9 Fire

Just like that Ellaria's days were all full of activities , the morning she would spend time with Tess and the other children of the orphanage , playing , joking like any other kid .

When comes her afternoon nap , she would enter her space to learn magic , and perfect her control of mana.

Although , the puppeteer profession's second stage was already unlocked , Ellaria wanted to first bring her already learned magic circles to their peaks . She manipulated the human sized dolls to perform the basic movements of swordsmanship , that way her control would increase and it helps her to flawlessly remember the movements.

In the evening, Granny gave them classes, she would teach them how to write, read and do simple operations like addition and subtraction , all what someone need to know to buy or sell goods .

Commoners don't need or... more accurate don't have the resources to learn other subjects, books are expensive and teachers demand exorbitant payment . There is a school in Western Dial city , but not all children could attend , even less orphans .

When night fall, Ellaria would sneak in the kitchen and prepare a herb mixture , something that she learned in her past life .

The herbs that Fluffy brought to her, were similar to the one she used when she was Lin Qiao . Once consumed , they could fortify and clear the body impurities.

Perhaps because her body was already used to absorb mana , the effect was more apparent , after slightly a week , her body became lighter and her stamina increased . This way her small body could endure the physical training much easily .

The training program begins when she attained three years old .

Firstly, strengthen the body , she woke up before sunrise to do some physical exercises , run for some minutes , and practice the Body consolidation .

Secondly, practicing the nurturing techniques , with a wooden sword in hand (found in the space) , she performed all her techniques . As all first times it was tiring and hard but as days went by , it becomes less difficult and rapidly her body got used to them , becoming more flexible with each practice .

Thirdly, learning the killing techniques , they are divided to ; low, medium and expert ,from the less complicated to the more difficult to perform .

After five months of constant training, and on the night of the tenth day , Ellaria headed to the woods .

Beside bears , wolves, foxes, and other small animals, nothing dangerous lives in there , even the no so strong villagers could go to hunt in the forest .

That night, Ellaria was in the middle of a rude battle with two ferocious wolves , she would have used her magic to end quickly the fight or bring out the blade equipped dolls to deal a direct hit to the two beast , but no , nothing of that, today was the turn of her physical training to shine .

The two wolves ,probably from the same pack, attacked at the same time, one from the left the other from the right, their sharpened fangs were about to catch the little girl , when she suddenly leaped in the air above the two beast, she condensed her mana in her hand and punched the wolf on the right .

A huge force descended on the poor beast head , knocking it unconscious.

Seeing its comrade collapsing on the ground, rage surfaced on the other wolf eyes , but before it could even move , Ellaria had already appeared in front of it . A heavy kick send the beast crushing on the nearby tree.

<Master, why did you hold back your strength ?> If she used more mana with the body consolidation , a single hit would turn the two wolves into dead corpses .

"I don't want to kill them" Wolves fur could be used as a warm blanket for winter , so why waste such a resource .

"I will bind them and take them back to the orphanage" Ellaria looked at Fluffy and extended her hand "Give me the rope "

Without any delay , Fluffy took off his long hat , to bring out the rope .

It actually came from the space, the hat is like passageway , Fluffy could put or take out anything from the space through the black hat . But putting in living beings wasn't possible .

After receiving the rope, Ellaria tied down the first wolf , she was going to the second when a weird smell itched her nose .

She lifted her head puzzled "Doesn't it smell like something was burning ?"

<Yes, it does> Fluffy sniffed the surrounding air , there were really a burning smell , it becomes more perceptible . He closed his eyes , lifted his small pink nose high , and followed the stench direction .

<It came from the east…Huh ?>

Before he could finish his sentences , Ellaria had left , she rushed toward the east and as she got closer , the black smoke became visible, the atmosphere got hotter and the suffocated stench got thicker, it pushed her to move even faster, she even used body consolidation to increase her speed .

After some minutes ,she arrived. The fire has already ravaged one third of the house.

Ellaria stood at the side, the burning flames were reflected in her eyes , she couldn't help but tremble ,her whole world was collapsing before her eyes , for the first time after her rebirth she felt fear , the fear of loosing everything .

When she regained some of her rationality , she rushed toward the orphanage back door.

Some burns appeared on her skin, but she didn't care about it ,the most important is to find the kids and save them .

In actual fact ,she dearly hoped to not find anyone, perhaps ,the children have already escaped with Granny and the others , but soon.... reality proved her wrong .

In the corridor ,she found Sol , lying lifelessly on the ground .

Ellaria couldn't move ,tears filled her eyes, Sol's smiling face suddenly appeared in her mind .

The little girl approached , knelt down beside Sol, and slowly closed his opened lifeless eyes .

When she looked more carefully at the corpse, something attracted her attention , and in the next second , all her sadness turned into rage .

There were a bloody wound on his chest , Sol got murdered, someone stabbed him in the heart .

Suddenly a deafening scream echoed, the voice wasn't unfamiliar to Ellaria , she immediately stood up and disappeared from her spot.

******

"Shut up!" The man gave a slap to the frightened woman .

"We must leave quickly , even though this orphanage is quite isolated, the fire will attract the neighbors "A man holding a bag said anxiously "This place is really shabby, there is nothing valuable here , my bag isn't even full"

"If not for this mission, why would a bandit clan like us be interested in this orphanage, at least , we won't leave empty-handed, this lady is quite pretty , don't you think ?" The man looked at Jane with a malicious glare .

"You are right , she should be sold at an acceptable price in the slave market "

"Why the hurry , we can play with her first then sold her, she seems really tasty" The vulgar man licked his lips .

Jane was disgusted, she started to struggle, doing all her best to resist , but it only made the man even more angrier , he doesn't like disobedient woman who doesn't know their place , he angrily slapped her again but this time he didn't gauge his strength and accidentally made her faint.

"Tsk!" The man was pissed off, he was about to take hold of the collapsed Jane , when suddenly a surprised cry resounded behind him .

"What the matter ?" The man shouted exasperated, he hates being disturbed when he was having some fun with girls . He turned around and saw his comrade still standing at the side looking blankly in a certain direction , when the vulgar man followed his gaze , he saw a little girl .

The girl had her head lowered, he couldn't see clearly her face , but her unusual red raspberry hair attracted his full attention , a smile appeared on his face .

'How lucky I'm , this orphanage is more fruitful than I thought'

First he found a pretty lady, than a noble gal who would bring him a huge amount of money once sold . What a lucky man , isn't he?

"Hey, what are you doing? Go and catch her, she is more valuable than this woman"

The vulgar man rushed his comrade, if the girl runs away , he'll regret it his whole existence . However, the other man didn't move an inch .

"Move !! What are you waiting…?"

His sentence got cut off, he couldn't speak anymore, nor make any movement , he glanced at the girl with caution , and his glare fell on two cold black eyes .

The girl slowly approached him, the man body moved on his own and obediently retreated away from Jane .

Ellaria looked at the fainted Jane . Torn clothes , swollen cheek , ...her pitiful state, made Ellaria clench her fist even harder.

"Who are you ? What did you do to the people living here ?"

The girl turned to look at the two men, her cold glare sent chills down their spine .

"We are a small group of bandits, when we saw the fire we wanted to help but it was too late , we couldn't do anything , there were no one just this woman" The vulgar man seemed to regret his act , a gleam of guilt flashed past his eyes " we hope that you can understand us, we have nothing to do with this, I know that stealing others is bad , but it's our only livelihood , we can't do without it " .

The vulgar man glanced at the girl, seeing that she didn't say anything , he resumed with a sorry tone "It's really not our fault , we sincerely apologize for what happened here, If you wish we can help you search for your friends "

"Really ?" Ellaria lifted one of her elbows .

"Sure, sure, we will help you" the vulgar man nodded furiously " You're a mage , we are not a match for you , you hold the upper hand in this, you don't have to worry , even if we want to ,we can't escape your grasp"

"You are right"

When she said that , the vulgar man regained his mobility, he sighed in relief . However, before he could make a single step , a creak sound resounded ,his head turned into a weird angle then he fell on the ground .

The other bandit looked at this scene with great horror. The vulgar man died instantly , Mage were definitely the scariest .

The man warily turned to look at the little girl , what met his gazes was cold emotionless eyes , it wasn't a child who is before him , it's a demon ! A frightening demon .

"So?"

The man woke up from his daze, he weakly lifted his head distorted by fear.

"Do you have something to say? I only accept the truth"

After what he saw, there is no escape beside telling the truth , the man quickly revealed what really happened.

"A few days ago , a man came in our camp, he offered a huge sum of money to our leader, in exchange we should bring him some orphans , a team of ten came here, the others took the children and returned to the camp , we were supposed to come back when the mission is completed, however, Vance wanted to stay behind and see….. If ���." The man looked at the girl , he seemed hesitant like if the following words may take his life away , he gulped and resumed "…if there is some things valuable in the orphanage , but when he didn't find anything ...he decided to set fire to the house "

"Where is your camp?" Elaria's priority was to save the children , she didn't waste time in empty talks .

"It's not that far from here, our camp is behind that hill" he turned his head toward a certain direction " I can lead you there "

Elaria didn't replay and just ran toward the bandits camp, the man followed obediently behind her, he couldn't do anything anyway, his body moved on his own .

********

Meanwhile in the bandies camp ;

"Good job , everyone"

The leader was in a good mood that night ,as he looked at the bunch of thirteen or so children tied on the floor "What do you think , honorable sir?"

The leader glanced at the robed man beside him with a radiant smile .

The man has an unchanged stern face as he looked at the children, he was in his early thirty and had a face that could be described as handsome, but the X shaped scare on his cheek gave others a scary impression .

"Not bad, I'll take them immediately" He snapped his fingers and the two hooded men behind him moved to charge the 'goods' in the carriage .

The leader saw that and immediately ordered his men to help move the children . Their client today is a very big fish, the leader must show his deep sincerity .

Few minutes passed, it was time to leave . The robed man didn't even look at the leader and just walked toward his carriage.

Seeing that, the leader slightly panicked .

"Wait!"

The robed man halted his steps.

"Honorable sir, after the task is completed, you promised us the other half of the payment, Can ... Can we have it now?"

"Ah! That right, I almost forgot"

The leader felt relieved , however, as soon as the honorable sir clapped his hands , a piercing scream resounded. One of the bandits suddenly collapsed on the ground , the throat sliced open .

"Ahhh?!" another one died .

The two hooded men skillfully killed each one of the bandits. Before they could even react, the blood has already flowed down their throat .

"What are…?!"

The leader wanted to retaliate but his head got chopped off the moment he opened his mouth .

The man with the scary scare looked with indifference at the bloody massacre in front of him .

When they made sure that all the bandies got dealt with , the two hooded men returned beside their master , respectfully waiting for a new order .

The robed man got on the carriage , before leaving he looked one last time at the camp then ordered "Clean the scene"

*******

It took less than fifteen minutes to get to the bandits camp , however , when she arrived ,it was already too late .

"N-No" The bandit beside her said with a trembling voice "What happened here ?"

The once noisy camp from his memory has now turned into a sea of flames .

"He is meticulous" said Ellaria coldly .

This outcome shows clearly that her opponent doesn't wish to be found, and that the situation is more complicated than it seemed .

If they were simple slave traders , they wouldn't have to erase all witnesses and evidences after kidnapping some ordinary orphans.

However , they made a mistake, they didn't predict that the two bandies might not follow the original plan and stay behind to steal .

Now Ellaria's only hope to find her brothers and sisters was this bandit .