Two weeks passed and the orphans prepared for the upcoming winter. Paley and Teerom worked on insulating the cavities in the walls, and the other orphans laid out carpets of fur and cleaned the entire chimney.
"Do you guys need anything?" Jurie approached them as they finished up the last wall on the bottom floor.
"I need a big ol' hug," Teerom half-joked.
"You're gonna need to try harder than that if you want a hug from me," Jurie grinned cheekily and made her way upstairs.
"Can you step aside for a bit?" Paley asked Teerom and lifted a chunk off the wall from the ground and fitted it back in.
"Woah, it's so warm." Teerom pressed his hand against the smooth wood. It was already getting colder and colder outside and the dew began to form on the grass outside.
"I'm gonna heat up the whole cottage every morning, afternoon, and night," Paley explained and dusted his hands before walking to the kitchen where he had been cooking a pile of boar's meat that he hunted in the forest.
"Aren't you gonna run out of mana?" Teerom put a lukewarm towel around his neck and sat down on the stairs.
"My mana's bigger now, remember?" Paley sprinkled red, orange, and black spices onto the meat. Teerom watched with a smile as he whipped the pan upwards, throwing the sizzling meat into the air. It flipped twice before falling raw face down on the pan.
"Wow, that was awesome," Teerom commented.
"Thanks," Paley replied succinctly and moved the meats onto a wooden board, on which he cut the lards of fat off. He took a ball of large light green herbs and shredded them with air magic, dredging it around on the meat. It soaked in the meat's juice, mixing with its flavor and releasing an irresistible aroma.
"I made a simple dish for today's lunch," Paley put the cuts of meat onto nine plates for everyone and set them on the table.
"Simple is best," Teerom sat down at the table impatiently.
Amasha and Bacha ran down the stairs, their noses flaring up as they smelled the food like wild animals.
"That looks so good!" Bacha exclaimed and took her seat next to Amasha.
"Guys! Lunchtime!" Amasha shouted, and everyone came down in excitement.
"Did Paley cook that? It smells so nice," Adimia asked.
"Hey!" Madella, who had been working on the fireplace, pulled his ear. Paley chuckled and took his seat after everyone. "Come on, dig in. I added a surprise for you, Adimia," He picked up his knife and fork.
"Did you-" Adimia began after he took a bite, tearing up.
"The Devil's spice that you wanted to try? They were selling it at the market." Paley answered as Adimia took a big bite of his flaming hot cut of meat.
"I love you, Paley!" He cried, both from emotion and the spice.
"When did you get it?" Madella asked.
"I went to the town by myself yesterday."
"What!?" Madella stood up sharply, "Sorry, I didn't mean to- Just don't go to the town by yourself anymore."
"Why?" Paley asked.
Madella hesitated to answer the question. "There have been disappearances lately," She finally said, "People have been disappearing one after the other. Even when they stay indoors, they vanish."
"Mom, come on. Do you really think I'd disappear?" Paley asked confidently.
"Paley..." Madella began.
"There used to be another orphan. Long ago." Jurie spoke for her, "He looked just like you, but he wasn't as kind as you. He hated us. I don't blame him though, after all, he had noble blood. He must've hated being taken care of by commoners. But mother loved him nonetheless despite his constant rude remarks and arrogance." Jurie didn't bother to hide the fact that she hated him.
"He had black hair just like you." Madella started, "He was kinda pale just like you. He just didn't have those red, red eyes. One day, he decided to leave the orphanage for good and return to his parents. I tried to stop him, but he..." Madella rubbed her shoulder.
Paley didn't need her to say what the boy did. When Madella tried to stop him, he had beaten her senseless.
"Why are we talking about that scumbag?" Teerom asked, showing Paley his angry side for the first time. He was the one who saved Madella, breaking the boy's arm in the process. That boy never came back. He left after threatening to execute all three of them.
"I know, Teerom. But everyone else already knows. It wouldn't be fair if we didn't tell Paley too." Jurie said empathetically and continued, "Mother looked for him all night. Eventually, she found his- hand,"
"Just his hand?" Paley asked.
"Just his hand," Jurie answered.
"Meaning that there was some sort of monster in the town, which hunts people without anyone noticing. Or a human," Paley concluded.
"These disappearances happen every three years and last only a few months. That's why mother didn't want him to leave at that time so badly," Jurie added.
"Maybe it's one of *them*." Teerom crossed his arms, his mood ruined.
"No way, they're brutish, bloodthirsty creatures. They wouldn't be so meticulous" Jurie argued.
"Who's them-" "Oh, come on!" Reben interrupted Paley and slammed the table in frustration, "Let's get off this dark topic already. Paley will just go to the town with mother and Jurie as usual, okay?"
"Okay," Jurie and Teerom replied in synchrony.
"Wait, who's-" "Shhhh," Reben shushed Paley. He never had his question answered that day.
The next day, while Paley was warming up the house in the morning, the sound of horses' hooves clacking neared the orphanage. Everyone slept for longer during the colder seasons, so he went out to greet the knights to let them rest.
They weren't like the knights from before, they wore leather cloaks, and one of them was a young boy in training. 'How pitiful,' Paley thought at the sight of the innocent boy.
"You there," The knights approached Paley. Their leader wore a white cloak, and the rest wore black ones. He had a jawline that did not fit his soft, combed blonde hair.
"Yes, sir?" Paley put on an air of half fear and half innocence - still unable to mask his cold expression.
"Have you seen a group of knights recently? They were of the Moon Church," The knight showed him the moon's crest on his cloak.
There are four main religious beliefs. The two main ones are the religions of the sun and the moon. Then there were the God worshippers ( people who believed in an omnipotent God, who created magic ), they were much more uncommon.
Lastly, the rarest of them all, there were demon worshippers, the Demon Cultists.
"We have, they passed by and went into the forest to beat a Gulfuron," Paley mispronounced the name on purpose.
"Yes, that was their assignment. By the way, it's called Fulguron." The knight corrected Paley, "Well, thanks for your help. We'll be on our way." He quirted the reigns and moved forwards into the forest.
'Well this is annoying,' Paley thought and waited for them to disappear into the forest before taking flight to follow them. 'I should clean up the blood' He charged his legs with lightning magic and landed on the ground to zoom around the knights and to Fulguron's nest.
The blood on the trees had dried up and stuck tightly to the trunks. 'I'm gonna have to use a ton of mana,' He sighed and conjured up a layer of water above the canopy, moving it downwards to wash the blood off the trees. 'What even happened here? Did I really do this?' He asked himself and condensed the bloody water into a ball and buried it underground.
He finished just before the knights' horses became audible. As they came into view, he flew up fifty meters and perched on a tree branch. There were no leaves to hide him, but the height was good enough to make him blend in slightly.
The knights arrived at the nest, taking in the sight of the burnt trees. Unfortunately, water magic couldn't undo fire damage to the trunks. Paley would just have to hope that they assume it was the Fulguron's doing, which they initially did.
"Looks like burn marks," The young apprentice knight scraped a bit of the charred wood with his finger.
"Did any of them use fire magic?" The leading knight asked.
"No, they were all reinforcement types." One of the other knights answered.
"Well, might as well check properly," The leading knight took out a sphere of glass and looked through it. "Lightning magic. Fulguron's. Though..." He trailed off as multiple different vibrant colors swirled around in the sphere as he looked around at the forest through it.
"What happened?"
"Fire magic. Ice magic. Earth magic. And another type of magic. Something else was here." The leading knight put the sphere into his pocket and stared up at where Paley hid. Paley stayed perfectly still in a panic. His knees were slightly showing from the branches, but the knight, fortunately, didn't notice.
"Maybe it was a demon," The apprentice knight theorized.
"Don't be an idiot. A demon wouldn't be in such a place. There aren't enough people here."
'Oh crap, I should use sound magic to listen in,' Paley enhanced his hearing just as the knights began to leave.
"Let's ask the owner of the orphanage." The leading knight said.
'Great, they're coming back,' Paley groaned and flew towards the orphanage to get there faster than the knights. Everyone seemed to be still asleep.
It took the knights a few more minutes to arrive at the orphanage. Before they could knock on the door, Madella came out with a bucketful of clothes.
"You! Are you the owner of this orphanage?" The leading knight asked.
"Of course," Madella replied.
"We talked to one of your orphans about a group of knights that came by here to slay a Fulguron. Do you have any idea what happened to them?"
"It's been over two weeks. Have they not returned?" Madella answered with a question.
"No, they've been missing for three weeks."
She took a moment to speak. "Well, all I can tell you is that they came here drunk, asking for my girls in exchange for slaying the Fulguron. Then they set off to do their job and never returned."
The answer got a sigh of frustration from the leading knight. "Whatever, thanks for your help," He continued with the other knights towards the town. Once they'd gotten far away, Madella and the bucket of clothes became water and mud and fell to the ground.
Paley came out of the cottage and began tailing the knights from the air. 'I should follow them just a bit more. Just in case.' He saw a dark aura around them, making him wary of their intention if they found any clues that led to him.
They did your average investigative things: asking around for clues and whatnot. Paley found himself getting more and more bored until they found out about a hunter's shack. 'Finally. Something to intercept' he thought.
He hadn't ever heard of a hunter's shack in the town, but it could lead back to him since they hunted animals in the forest.
The knights made their way east of the town, where the hunter's shack was situated. It was all the way out in the outskirts of the town. They knocked and entered, introducing themselves. Paley looked into the window of the wooden shack from a rooftop.
"Have you seen any knights of the Moon in the forest recently?" The leading knight got straight to the point.
"Maybe," The hunter replied. In contrast to the leading knight, he was a scruffy man with his messy, long hair and tattered hunting clothes. He also had a messy, lice-infested beard. The leading knight was clearly disgusted to be anywhere near this dirty commoner.
"So you want coin, huh?" The leading knight held his hand out to the apprentice knight, who dropped three silver coins into his hand. "Tell us everything." He paid the hunter.
'Crap. This is bad. What if he has useful information? Should I silence him?' Paley argued with himself as the hunter began going on about his daily hunting routine.
"So, apart from a few scared animals, I ain't see nothin' that bad." The hunter concluded. The leading knight was welling up with anger at the useless information.
"You insolent commoner!" He slammed the table, "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today, or I would've beheaded you right here!"
"I-I'm sorry, sir knight, I told you all I could. I swear," The hunter's confidence dropped and he was now terrified of the knight.
The knights left the hunter's shack and began walking towards the inn to cool off. 'Well, I guess there's no need for me to follow them anymore,' Paley thought and prepared to blast off, but he felt the leading knight's aura darken and stopped.
'Now what could this mean? An already bad person getting badder?' He thought.
"Oi, don't you think that girl over there looks lonely?" The knight whispered to one of the other knights.
"That's one sexy commoner!" The other knight replied.
"We've had a long day, haven't we?" The leading knight began walking towards a woman who Paley recognized. It was Yadalee, the girl he and Teerom met at the inn.
"Disgusting, worthless humans," Paley thought aloud and watched the knights from the rooftops.
"Hey, you there, the woman in the cute dress!"
"Me?" Yadalee asked. She wore a pink dress; she was heading on a date with her boyfriend.
"Yes, you, who else?" The knight grabbed her by the neck and pulled her violently into an alleyway.
"What're you-" She didn't even have time to be scared before he ripped her dress off from the collar.