tragic car accident, after which she was sent to the orphanage. In the original timeline, when she was eight, her adoptive parents took her and immigrated overseas.

The plot didn't dwell much on that period, but for Chloe to go from a sweet, innocent little girl to a classic, vicious antagonist later on, her time overseas must have been utterly miserable.

I carefully reviewed her file and realized that the couple who originally adopted her hadn't actually met the strict legal requirements for adoption at all.

It was another failure of the welfare system's lack of oversight.

So, looking at the timid, trembling little girl in front of me, I crouched down and gently rubbed her head. "Don't be scared, Chloe. This is your home now."

She looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. Perhaps because my gaze was entirely patient, and sensitive children could easily detect the absence of malice, she cautiously reached out her chubby little hand and grasped my finger.

The adorable little girl still had tear tracks on her pale cheeks, but as I held her in my arms and gave her a piece of candy, she showed her very first smile of the day, softly mirroring the others and calling me, "Miss Ellie."

Robin, meanwhile, kept a very serious, tight expression on his face, nervously but proudly leading the new kids on a tour of the facility.

I had officially assigned this task to him. He took his responsibility very seriously, acting like a true senior resident, weaving in and out among the crowd of new children.

I watched him comfort one crying toddler, hand a piece of candy to another, and pump his little fist, swearing that this was the absolute best home in the world. I couldn't help but laugh.

That afternoon, I put the kids down for their naps.

Robin was clearly too excited to sleep. He even leaned in and whispered to me, "Miss Ellie, out of all the new kids today, I like Caleb the most. He's so cool!"

Me: "Oh? Is that so?"

The name Caleb Thorne... why did it sound so familiar?

I looked at the birthmark on the little boy named Caleb's face and finally remembered: Wasn't this Robin's future mortal enemy, the terrifying mob boss Caleb Thorne?!

Me: Looks like I need to move the legal and ethics classes up the schedule.

Right now, Caleb was incredibly timid. He kept his head down and rarely spoke. Because of the large birthmark on his face and some minor developmental delays, his biological parents had abandoned him.

Abandonment is a felony.

Seeing the deep insecurity and sadness in Caleb's eyes, I pulled Robin aside.

He must have heard my internal thoughts, because his face crumpled into a sad expression. He said gloomily, "Miss Ellie, did Caleb's mommy and daddy really not want him?"

Robin, with his telepathy, never hid anything from me.

But we had pinky-promised that his ability was our special secret.

So I answered him seriously. "What his mommy and daddy did was very wrong. They broke the law, and they will be punished."

Robin looked confused but nodded. "I want to be his friend."

"Then take him out to the garden to play," I suggested. "Didn't you tell me yesterday that you wanted a friend to go on the seesaw with you?"

Robin's eyes lit up, but then he wilted again. "But it's nap time right now."

"That's okay, today is a special exception," I ruffled his hair. "Robin, from now on, we are Caleb's family. I want Caleb to be happy. Can you help me do that?"

Robin puffed his chest out, full of energy. "I can!"

I unlocked the garden doors, waved them out, and watched the two tiny silhouettes cheer quietly as they ran toward the seesaw in the sunlight.

I walked back into the dormitory.

Sure enough, a bunch of little heads quickly ducked back under their blankets.

I stifled a laugh. "Can't anyone sleep?"

Dead silence. Only Chloe peeked her head out, pointing a tiny finger toward the garden window. "I want to play with Miss Ellie too," she said in a babyish voice.

"Then let's all go out to the garden," I smiled warmly. "But just remember, it's nap time. This is a one-time exception, okay?"

"Okay!" The previously anxious and rigid kids instantly lit up, responding in unison. Like a flock of happy little birds, they rushed out into the garden.

I strolled leisurely behind them, chatting with Felix.

[Why is their affection for you so high, Host? I've never seen a mission progress this fast...]

"Have you ever heard a certain story?" I thought for a moment. "A demon sealed in a bottle once promised that whoever freed him would be granted infinite power and wealth. But when a fisherman finally found him centuries later, the demon had grown resentful. He decided to punish the fisherman because he had taken too long to arrive."

[That story is in my database.]

"Love works the same way," I said calmly. "Winning someone's heart is essentially an exchange. You give love, you receive love. But if someone goes their entire childhood starved of affection, do you really think some calculated, impure affection later in life will win them over? If I had shown up when Robin was fifteen or sixteen, there is absolutely no way I could have ever competed with Chloe, who would have grown up beside him."

[So you chose the one-year-old timeline purely to guarantee the mission's success?]

"Not entirely." I smiled, scooping up a little girl who ran toward me, gently patting her head. "I just wanted to teach you something."

[What is it?]

"The word 'romance' or 'capture' is far too narrow," I said. "There are so many different kinds of love in this world. Teaching them what true love looks like—that counts as winning their hearts, too."

[Host, you really are different from anyone else I've ever met.]

"How many people have you actually met? To me, you're just a kid too," I sat on a swing, holding the little girl in my lap. "Maybe in your System's background check, they saw that 'nurturing' was my actual profession—and that's why you chose me."

[Wait, what did you do for a living before?] Felix sounded confused. [But so many people loved you in your old world, Host.]

"Did they?" I paused, letting out a very soft laugh. "I used to work in special education."

I was the undeniable black sheep of the Vance family. All my siblings had grand ambitions; they either took over corporate empires or became shining stars in the art world.

I was the only one who buried myself in a tiny, rural town, volunteered as a teacher for years, then transferred to a special-needs school, and finally just opened my own foster home.

Most orphans are not perfectly healthy children. They often carry various physical or psychological traumas.

At first, when my family came to visit me, they would be horrified by the occasional bruises or scratches on my arms.

They asked me more than once, "Eleanor Vance, have you completely lost your mind?"

Outsiders understood it even less. The Vance children were raised in the lap of luxury. Why did Eleanor turn out so thoroughly devoid of aristocratic grace?

But in a person's life, there are always one or two defining moments that completely change who they are.

I had no intention of judging what was "noble" or "low-class," nor did I want to use grandiose words to prove how "transcendent" I was. In truth, I was just an incredibly ordinary person among the masses who happened to choose this specific path.

So, I brushed off their doubts and mockery with a simple smile. "Just like the rest of you, I'm just doing what I want to do."

Felix asked me, [So, what was the event that completely changed you?]

"Who knows," I said. "My childhood memories are pretty blurry now. But there must have been something like that."

Actually, I did remember.

I remembered when my elite private school held a charity event. We dressed up in our fancy little dresses and tailored suits and went to the special education school next door to hand out gifts.

But we didn't actually meet a single student that day. I overheard their teachers saying they were worried the kids might hurt us, so they locked them all in their dormitories. We just placed books and clothes on their empty desks, took some PR photos, and prepared to leave.

I saw a book sitting on one of the desks. It was a fairy tale book, and scrawled on the cover in crooked handwriting was a single line:

Timmy asked, what do stars look like? I want to know too. Do they taste like candy?

In that fairy tale, the stars in the sky were all made of candy.

Could Timmy not see the stars? And what about the owner of the book—had he never tasted candy?

I looked down at my pristine, expensive dress, reached into my pocket, and struggled to pull out a single piece of candy. I quietly slipped it inside the pages of the book.

Before we left, I glanced back at the dormitory building.

I saw a few smudged, dirty little faces pressed against the windows, watching us.

I suddenly felt incredibly sad.

I had only brought one piece of candy, and I had only left one.

I could only let one child taste the stars.