Chapter 8 Unexpectedly moving up my plans
When the morning came, we quickly checked out of the Inn, having a bad feeling about the Local Guild Master meddling. So we immediately started for the gates, and home. Having the ability to run would certainly reduce our travel time, while the Caravan Escort had forced us to basically crawl at the speed of the horse drawn carriages. I had taken all the money I’d need for the Orphanage, figuring it would be too difficult later on. We were just about out of earshot, when I faintly heard someone trying to get our attention. It took only a glance, and we started moving much faster, and once out of sight, we ran full speed.
Deciding to slow any time an ambush looked possible, and as a result, on our third slow stretch, we were attacked by thirty bandits. They weren’t even a challenge, and we were able to tie them into a line, and force march them behind us. Luckily for them, or perhaps unluckily, we had been only a few miles from town by that point. The Guards at the gate looked questioningly at us, until they saw our Guild Cards. “Can we leave these idiots with you? Not worried about bounties, you can do whatever you want with them.” The Guard Captain grinned evilly as he accepted the rope. “I would appreciate a new length of rope though.” His lieutenant didn’t even wait for an order, but ran off to grab the rope. “Not a problem, much easier than untying them, only to retie them after, just trade ropes as it were. Thank you for your service.”
We nodded, and waved, then ran around the town, as we had no business there. The next group of bandits wasn’t quite so lucky, as we had only just left the town before finding their ambush location. Unfortunately for us, either we had to return, or else crawl at their walking speed all the way to the next town. The agonizingly slow trip took all the remaining daylight, but did end with us in the town where I intended to adopt the girls from the Orphanage. After handing over the new string, and collecting a new rope as before, we headed for the Inn, only to discover that they had no vacancy. “Where shall we sleep Mark?” I had only one idea, and headed for the Orphanage itself. “We might be able to sleep at the Orphanage, especially after donating some coin. With my intention to adopt all but the oldest girls, I think they’ll be more inclined to offer a roof.”
When we arrived at the Orphanage, it was very late, and presumably the children would all be asleep. I knocked gently on the door, and waited. The door creaked open, and a woman in her mid thirties stood looking out at us. “Can I help you?” I smiled. “Sorry for the extreme lateness of our arrival, we intended to visit tomorrow, but the Inn is full. Is the Head Mistress still awake? Could I perhaps talk with her before she retires for the evening?” She smiled, before responding. “As it happens, I am the Head Mistress. Come on in, I was just brewing some tea so I could stay awake for a while longer. Trying to find the coin to pay next months bills.” She led us into her office, and indicated some chairs for us to sit in. “What is it you need me for?”
Taking in a deep breath, I prepared to answer her, only for Marie to beat me to it. “We intend to adopt all the girls under the age of ten, PLUS our parents intend to adopt all the rest, even the ones that are nearly thirteen, who you simply haven’t been forced to kick out yet. To that end, we intend to leave a decent donation for the Orphanage, as well as paying the full adoption fees now for all of them. We are building a large house, so big that even with all the girls having their own rooms, there will still be empty rooms open for the future. All the doors will have latches on the inside for their privacy, we’ve already hired a cook, not only to prepare meals, but teach the girls too. The house is on a Farm, so there’s plenty of work in that aspect, but we’re also putting in a Mill for flour, and a Forge, as well as a Pottery Shed, though we still need to find a Potter to teach the girls who want to know, and there’s a fishery coming along too. I won’t say they’re going to have an easy life, but it won’t be slavery, or a brothel, and the boys here will have a better life too.”
The Head Mistress was understandably shocked at this statement, and with its length she was clearly still processing. “You do understand that the donation fee for that many children, even girls is nearly fifty gold.” I simply placed the fifty gold onto her desk, along with two platinum coins, and another hundred Gold coins. “The local quester’s guild should be able to handle exchanging one Platinum when you need it. The Hundred Gold is for right now, in order to pay bills, and perhaps get some repairs, or even upgrades. Also, I have a design for a different type of bed, that seemingly nobody else knows exists, or is even possible. They’re called Bunk Beds, and allow for up to three people to have their own beds in the same space. It will allow you to put more kids asleep in one room than you currently can. If the room is tall enough, I’ll make the triple bunks, otherwise it’s double bunks. They stack on top of each other, and there’s a ladder at one end for the kids to climb to the upper bunk. Oldest kids at the top, youngest at the bottom. They need more time to get to the outhouse than the older ones would.” Her eyes bulged. “You’d make those for us?!” I nodded. “How many Boys are currently here? I’ll make enough for all the Boys that are here now, and the local carpenter will have one set of pieces to copy in the future. That will also be a donation. I’ll also need to see how tall the rooms are, so I know if it’s double, or triple bunks. We can be quiet, and just peek in one room, assuming they’re all the same, and if there’s shorter ones upstairs, we’ll assume they’d be double bunks.”
She quickly agreed, and we snuck into one of the boys dormitory rooms. I smiled as I realized that I could do triple bunks. With proper hard wood, I might even pull off a Quadruple, but only if I attached it to the ceiling of the room, and I didn’t want to bother with that. There’s cheap, and then there’s just plain stupid. We returned to the office. “I can make the triples in rooms that height, if you need to use the Attic, I can make some doubles, or at least the first set for doubles, so they can be copied. That’s only the frames though, so you’d still need mattresses. The ones you have will suffice for now, but they’ll need to be replaced before too long. Now as I mentioned, the Inn is full, and we were wondering if there was space we could sleep tonight. We’d rather not setup a tent in the dark, but we have bed rolls, and our own blankets, so any free corner will work, and we can help with breakfast in the morning too.”
“Oh, yes, I think I can manage that, and the help in the Morning will be greatly appreciated. If it was just you, I’d probably say no, you understand, but with her too, that makes me feel comfortable enough to allow it. I’ll just lock the door then, and you can set out your bed rolls in the dining hall. I’ll wake you in the morning to make breakfast. That way you don’t get swamped by the kiddos first thing. Want to set that Father/Mother/Elder Brother/Sister persona right away. I like that your Parents are adopting the older ones, makes them Aunties to the others.” She giggled. “Yeah, that was the idea, I had only thought the Twelve year olds, but Mother and Father said anyone over ten should become a Sister to me instead. Not entirely sure why.” Marie laughed quietly. “Father is probably thinking that one of the older girls would have wanted to become your wife, and starting as your daughter would spoil everything in the eyes of others.”
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I looked at Marie incredulously. “You seriously think he was picturing that outcome?!” She beamed at me. “Well they didn’t know I’d be getting my Collar off now did they? Now you can Bet your Mother will be trying to “Help” me to get the Wife position…not that I’d mind too much.” She whispered the last words under her breath so I couldn’t hear, but the headmistress had caught it, and the word Collar too. “Wait, so you were a Slave, and your Collar has been removed?! That means you did something amazing right? Then from what you said, he’s your former master?” Marie nodded. “Yes, but he insisted I called him Brother Mark, instead of Master, and he’s always treated me like Family, rather than property. (leaning in close she whispered)He never touched me as a Woman either. I always have to drag him into the Bed, or he’ll insist on sleeping on the couch, and getting a crick in his neck. Drives me crazy, I’ve wanted him to take me from day one, even though he said he never would because he thought of it as rape.” The Head Mistress blushed at this insight into our relationship.
“What are you whispering about?” I asked. “Nothing you need to hear Mark. Oh, we haven’t even gotten your name yet! I’m Marie by the way, it’s very nice to meet you, and you will have to come visit when you get the chance. We’re in the next town to the south of here, so even with kids along, should only be a day, and we’d be happy to let the boys get some training in, any time you make the trip.”
I nodded at that. “I completely agree, and do bring any more girls. Seriously, we’ll adopt them all, as long as we can afford the fees, and provide for them. We don’t want any of them to be forced into either of the common ends for Orphan Girls. As you heard, I’m Mark, and it is a true pleasure to meet you.”
She was stunned for a moment, to have a continuous home for girls moving forward was amazing, and it made her very happy. “I’m Jessica, Head Mistress, and former Orphan here. I was very much one of the lucky ones. This is going to give those girls the best chance at a happy future they could ever get. They might even find husbands this way. There’s a difference between an Orphan, and an adopted Orphan. It’s assumed that if they get adopted, they must somehow be better than the rest, instead of just lucky. So You’ll be coming back to pick them up once the house is finished I assume?” I nodded. “That’s the idea yes. I’ll only take them, if I feel it’s safer for some reason, though I can’t possibly imagine why it would be. Anyway, we should get some sleep, so we can be of help in the Morning.” She left us in the Dining Hall, and went to find her own bed.
Some time in the middle of the night, alarm bells started to ring, and we jolted awake. We got up, and readied our combat gear in short order. Jessica came running in. “We have to wake up the kids, there’s a Monster Swarm stampeding right for the Orphanage.” I paused. “Right for it, not just we’re in the general path, but actually right at us?” She nodded. “Let the kids sleep, Marie patrol the grounds, look for anything that doesn’t belong. I’ll deal with the Monsters. I have a suspicion, that someone is baiting them to swarm us, though I don’t know why anyone would.” We both ran outside to begin our work. The monsters weren’t a threat, even with their numbers. As I started decimating the Monsters numbers, I heard an all too familiar voice. “You can’t save them MARK! I heard about your plan to adopt all the girls from this place, and since you took everything from me, I’m going to take everything from you, even if it kills me.”
Sure enough, it was the Mayor’s Son Jarreth. “Think again Jarreth!” With that, and arrow slammed into his shoulder, causing him to drop the bottle of monster bait. He had been standing on the roof, and only my insane dexterity allowed me to catch the bottle before it could shatter. I then threw the bottle out into the horde causing them to change direction back onto themselves, where they started to attack one another. “Ha, so you stupid bitch, you kill yourself by harming me, whatever, he still loses you!” She laughed at him. “Take another look Asshole, no Collar! You on the other hand, committed a crime, in the sight of not one, but two double S rank Questers. There’s no escape for you, disowned, and a criminal. You’re going to be the slave now, wonder where they’ll put you? Maybe the salt mines, I hear the lead boss out there, likes to take boys like you into his hut at night, then maybe you’ll actually learn some humility.” She sneered at the dawning look of horror on his face, as I leapt up to the roof top, without touching anything. I landed on the slate tiles, gave a light chop to his neck to render him unconscious, then jumped down with him in my arms. Marie tied him up, and then the two of us went to finish off the monsters.
The Guards arrived to find us killing off the last four monsters, and saw the big puddle of monster bait. They quickly disabled the potion with a powder they carried. “Would you explain what happened sir?!” He was stern, but bordering on respectful, or not. First I showed him my card, as did Marie. His eyes bulged. “That idiot over there, named Jarreth, got himself disowned by his Father the Mayor of the town just south, and banished. He somehow discovered I was going to adopt some Orphans from here, and thought in his delusional pea brain, that bringing a horde of Monsters here would destroy me, or at least break my heart with the deaths of the Orphans. Moron didn’t even notice that Marie is no longer wearing a Slave Collar, and didn’t think she could attack him. We only knocked him out, cause this deserves far worse than death. If you don’t mind taking him away, putting a Slave Collar on him, and do try to sell him to the Salt Mine, in fact, I’ll buy him for the Salt Mine myself. There’s plenty of Monster Corpses for me to take into the Guild so it’s basically him buying himself for them right?!” They looked at each other, then at Jarreth, then they all got the Nasty Grin on their faces, knowing that his fate would likely be worse than simply mining Salt. “We’ll be Glad to, and his purchase price will only be twelve silver, since you’re buying him as a gift, and including his transport and all.” I handed over fifteen silver. “Do make sure he arrives alive, and able to perform, but ONLY JUST!”
The Guard captain took a look at the ropes, and handed me a coil to replace what Marie had used. Then they all left hauling the unconscious soon to be slave away. I took a moment to store all the corpses, and then we returned inside. “Is it over?!” We nodded. “Yes, the situation is completely resolved, but now I’m afraid to leave the girls here. I’ll hire some carriages tomorrow, and buy as many tents as I can, some of the older girls can sleep at my folks place, and I might be able to find some others to house a few short term, since I’m hiring their daughters to help teaching the girls and all. We’ll manage. Can I take the papers for my Parents, and send them back once they’re signed?” She thought about it for a Moment. “No, but if you don’t mind hosting everyone, I’ll just come with you, and do the papers for the older girls there. I can get some of the repairs done while we go.” I smiled. “Sure thing, we can do the younger girls paperwork in the morning after breakfast, then you can make your arrangements for the work to get done, I’ll build the new bed frames, and make the example sets for the carpenters, and hire the carriages after. For now, let’s try to get back to sleep. Morning is even closer now.”