While he didn't completely ignore the areas, he visited the previous day. He saw mostly the same people just as he thought.
Stuck in traffic, Ensen thought to himself 'Where should I go? The vast majority of teens are already enrolled in a school. The logical answer would be finding more people that cannot afford or are unable to attend school for some reason. But that comes with its own set of problems. But not like I have many choices.'
Deciding to head back to the rural area around his academy to see if he could find some talents, Ensen arrived there after heavy traffic and slowly came to a stop.
'Should I try an orphanage? Maybe there are some undiscovered talents there.' Ensen thought to himself while he pulled out his phone from his pocket.
Looking for the closest orphanage, he soon found one quite close to the library from yesterday. Deciding to head over, Ensen put his phone down and began making his way over.
After a few more minutes of nearly traffic-free driving because of the obscure location, he arrived in front of a rather rundown looking building. It was relatively large with rot visible just from the road alone. There were lots of moss growing from the building.
'This is it?' Ensen thought, thinking that the location was wrong. It looked more like a set from a horror movie than an actual building that would be used.
Trying to hold in his judgment, for the time being, Ensen pulled over on the side of the road and began walking towards the front entrance. The lawn had small patches of gra.s.s, but most of it was either an odd sort of dirt or gravel.
As it was getting harder and harder to hold back his opinions on the state of the house, Ensen arrived at the front door. Raising his hand, Ensen knocked on the door firmly.
A few moments later a pair of footsteps resounded through the door. Hearing them slowly come closer, Ensen took a few steps back and waited.
A few seconds had pa.s.sed before the door was unlocked and began to open. A creaking sound that no good door should make echoed throughout the surroundings.
Standing in front of Ensen was a middle-aged woman around 50 years old. With a cautious gaze, she looked at Ensen for a few moments before saying with a raspy voice "Can I help you?"
Slightly uncomfortable from her gaze, Ensen asked in confusion "Excuse me, but is this the Apple Blossom Orphanage?"
The middle-aged woman's gaze visibly softened slightly after hearing Ensen's question. "That is right, how can I help you?"
Not completely certain how to pitch his idea to the lady without sounding like a creep, Ensen slowly began to speak after a few moments "h.e.l.lo, I'm Ensen Fuentes. I'm the princ.i.p.al from a nearby private academy that's just opening. I was looking around for talents in the area, so I came here. Do you mind if I look around a bit?"
Hoping that didn't sound too creepy, Ensen internally cringed at himself as he waited for the lady to answer.
A few moments pa.s.sed before she finally answered "We really don't have enough money to afford any sort of education, I'm sorry."
Already thinking this conversation would happen, Ensen had already come prepared. "Oh I am thinking about giving out some scholarships if I find the right talent, so money wouldn't matter."
Thinking deeply for a few moments, she responded hesitantly "Okay, but I'll be beside you the entire time your inside."
Nodding his head in understanding, the lady turned around and began to walk around. Taking this as a sign to follow her, Ensen slightly hurried his steps before he arrived behind her.
Looking around at the rotting wood and drooping ceiling, Ensen thought 'I'm surprised this place isn't condemned.'
Deciding to say something, Ensen began to speak but didn't know how to go about saying it. "Uh… so do you like the building?"
Pausing for a moment before looking back at Ensen, the lady said "I know what you're getting at, it's quite a disaster of a building but it's all that we can afford. Well, barely afford that is. We would try to repair it a bit at the very least if we had more money."
With a confused look, Ensen asked "Don't you guys get a.s.sistance from the city?"
With a small sigh, she responded "No, we don't qualify because we haven't had enough adoptions in the past few years. Anyways, here we are."
In front of them was a dilapidated door. Slowly opening it, Ensen scanned the area and saw a few tables s.p.a.ced out evenly with chairs. There were quite a bit of people in sitting in the seats. While most of them seemed too young for his school, there were a few that could apply if their skills were sufficient.
"Why are they all gathered here?" Ensen asked curiously.
"Oh it's lunchtime now, so they are all about to eat. Would you like to eat with us?" She said kindly, beginning to warm up to him.
Not wanting to have them waste food that was for the kids on him, Ensen replied "No thanks, I ate just before I got here."
With a slight nod, the woman asked him to stay there for a few minutes while she walked around to make sure everything was set up for lunch.
After confirming everything was ready, she told all of the kids who in response stormed the serving area.
After a minute the first kid returned to his seat. Looking at what they were going to eat, Ensen noticed something similar to porridge in the rather beat-up bowl.
Wishing he could do more to help, Ensen waited for a few moments before the woman returned.
"I'll introduce you to the older kids that could go to your academy after they are finished eating and you can decide who you want to take." She said.
Nodding in understanding, Ensen felt like leaning on the wall behind him but knowing the state of the building he didn't want to test its stability.
Although the building and orphanage, in general, were in disrepair due to lack of funds, it did not seem to affect the children too much. The children were talking, playing and some were even running around, although they got in trouble for doing so.
Waiting for about 30 minutes, Ensen noticed that an increasing number of eyes were beginning to look towards him. This was mainly the younger kids because of their innate curiosity, but this was not exclusive.
Soon after the kids that had finished eating were ushered into another room, whereas the people eligible to be chosen by Ensen were told to stay and wait until everybody had finished.
After everybody had been sorted accordingly, the woman began to speak loudly to them "This is the princ.i.p.al of a newly founded private academy in the area. He is currently scouting for talents with the potential for a scholarship. Is there anybody here that would be interested in such an offer?"
Immediately around half of the people's hands shot up with a few more being raised after a few moments. Satisfied with all of the potential he saw in front of his eyes, Ensen smiled kindly.
Looking over towards Ensen, the woman asked "How should we do this?"
"How about they form a line and I'll talk to them one by one," Ensen said after considering for a moment.
"Is that alright? It would take quite a while to speak to all of them." The woman responded.
After a slight nod in confirmation, the woman began organizing everybody into a single line while trying to quell any bad behavior in front of Ensen.
A few minutes after the teens had been successfully organized Ensen had begun his interview. He asked rather basic questions that covered a few topics. Ensen knew that he didn't have many uses left on the talent scanner, so he was mostly using his intuition when it came to selecting possible candidates.
After several hours, Ensen had finally finished all of his interviews and had a small list of names that he thought could possibly meet his talent standards. n.o.body seemed particularly talented at sports, which was fine with him.
While there were no limits towards how many students, he could have for the moment, at least no limits that he knew of, it would still be increasingly hard to properly teach the students if there were too many.
The problem with selecting all of the students on his list was he simply did not have enough points and uses left with the talent scanner to scan them all. While they were most likely all fine if there was even one below his standards he would be punished.
While Ensen did not know the severity of the punishment, he did not want to find out. As such, Ensen began to shorten the list.
