It took a few days for the orphanage group to buy the necessary supplies to survive if they don’t manage to find a new home. They bought clothing, food and toiletries with what money they had left from donations. The food and toiletries will probably be enough for a few weeks.

Whitage City wasn’t that far from the empire but the journey was tough.

Monsters—probably from the horde that had been dealt with already—attacked the group nearly every few hours. Because of this their walking speed was reduced immensely.

The terrain was also unkind to them since there was no maintained road to traverse.

The group’s fighters were exhausted because of how many times they encountered monsters.

Bethany looked at the front of their group, at Galadriel who was leading them.

‘She’s really eager to complete the quest….’

As it stood now, the orphanage’s quest was still active even if only one member of the party was left. If some party members disappears during a quest or decide not to complete a quest then the remaining members have the right to report these people to the guild.

In Galadriel’s case, she lost all her party members. Thus, the guild could overlook this matter. Were it any other reason then the quest will be marked as “Incomplete” and will not be added to the party’s quest history.

Bethany, and the rest of the group, would have to make an appeal to the guild to validate Galadriel’s reasoning.

“Hey, you’re been quiet ever since we left the capital,” someone spoke to Bethany, “Is something wrong, dear?”

“No, Mother…” Bethany looked towards that person. Her mother, Marylyn was the one who spoke to her, “I’m just a little worried that we’ll be chased away.”

Bethany ran into her mother at the shopping district of thhe capital city. Accompanying her was Bethany’s friend, Ruile. The two of them, alongside Ruile’s friends, accompanied the group to seek citizenship in Whitage city. With the city destroyed the knights had nowhere to go to except become nomads or mercenary.

Other organizations from the rest of the empire wouldn’t accept them due to their no-class status. Becoming a knight wasn’t as easy as just going from door to door. You need to have some background or someone to vouch for your skills.

“I get why you’re worried. We’re just common folk, after all. But most of us have a variety of skills. I can become a maid to one of the nobles of the city since I’m skilled in both cooking and cleaning. The apprentice knights can become part of the city lord’s private army, as well. I’m sure the land we’re going to needs people regardless of their status.”

“Yeah, there’s probably not even a thousand people in that city,” another voice chimed in, “Even if the city lord denies us land, my uncle Henry will probably give us a piece of land if his cute niece asks him nicely.”

Sylar was walking next to Bethany and her mother.

“Why is your uncle still a fief lord of that city, Sylar? Why doesn’t he just become a noble of the empire?” asked Bethany.

“Mostly because he can have as many servants as he wants. The people of the city starve almost every day so they turn to their fief lords for work and food. My uncle used their poverty against them to get slaves.”

“What an awful man!” exclaimed Bethany.

“Hahaha..” Sylar laughed awkwardly, “I know, right? No wonder my parents don’t talk to him anymore. He’s a pervert who’s into little girls as well. His current wife is apparently four years younger than me. Since she’s still too young, she’s not officially married to my uncle.”

15 years old was the minimum required age for a person to get married. They were considered adults by the empire so they are legally allowed to marry. If a child younger than 15 marries then they weren’t considered a married individual.

“So he’s just calling her his wife? Why aren’t the other fief lords doing anything!? That poor girl!”

Sylar just shrugged, “She’s the one who gave herself to him for food for her family. The blame lies with her family who let her make that decision.”

‘I need to do something about this! Maybe I could invite the girl to become a nun?’

Bethany was the same as that girl. She would’ve done anything to put food on their table. She used to clean people’s houses but the money wasn’t enough. She considered just becoming a mistress of a noble. Considering the amount of perverts into younger women, she would’ve gotten a lot of them to choose from. However, she would’ve lost her pride if she did that.

But luckily, she was approached by the Head Nun.

“There’s the city.” Galadriel pointed somewhere as they were about to traverse a hilly area.

They were walking across a grassy plain because the road was too damaged to pull their supplies with the wagons. Luckily the grass wasn’t that tall so they could easily pulls the wagons even without strong horses. The grass also didn’t get tangled between the wheels. The knights were the ones pulling the supplies.

“It really is small….”

A nun muttered.

‘Yeah.’

However, its untouched land was vast. The group had a nice view of the city and its surrounding lands so they could see very far.

Bethany looked at the Head Nun who was walking behind the group, “What do you think, Sister?”

“…I-It is sufficient to start a new life as farmers but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the lord is a murderer!”

Multiple sighs resounded.

Why is she still going on about that, was probably what all of them was thinking.

Bethany went towards the front towards Galadriel.

“Should we go into the city or wait outside? I’m not sure how people get citizenships…”

“I’ll go ahead and request an audience with the city lord,” said Marylyn which surprised Bethany, “Can you come with me, Sister?”

“Huh? Uh, umm…” the Head Nun averted her eyes awkwardly.

“You’re the one with the highest position in the church now, Sister. Your elder brother’s death was a tragedy but we can’t mourn right now. The most important thing is to secure our future as well as the future of these children,” Marylyn gestured to the children who were silently looking at her.

The children changed ever since their first encounter with real monsters. Even the rowdy bunch didn’t act like they usually did. All they did was follow instructions without question.

“Shall we, Sister?” Marylyn approached the Head Sister and placed a hand on her shoulder.

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The Head Sister lowered her head, “I better not regret this…”

◇◇◇

The group reached the city not long after. As planned, Marylyn and the Head Sister went into the city to request a meeting with the city lord.

Considering how busy the workers outside the city looked, he probably wouldn’t even have time to give the group official citizenship. That meant more waiting. Their plans to build a new orphanage and a farm will be delayed because of it.

“I wonder what they’re working on?” Sylar sat next to Bethany on a bench that was sitting next to the city wall, “This city was a barren wasteland but now there’s suddenly this many people.”

“The city lord is probably rebuilding his city.” Suggested Bethany.

“With what money? The crops grown by these uneducated commoners are below the marketable quality. They can’t sell the crops so they choose to eat it. In addition, there’s few water sources around here. If the commoners can’t even wash themselves, what not of their food’s quality? Sure, there are plants and vegetables that can survive with just the mana in the air but those are in the minority. The city lord should solve these problems instead of rebuilding just yet.”

“You’re really knowledgeable, Sylar.”

“I studied agriculture so it’s easy to guess what region is lacking what when it comes to sellable crops and land. Looking at this city now, it only has the latter. Nobles could get all this land for a mere thousand gold.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Yeah, it’s because the city itself is near collapse. Well, was near collapse. It’s value will rise if there something of worth on this land—”

Just as Sylar finished speaking, a group of carriages raced towards the gates of the city. The people who had been working outside the walls hurriedly scattered as if they were fearful of something.

“What the…” Sylar looked dumbfounded at the thirty or so carriages that just raced into the city.

Each of those carriages were pulled by strong, big horses that one wouldn’t expect from this city. Maybe they were rentals? Still where did the money come from to pay for all those excellent steads?

‘Is the Berkley family supporting the former heir, after all?’

That was the only explanation Bethany could come up with.

A cloud of dust rose into the air as everyone heard loud thumping noises and metal hitting each other.

The dust settled, revealing a platoon of knights with red armour marching at a steady pace. They weren’t the size of average men. They seemed like giants to Bethany and Sylar who were still 15 year old girls.

The people of the city seemed fearful since many of them prostrated to the knights. The knights didn’t even acknowledge their existence. All they did was march behind the carriages.

“W-Wow… Did you see that, Beth!? Those are real knights! Aah, I think I’m in love!”

“….”

Bethany was about to ask “what about your current lover?” but decided to keep quiet.

This “lover” was amongst Ruile’s friends who accompanied their group. The two of them were still together so if Sylar actually tried to do it with another guy then it would be cheating.

“Uhm, Sylar, didn’t you say before that you liked cute, tall guys your age? Scott fits this description, right?” Bethany asked because she was certain that none of those knights were their age, “You’re not going to be unfaithful to your lover, right?”

Maybe it wasn’t because of what men were her type but rather how much money they had. Sylar had been living in poverty just like Bethany. Her noble father went bankrupt due to poor investment choices. This impacted Sylar’s future to study to become a teacher.

Considering how high-quality the armour of those knights were, they must be paid handsomely for their escorting missions.

Bethany was worried her friend might make poor decisions just for money.

“Tch.” Sylar clicked her tongue, “I’m still young so I don’t have to settle down with Scott, you know?”

Bethany mentally shook her head, ‘I guess I’ll have to look after her while we’re here.’

“Let’s talk about something else. You’ve been left in charge of taking care of the children while the nuns do the farming work, right? How is it going with them?”

“The younger ones can’t take their naps because they always feel alerted by even the slightest sounds,” Sylar began speaking, “Even the eldest orphan, Lisa, is having trouble with nightmares. She lost her little brother to that thing sir Nova saved us from.”

“We should be there for them. I can’t imagine the mental impact those deaths had on them.”

“What about you?” Sylar looked at Bethany.

“What?”

“You were close with Brian, right? He always called you ‘mommy Beth’ with a pure smile. Though he was the loudest of the bunch.”

The two laughed together as they looked at the setting sun.

The happiness in Bethany’s heart quickly dispersed and was filled with something much worse.

The things that happened played over inside her head.

“I… I can’t even begin to imagine what that boy went through because of that… that thing.” Bethany clenched her fists, “If only… If only I had given him more attention then I would’ve noticed….”

“It’s not your fault, Beth,” Sylar put her hand on Bethany’s hand, “We’ll never know the cause of this. But if it happens again then there will surely be casualties again. All we can do is run. We’re not like those adventurers who can fight.”

“….”

Bethany closed her eyes and breathed in an out.

‘It’s no use…’

She could still see the girl’s dead eyes as she was being ripped apart by that thing that killed Brian.

If they didn’t leave the city then their fate would’ve been the same.

The adventurers saved them all. If it wasn’t for that strategy they used to funnel the monsters towards the southeast wall then Bethany and Sylar wouldn’t have made it to the gates. And if it weren’t for Nova then Bethany might never have seen the children again or her co-workers.

Nova. He was an A-class adventurer who was fairly well-known across the entire country. He made a party with just two members but could achieve things that no other adventurers had before.

Galadriel was going to be part of his party from now on. Why wouldn’t she when she was the one being invited? That meant that Bethany would never see Galadriel again.

Nothing seemed to be going her way. She was so confused over what she really wanted.

Was she ignorant of what love was? Most definitely.

This was probably why she couldn’t decide what she wanted.

Bethany could go to any bar and get many lovers but she chose not to do this mainly because of the requirement that the person should be a good provider.

She was selfish but at least she knew what was needed to ensure she and her mother didn’t starve. Her father was a useless person who only wanted to get in her mother’s pants. Bethany won’t make the same mistake.

“Sylar, would you hate me if I said I wanted to run away with miss Galadriel?” Bethany asked with a small voice.

Sylar just looked at Bethany with widened eyes.

“Please answer the question.”

Bethany didn’t know what to do now. Should she stay on this land and become a regular farmgirl and grow old here?

If she didn’t know what to do then all she had to do was seek answers from someone else. She didn’t care if others hated her for it.

She will keep asking others until she knew herself what she wanted.

Sylar moved her lips and spoke:

“You have talent to become a priest, all you need to do is register yourself at a temple and practice for a few months then you’re ready to become an adventurer. If you become recognised enough then Misteltein might accept you if you asked to join them. You can be closer to the person you’re crushing on as well."

“….”

“I’ll just be here picking up the dung of cattle and feeding them. I’ll also need to take care of the children with the nuns while you are out there enjoying your life to the fullest. What about your mother? She might find a good man who will take care of her and even help around the farm. She’ll probably never forgive you since you left her alone in this unfamiliar place.”

Bethany’s head was dropping lower with each sentence that Sylar fired at her. The fact that Sylar was calm while saying all this was hurting even more.

“Miss Marylyn will have another child. She’ll forget about you completely. And you know what? I won’t blame her. I’d hate you if you ever did such a thing, Beth.”

“….I… I…” Bethany tried to speak.

She felt Sylar grab her hands.

“Don’t worry. I know what you’re trying to say. You won’t leave, will you? Someone should always be there to hold your hand. I’ll he that someone for now, okay~?”

Bethany looked up and saw the pure smile on Sylar’s face.

She couldn’t help but smile through her tears as well.

◇◇

The group was devastated upon learning that the city lord was absent from the city so they wouldn’t be granted citizenship for an indefinite period of time.

However, they were given hope when the city lord’s advisor, a woman named Lunaria, came to their rescue and gave them permission to build on the land. Of course, they had to go through a formal examination and get asked a lot of questions regarding where they came from.

Lunaria was apparently instructed to not turn away anyone willing to become citizens of Whitage city, especially if they had skills in various fields and were willing to work. Even things like pulling away debris from destroyed buildings was a valuable job in this city.

A small plot of land was given to the church. It wasn’t theirs yet. It was still property of the city lord. They were required to work on the land as farmers until Lunaria was given permission to tax them. She was apparently the one who will handle all administration work for the lord.

Though they can grow crops on the land, they won’t be able to sell it since the city lord wasn’t here to approve of it.

Being an independent city seemed to require a lot of work and rules in order for it to flourish.

Still, the people from Nuaria city who ran a church and orphanage alike were very happy because they now had a new home. Just a few days ago they wouldn’t have imagined that they would lose the church and orphanage they dedicated their lives to building.

The future won’t be easy but they will work hard to ensure their livelihood is restored just like before.

Maybe Bethany will know what she really wants during her time working on this land.

She said goodbye to Galadriel but strangely enough there wasn’t a feeling of regret or sadness.

Was the feeling she had in her heart, love? Probably.

Though it wasn’t set in stone that Galadriel will just go along with it, Bethany was hopeful for what the future will hold.