123 123. Little Girl's Request
Soon after Ben defeated Joran, many people come to their location. They are the Mayor & her men that come here after Reymond informed them. Ben is glad that they didn't come when Joran was still conscious or it will get more troublesome because he needs to protect them too.
"As I thought, I can always rely on you, Ben," says the Mayor as her men take care of the hostages and the defeated Dark Mages.
"Sorry, but I don't want you to rely on me. That's too troublesome," says Ben unhappily.
"Hahaha, alright, alright, I won't rely on you. I'll just prioritize to call you if I need a Mage's help," says the Mayor.
"That's the same thing," says Ben while sweatdropping.
"Hey, you," calls Elefsia so suddenly.
Ben & the Mayor look at the little noble girl who has a white cloth covering her body now.
"What's wrong, Elefsia?" asks the Mayor.
"Not you, auntie, but him," says Elefsia while pointing at Ben.
"Me?" asks Ben confusedly.
"Yes, you. Ca-Can you be my bodyguard? My parents will pay you a lot of money," says Elefsia.
Ben is stupefied at the sudden request, even the Mayor is surprised.
"Sorry, but I can't do that. I don't like being tied in one job like that," says Ben while smiling.
"W-Why? We can pay you a lot. Yo-You'll also be freer than the other bodyguards," says Elefsia with trembling hands.
Ben sees it and knows why she suddenly asked him to be his bodyguard. He crouches down to get on her eye level and pats her head.
"Don't worry, you are safe now, no need to be scared anymore. Your parents will make sure that you will be safer from now on, so this won't happen again," says Ben.
"B-but-," says Elefsia before Ben hugs the little girl and pats her head.
"It's okay, don't be afraid anymore. I'm here now, everyone is here. There's no bad guy anymore, you are safe," says Ben kindly.
Elefsia starts to cry in Ben's arm and he just stays still. The Mayor has just realized what happened now and smiles softly. She never thought that Ben can be this understanding at his age.
The little girl cries until she gets tired and falls asleep. She has been very stressed in these 2 days of being detained. Even adults can get very traumatized by this incident, not to mention a little girl like her.
Ben picks her up and carries her like a princess. A maid who came with the mayor wants to take the job from Ben, but Elefsia is holding his clothes tightly unconsciously. They just laugh and let her stay like that.
"She must feel safe with you," says the maid.
"Yeah, and it seems the other kids also think the same," says the Mayor while looking back.
Ben raised an eyebrow and looks back too. He sees the other 7 kids are gathering and look at him. No, they look at Elefsia with envious eyes then look at Ben with hopeful eyes. His mouth twitches but he can only sigh seeing this.
"Sorry, but I can't carry all of you. I only have 2 hands here," says Ben apologetically.
The kids have a disappointed look and make Ben feels very bad.
"He can't carry you, but is it okay if you can stay with him until we reach the town?" asks the Mayor while crouching in front of the kids.
The kids look at each other before nodding at the same time. The Mayor smiles and pats their heads before calling her men. Ben raised an eyebrow because he doesn't know what the mayor's idea is.
Soon, some open carts that are pulled by 2 horses each come. The Mayor has prepared these carts to transport the hostages back to the town. These carts are slow, so they have just arrived now.
Ben now understands what she meant and smiles. The kids then get on a cart and Ben joins them with Elefsia & Bella. After he sits, the kids are rushing to get closer to him and it makes the adults laugh.
'Sigh, why'd I become a babysitter so suddenly?' ponders Ben in his mind.
They all return to the town and the kids are sleeping on the way. The kids sleep with their heads on Ben's legs and they all are holding his pants so he can't move at all.
"You are really popular, huh?" asks the cart driver jokingly.
"I hope I'm more popular with girls rather than kids," says Ben jokingly too.
"Haha, don't worry, you are handsome, so girls will like you. Maybe you just don't realize it. Besides, girls like a man who is kind to children, at least good girls are. Look! Even those girls keep looking at you," says the driver while pointing at the girls in the front cart.
The girls around his age who got kidnapped are looking at him now. They all then look away when the driver is pointing at them and Ben looks at them.
"No! Ben with Mira," says Bella so suddenly in disapproval, surprising Ben.
"Oho, so you already have a girlfriend," says the driver while smirking.
"No, she's just a friend, not my girlfriend. Well, not yet, at least," says Ben.
He doesn't know that Bella has paired him with Mira already, so it surprised him. The driver laughs teasingly and starts to give Ben some tips to get close to a girl. Ben just sighs and listens to it because he can only talk with the driver to kill time.
The group arrived in the town after an hour because they moved slowly. It is difficult for the carts to move in the forest, after all. But at least there's no problem on their way here.
Many people are gathering in front of the Town Gate. They are the families of the hostages and curious people. Ben wakes the kid and tells them that they've arrived.
The kids wake up and look around. They see many people and then see their families there. So they start to cry and almost jumped from the cart, but Ben & some Mayor's men can stop them in time.
Some Mayor's men help the kid get down from the cart slowly. Then they run immediately to their parents while crying loudly. Their families also run at them and they hug each other while crying.
Elefsia also wakes up because of the commotion and looks around curiously. She sees many people are there and then sees a pair of young adults with good clothes. They have haggard faces even though their clothes are pretty and they run frantically to her location.
"Papa! Mama!" shouts Elefsia before she tries to jump from the crate.
Ben catches her because it is very dangerous. He carries her again before jumping down from the cart. Then he walks to her parents and puts her down in front of them so they can hug each other.
"Thank you, thank you so much for saving our daughter. I don't know how to repay it," says Elefsia's father.
"Don't worry, it's my job, after all," says Ben.
"No, we still need to repay you. Just say what you want, we will give it if we can," says Elefsia's father persistently.
Ben just sighs and says, "We can talk later. Just focus on your daughter for now."
Elefsia's father nods and checks his daughter again. Ben turns around to meet the Mayor, but someone holds his pants, so he stops. He looks back and sees that Elefsia is holding his pants.
"Don't leave," says Elefsia with teary eyes.
"Ugh!" Ben feels a stab in his heart seeing her cute face.
"I just want to meet the Mayor to take care of the bad guys," says Ben.
"B-But-," says Elefsia before her father cuts her sentence.
"Elefsia, you can meet him later after you rest. He won't leave the town soon, so don't worry," says Elefsia's father.
The little girl looks down and nods before releasing her grip. Ben rubs her hair before leaving to meet the Mayor.
"Sigh, I'm always weak against children," says Ben as he walks away.
______________________________________________________________
You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 153 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 164 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)
