Our Respective Errands (4)

The hunt had been rather simple. With Gabriel's sword skill and Jennifer's incredible support from behind, subjugation of stray Kuffballs was, as the proverb says, a piece of cake. That is.. I aided in separating the strays from the main group of Tuffkans.

Nine never really had the chance to fight. Though, it was obvious the short training in Bleu's domain did help polish his skills a little. It was inevitable that Gabriel was better still. Gabriel didn't need too much protection as she had attached a talisman of guarding on her armor.

It was because of how brief the completion of the eyeball collection was, we decided to continue hunting. The eyeball collection was done by none other than myself. Nobody had the stomach to see the process. Can't be helped.

We encountered a group of goblins afterwards. Everyone had to play a role in fighting, which turned out to be Nine's chance to show his worth. I stood there and made sure they wouldn't fall into any dangerous predicament.

It was also at this time a message from Laura-sama came.

'He's not picking up.'

As we were busy at the moment, I thought that Prune and Noel would do something about it. I left the message be.

We continued exploring the forest.

"I haven't seen Liliath-san's magic yet.." Gabriel muttered, stepping over a branch.

"Liliath-san?" Jennifer called out in a pleading voice.

"Don't be shocked.." Nine warned.

"Do you want a demonstration?"

"Yes, I want to see how mages kill things!" Gabriel then said, raising her sword.

"That sounds so wrong.." Nine lamented with a sigh.

As such, when we came across a stone bird that had its sights on us. I skeward it with an icicle. It wasn't edible and the only worth came from the magic stone and feathers that were used in crafting arrows.

Arrows were in use though obsolete however.

A baby slime wriggled it's way from the ground similar to how earthworms appear at times in the modern world. I killed it.

"Should I kill that squirrel too?" I pointed at the tree.

"Stop it, that's enough.. enough.." Gabriel held me back.

Jennifer started laughing. Nine however, chose to remain silent.

The spoils were kept not inside the school bag but a different magic bag that Jennifer brought. We took a short break in the middle, Nine, Jennifer and I discussed in secret over the issue regarding the locket. It was at the refugee camp, which meant that someone there had found it and took ownership.

After another hunting session, we decided to return before lunch.

"Wow.. that's so fast. The last time I came with my dad to pass the G-rank quest, we took an entire day.." Gabriel recalled.

"There's a lot of monsters today for some reason," Jennifer said, perhaps to cover up.

"That's weird isn't it? Or does Nine-san or Liliath-san have some monster attracting skills?"

"We don't have that," Nine said.

"Hm? Where are we going? Gabriel asked.

We took a right turn into the refugee camp. It wasn't Gabriel that found our actions surprising, those who lived here also looked at us with a hostile gaze. The path was winding, so we had some trouble reaching the marker.

Various crude bonfire structures around the place that provided the ever-minimal degree of warmth.

"It should be somewhere… huh?"

We found ourselves standing face to face with a girl catkin with black hair caring for a sick child with silver hair. There, a lustrous platinum shine, you could see the chain tied around her neck, though the locket itself was hidden inside her rough clothes.

"Excuse me," Nine called out.

Gabriel understood enough to not say anything, holding an expression of disbelief.

"What do you want.." the catkin hissed.

"Um.. Can I ask where you got that locket?"

"2 gold," she announced.

"Two gold?"

The reward for the quest was a single gold. Exchanging two gold here would cause a deficit. In that case, negotiation was necessary.

"Is that child sick? I'm a healer if he needs treatment?" I made sure to lower myself and asked in a soft tone.

"H-he's sick. Y-you can heal him?"

"Can it be in exchange for the pendent?"

The catkin bit her lips, wariness in her eyes. I looked around to see the other refugees glance in this direction. It seems the light concealment barrier could only do so much at this point. I strengthen the barrier.

"I.." she held the locket tightly in her fist.

"Maybe we should just leave her be? Two gold is way too much.." Gabriel suggested.

The catkin looked up at us in shock, fear and anxiety started to consume her thoughts.

'Can you at least heal the child?' Jennifer asked.

"Can I ask what you need? We'll do our best to provide it. If we gave you two gold here, it's inevitable something bad would happen if the people knew you had the money right?" I said.

"He..," she pulled the locket over her head, "Give him a better life.. is that possible?"

"A better life in the sense of?"

"J-just let him live better.. I don't care if you make him a slave, just take care of him. Here," with frail arms, she held the locket out to me, her face turned away.

"Liliath," Nine called out. 'What should we do?'

'It's the fate of refugees isn't it? There's nothing we can do?' Jennifer texted.

"What should we do," Gabriel muttered.

I thought through the possible options we had.

"Can I first ask where your parents are?" Folding the locket back into the cat-kin girl's hand, I placed my hands over the boy's head. I found it unusual how this cat-kin was protecting a human child like him.

"Not here. He doesn't have parents just like me.. anymore."

"Is that so? So it's just the two of you?"

She nodded.

While I started healing the boy who had a light infection, I contacted Prune who I noted to be at the orphanage we last visited.

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'Prune, could you ask the director of the orphanage if they are alright with receiving two new orphans'

Prune blinked a few times when the message hit her inbox.

'I'll go ask.'

"Prune-oneesan?" Lucia asked with a pout, knocking her pencil on the yellow paper.

"Please give me a moment ya Lucia-chan.."

"What's wrong?" Nataline who sat across her, teaching another kid, asked.

"No.. um, do you know who the director of the orphanage is?"

"Director? What's a director?"

Prune's mind went blank for a moment, she realized perhaps she used the wrong term.

"Maybe the person in charge of the orphanage?"

"Oh, that would be Sister Alysia, what's up?"

"I just need to ask her about something.."

"Muuu.." Lucia held the sleeve of Prune's clothes.

"Sorry Lucia-chan, give me a moment.."

"No, no, no. Just tell me about it, I'll go talk to her. What is it?"

"I was wondering if the orphanage would accept maybe another two orphans?"

"Another orphan? From where?"

'Liliath, where are the two from?'

"Is that the reason why you came here but got too distracted by the kids?" Nataline chuckled.

"Nataline-san, I still don't understand why, 2 plus 5 minus 7 equals to zero?"

"Oh, you see.." Nataline went to explain to the child..

'From the Trinity Kingdom, refugees.'

"Huh.."

"What are you looking at Prune-oneesan?" Lucia waved at the air in front of her.

"Just.. thinking."

"Prune-oneesan is lying. Lying is not good,"

"Eh.. Lucia?!"

"Bad."

Lucia crawled onto Prune's lap and started to hit her chest with her tiny fists. And by her chest, it was obviously her breasts.

"F-From Trinity Kingdom i-if I'm not wrong.."

"What? How come? Refugees?"

"Y-Yeah.."

Prune couldn't keep her voice steady due to Lucia's constant assault.

"Two of them.. just two right? I think I need to talk to her about it.. are they in your care at the moment?"

Prune nodded without saying anything. Reason being that she didn't know how to answer that.

"Excuse me," Nataline left the room.