For the umpteenth time that afternoon, Jonathan scanned along what he could see of the road through the binoculars he'd conjured back when he and the kids were waiting for Ethan and Chris to return from Eldridge from that first ill-fated adventure. Still no sign of Chris. He'd been so on edge that Mr. Geiller had chased him out of the orphanage shortly after arriving, and Jonathan had headed to where the main road branched off toward the orphanage to lie in wait for either Chris or some obvious sign of incoming trouble.

Well, that and brood. He was getting plenty of that done, as well, much good that it did him.

Jonathan sighted through the binoculars toward Eldridge and scanned the road for the umpteenth and first time. Unsurprisingly, nothing had changed since he'd done the same thing a few seconds prior.

He sat down on the ground, started to raise the binoculars again, and threw himself backward with an exasperated huff of breath, gently dropping the binoculars onto the grass beside him as he did so.

It was a nice day. He focused on that, watching some of the wisps of clouds that were drifting across the broad expanse of blue sky above him, and trying not to think about the snarl of anxiety that had been twisting around in his chest ever since he'd left a pre-teen behind as they fled Eldridge after…whatever he and the demon had done in the Petty Baron's base.

That was the most frustrating thing, actually; he was increasingly wondering if he should have just let himself get roughed up a bit and tried to find an alternate solution to the Petty Baron problem. Not knowing what had happened after summoning the demon was extremely uncomfortable, particularly after he'd had a chance to debrief exactly what had happened with the kids and discovered the demon had outright threatened Kylus. That suggested Ebola had believed it could get away with harming Kylus, and likely considered doing so, had he not been in constant contact with Sandra. Which in turn suggested that Jonathan had been at a much higher risk of awful things happening when he'd summoned the thing than he'd thought. Perhaps the only reason Ebola's initial foray into the world had resulted in as little harm to the kids as it had was simply because there weren't enough potential victims nearby to sate the thing.

It was a discomfiting thought, especially since even if Jonathan never intentionally pulled the demon into the driver's seat again, it could still escape if the kids—particularly Abigail—were in danger of physical violence.

Uuuugh, appreciating nature was really not helping distract him at all. Jonathan sat up once more, grabbed the binoculars, and gave the road another once-over. Hm, even with the binoculars he couldn't quite tell at this distance, but it looked like a large group of some kind had just exited the city.

Jonathan kept the binoculars trained on them, trying to make out what exactly was going on. There appeared to be a couple of wagons, a good deal of foot traffic, and what appeared to be an armed guard or two. Okay, so probably not anything sent by the Petty Baron.

He kept watching them, regardless. At least it was more engaging than watching clouds.

A few minutes later, his persistence paid off when he noticed a straggler separate from the main group and start making their way up the road towards Jonathan on their own as the larger caravan turned off and headed parallel to the river.

He couldn't be certain, but the straggler looked pretty small for an adult, and sure enough after tracking the person's progress for several minutes Jonathan became increasingly sure that it was Chris based on their stature and the color of their hair.

Of course, that just gave him something new to worry about, as Jonathan spent the next fifteen minutes scanning for possible pursuit from Eldridge.

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When Chris finally came into made it over the final steeper portion of road and saw Jonathan waiting for him, Jonathan had mostly calmed himself down. Mostly. There hadn't been any signs of pursuit, the group that Chris had shadowed out of Eldridge hadn't appeared to pay any attention to him after he split with them, and traffic on the road was normal.

"Jonathan?" said Chris as he approached. He looked around, clearly seeking any of the other kids. "It's just you?"

"Yeah, I was, uh, driving Mr. Geiller nuts so he sent me out here to keep an eye open for you. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Wonderful." The two turned and started to make their way around the hill to the road leading to the orphanage. "You didn't run into any trouble in Eldridge?"

"No, nothing."

Jonathan waited a few moments, but Chris didn't continue. Damn it, he wasn't even out of breath from the long walk. He had no excuse! "What did you discover? Any clues about what happened when I let Ebola out?"

Chris glanced at him. "I didn't get an exact story or anything, but from the rumors and the things that I overheard, the Petty Baron is dead along with most of the people he was holding court with that day. The Rose was already starting to move on his territory this morning, actually. I had to scramble a bit to stay out of the way of her toughs."

"Okay, that's…good. I guess. I mean, not that you had to scramble, but that the Petty Baron…you know what I mean."

Chris gave Jonathan one of his rare grins. "Yeah, Jonathan, I know."

The two lapsed back into silence, that apparently being all Chris was inclined to say. Well, whatever. Jonathan could probably get the full story from one of the other kids later if he wanted. He'd learned the Chris wasn't nearly as tight-lipped with them, although he was still one of the quietest of the bunch.

So…he'd done it. The Petty Baron was gone, and while it was entirely possible new problems could arise from the incident in the future—after all, Chris hadn't said everyone was dead who had seen Jonathan, just most of them—he couldn't imagine anyone else involved would have the level of investment into harassing Ethan and the other kids that the Petty Baron had.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He still wasn't very comfortable about consigning an entire compound of people to death sort-of by his hands, but…it also didn't feel very real. Mostly he was just feeling relief that an obviously nasty threat to their lives was gone.

Although, come to think, he hadn't said the most important thing he needed to say to Chris yet. "Good job, Chris." He clapped the boy lightly on the shoulder. "I'm glad that you stayed safe. I really needed to know about the Petty Baron, and you did a great job getting us that information."

Chris looked down. "Thanks, Jonathan," he said in a quiet voice.

Jonathan decided to leave it at that. Hopefully, a little praise would encourage the boy to trust him enough to continue to talk to him before doing anything truly hare-brained.

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Kylus was exiting the hall from the bathroom when Chris and Jonathan arrived back at the orphanage, and his eyes lit up. "Hey everyone!" he yelled. "Chris is back!"

The other kids came piling into the hallway, some from upstairs and a few trailed by Mr. Geiller out of the room they'd been using as a classroom.

It was mild bedlam for a little while with everyone trying to interrogate him about what he'd done in Eldridge and what he'd discovered, but he didn't say much more than he'd already told Jonathan.

Mr. Geiller edge his way around the crowd of clamoring children with obvious distaste on his face and stopped when he was next to Jonathan. "So that crazy plan of yours actually worked?"

Jonathan couldn't keep a grin from his face. "Looks like it."

"Well. Good." The sour look on Mr. Geiller's face eased slightly. It wasn't quite a smile, but it was the closest to happy that Jonathan had seen him in a while. "Honestly, that's very good to hear. I didn't like those louts clomping around trying to intimidate me at all, never mind the idiocy they pulled in here. So what are your plans now?"

"I think we'll stick around the orphanage for a couple weeks. Get settled back into normal life, get a few more things conjured that we need. Then I'd like to start visiting Eldridge on occasion again. Maybe take the kids there for a field trip if we check and it seems safe. Look for some people who might consider coming by the orphanage to help with the kids' education and such."

At that, Mr. Geiller cracked an actual smile. "Now that I'm looking forward to. Abigail and the twins show some promise for magic, but I'm not a nursemaid."

"Yeah. On that note, thank you for all your help, especially since those thugs ransacked the place. I don't think I'd have been able to get much done without it, and really you've been helpful since I was summoned." Even if he was an asshole, still.

"Well." Mr. Geiller coughed, looking mildly embarrassed. Would wonders never cease; Jonathan was pretty sure he'd never seen that particular emotion on the old man's face before, either. "You've had a rough time of it…and we're neighbors, after all."

"True. Well, thank you, neighbor."

Mr. Geiller grunted. "Just don't go waiting too long to find yourself a proper docent. I'm beyond ready to adjust our agreement and get those banshees out of my hair." He straightened up from the wall, and nodded to Jonathan. "Now that you're back, I'm heading home. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, then!" called Jonathan to his retreating back, at which Mr. Geiller waved a hand without looking back.

"Jonathan!" called Abigail, diverting his attention. "Can we have a special snack to celebrate Chris making it back?"

"Sure, Abigail." He'd been saving up cupcakes for the first kid birthday, but what the heck. If today wasn't a day worth celebrating on, nothing would be. "I've got just the thing. Come on to the dining hall, and focus on wanting to eat something sweet."

"Sweet?!" said Bethany, popping up seemingly out of nowhere. "Did you say you're conjuring something sweet?"

Jonathan laughed. "I sure am, kiddo. Come on everyone! To the dining room! Let's celebrate our freedom from the Petty Baron properly with some cupcakes!"

"Cupcakes?" he heard Jamilah say in a low voice behind him. "Have you ever heard of those, Sandra?"

"Nope," replied Sandra. "But if Jonathan is excited, I'll bet they'll be tasty."

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Later that night, Jonathan found himself alone in his room in a contemplative mood. The cupcakes had gone over so well he'd had to conjure a second batch, and everyone had completely spoiled their dinner. The kids had been downright manic, in fact, and while some of that might have been the sugar high, he thought a lot of it was because they'd at long last come out from under a huge threat that had been hanging over their heads for far too long and were at last feeling the freedom to just be irresponsible kids.

He'd never have expected it, when he'd been so rudely awoken and yanked into another world with nothing but his boxers to his name, but he thought he was actually feeling happy. His life before had been surprisingly lonely, and while living as a demon, of sorts, had certainly been a stressful experience, he was finding caring for this oddball group of children to be surprisingly fulfilling. Sure, he'd acted out of self-interest when he originally took them in, and they kind of drove him crazy a lot of the time, but Abigail and the seven kids from Eldridge had filled in a hole in his life he hadn't realized existed.

Jonathan laughed quietly to himself. Now he was just getting maudlin, which meant it was probably about time to go to bed. He turned to turn off the small battery-operated lamp he'd been using at night and started so badly he fell off the far side of the bed.

"Jesus Christ!" Cholera had entered the room without him hearing or noticing and was simply standing a couple steps away from his bed. "Cholera? Do you need something?"

The demon's insectoid eyes glinted strangely in the light of the camping lantern. "Your pants are dirty. Give them to me. I will wash them."

Jonathan scrambled up off the ground and brushed his pajamas off. "Um. They're right there on the chair. Also, what have I told you about coming into a room without letting people know you're there?"

"Apologies. It skipped my mind." Cholera didn't appear to be paying him any attention any longer, as she had turned and picked up his pants from off the chair where he'd draped them. "Oh, yes, I see you there. We will just go visit the wash basin now, and I will attend to your friends in the morning."

Jonathan was pretty sure she wasn't talking to him anymore. "Right. Good night, Cholera."

"Sleep well, Jonathan," said the demon, and was gone in a whisper of her black and white skirt.

Jonathan still hadn't come up with a proper revenge against Chris for the whole maid outfit. Maybe having the kid put himself at risk to find out about the Petty Baron was worth forgiving him, though.

Jonathan turned back and reached out to his lantern, but stopped when he heard Abigail's voice from the doorway. "Jonathan?"

He turned and found Abigail hovering in the doorway. "Hey, what's up kid? Is something wrong?" She looked anxious.

"No, just…I was wondering if you'd be willing to talk for a bit. I was having a hard time falling asleep."

"Sure, thing, kiddo." He focused on his energy. He was pretty sure he had enough gas in the tank for a final conjuration of the day. "You want me to conjure a book from my world and read it to you?"

Abigail's face lit up, and she scurried into the room. "Yes, please!"

"Alright, focus on what kind of story you're feeling like, and I'll see what I can do…"

Yeah, this really wasn't so bad. He had shelter, people who needed him, the ability to summon sandwiches and clothing out of nothing, and an honest-to-goodness maid to deal with the chores he disliked the most. He'd come a long ways from the pink chalked ritual circle in the attic, and things were only looking up from here.

Of course, the majority of the kids under his care were all right on the cusp of hitting their teenage years at exactly the same time…

But that, at least, was a problem for another day, and one that he had to believe he would find a way to handle. For now, he sat back on his bed and cracked open the cover of an old-style murder mystery because apparently that was what Abigail was in the mood for.

She was such a strange kid. But even if he had the option of trading his life here for his old one back home, he wasn't sure if he would take it.