Chapter 439 Saving The Orphanage

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"Tell your lord that the S Rank Adventurers are protecting this orphanage." Shade added. "We'll go meet him in a few hours, so make sure to welcome us with open arms."

Shade looked down at the soldiers, his blue eyes suddenly turned crimson red.

"U-Understood! Run! Run!"

The commander quickly commanded the rest of his troops, as they all ran away.

The tension remained in the air for a bit, until everything finally calmed down a bit.

"Hahh… To think that they would go this far already. We really need to get out of here." Said my father.

"We can't, we have yet to find the cult's hideout and everything else." Said my father.

"But for now, maybe it would be safer to get the people to our side already." Said my mother.

"Yeah, I had considered it." My father said.

After everything was finally done, the tension slowly dissipated as we walked inside the orphanage. My parents seemed a bit distressed, but the people inside was even more nervous.

Mary and Lucia quickly welcomed us while still sweating nervously. It seems that they had been holding on in here without interacting with the soldiers, which was for the better to be honest.

"Ah, I am so happy you're back, I was so worried… I really thought they would take us away, if it wasn't for the magic barrier you had set up…" Mary cried, hugging my mother.

"It's okay, everything is alright now." Said my mother, caressing Mary's hair.

The children were also all scared, hugging Lucia's snake tail. Celeste seemed to have gone out to the dungeon early this morning and was not here, but Mist was, quickly greeting us with a happy smile, showing her big teeth.

"Sylphyyy!"

Mist ran towards me and jumped over me. This time I didn't fell over the floor, and managed to catch her just fine.

"Mist! Are you alright?"

"I-I am… I was shcared but I'm fine now… B-But I am worried about Cheleste…"

Mist seemed more worried about others than herself. This girl always put others before herself.

I petted her head as Aquarina and Zack got closer and also patted her head. She loved her head pats.

"Don't worry, everything's alright. I am sure Celeste is okay, she's pretty strong right?" I asked with a smile. "Let's leave our parents to deal with everything for now."

"O-Okay…" Mist sighed, lowering her head and feeling slightly embarrassed that she was being given a lot of attention.

"Your hair is so fluffy! It is almost unfair how fluffy it is!" Aquarina said. "Are you sure you're not a sheep, Mist?"

"S-Sheep? I'm not a sheep!" Mist said while blushing a bit. "My hair was rough but thanks to the shampoo that Auntie Faylen gifted to me, it's always fluffy…"

"She even got the horns of a sheep, ahahaha." Zack laughed cheerfully.

"Geez! Zack dummy!" Mist suddenly got even angrier at Zack. With Aquarina we already kind of knew she liked him, so when he laughed at her, it hurt more it seems.

BAAM!

Mist suddenly kicked Zack's leg angrily.

"Ouch! What was that for?!" Zack cried.

"Dummy!" Mist said, blushing while pouting a bit.

"Eeh? Why me and not the other two? They were messing with you just fine…" Zack sighed. He was a typical clueless young man, so he had no idea that Mist had been building up her feelings for him.

"Becaushe Zack… Zack should not laugh at Misht…" She said while blushing.

"Erm… okay." Sighed Zack. "Sorry Mist."

Zack had changed a lot over this time, and became more empathic as a result, so he apologized rather quickly. He was still stubborn, but not as much.

"Let's have some lunch while we adress everything for now." My mother said, quickly going to the kitchen. "Everyone relax please, as long as we are here, we wont let anybody touch a single hair of your heads."

With her reassuring words, everyone seemed to calm down almost naturally. The aura of an elf like her was really mystical and reliable.

"Yeah, let's enjoy some food kids!" Said my father, as the children seemed to cheer up, some began climbing over his arms as my father played around with them, lifting them easily with his mere arms.

Of course, they were very worried deep down, but they couldn't simply show that facet to the children here. These innocent souls didn't had the age nor the mental maturity to understand what was happening at all. Therefore, they were comforted and the smell of the delicious food my mother prepares quickly made them forget the scare that the soldiers arriving here caused, making their bellies groan with hunger.

Like that, we spent the next hour talking and relaxing for a bit, although something very serious had happened, we would adress it later. Mist had calmed down after we talked and cheered her up with the rest of the kids present, and we asked Zack to give her a kiss in her cheek to cheer her up some more, but he was completely against that idea out of nowhere. However, she gave her head pats, which were enough to make her happy.

"It's ready! Come eat as much as you want kids!"

My mother quickly served her special pizza, alongside Basilisk roasted meat, and other delicious preparations. The meat of Basilisks was actually delicious, the ones father hunted ended being purified by mother's holy magic and then saved for our consumption. Due to how tasty they were, I've earned a bunch of EXP when I first ate them, roughly 20k EXP. They were that delicious!

Thanks to the ability to absorb essence and transform it into EXP, every time I eat something very amazing for the first time, I get awarded with some EXP. Which has been slowly pilling up the last week, until I have reached almost 100k once more. Ah, and of course, Spiritual Blessing and Ember are already soon to reach Max Level as well.

However, those things were worries for later, as it was time to enjoy the present and this delicious food my mother prepared for us with all her love.

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