Chapter 582: Wendy

“Awaawawawawawa-!!!”

“Awaawawawawa-!!”

“Awa! Awa! Awa!”

In the Forest of the Hanged in Neverland, a loud and raucous noise echoed.

That noise came from none other than the Boys, draped in their animal cloaks.

Each boy was waving weapons like clubs, toy guns, wooden swords, air guns, and slingshots, cheering victoriously.

The reason they were shouting was that they’d achieved a massive victory in the war game against the Red Ones’ camp.

Jane, who heard the sounds from afar, placed her hands on her hips and sighed with relief.

“Phew… just in time.”

In front of Jane was a table, or rather, a table filled with various kinds of food.

Chicken, ham pie, potato salad, roasted sausages of various kinds, black pudding, sardine pie, roast beef, roasted lamb, baked bacon, haggis, pancakes, toast sandwiches, eel jelly, gravy, buttered corn, vegetable salad, and more.

There was so much food that the table seemed ready to collapse. Amazingly, Jane had made all of this herself.

She hadn’t had a chance to show it, but Jane’s specialty was cooking.

As evidence, the boys soon stopped boasting about their exploits in the war game and ran toward the table, drawn by the smell.

“But I’m the one who did the most this time! If it weren’t for me— huh?”

“What a delicious smell!”

“I’m first!”

“No way! I’m first!”

As their voices drew nearer, Jane stood in front of the table with her back to it, and soon, the boys burst in through the emergency exit.

Kirby, Slightly, Nibs, Twins, and Tootles— six of them in total, each draped in animal cloaks resembling a bear, fox, rabbit, raccoon, and skunk.

Screeeeech!

The boys, drooling as they ran, were abruptly stopped in front of Jane, who held out one hand while wearing an apron. They all collided with each other.

“Ouch! Why did you stop?”

“I fell!”

“Shut up! I didn’t stop on purpose!”

“Why are you angry?!”

“Yeah! Yeah!”

After the sudden stop and collision, the boys started arguing, causing even more noise.

*Clap! Clap!*

Just then, Jane clapped her hands twice and spoke firmly.

“What did I say you should do when you come back?”

“Wash our hands!”

“That’s right, so you need to wash your hands, don’t you?”

Jane placed one hand on her hip and raised the other, pointing a finger to catch their attention.

The boys looked at the food laid out behind Jane and asked.

“Can’t we just eat first? We’re hungry!”

“Yeah! Yeah!”

“Honestly, it makes more sense to wash our hands after we eat since they’ll get dirty anyway.”

The boys grumbled, trying to sound smart and insisting they should eat first.

It was a typical childish behavior. But Jane wasn’t budging.

“No, absolutely not. The first rule in this house is to wash your hands as soon as you come inside.”

“But in Neverland, we can do anything! The leader said so.”

“That’s why you have to wash your hands. Because I made handwashing the rule.”

Jane twisted her words playfully. It was something they could easily catch if they thought about it, but being children, they were too confused to respond.

Taking advantage of the moment, Jane pulled out a carrot.

“And if you don’t wash them, you can’t have the special chocolate cake I made for today.”

“Chocolate cake?!”

“Yes, chocolate cake. It’s so sweet that just one bite could rot your teeth. If you don’t want it, don’t wash your hands. What a shame, it’s really delicious.”

“No! No! We’ll wash!”

“Me too! Me too!”

“Actually, when you think about it, eating first and then washing is kind of a more hygienic—”

“—Move over! We need to wash our hands!”

The boys raced to wash their hands and quickly returned, and Jane inspected their clean hands before declaring.

“Good. Now, let’s eat.”

“Yeahhhhhhh!”

The moment they were allowed to, the boys jumped onto the chairs and began devouring the food.

Some had chicken drumsticks in each hand, some were stuffing an entire pie into their mouths, and some even drank gravy straight from the sauce bowl.

No matter how you put it, their table manners left something to be desired.

But Jane didn’t comment on that.

Because things had improved a lot.

‘At least they aren’t throwing food at each other like they used to.’

Jane closed her eyes, recalling the time she had first forbidden the food-throwing game. Though recent, it felt like a very long time ago; it had been a tough battle.

She could finally understand why Wendy was so exhausted when they first met here.

*Tap, tap.*

Lost in thought, Jane felt someone tugging at her clothes.

It was Tootles, wearing a skunk cloak.

“Wendy, eat with us.”

“Yeah! Wendy, eat with us!”

“A meal is inherently a communal event—”

“—Shut up.”

The boys looked at Jane expectantly, and she smiled.

“If you eat your vegetable salad too, I’ll join you.”

“Huh?”

” ‘Huh’ isn’t the answer. A truly brave child can eat their vegetables. Or are you all cowards?”

Though it was an obvious lie, the boys believed it when Jane poked their noses while smiling. They started eating the salad to prove they were the bravest.

Seeing this, Jane kept her promise and sat down at the table as well, and the boys began to share what had happened today.

They started recounting their deeds in the Red Ones’ camp and who had messed up.

“I hit the leader’s forehead with my slingshot!”

“What are you talking about! I whacked his horse before that! So I’m the best!”

“Hmph! It doesn’t count if you leave me out—”

“—Shut it!”

“That’s it!”

The boys started bickering again. Jane, who was sitting with them at the table, adeptly calmed them down and made them talk one by one.

Each boy told Jane about the day’s events at the war game, and Jane carefully listened, supporting and praising them enthusiastically.

The attention she was giving was exactly what the boys needed—to feel like they were worth noticing.

Jane, having grown up in the Sisterhood, understood this better than anyone.

‘And it’s also a way to gather information here.’

Jane sifted through their long-winded tales like panning for gold, carefully extracting valuable information and responding accordingly.

The boys, seeing Jane taking an interest, eagerly shared more stories.

They talked not only about the day’s war game, but also about where delicious chocolate coins were buried, the lagoon where mermaids lived, the bay where man-eating giants lived, and sometimes even about the foolish pirates who occasionally tried to find these places.

Every time Jane listened, she reacted as if it was her first time hearing it, gradually piecing together bits of information about this place.

She knew she couldn’t escape alone, but sitting back and doing nothing didn’t suit her.

While the boys shared their stories and Jane collected information, all the food on the table disappeared.

“Cake! Cake! Cake!”

“Cake! Cake! Cake!”

“Cake! Cake! Cake!”

After finishing their main meal, the boys started chanting for the chocolate cake, and Jane brought out a large cake she had prepared earlier and stuck candles in it.

“I’ll blow out the candles!”

“But it’s not your birthday!”

“It’s not your birthday either!”

“No, it’s my birthday today!!”

“Stop lying!”

“Who says I’m lying!”

The boys started fighting over who would blow out the candles on the chocolate cake.

Jane clapped her hands again *Clap! Clap!*

“Stop fighting. We can blow out the candles together. Fighting over a cake is just rotten behavior.”

Although it didn’t make logical sense, the boys, upon seeing the big chocolate cake, seemed to understand and nodded solemnly.

“Will Wendy blow out the candles too?”

“Of course. If we blow out the candles together, I’ll tell you a story while we eat the cake. What do you want to hear today?”

Jane matched the boys’ eye level and asked, and after whispering to each other as if they hadn’t just been fighting, they all said in unison.

“Tell us a story about mom!”

The boys said with wide-eyed anticipation.

Jane briefly hesitated for just a moment, so subtle that no one noticed, then answered.

“Of course. Let’s blow out the candles together now.”

***

After the noisy dinner had come to an end, and everyone was asleep, Jane used the leftovers from the kitchen to make sandwiches.

There were thirty-seven sandwiches.

Jane packed the thirty-seven identical sandwiches, wrapped them in a tablecloth along with drinks, and carried them outside.

Whhooosssh…

On this pitch-black night, an eerie sound filled the Forest of the Hanged.

It was unclear whether the sound was just the wind, the fairies that the boys talked about, or something more sinister—

But Jane reminded herself that despite how creepy it was, it couldn’t harm her directly as she headed towards the ‘Forgotten Warehouse.’

Luckily, the Forgotten Warehouse wasn’t too far.

It lay at the very end of the Forest of the Hanged, at the final point of Neverland’s spade-shaped edge.

Proving this, she soon found an old, shabby warehouse perched on the edge of the cliff as she exited the forest.

It was a warehouse covered in dust and overgrown weeds, looking as though it had been neglected for decades.

Jane walked towards it and knocked on the door.

Most typical warehouses opened from the outside, but due to Pan’s bravado, this one was the opposite.

After a moment, she heard rustling from inside, and someone opened the door.

It was one of the Forgotten children, covered in grime and filth.

‘The Forgotten Children— standby replacements for Kirby, Slightly, Nibs, Twins, and Tootles, should any of them die.’

Jane thought while looking at the thirty-seven children who closely resembled the Boys both in appearance and build.

They were just like the children raised in the Sisterhood.

Two-legged livestock, raised to fulfill a specific purpose.

As she watched these children, Jane couldn’t help but see her past self and her friends. Even though she desperately didn’t want to.

“…“

“A-are you okay?”

Seeing Jane lost in thought and saying nothing, the children anxiously asked if they had done something wrong.

Snapping out of it, Jane reassured the frightened children that everything was fine and entered the warehouse, handing out the sandwiches one by one.

These were kids who hadn’t been assigned a proper role in Neverland, so they were only given the bare minimum of oatmeal, more akin to animal feed than food. They gratefully accepted the sandwiches and devoured them eagerly.

“Here, drink this. It’s going to get stuck in your throat.”

Seeing some of the kids choking from eating too fast, Jane personally poured drinks for them.

The children, smiling, thanked Jane, but instead of feeling joy or fulfillment, Jane felt guilt.

Because Jane’s kindness was not purely out of goodwill.

Proving this, after receiving their sandwiches and drinks, the children went to a dusty corner of the warehouse and brought something back.

It was a discolored and dried-up piece of paper.

The faint handwriting could still be seen on the paper.

Jane read the text written on the paper.

“…Mother hit me again. She says I’m not behaving as a noble royal should. It’s not fair. The chimney makes me dirty, it’s unavoidable… It’s winter and it’s cold, yet she throws water at me to wash…”

“Mother slapped me for fighting with commoners. But I was the one who got beaten up. When I cried and explained, she hit me again. She said how could I, a royal, get beaten by commoners. I really…”

“Mother got mad. She said I was being lazy. But I wasn’t…”

“Mother is angry again…”

“Mother again…”

“Mother…”

“I really can’t stand that woman…”

Jane paused mid-reading the diary entry, folded the paper, and closed her eyes.

It was as if the author’s emotions had been squeezed onto the paper. The ink on the paper felt like more than just ink— it felt like emotion itself.

“Haaah…”

But, she couldn’t afford to stay lost in these emotions, not in her current situation.

After taking a deep breath to calm her shaken emotions, Jane pulled out a hidden box from a corner of the Forgotten Warehouse.

Inside the box were other pieces of paper, and Jane carefully placed the one she had just read inside the box before closing it.

The wooden box shut with a snap.

Jane then tucked the box away among other clutter in the warehouse so it wouldn’t stand out before turning to see the children, who were fidgeting with their fingers after finishing their sandwiches. It seemed like they wanted something.

With a smile she had learned from the Sisterhood, Jane reassured them.

‘A woman’s smile, appearance, and manners are her weapons. These will protect you.’

The Sisterhood’s teachings unexpectedly came to her mind.

Following that teaching, Jane opened her mouth to speak.

“What’s the matter, everyone?”

Her tone was so gentle it could barely be missed as such. One of the children stepped forward as their representative.

“C-can we… also have some cake…?”

“Ah…”

Jane let out a small sigh internally.

For the Forgotten Children, their only form of amusement was watching Pan’s boys play outside.

That way, when a vacancy appeared in the main group, they could perfectly mimic Kirby, Slightly, Nibs, Twins, or Tootles.

Oddly enough, this was strikingly similar to the way children were raised in the Sisterhood.

They were set apart, made to envy each other, and led to focus on fulfilling their roles.

Though she felt a mix of rebellion and disgust towards this transparent yet effective method, Jane still smiled on the outside.

“Of course. Next time, I’ll bring both sandwiches and cake. I promise.”

Jane crouched down to match the children’s eye level, linked pinkies with each one, and made a promise, as if sharing a secret.

The children beamed at that small gesture, and after internally estimating the time, Jane spoke once more.

“Today, I’ll tell you a story instead. What do you want to hear?”

“Um, a story about mom. Like the one you told the other kids earlier…”

The Forgotten Children shyly requested.

Once again, Jane hesitated for just a brief moment before answering, too subtle for anyone to notice.

“Alright, gather round, everyone. I’ll tell you a story about mom.”

***

After sharing a beautiful yet false story about a loving mother and putting the children to sleep one by one, Jane quietly stood up, opened the warehouse door, and stepped outside.

She felt a wave of self-loathing after telling a tale of a mother she never knew.

She thought these emotions had long since vanished.

But before she could fully immerse herself in these feelings, someone spoke, snapping her back to reality.

“Didn’t I tell you not to come here?”

It was Pan, the eternal boy.