Deep inside the cave, Ben finds some big mounds that he assumes to be the graves of those that have been killed by the demons. He digs one of them and he is correct. There are adults & children's corpses there.
"It seems there are a lot of victims here. Maybe the demon worshippers have operated longer than I thought," says Ben.
Ben decides to leave the job involving these corpses to the Knights or Mages of this country. He will focus on rescuing the survivors and going back to town. So he goes to where Bella & the kids went.
When Ben arrives there, he sees 5 dying demon worshippers on the floor. His clones must've been the ones who did this while Bella focused on protecting the children using her barrier. Ben cuts the dying demon worshippers' tendons and lets them live.
The Council will need some of them alive to be interrogated. But they might escape, so Ben cuts their tendons to prevent that. They might die before the Council's investigators arrive though, but that's not his problem, at least he tried to let them live.
He arrives at Bella's location and sees 18 children there. There are no adults even though Ben found adults corpses before. It seems the adults were killed first for whatever reason that the demon & their worshippers thought of.
He sends his clones to explore the cave to make sure that they've found all survivors and taken care of the enemies. Then Ben & Bella take the children out while the clones explore all the areas in the cave.
After arriving outside, Ben checks all the kids' bodies. He needs to make sure that none of them get affected by the Etherious demons' Curses. Who knows what the demons or their worshippers did to these kids, after all.
His hunch is right, the demon worshipers have done something. They planted the same spell in the kids' bodies. The spell's function is to hurt the kids' bodies so that they will be obedient. It doesn't even break even though the spell user has died, so Ben breaks the spell himself.
Sometime later, Ben's clones return with 9 more kids and 5 female adults who have been placed somewhere else. The women's eyes are empty and they only wear a big piece of cloth that seems to be given by his clones, so they must be naked before. He doesn't need to ask to know what happened to these women.
"Are you done?" asks Ben.
"Yes, all survivors have been saved. Some remaining demon worshippers have been taken care of," says a clone.
Ben nods before one of his clones gets closer to him and whispers something. They've found a big treasure stash in a room and they've secured all the treasures. There are even 7 Books of Zeref there, which surprise Ben.
"We'll keep the Books. As for the treasures, let's give them to the victims. But we can't just give them right away or other people might take them," ponders Ben.
"Then, let's ask our acquaintance in the Council to take care of this for us," says the clone.
"Oh, Geld, huh? I haven't seen him in a long time since he was transferred to Magic Council HQ. Alright, one of you go there and explain the situation. He is someone that I trust the most in the Council," says Ben.
The clones nod before one of them take out the Books and give them to Ben. They leave immediately as Ben stores the books. The clones can survive even when they go very far from Ben now as long as they don't get destroyed by something.
But there's no need to worry about that because they will use a teleportation door to reach the HQ instantly. Ben has a personal residence there as a Wizard Saint and he has installed a teleportation door too in the house. So he can send his clones to the Magic Council HQ safely.
After taking care of that, Ben takes the survivors to the nearest town. His car can't accommodate all of them though, so he makes a simple crate using something that he learned recently. He uses the Arc of Embodiment, the magic used by Rustyrose.
After Ben annihilated the Grimoire Heart, he found all their magic books. Arc of Embodiment was the one that interest him the most because he is a craftsman. This magic can make crafting a lot easier for him. But he didn't have time to learn it back then, so he only learned it recently.
He still can only make simple things for now, but the things he made are very detailed and strong. The problem with this magic is that the items created by it will disappear after losing all the magic power used to make it. It's magic, after all, not real items, so it depends on the user's magic.
Ben will need to do more research on it, but this magic is good enough for now. He just needs to take the survivors to a town, so his newly learned magic will be enough. The town is quite close, so it won't be too long.
They arrive in the closest town after an hour of moving at a slow speed. Ben shows his identity to the guards and asks them to call the authorities. He needs to make sure the victims get treated properly before finishing the job.
After everything is taken care of, Ben & Bella go back home. The authorities here will take care of the aftermath, so he doesn't need to worry about that. He's also sure that Geld will take care of the treasures for the victim. There's no need to worry about it because Geld knows well what will happen if he tries something funny behind Ben's back.
After he arrived at his home, Ben takes a shower before going to bed immediately. Mira knows that something bothers him so she asks about it. He tells everything to her and she listens without interrupting him.
"I can never stand it when children are getting involved in bad things. But the problem was that I couldn't control my emotions. I let my rage take over me, that's so unlike me," says Ben while lying on Mira's lap.
"Yeah, you are someone that won't let your emotions overwhelm your mind. But that's not something strange and it's not the first time you do it. You are still human, Ben, so you have emotions, and sometime those emotions will get the better of you. Also, if you were getting too emotional in that job because of children, maybe it's because you will be a father soon, and you've taken care of Wendy since she was a child. That's why you have a strong sympathy for children because you see your sister & child in them. It is not a bad thing, but you should try to hold back. You might hurt those you want to protect if you give in to that rage," says Mira while rubbing Ben's hair.
"So it's not a bad thing, but I need to learn how to hold it back, huh? I'll try, I don't want to be seen as a monster if those I wish to protect see me in that state," says Ben.
"Alright, you can do that tomorrow. Let's sleep, for now, the little guy misses his daddy, you know," says Mira while rubbing her bulging stomach.
Ben smiles and says, "Well, I also miss my little man so much."
"Little man? How do you know it's a boy?" asks Mira while tilting her head.
"I don't know, I just hope it's a boy," says Ben.
"Hmph, then I want a girl, it will be a baby girl," says Mira.
"What? We have too many girls in our family, so we need another boy," says Ben.
"Too many? There are only 5 of us. Me, Lisanna, Wendy, Bella, & Carla. That's not too many," says Mira.
"But the men of the house are only me & Elfman," says Ben.
"You both are strong men, so it won't be a problem. We are just weak & kind girls, so we need quantity," says Mira.
"I agree with the kind part, but that weak part sound wrong," says Ben.
"Compared to you, everyone is weak, so that's true," says Mira.
".... Let's just sleep," says Ben to stop the useless argument.
Both of them have different hopes for their baby, but those are just hope. They need to wait for 8 more months before they find the answer.
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