‘Really?’ she laughed. ‘Seth… as you can tell, things are a little hard around here, and Seth has taken it upon himself to help. I told him to stop. But he goes out to pickpockets whenever I don’t make enough at work. The fact that he stole from you, and you still helped him out and even paid for food, says a lot about the kind of person you are.’

‘How did you know?’ Lan asked, and Lily blushed again.

‘I overheard some of the young ones talking about the weirdo face they had distracted.’

‘Weirdo face…’ that hurt a little more than it should. Sure, Lan didn’t have much in the way of charm, and sure, he was a little pale and thin, but Weird…

Lan was still mourning what was left of his ego when Lily went on, ‘I don’t know how you managed it, but it looks like Seth has taken a liking to you. And that is not easily done especially taking into account the situation. That is to say nothing of the fact that you allowed him the chance to.’

‘Well, he did return my money in the end, so it only felt right to forgive him.’ Lan shrugged, and after a moment, Lily laughed.

‘No, it is not. You really are weird.’

‘Oh, well, I’ll take that as a compliment then,’ he huffed, and Lily laughed more.

‘Would you for me?’ she said, putting her hands together. ‘But really, thank you, and thank the light that it was you that he ran into.’ She added as she went back to healing his wounds, the cuts feeling warm as they slowly knit together.

‘Still, I am surprised you are the only one here.’ Despite what he said earlier, it was hard for him to avoid getting involved. Lily looked away for a long moment before turning back with resolve in her eyes.

‘As you can guess, this isn’t a real orphanage… and I am not a nun. This is my family home, however,’ she added quickly. ‘I had been studying in the neighbouring kingdom and returned to see if anything was left of this place. I found the children living here. Later I learned that they had once been in one of the orphanages, but I couldn’t get them to tell me why they had run away, and nothing I did would make them go back. When I finally learned what happened in the orphanage, I promised never to let them return there and started caring for them. We have been looking after each other ever since, so it is nice to know that there are still people who can see them as more than just nuisances. Also, having another adult to talk to who isn’t my boss is nice.’

‘Oh well, happy that I could be of help.’ Lan smiled as Lily lowered her hand, and the glow faded away.

Once healed up, they headed inside to the dining room, where the children were in the middle of their feast. True to his word, Seth made sure everyone got their share and was now eating his own food while also trying to keep the more energetic ones in line. Lan couldn’t help but smile at the scene, although it didn’t last, as the feeling akin to guilt came on again.

But before he could process it, someone pulled on his sleeve. Lan looked down and saw the same little boy from earlier. Who just looked at him with large blue eyes behind his blonde hair.

‘Hi there, do you need anything?’ Lan asked, and the boy stuck his other hand out to him, showing Lan the apple he was holding. Not sure what he wanted, Lan looked to Lily, who had started fixing another little girl's hair.

‘Oh, Kaya wants you to peel it for him.’ Lily said, smiling at the two of them, ‘There is a paring knife on the table.’

Finding the knife, Lan started on the apple before remembering how his mother used to cut his apples into little rabbits. What he ended up with did not do the memory justice, but Kaya didn’t seem to mind the jagged lines or broken ears. He stared at them with starry eyes before hugging Lan and starting in on his apple slices.

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Of course, some of the other younger ones also demanded that he cut their apples, to which he obligingly acquiesced. As he did, Lan looked over to Lily, who was pouting at him with a look in her eyes that said. “Great, now I will have to do that from now on.”

Seth kept looking over too, but when Lan offered to cut his apple up, he just declined and ferociously dug into the fruit, which was a shame as Lan felt like he was getting pretty good at it.

Once the children had eaten their fill, they left to play outside. All but Kaya, who decided to use Lan’s lap as a pillow. Unable to move, he watched Lily clean up.

‘Sorry.’ Lan said to which she just smiled.

‘Don’t be. Because of you, I didn’t have to make lunch today. And you seem to be busy anyway.’ Lily laughed as she went back to cleaning.

Watching her, Lan wondered how she did it… why did she do it? Lily had shared a little, and though he didn’t want to pry. She had said that went she didn’t make enough money, Sora would go out pickpocketing…

One hundred skewers, ten large loaves of bread, and twenty apples. All that, including the basket to carry it, had been sixty copper, most of which had been the apples. Sixty Copper… for what he had, Lily could feed them for a long time. Surely he couldn’t just leave things like this…

Once she was done, Lily helped Lan move Kaya and walked outside with him. The whole time he thought about what he could do.

‘Thank you again,’ Lily said as they stopped at the door. Once again, she looked at him and then quickly looked away. ‘I am sure the children were happy for a change of pace, oh and even though I may not be a professional, I don’t mind healing you if I can.’ She smiled in time with him

‘That’s it!’ Lan shouted out of excitement.

‘Ah, what?’ she jumped.

‘Lily, would you be my healer?’ he asked, grabbing her hands.

‘Oh,’ She said, her eyes growing wide. ‘I-I can’t. As I said, I only learned how to heal in order to heal the children. I am not a healer, Lan.’

‘I am not much of an adventurer,’ Lan shrugged, ‘just yet,’ he added, which didn’t seem to help. ‘You just said I could come back anytime I need healing, right. Well, it only seems fair that I pay you for it.’ Lan stuck his hand out, which Lily stared at for a long moment. Before she sighed.

‘I’ll only do it under one condition, that being that you promise to never get hurt or even scratched.’ She said with resolve set on her face as she shook his hand.

Clearly, there was literally no way of keeping that promise, but Lan guessed she already knew that. With that, he reached into his pocket, retrieved two gold coins, and placed them in her hand. Watching with a little satisfaction as she paled, stopping short of saying, “Yeah, Welcome to the club.”

‘I can’t…’

‘Yes, you can,’ Lan interrupted. ‘That’s the standard price for hiring a healer at the adventurer's rate.’ In reality, Lan was sure that a guild-licenced Healer could charge him far more for the same arrangement for what he was alone. Even though he had just joined, he knew as much, if not more, than most did about healers.

For one, a healer's time was measured in gold.

Although most potions could restore one's health points, keeping someone alive through otherwise fatal wounds. Ones that would repair damage to a body were often as much as a trip to a healer. Otherwise, if one wanted to heal any significant cuts or breaks, one needed a healer.

In the stories, healers were part of a party, fighting and struggling alongside their party to bring low their foe. But in reality, outside of the highest ranks of adventurers, no self-respecting healers would risk their own lives to join a party, preferring the walls of healers' halls to the outside world.

Normally this part would come with a contract to seal the deal. With any other healer, this would make him a client and at least cover the mana she would use for a few healings.

Although she would most likely find few others that would take the risk. For Lan, it was as if the Lords of Light had set this into place for him, and this way, he could at least set off on his next job, knowing he had helped someone as an adventurer.

Lily stared at the two coins for a moment that threatened to go on for an eternity. Then she closed her hands over the coins.

Once she took the money, Lan left with a farewell and tried to get to Cawl’s shop. Once again, it was much easier said. This time as he walked, Lan not only tried to look less like a target but knew that he could only get so far with that. Lan tried to pick out the people who weren’t acting as they should.

It wasn’t easy, but at times, Lan would see people who seemed to be heading in one direction slowly drift toward him until they saw that he was looking at them. Others would try to walk into him and would look annoyed when he moved out of the way.

But as one could expect, going out of his way to avoid people only made him look more like a big target.

[New Skill acquired: People watching]

All in all, by the time the crowd died down to single numbers, Lan was mentally drained. But he had managed to hold on to his money.

That was what Lan thought before he walked into a wall. When he looked up from the ground, Lan saw Ganin. Dell’s hired muscle, and from the laughter behind him, he wasn’t alone.