Looking up at me, Old Eddie froze at the sight of Samantha sleeping over my shoulder. As if understanding something, he looked back at me and gave me a knowing look and a smile — a smile of his fantasies of what happened back in the tent.
"Let's go; I have a ship to catch," I said coldly at him venting my frustrations about Samantha's stubbornness toward him. With my announcement, the rest of the children, other than Emma, Olivia, and Charlette, were still sound asleep in the arms of Old Eddie.
*Sigh* Old Eddie sighed as he slowly got up and led the half-awake, half-asleep children back to the alley with me leading the way.
…
As we entered the alley, Old Eddie led the children back to the sleeping place and laid the rescued triplets with them, letting them all sleep in peace. In any case, they would no longer need to bake mud cookies to save money and now be able to eat proper food and rest easily.
"We're leaving," I informed Old Eddie.
Hearing my words, he stopped what he was doing when he heard my voice before settling the triplets all comfy on the bed and replied.
"Stay. We have yet to thank you for your help, please -".
Being a lich, I have no facial expression Old Eddie could readily read from. But his years of experience as a spy allowed him to detect my attitude towards the situation. Using that, he immediately stopped and tried to think of another way to convince me when a ring from a bell resounded throughout the whole city.
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
"Wow, look at the time; the ninth bell must have already rung. It is already too late. Your boat would have already left the port. Why don't you stay for one more night before you travel tomorrow?" Old Eddie advised as he took a hard look at my body language, trying to see the minute expressions my posture was trying to convey.
(Author's note: the number of bells represents the hour of the day, and for this instance, the ninth bell means nine in the morning. Note that the number of bells will represent a 24-hour clock, so when it is midnight, the number of bells that would ring will be 24.)
Hearing his words, I jolted slightly surprised by the fact that it took about 2 bells of time just to deal with that mess.
Seeing the jolt on my body, Old Eddie's dull eyes turned sharp thinking that I was still hesitating; he decided to attack again, hoping to slowly lure me in to stay here for another night.
"Besides, I don't think the captain would allow you to board the boat with her over your shoulder like that."
Realising about the sleeping beauty over my shoulder, I gave in to his pleas and agreed to stay for the night and will leave first thing in the morning.
Hearing my words, Old Eddie smiled brightly as if he struck gold while inviting us into his alley again, but this time, he brought us around it, giving us a tour of the place. To be more exact, he was giving me a tour while Samantha still hung over my shoulder, sleeping.
After the tour around the alley, Old Eddie sat us down where the little ones were sleeping to rest. Using this opportunity, I finally place Samantha down on the ground from my shoulder and massage my bones from carrying her around, thinking, 'this woman sure is heavy for someone so thin'.
Tang!
"Ow, ow, ow!" Samantha's voice cried out as I felt an insect bit my arm.
Turning to her, I asked, "You're awake!?" alarmed by the fact that my sleeping spell wore off this quickly or even before I took the initiative to dispel it myself.
"Hmph! Your shoulder isn't as comfortable as you think! Especially when you are walking without caring about my comfort and caused me to freely swing from left to right on your shoulder," Samantha scoffed as if knowing what I wanted to ask her.
"Secondly, never talk about a women's weight!" Samantha yelled as she once again went in for a punch to my arm. Sadly, the outcome was the same, where the only one that receives the pain was her and not me.
Staring at Samantha, clenching her right hand in pain for a moment before turning away, deciding to go back to the topic at hand about the incident in the tent.
"About the incident in the tent –" Just as I was about to talk about it, Samantha interrupted me.
"Forget about it."
"Forget about it?" I asked, questioning her. Who in the right mind would push such a scene and carry on as if nothing has happened?
Hearing my question, Samantha replied, "I tried my best and freed as many as I could. There is no need for me to feel guilty about it. After all, didn't I try my very best to help them?"
Before I could object or say anything, she continued, "Didn't you always used to say to help all we can, and if you know that you did and tried your best, there is no guilt in your heart knowing that you have exhausted all means possible to help and it was an inevitable ending that we could never change just like prophecies". Samantha spoke in a slightly too righteous tone that ended up seeming strange.
Sadly, she was right, and I did use to say it in the past and still believe in it now, so there was no way I could rebut her. If not, I would be a hypocrite.
"Alright then, let's just leave it at that," I compromised, clearly forgetting about the points I wanted to bring forth to her.
After that, I closed my eyes and stayed still as the sun slowly rose to its peak and started setting to the west. As it did so, the older children who went out to work began streaming into the alley with exhausted smiles on their faces.