A Day in the Village

After he finished his scouting, he returned to the village, only to find the middle-aged man that he encountered before standing in front of his inn. Besides him, the young woman that he saved earlier.

"Thank you sir for saving my daughter. If not for you, I worry what will happen to her," the man shuddered at such a thought. "If there is anything you need, you can tell us,"

Ryker was about to decline when he thought of something, "Well, I have something I need to do tomorrow, and I don't want to leave my siblings alone for too long. If you don't mind, could you watch over them," he requested.

"Hmmm. It settled then, my daughter shall help you watch them while you are gone," the man replied, the young woman looked at him in shock.

"Besides, this is one way you could repay this gentleman for saving you," Before she could say anything, the man exclaimed, making her nod timidly.

"Ah, where are my manners? This is my daughter, Ina," the man introduced the young woman, Ina.

"My name is Ryker," he replied. The two men chatted for a bit before Ryker excused himself and entered the inn.

Meanwhile, with Ina, the young woman glared at his father, who just shook his head.

"If you wish to be closer to the young man, you should take this opportunity, my dear," he said, before leaving the inn, the surprised girl quickly chasing after her father.

As he entered his room, he was greeted by a group of eager children, who tried to jump on him. With his strength, he easily caught them before punishing (tickling) them.

"Alright. Tomorrow evening I'm going to handle some problems. One of the village's girls will help to keep an eye on you while I'm gone, understood?" he asked, the children nodding their heads.

"Why do we need someone to keep an eye on us, big bro? We can take care of ourselves," Ilina questioned.

Ryker smiled at his sister. Truthfully, yes, they could take care of themselves, but he had his reason, "First, it so no one could question why someone left a group of children alone. Second, having someone watching you would put an ease on my heart while I'm out, in case some dumb villagers have any stupid ideas,"

Hearing their big brother's explanation, the children nodded. "But, I'm going to spend some time with her, so I could assess her personality. I don't want to leave my baby siblings in the hands of an incompetent person, after all,"

"If that is all, I think all of you should go to bed. It's getting late and I want to start early tomorrow," Ryker ordered, the children groaned but nevertheless obeyed their older brother.

He then leads them to their room, with the exception of Ariana, who is going to sleep in the same room as him. He kissed the small girl on the forehead before tucking her in before lying down, slowly drifting to dreamland.

-x-

After waking up, he used the bathroom of the inn. Cleaning himself, he woke up his little sister before helping her wash herself. He then brought his sister to the dining area of the inn, waiting for a while before all of his siblings came out of their room.

After having their breakfast, Ryker decided to walk around the village with them, so they could see new scenery. Coincidentally, he met up with the person he wished to see.

"Ina," Ryker called out, the girl looked at him before starting at the hoard of children behind him.

"Hello, Ryker. I never expected you to have so many siblings," she admitted, before cooing at the adorable Ariana.

"Yeah, do you mind taking us around the place? I only walked around for a bit yesterday. Maybe you could give us a tour?" he asked the girl.

She seemed to be thinking before nodding, "Sure, it's not like I have much to do anyway, the harvest season is still a long time away and everyone just doing small things,"

"Thanks," he thanked the girl, Ina doing the motion of don't mention it.

Soon they were brought up to speed, "While this village is quite remote, our population is around 200, rather big for a village. Because of that, traders and merchants that travel through this road often make a stop as this is one of the few places they could take a rest without camping in the wild.

We also have some food stalls and a cafe if you wish to have something to eat," she pointed at several different buildings.

"My house is right over there, by the way," she then pointed to the biggest house in the village, not big enough to call it a mansion, but still quite large compared to other houses.

"Wow, miss, your house is so big," Ayani exclaimed.

"Of course, my father is the village chief, so he had the bigger house. He had been leading since the death of my grandfather, the one who led and founded this village," she explained, the children looking in awe.

While they had seen bigger, it was still a novelty for them to see something they had never seen before. Trying to suppress her squealing over how cute the children were, she was able to compose herself before showing them near the outskirts of the village, though, never leaving a certain perimeter.

"Why can't we see the forest, Miss Ina?" Ayani asked once more, Ina biting her lower lips before answering.

"It's because there are bandits out there. If you get caught by them, they will do horrible things to you," she explained, the little girl suddenly looked at the forest in fear, probably afraid that the bandits would jump and kidnap her.

"Don't worry, the bandits won't get too close to the village. We still have guards and people able to fight them, so you don't have to worry," she said, calming down the children.

"But if the guards can hold their own against the bandits, why didn't they try to finish them off?" Ryker decided to ask the question he had been given some thought on.

"It's because all the previous attempts led to the bandits ambushing and killing many guards. They are used to the forest, so they could skirt around the guards before taking them by surprise. Besides, we don't know where their base is, so even if we can drive them away, they could hide in their hideout before coming back to terrorize us once more," hearing the explanation, Ryker nodded.

In hindsight, it was obvious, that while the guard could beat the bandits, experience in fighting in the forest would make them a menace and a more deadly threat compared to when they assaulted the village. At least in the village, they could create barricades to stop the bandits and launch counterattacks. In the forest, the guards would be slaughtered if Ina were telling the truth.

He looked back at his plan regarding the bandits. While he hated those scums, he had grown to adore this small village. Besides, his parents had taught him well and to use his strength to help others if he could, so naturally, he would do so.

Looking upwards toward the sky, he realized it was only noon. He decided that it was enough walking for now, "How about we go for lunch?" he suggested, the cheering children making both him and Ina laugh.

-x-

Their tour lasted until dusk. The children, never interacting with others, found the experience fun and exciting. Even Ryker found the excursion fun. Of course, it.might be because of the young beauty leading them.

Realizing the time, Ryker decided to get his siblings back to the inn. "Alright, it's time for all of you to go back now. Ina, can you lead them to the inn, I'm going to do my business now,"

Ina nodded, the little trip proving fruitful for her, allowing her to get close to the young man she adored.

After the children and Ina returned, Ryker turned his gaze towards the forest.

"Well, let's deal with some pests,"