The charging savages didn't seem to pay any attention to Hua, a little girl. The crowd automatically split into two groups, with only two big men, like grizzly bears, charging towards Hua.
Hua wasn't surprised by this, and she didn't react at all. She knew that the only way to make those people pay attention to her was to take down the two people in front of her.
Her body was as straight as a pine tree. As the approaching savage raised his dagger and shouted something unintelligible at her, and brought the dagger towards her, she moved like a swaying pine needle. Although she didn't make any large movements, she merely sidestepped in a manner that was too slight to be seen, letting the dagger pass by her.
"Such an obvious opening!"
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hua used her left hand to grab the wrist of the person in front of her, pulling it backwards. Her right fist took the opportunity to go under the person's armpit and hit him directly in his waist and abdomen.
"Ah!"
The savage in front of her screamed. There was no bone protection in his waist and abdomen. The force of the punch easily went through the wild boar skin he was wearing and the subcutaneous fat, causing a contusion in his kidneys—she didn't know if the owner of this body had kidney stones. If he did, this punch should be enough to heal him.
The other savage, seeing that his companion was immediately taken down by this unremarkable "little sprout," shouted out and then slowed down, confronting Hua with his dagger.
But the confrontation was just his wishful thinking. Hua's knees suddenly bent slightly, and the tip of her foot touched the snow, sending white snow flying into the air and instantly obscuring the savage's vision.
He subconsciously used his left hand to block the flying snow, while using the dagger in his right hand to stab towards where he thought Hua was standing. But immediately after, he felt his wrist hit by Hua's fist just three fingers below the wrist joint. His entire arm instantly became numb, and he couldn't even hold the dagger anymore.
Hua took the falling dagger and, without hesitation, gripped the handle, and used it to fiercely strike the other party's lower abdomen.
"Ugh!"
Soon, the two "bears" were both clutching their abdomens… Or rather, they couldn't be said to be clutching at the same spot. One was clutching his side, while the other was clutching his lower abdomen, their bodies bent like shrimps as they rolled on the ground, wailing in agony.
The entire process seemed long, but it was just a matter of split seconds.
The savages who were planning to go around Hua all stopped and started shouting at each other. It was like they were hunting normally, slowly surrounding her in a fan formation.
After confirming that Hua wouldn't actively attack, two bold savages rushed forward and dragged their injured companions away.
Hua didn't stop them. The mission that she had defined for herself was to delay them. Delaying them didn't mean that she had to fight. That was the worst option… Moreover… For her to launch an attack against twenty people by herself, that sounded like something out of a fairy tale, right?
But she had also underestimated the intelligence of the savages.
The old man who had been leading them stepped forward—now Hua recognized him. Wasn't he the old village elder from the village on the snowy plain?
After the old man mumbled a few words, the savages' group split in two again. The "village elder" led half of them into a circle to trap Hua, while the other half headed toward the orphanage.
The savages surrounding Hua didn't attack her either. They just restricted her freedom of movement by forming a human wall.
"Damn it... I can't beat them, and I can't communicate with them…"
Hua bit her lip, trying to think of a way to break through the encirclement of ten savages.
Let's get to the conclusion first—there was no way.
An ordinary little girl, no matter how skilled she was, couldn't possibly break through an encirclement of ten adults.
"What do I do… Is this where it ends for me? I didn't even manage to delay them for that long… As expected… I still can't do it…"
Just then, she suddenly noticed another group of savages. Instead of following the obvious footprints in the snow to chase after the children that had hastily escaped, they were running in a circle around the orphanage, hand in hand, while making strange sounds.
Those sounds were as obscure as their language, but Hua still managed to understand a small part of them--
When everyone spoke different languages, the syllables that they were most likely to understand were names. Because of transliteration, the pronunciation of the same name would be similar in different languages.
"Kalpas? Are you looking for Kalpas?"
Hua raised an eyebrow at the "old village elder." He obviously couldn't understand the second half of what she said, but he had understood "Kalpas" in the beginning.
He was also stunned for a moment, and then he began to gesture and use his fingers as he spoke.
His actions even misled Hua. So, when Mikael stepped out of a spatial rift in a hurry, he saw Hua and the "old village elder" sitting on the ground face-to-face. One of them was speaking gibberish, and the other was shouting, "Kalpas! Kalpas! Are you looking for Kalpas?" The only thing they had in common was that they were both gesturing wildly.
"Hua, be rational!"
Mikael habitually reached out his hand, and then his face twitched a bit. He stood on tiptoes and ruffled Hua's hair.
"What's going on?"
He turned his head and looked around. The savages were gathered on the sunny side of the orphanage. They hadn't rushed into the empty orphanage, but instead used their dirty daggers to chop some birch wood, set up an earthenware pot, boiled snow water, and then took out a large chunk of mutton from a dirty animal skin bag and used daggers to slice the meat into the pot.
This… wasn't she supposed to be talking about a group of malicious thugs approaching them?
Hua reluctantly finished her communication with the old village elder, a communication that had no skill but was full of emotion, and then turned to explain to Mikael:
"They seem to be looking for Kalpas."
"And then?"
"Ah... I don't know."
"..."
Mikael stood on tiptoes again and ruffled her hair, then gave the bewildered old village elder an awkward but polite smile:
So you two gestured wildly for half the time and didn't understand anything other than "Kalpas"!
It didn't matter, it wasn't a big deal. They were here looking for Kalpas anyway. So, as long as they waited for Kalpas to return, they would be able to communicate with them, right?
Also… Mikael was both worried and excited--looking at these people's appearances... he was really looking forward to seeing what kind of expression Kalpas would have when he saw them...
The reality was, Kalpas didn't show any expression.
There was neither joy nor anger. It was the smallest fluctuation in emotion that Mikael had ever seen from him.
He just stood there in a daze until the savages made strange sounds, smiled, walked up to him, and gestured wildly at him. It was then that he impatiently roared, "Get lost!"
"Hahahaha!"
Mikael didn't understand anything else, but at least he understood the laughter of the savages.
He could roughly guess what had happened--
In this bubble world, these savages were originally Kalpas's kinsmen. He had somehow become separated from them and came to this orphanage to be a caretaker. Now, those savages were going to migrate, and had reconnected with Kalpas. And the Kalpas from this bubble world had decided to leave with them.
The agreed date should have been tomorrow, but the savages clearly didn't have a good sense of time, which led to their premature arrival and caused a misunderstanding.
As for their actions of offering daggers to Hua, according to Hua's description afterward, Mikael thought that it was more of a strange, ritualistic greeting...
Wait... offering daggers? Sending a blade?
Although the language wasn't fluent, it seemed like the misunderstanding had been cleared up. The children came back, skipping and hopping, and Aponia told them that it was just a between-class activity.
Moreover, their attention was quickly drawn to the fragrant mutton. Hua and Kevin had to run back and forth among the children. The savages didn't mind sharing their dinner with the adorable children either.
Kalpas sat on the roof of the orphanage, leaning against the huge chimney, gazing into the sunset that was half-submerged in the endless snowfield.
The setting sun was bright, reflecting the snow-covered ground and making it look a dull yellow color.
But an invisible chill had also frozen the sunlight. Even if it was dazzling, it couldn't melt a single smiling ice crystal on the snowfield.
"Kalpas..."
Mikael stood beside him, wanting to say something, but was interrupted by his harsh words:
"Did you create this illusion?"
"No, I'm not that powerful."
"Hmph!"
"Kalpas, I didn't act there before… I'm sorry…"
"Heheheh, hahahaha! Is that what you want to tell me?"
Flames rose from his body, and the snow on the roof rapidly sublimated, shrouding everything in a cloud of mist.
"I don't need your apology, and neither do they. You just need to tell me, what's the purpose of you coming to find me!"
Mikael felt the scorching temperature beside him. That temperature conveyed a fact--that Kalpas's anger wasn't directed at him, or, at least, most of it wasn't directed at him, or anyone else.
That anger was directed towards himself. It was an anger that would eventually burn itself out…
It was actually born out of a feeling of unwillingness, a feeling of helplessness at not being able to change or save anything despite trying his best.
And Mikael was all too familiar with that feeling.
Gasps of surprise could soon be heard, but they gradually disappeared, turning into muffled and illusory echoes. Kalpas's power had directly incinerated an entire bubble world.
So, all of the illusions had been shattered.
After first protecting Kevin and Hua with a Void barrier, Mikael then replied, half self-mocking, "As expected, I need to use a different approach to communicate with you… so, Kalpas, if you lose, [please] become one of my pawns."
"And if you lose?"
"Then please help me take those two guys out of here?"
"…"
"Oh right, do you know how to leave?"
"… Get lost!"
Then, the intertwining light of blue, gold, and purple quickly devoured that small flame.