"Sylvia! Sylvia… I'm listening to your breathing… I know you are awake," I hissed while shaking her.
After pretending to be asleep for the last two minutes, she finally grumbled something under her breath and peeked out with her crimson eyes from the white bedsheets.
"Will you stop glaring at me…" I asked.
Sylvia continued looking at me as if I was annoying her. Which I probably was. However…
"Sylvia, it's almost noon. Do you really—"
Sylvia grumbled even louder and shot off the bed while wrapping the gigantic bedsheets around her. They dragged across the floor as she made her way to the table that had all the food on it. A pale arm snaked out from the sheets and grabbed a bright red and orange apple, only to bring it back into the depths of the new sheet monster.
I listened as Sylvia started eating the apple while glaring at me through the bedding window she had created. "Whaatt doo youu wannt?" she said in between crispy bites of the fruit.
"Are you just going to sleep all day?"
"That's the— ugg-aghg-ah." She started choking on the apple, and all I could do was watch and wonder if this was how she was going to die.
The Vampire Progenitor's granddaughter murdered by a fruit.
Sylvia forced the apple chunks from her throat with a few gut punches while her head escaped the sheet enclosure. Her purple and black hair flew out in waves, and she looked right at me with red eyes and face. I couldn't help but smile a little. If the receptionist from last night saw this, I'm sure he would pass out or just resign from the job altogether.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Sylvia said in a low voice.
"How do you know I'm staring at you? I have a mask on."
I mean, it's hard not to, but that's beside the point.
Sylvia started fidgeting slightly, and I could see the tips of her ears flush. "You…"
"You… what?" I asked slowly.
Sylvia's face was almost entirely red as she suddenly let go of the sheets in an explosion of white. "Pervert!"
How am I the pervert!
My neck snapped faster than it ever has before while I zoomed in on a tiny spec of dirt I imagined on the far-off wall. I'll never know why Sylvia was trying to flash me, but my mind was working overtime trying to imagine things, and I was having a hard time trying to stop.
I continued watching the paint dry while Sylvia started laughing hysterically. Finally, I allowed a side-eye to gaze over at her, and I let out a deep sigh of relief.
Sylvia was rolling around in the sheets wearing a white nightgown. Although it was rather tight… at least she was fully clothed. "Did you really think I wasn't wearing anything?!" Sylvia managed to say in between laughs.
"Please… stop…" I begged.
This is why I wanted two rooms. This is why. I can't handle myself in these situations. I'm not built for it.
Sylvia propped herself up on the bed. "Fine… fine… Anyways, I paid good money for this room so I'm not leaving it until tomorrow morning. You can stay here with me, or you can go find something to do, either way, I'm not moving."
I let out a deep sigh. "Okay then…"
I wasn't going to force her to leave. If she wanted to stay, then she could stay.
Sylvia let me take the first bath last night, and I got to enjoy two full meals to myself. The dinners were fit for royalty, and I spared no time in devouring every last bit of them. By the time I was done, I was about ready to pass out into an eternal food coma, but Sylvia made sure I slept like a rock after she drank her fill of my blood. I had fallen asleep so fast I wasn't sure if Sylvia had taken a bath or not.
This was one of the first nights I've had in a long time where I didn't have any nightmares. These nights are pretty rare for me, considering how infrequent they are. I'd say about 95% of my nights are nightmare-filled. Another 4% are nightmare-free because drug myself on purpose, and the remaning 1% is times like this. Sometimes my nightmares are bad enough to wake me multiple times a night and on others I manage to sleep through them.
But they all leave me feeling more tired than I should. At some point, I considered trying not to sleep at all, but I recognized the benefits of sleep. However, my sleep was so good last night that I woke up this morning feeling better than I have in months.
All thanks to Sylvia… one of these days, I'll make it up to her somehow.
Either way, I woke up early and managed a full workout followed by another bath and breakfast before Sylvia even thought about being conscious. I then proceeded to enjoy the outside air for another few hours relaxing on the balcony while working on my mana control and gravity magic.
Gravity magic is still by far the most mana-intensive school of magic I know. Controlling it is beyond complicated and during my fight with Ilme doing that gravity-assisted punch cost more mana than I care to admit. So if I was going to be able to use gravity magic regularly and control it better, I would have to start practicing a lot more.
But now I'm bored and just a little tired from using too much mana. I have no desire to sleep because I fear that I may ruin last night's experience, so with nothing better to do, I guess I'll find something to occupy my time with.
I motioned for Sylvia to put her mask back on, but she stuck her tongue out at me and crawled back into bed, wrapping the sheets around her like a cocoon. I sighed and pulled the string to let a servant know I wanted them.
Instead of just waiting, I walked out the door, and I didn't have to wait long for a younger Human man to come fast walking toward me. "How may I be of assistance, sir?"
"Can you tell me where I can find the adventurer guild in this city?"
—
Walking through Curia was an odd experience. If I got placed back in time on Earth and wanted to visit the Roman Empire, I imagine the cities would look like this. The place was bustling with people as they moved to and from their destinations. Carriages loaded with people or goods trotted down the main roads being pulled by Horses or Cradals.
I also couldn't help but notice a much more significant military presence in this city, which was unexpected. Guard patrols were frequent, and it seemed both the military and a police force were active here. Although I haven't been to the outskirts of the city, things seemed… different here.
People were smiling.
I've spent the last seven years running around the City-States, and I felt like maybe people didn't enjoy living there. Sure some didn't mind, and it was their home, but people never really smiled, not like this at least. Then again, it was primarily Humans, so I'm surprised to see such a melting pot of races here, and nobody seems all that bothered by it. Even the High Elves don't seem to be oppressed or unhappy.
I wonder why that is? It's only been a little over two decades since the war. Most of the people walking around were alive during it, so I thought there would be some resentment in the air, but all seemed well.
Maybe people were just so tired of war that they were more than happy to live and forget? Then again, this city is far from the Elven frontlines. If I'm not mistaken, the Dwarves attempted a few sieges on this city, but I don't believe they were successful.
I don't think the Dwarves were very effective at all during the war. Why is that, I wonder? They had the tactical advantage of being able to attack down from the mountains with little to no risk. On the other hand, I wonder if they just weren't all that invested in the war?
No point in thinking about it, I guess. I continued walking to the district that housed the Adventurer's Guild. This city was the same as most cities. The deeper you went, the higher the concentration of wealth. It seems that logic is applied to just about everywhere, and last night Sylvia and I found ourselves relatively deep into the city…
I can't believe she paid that much money for a room. I mean, it was excellent, and sleeping in that bed was terrific. The food was divine, and we didn't have to pay extra for it. Not to mention having a proper hot bath in years was a real blessing, but still…
You know… I might be a penny pincher.
Or perhaps I just don't really care about having fancy things? Yeah, I don't care all that much about having the biggest house or the shiniest sword. I suppose I'm a simple man.
I finally found myself at the guild building. The building was nestled in the corner against the city walls on the opposite side we came in from. It was rather large but surprisingly it wasn't as big as Nactus's. The gray wood made up the exterior, along with some stone accents. The lime green guild banners hung loosely from the side of the building, and when I walked through the open wooden double doors, a faint uneasiness tickled my mind.
Does this place have its own wards? Now that's something.
The temperature was noticeably warmer now, and I passed a healthy number of adventurers of all different races coming in and out. I made sure to display my Ruby tag openly, which garnered a few mumbles and stares from those watching me. However, scanning the necks of the passing men and women showed that a vast majority of them were of the lower ranks. I saw far more Amber and Opal ranked adventurers in the first few moments than I had my entire time as an adventurer.
I craned my neck and looked around and found this building unique for a guildhall. The first floor was completely open, with a big courtyard exposed to the elements. The center area was at least two or three times more prominent than the training grounds in Nactus.
Adventurers exchanged blows in practice, and a few were even going at it with magic. A violet shield flickered as a young Human girl was hit with an ice bolt from a High Elf. I hadn't seen Sparring Crystals since I went to school in Sandervile. They were used for Intermediate level mages or lower to practice magical combat against others without hurting them.
I peeked over the wooden hand railing and looked up to the second floor. It was closed off, and I assumed that's where all the facilities and such were. I looked across the training field and I could see the reception desk. I couldn't help but feel that it was a poor location for it, considering how far it was from the main entrance.
Wait… they are doing it to discourage people, aren't they? If I was a newbie and I saw all these people flinging spells at each other and clashing with weapons, I might have a second thought. Or maybe I'm just looking too deep into things?
I found myself at the quest board and started browsing for anything that fit my needs. It was the largest quest board I've seen, and although it had dozens of requests the board wasn't even half full. It was also split into three sections.
The first section was for bounties or reoccurring hunting quests issued by the city officials or the guild. Of course, I was there in the wanted section. In the middle were your standard run-of-the-mill adventurer quests, exterminate x monsters, pick x amount of herbs, the usual. Then on the left was an entire section dedicated to non-combat quests.
This section housed by far the most quests, and they were relatively simple. Shovel snow at a business, move crates, repair broken items, find lost items, just general busywork or hard labor. I have never seen so many non-combat quests, but I guess this is a big city, so there ought to be more of them.
The quest ranks didn't vary all that much as most of them were Amber to Topaz. There were a few Amethyst and a single Ruby quest, but I couldn't take on either of those since they would take more than one day, and they were the opposite way from the capital.
Honestly… most of these combat quests don't fit my requirements…
I can't spend a lot of time out of the city, nor do I particularly want to. I was sort of looking for an easy-going quest that wouldn't take much effort, but most of those were far too low for me to take. I tried searching for something perhaps Sylvia and I could take on our way to the capital, but most of the quests went the opposite direction, mostly heading towards the mountains.
I guess quests close to the capital don't make sense since the capital is probably more than capable of mobilizing adventurers…
I couldn't even find a caravan guard quest… wait— what? What is this?
Cordoned off on the non-combat portion of the board was a tiny grouping of quests at the bottom. There were two of them, and they didn't have any indication of which rank could accept them. I snatched one off the board and heard an adventurer chuckle behind me, but I ignored him. The payment was astronomically low. They were offering only four silver for this quest. You wouldn't even be able to buy food for doing this…
This is the perfect quest for me.
—
I found myself at the edge of the city in a completely different district than I was before. Not needing to sugarcoat anything, this part of the city was the slums. The buildings were run down, and the people here were poor. I was pleased to see that I didn't spot anyone suffering in the cold on the side of the road, but that didn't mean they weren't there.
I stepped up the crumbling stone stairs and knocked on the wood door. I quickly retracted my hand as I hit a piece of it off. The wood was rotting to the point that merely tapping it took chunks out of it.
After some time, I could hear the pitter-patter of multiple sets of footsteps until, eventually, the door started swinging open ever so gently. The person on the other side took great care in not damaging the door, and I felt a tinge of regret for being so careless.
I'll compensate them for it. They could use a new door…
A short Human woman stuck her head out from the door and looked up at me slowly with dark brown eyes. She was wearing white robes that flowed to the ground, and her brown hair was cut short in a bob-cut. "Uh… hello?" she said in a meek voice.
I cleared my throat and did my absolute best to make my voice sound kind and warm. I feared that this poor woman might faint if I spoke too aggressively or nonchalantly. "Good morning. Are you Hayla by chance?"
I failed.
Her eyes darted around nervously, and I could see her trying to retreat back into the building. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"
"Hayla passed away years ago. I'm sorry…" she said quietly.
"Oh, is that so? I'm sorry to hear that," I said gently.
Her eyes went wide. "You… are sorry? For what?"
What's with this reaction? Now I'm confused.
"For the passing of Hayla? Unless she was a criminal or something…"
She frantically shook her hands at me. "No—no! She wasn't like that! She… was…." the woman trailed off, and I could see the embarrassment written on her face from the outburst. "Sorry… what can I do for you? We don't have a service today—"
"I'm not here for church, miss," I said, interrupting her.
"You aren't? Then why—"
I sighed and just took out the paper from my pocket and handed it to her. "I'm an adventurer here on a quest. The quest was still available, so I was hoping to complete it."
The woman read the page and looked back up to me in pure confusion. "You… want to do this? But you are a Ruby adventurer…"
"That's why I'm here," I said cheerfully. "I take it they are still here as well?"
I peered over the woman and deeper into the church and saw multiple pairs of eyes watching me. The smaller kids hid behind the older children as they observed me in silence.
"And you are absolutely sure you want to do this?" she asked me again.
"If you will let me."
The woman looked at me, then back at the children behind her. Her eyes darted around like she was trying to come to a conclusion until, eventually, she looked up at me again.
"Okay… thank you, sir."
—
"Mister, mister! Again!" the little Dwarf boy cried.
"Again? You haven't managed to catch the last seven. What makes this time any different?" I asked.
The child looked up at me with dark black eyes, and I watched with great amusement as his tiny brain attempted to find an answer to my question. "I'll run faster!" he declared.
I snorted from trying to imagine him running faster, so I couldn't help it. "Alright then. Better pump those Dwarven legs, Var."
Var and his four friends all jumped around excitedly as a tiny blue ball of fire materialized. The ball raced off ahead of the children as they tried chasing it through the thick snow. Many of them tumbled and crashed into each other as they all tried to grab the ball, which was just out of reach.
Maintaining this spell was actually quite tricky, considering I was changing the core for Ember to the extreme. I turned the spell from a fire starter into a flame that was barely hot enough to melt snow. Then I continuously fed mana into the spell core to maintain it while I controlled the spell remotely. This was great practice for mana control, and the kids got a good kick out of it.
Melori giggled from beside me as Var tripped over one of his fallen friends and rolled through the snow. "You must be extremely gifted if you can change your spells in such a way, Voker."
"Perhaps. I've had a lot of practice."
"I imagine so. Being a Ruby adventurer is quite the feat."
It wasn't so hard. I just had to survive a year in a dungeon and kill an adult Wyrm. Nothing huge.
"Just another day," I said while zipping my spell over a kid's head.
"You say that, but… do you normally do this kind of stuff? What made you want to do this?" Melori asked me curiously.
"Nothing in particular. I'm not here for very long, so I can't take any big quests. Most of the others were out of my rank, so it was an easy choice. Besides, I was told to relax, and that's what I'm doing," I said honestly.
"I see…"
I looked down at Melori and couldn't help but wonder how things ended up like this. "Tell me. How does a single church take on so many children with little to no assistance?"
The young priestess had a far-off look in her eyes as she watched the children play outside. I had taken the children outside the walls of the city so they could play freely in the snow. Their outside area at the church was relatively small, and most of them hadn't had a chance to leave their tiny home in a long time.
The quest formed by the late Hayla was to guard the children while they played. Nobody had taken the quest in years because of the low pay, so the guild dropped all rank requirements so that it could be fulfilled. It spent a long time in that little corner until I came along and accepted it. It turned out the guild didn't even have the paperwork for the quest. It had been so long. They had forgotten about it, just like people had forgotten about this church and these children.
"These children… are all orphans of adventurers. Some of them are brothers or sisters… some are children… some abandoned, but most of their families died on the job, never to return back to them." Her voice was laced with a great sadness that weighed down on her.
"Why doesn't the city help you?" I asked.
She shook her head. "These children are in a gray area for the Princess's assistance. Technically speaking, none of these children are citizens as most adventurers are not. If other orphanages were to accept the children, they might lose the funding."
The Princess's assistance? Ah, that's right, Luminar does have two princesses.
I looked Melori up and down and focused on my spell again. "What about the church? You are a church of Amon-Ra, right?"
Melori let out a sad sigh. "My mother… Hayla… she was excommunicated by the church, so we lost our support from them as well."
I gave her a side-eye, and she smiled weakly at me. "But you aren't excommunicated, right? Surely—"
Melori let out a sad self-deprecating laugh. "It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. I'm the daughter of an excommunicated priestess. So that makes me excommunicated as well."
That's dumb…
Melori was taking care of about five children all under the age of seven along with three more kids who were in their early teens. The three boys were off on their own, and I was surprised to see them enjoying themselves while wrestling in the deep snow. I suppose they are old enough to understand their families won't be coming back or maybe Melori has been caring for them for so long that they have already forgotten what life used to be.
"This must be difficult, raising this many children alone."
Melori smiled brightly at me and nodded her head. "It can be at times, yes. But I wouldn't stop just because it was a challenge. They… they need someone, you know?"
"I agree."
Oh…I understand, all too well.
Melori was taking on a king's task of raising this many children alone and with such little resources. I couldn't imagine raising one child, let alone seven. But all things considered… she is doing a fine job in my eyes.
I would have expected to see these children crying or just done with the world, but every single one of them was filled with so much happiness and joy. They all smiled brightly at Melori, and they seemed to be one big family.
Mmm.
I looked up into the evening sky. "We should return. It's getting late," I suggested.
"Ah… I suppose you are right. Ch—"
I interrupted Melori's call with a hand wave. I sent another spell core out to replace the blue one and an orange ball of fire raced out towards the children. At first, they took a step back from it as it floated in front of their faces. Then, the orange ball gained altitude and exploded in the air in a shower of different colors. Blues, greens, oranges, reds, and yellows all mixed and matched as they fell from the sky, creating a light show for everyone to watch.
"What… is this?" Melori mumbled.
"Just an altered Fireball spell core. Nothing special," I said with a slight chuckle.
Melori was probably in her earlier twenties yet was shouldering this burden alone. I couldn't get involved with these children for their own safety and mine, but perhaps I could help in another way.
"Mister, what did you do?!" Var asked while tugging on my cloak.
"Don't worry about it. Did you have fun, Var?" I asked.
Var and all of his friends nodded profusely at me, looking at me with small eyes like they wanted more. Even the older kids were looking at me with awe.
"Unfortunately, it's time to go home."
This elicited cries of sorrow and frustration from the children, but Melori stepped in for me. "Come now, everyone, say thank you to Mr. Voker for playing with you today."
Everyone gave me weak "thank yous," but I didn't mind. A little Human girl named Nria tugged my pants and looked up at me with soft blue eyes. "Are you going to come back, Mister?"
Is this the part where I lie not to hurt their feelings? Or maybe I just hurt them now? What is the right choice, I wonder? Well… I know what I would want.
I bent down and gently moved the sweaty hair from her face. "Sorry, Nria, I won't be coming back for some time. But this doesn't mean we won't see each other again."
"Ok…" she said meekly.
I felt Melori watching me closely, so I turned around and put on my best friendly voice.
"Would you mind showing me around your church before I leave?"
—
"And this is the dining hall."
"Alright…" I said weakly.
It was, as I imagined, rough. The place was practically falling apart, and they had less than the bare necessities. I was hoping that maybe I could help them, but honestly, they just needed to move out of this place. It was one bad day away from the wood roof collapsing on them.
These two rickety and nearly destroyed tables served as their dinner tables. I was afraid if I dropped my elbows onto them, they would disintegrate into dust. So I walked over to them and carefully began removing things from my Spatial Ring.
"What are you doing?!" Melori shouted.
I made sure to spread out the goods on both tables so as not to break them by accident. They were just extras I hadn't had the time to sell from all my time in the dungeons and adventuring."These are yours. Sell them to the guild. They should fetch you around twenty to thirty gold if you haggle correctly. I would give you money, but I'm afraid someone might steal it. It's difficult to rob someone if you don't know what you are looking for."
Not that many people would want to rob this place anyways…
"Twenty gold?! Why all of a sudden? Where did you even get all this stuff? Are these… monster parts?"
"Yes, they are. However, I would prefer it if you didn't ask questions and just accepted the donations. This used to be a church, right?"
Melori shrugged her shoulders weakly and looked up at me with wet eyes. "It's fine. I wouldn't do this if I didn't want to. Put the money to good use, Melori. I'd recommend moving out and finding another building to live in but… you can make whatever decision you want. You will accept these, right?" I asked.
I could see the tears forming in Melori's eyes as she rubbed them away with her sleeves. "Why… why wou—"
"I told you not to ask questions. Just accept them."
The young priestess looked up at me with wet red eyes and nodded. "Okay… thank you for your kindness," she said in between small sobs.
I looked through the cracks in the walls and only saw the pink light from the fading sun. I should return back to the room, I needed to eat and sleep. Then Sylvia and I had a carriage to take tomorrow.
The hiding children made their way out of the hallway and surrounded Melori. "Why are you sad, Mel?" Var asked softly.
Melori furiously wiped the tears off her eyes and pat Var on the head. "I'm not sad, Var. I'm just so happy my eyes are getting wet."
Apparently, this was not the right thing to say… or maybe it was because Var and all the other kids started crying as well. They pretty much turned it into a big hugging and sobbing fest.
As I watched them all hug it out, a warmth spread through my chest, and I realized my face hurt from smiling so much. I know I said that maybe I couldn't help people if I couldn't even help myself… but sometimes… I can help people. And helping people makes me feel good.
I silently took my leave, not wanting to ruin the moment.
—
I closed the door behind me and locked it, only to turn around and catch the flying red grapefruit that was barreling towards the back of my head. I unsummoned my mask and took a bite out of the fleshy fruit, and enjoyed as its juices coated my throat. I haven't eaten since breakfast…
"Hey! Where have you been all day?" Sylvia asked.
Sylvia was as I left her. She was sprawled out on the bed eating some kind of weird fruit. It looks like she really hasn't moved from that spot. "I thought you said you didn't care where I went?" I asked playfully.
Sylvia clicked her tongue at me and puffed her cheeks out. "I didn't say that. I said I didn't care if you went somewhere or stayed. So where did you go?"
"I went to church."
Sylvia's mind turned blank for a second as she looked at me with pure confusion. "What?"
"I went to church and helped a bunch of kids," I repeated.
Sylvia eyed me suspiciously like I was some kind of alien. "Care to explain?"
"If you want to listen."