"Nice. I'll wait for him then if you don't mind. But also, about those thugs…"
The gold-haired girl nodded with satisfaction before continuing the inquiry.
"Who were they? Do you often have unwanted guests like that?"
She asked, briefly waving her hand towards the strip of splinter-sized remains of the thug's carriage.
"Those were bad people…"
The older of the two girls clinging to Melinda's legs spoke up, clinging tighter to the gold-haired girl.
"They wanted to take big sister Olina!"
The youngest one cried out and sniffled, very much upset.
"..."
Melinda glanced at both of them before looking up at the ashen-haired girl, who hopefully had some relevant information.
"Those were just some grunts looking for girls to work for them as… in the red-light district…"
The ashen-haired girl did have some answers, although she held back some choice words regarding the situation because of the younger girls present.
"...and they were a bit too pushy trying to recruit you…?'
"It would appear so…"
Melinda wondered, and the other girl confirmed her suspicion.
"How old are you, in the first place?"
"...almost sixteen…"
The gold-haired girl asked and got an immediate albeit quiet response.
"And they tried to… hire you regardless of that? Was it the first time? If not, did you go to the guards?"
"..."
Melinda asked, but the other girl merely lowered her head, bit her lips, and refused to even look at her.
"Miss, will you help us?"
"Kelly! Don't speak about things you don't understand!"
The youngest girl spoke up with a cute lisp but got shushed and admonished by others.
"..."
Melinda furrowed her brows but said nothing, watching the older girls pull the two youngest ones away from her.
"...ah…!"
"...?"
One of the girls gasped, looking over Melinda's shoulder, and the gold-haired girl glanced back to see what it was about.
It ended up being someone walking up the hill.
A tall, dark-haired man, rather skinny, with a mediocre face, seemed worried and visibly sped up at the sight of the carriage parked next to the house but then slowed down upon noticing the additional girl standing amongst the others.
"G-good afternoon…"
"Howdy."
As he approached, the man slouched and bowed his head nervously towards Melinda, who responded dismissively while taking a careful look at him.
"My name's Jude, young lady. The ow… the one in charge of this orphanage. How can I be of use?"
Despite his wimpiness, Jude wasn't someone who would miss the general aura of superiority emanating from the sharp-eyed girl. The way he spoke definitely mirrored that.
"I want to have a look around."
"...!"
Melinda tilted her head, glaring up at the much taller man. She took out her guild card and briefly showed it off so Jude would see her name and level, causing his eyes to widen. Seeing his reaction, all the girls behind Melinda's back perked up with hopeful gazes but said nothing.
"O-of course… Girls, show the young lady around!"
Jude cleared his throat nervously, bowing his head even deeper, clasping his hands together, and calling out to the pupils under his care.
The tour didn't take too long as there wasn't much to show off in the first place.
It definitely wasn't the state-of-the-art complex, giving Melinda the first look at what the standard of living without all the high-class magic items - including plumbing and sewage systems - looked like.
It was almost a culture shock but not something outside of the gold-haired girl's expectations.
The house itself was also a very old type, with a large open room accessible right through the entrance, a kitchen, and another small room.
The large room was where the girls would sleep, and the small one was both the bedroom and office of Mister Jude.
It appeared that the girls were rather self-sufficient, with Mister Jude being in charge of the business, considered more official, and them doing basically everything else.
That small room was also the place that the tour had ended, with Melinda taking a seat in front of the shabby desk behind which the nervous man was shifting thorough some papers trying to not act nervous.
It was also hard not to notice the girls trying to peek and eavesdrop on them through the door.
"I believe I've seen enough."
"...!"
Melinda declared, leaning back on her seat and crossing her legs, causing the man to flinch and start sweating.
"Have you heard about Jade's Academy's on-the-job training course?"
"..."
The gold-haired girl asked, but her question seemed to not have registered properly in the dark-haired man's brain because he started staring at her with a blank expression.
"...pardon…?"
After a full minute, after it became clear that Melinda wasn't going to repeat herself, Jude gulped down his saliva and gathered all of his courage to ask.
"Is that a no?"
"I… I mean… umm… J-Jade Academy…? I do believe I f-filled out the paperwork about some sort of program b-because it mentioned monetary support… A-are you here to make sure that this place is up to the standards…?"
Melinda raised her brow in a threatening way, causing the man to barely keep his words together and say while trembling like an autumn leaf in a gust of wind.
"Great. I'll deal with the shady individuals trying to kidnap those kids, and in return, you will sing praises on my report card. If anyone asks, I want you to say that I was literally the perfect human being, more of an angel sent by Perseverance herself than a mortal. Do we have a deal?"
"...huh…?"
The gold-haired girl nodded with a stoic expression and declared, to which the dark-haired man could only blink and let out a dumb-sounding voice.
"I'll have the paperwork ready by tomorrow, and since it would be best to deal with scums like that sooner rather than later, I will start the investigation and cleaning the day after getting everything approved."
Melinda didn't bother waiting for the answer and simply considered the whole deal to be set in stone.
"See you tomorrow then."
"...wh-wha…?"
Deciding everything by herself, the gold-haired girl stood up and walked herself to the door, leaving the flabbergasted man behind.
"Chin up. Mister Jude and I will protect you."
"..."
Melinda smiled and winked at the girls who had not run away from the door in time, but they didn't respond, looking rather upset for some reason.