Chapter 400 An Annoying Feeling Of Hopelessness And Powerlessness

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Today in the morning while having breakfast, my parents were getting ready to go to the orphanage.

"So how were things?" I wondered while drinking some tea.

"It was all alright. The people though, had grown rather unrestful. The government of the city decided to not reveal the origin of the terrorists though, the knight order in there at least seems to be a bit decent." My father sighed.

"I see…" I said. I quickly noticed a lot more people than usual around here, more demons and beast-kin as well. "Are all these new people…?"

"Yes, we brought them here last night, dear. As you know.. well, they're former slaves." Said my mother. "We already talked about this."

"I know…"

I noticed the adorable little, blue-skinned baby girl, Celica, snacking a big sandwich at my side. I suppose they had yet to find her mother because she was still alone. Well, we spent most of the day with her yesterday, though she fell asleep midway through the day. She likes to take a lot of naps.

"Is Mama not coming yet?" She wondered, her face quickly growing a bit worried.

"N-Not yet, dear. We are doing our best to find her." Said my mother.

"Yeah, patience is a virtue, Celica." My father said, petting her head and giving her a kiss in her forehead.

"Hmm…" Celica sighed a bit, quickly growing more gloomy.

"C-Come on! How about you try this?" Aquarina quickly came to the rescue, showing an Apple Pie Slice she had saved for herself. The pie was finished before Celica could even grab a slice, so she didn't had the opportunity to eat.

"Apple pie!" Celica's face quickly changed as she got happy out of the blue.

"You can have it." Aquarina said with a gentle smile, giving her precious Apple Pie to Celica. Although I also noticed she was forcing herself to this, she loved Apple Pie a lot.

"Thank you big sis!" Celica said adorably, quickly digging into the sweet pastry.

Aquarina was watching her head as her eyebrows dropped with a bit of regret in her face.

"Well done." I said, petting her head. "You wanted to see her smile?"

"Hmm…" Aquarina sighed. "Ugh, my pie…"

"You can have this." I said, quickly giving her a toast with butter and strawberry jam.

"Oh, really?" She wondered.

"Yeah, come on, I know you love sweets." I said.

"Thank you!" Aquarina quickly began to dig in as well. She looked the same as the little Celica.

As breakfast ended, I decided to ask what was in my mind.

"How long will it last to get the former slaves?" I wondered. "And… how's the investigation going?"

I knew as a child I shouldn't be getting my noses into the issues of adults, but as I had fought one of these people that appeared near the dungeon, I felt involved into the whole thing.

"Well…" My father began to think. "I guess in a week from now, we already got half the people."

"I see… That's good." I sighed.

"After that, we'll probably grab the orphanage's people an get the heck out of here." Nepheline said.

"The organization is being tackled down slowly; we already got some clues. There might be some more clues in the red-light district, and perhaps within the forest outside." Said my mother.

"Wait, aren't we going to hunt into the forest?" I wondered.

"Yep." Said my father. "We are going together to both investigate and help you hunt."

"O-Oh, I guess we are really getting involved now, aren't we?" I wondered.

"These people are dangerous, but with most of us together, they're not really a sizable threat, but what they are capable of doing if they gather together is one." Said my mother. "We'll get this done quickly; I don't want to bother so much with this…"

"Quite honestly, I think the same." Shade agreed.

"Hmm…"

I couldn't help but feel worried about this even though I knew my parents were there for me. The whole attack, the instigated Dungeon Break and then the usage of innocent's people's souls to summon an otherworldly "True Demon" was all too eerily terrifying. Whatever they did back then might be repeated soon, I can tell the sense of urgency they have. It could even happen at any moment. The resentment of this group of Demons is strong, but what are their true roots though? I wonder… what is their endgame in all of this?

I heard that they simply wanted revenge, to bring destruction to these people and rule the city by their own. But haven't they considered that they allied nations of this fiefdom would fight back? They might win now and avenge their people, but later on they'll be persecuted once more, and the enmity against demons will only grow.

It feels like it is a desperate and reckless act of defiance, which I can't help but feel like I would had done in their position, without thinking too ahead either. But this can only and ultimately end bad for them, they should really stop doing this… I hope they could realize this before my parents catch them and crush them. They don't really care if they're demons or no, if they had done something like this… I can only think that they'll just wipe out the entire organization before they kill more innocents.

My father was rather impacted after seeing so many innocents die, I was as well, my friends too. This was perhaps our first-time seeing innocents die out of the sudden, the sight of what could be war on its totality. Well, in my previous life I killed many people for my own revenge, so maybe I am a bit desensitized compared to Aquarina and Zack, but it was still surprising to me, and made me rather sad deep down, even though I didn't really showed my emotions to anybody.

"Let's have some fun today then, Sylphy. Cheer up." Aquarina said with her usual gentle nature.

"Aquarina…" I sighed. "Can I hug you?"

"E-Eh? Sure…" Aquarina seemed a bit surprised, but she accepted my hug.

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