“So, boss,” Sophia said with her mouth full of steaming stick of meat, “What are we supposed to do with the kid? City guards?”
“I suppose we can take him with us to the orphanage for now.”
To describe the gist of the situation, Sophia and I are currently sitting at the front of my carriage. Sophia is driving with one hand while holding a large meat skewer in the other, making small talk to pass the half hour journey. I sat next to her as I replied while waving back at a housewife (Penelope, if I’m remembering correct) hanging some laundry from a second floor window who happened to notice me. The smile on my face is not quite what I can call cheerful, as I kept thinking of our small passenger in the back of the carriage.
Allured by the smell of fresh fried meat from a nearby stall, Sophia had started staring at the direction with a perfect poker face with a slow line of drool crawling down the side of her mouth. She did this every time she had to wait for food, but wouldn’t ask for it. In deference to her pride, I handed her a few coins saying I wanted a few kebabs and telling her that she could get something too. She had dashed off without a moment to waste. As I waited, I heard someone shouting “Thief!” As I looked around to find the source of the commotion, I saw a blur, then heard a thump. A few seconds later, Sophia came carrying the aforementioned skewer and kebabs, along with an extra.
“How did it come to this...” I sighed.
“To what? Picking up an unwanted kid from the streets? Isn’t it a daily occurrence for you?”
“It’s not daily! But I admit it’s been happening a lot.”
“Sure sure.” Sophia said dismissively, then, making a sly smile, “well, good thing we have Hope.”
“Yes yes, mock my naming sense more will you. It’s the only word I could think of at the time. Hope is the only thing that kept me going in my worst years, and I’m doing my part so that the little ones can have some too.”
“Nah, I get it. A lot of new adventurers used to come from the old slums. Couldn’t even hold a knife right, y’know?”
“You mean the ones you picked fights with right after they finished registering?”
“Geez, you know I did it to toughen them up. Got a bit of pocket change from the guild too. Said that I lowered the death rate or something.”
“Haha, then I suppose I did a disservice to the adventurer’s guild buying you off. You suppose I should go apologise?”
“What’s this now? Bored with me already?” Sophia leaned up close, shoulders and hips touching. She whispered in my ear, “I remember you getting red ear to ear the first time we met.”
“T-that… was because you were in bikini armor, and I-I had no idea where to look. That’s all.” I rapidfired.
“So you do know where to look now?”
Sophia’s sultry words made my eyes reflexively turn toward her face, and then a little below… which I instantly corrected, dragging my eyes upwards, only to find her licking her lips like a carnivore. The confident smile on her bronzed skin, her sparkling emerald eyes, and the mystifying glamor of her wavy pear green hair felt captivating every time I saw them.
Surely, I of all people wouldn’t dare stare at a female warrior just because their choice of armament resembles under garments. Sure, due to their low surface area and highly mana conductible material, they are not only easy to enchant with a wide range of buffs unavailable to traditional armor but are also long lasting, as they rarely suffer physical damage. As such, there is absolutely no shame for a woman such as Sophia who chooses to use a superior means of defence, despite the fact that it leaves almost nothing to the imagination. Actually, one should simply appreciate her tall, toned and tough body, her defined abs, biceps and quads which do not at all detract from her feminine charms but enhances them! And I didn’t even mention those massive...
“Uh, boss?”
“Huh!?”
Oh no, what was I thinking about? Oh right, how to deal with the child, a boy of around 10, that we picked up. But I should consult with Sister Alice about that before coming to a decision. She’s the expert on things like this after all. And we’ll be at the orphanage soon. I hope she’s in. She has this tendency to go on strolls around this time of afternoon while the children are napping.
“So boss,” Sophia said looking in front of her, “you done the deed with Maria yet, you like her right?”
“Yes… I mean no! I mean, wait, why the sudden change in topic?”
“I mean, you look at her and the rest of us completely differently right? And you spent all of last night with her too… so yeah...”
“Oh, huh...”
“Wait, what’s with that reaction? Holy shit, don’t tell me you two really did it?”
“Wh-, no, no, that’s-”
“Man, you know, I kinda wanted to be the girl you pop your cherry with. Ah well, congrats. I’m happy for you two!” Sophia said slapping me hard on the back.
“Oof!”
“I wonder if Julia knows. I’m guessing she does. She kind of knows everything, it’s scary sometimes haha.”
“No, I’m trying to say-”
“Cynthia’s gonna cry. I don’t know if you know this, boss, but she keeps a diary with all sorts of stuff written about you. How I know, you ask? I sneaked into her room and read it.”
“...”
“W-What? I got curious.”
“...”
“Hey, c’mon boss, say something!”
“...”
“...”
Looks like the silent treatment worked.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“Sigh, you kind of ruined it, but no matter. I was trying to say that it’s not like that between me and Maria. And the reason I was in her room yesterday was because-”
“We got company.” Sophia said, her eyes turning sharp.
Seeing that, I also switched gears to ready myself for combat. Looking around, I saw that we had arrived at the Hope Orphanage. It was a wide, two-story building surrounded by green. Located just outside east of town, the orphanage had its own well and food cellar. It was apparently repurposed from a noble’s mansion so the construction had an aged luxury to it. I negotiated with the king to make this place exempt from taxes, with the argument that it’s part of the church and he had given me the go ahead. Although, convincing the prime minister took some more effort…
Sophia got down from the carriage and drew the adamantite bastard sword from her back, pointing it low to focus her senses.
“5, 15, 18 of them. Mostly behind us, a few flanking each side.”
I also got down, “Do you sense any mages among them?”
“One, behind us. And there’s one of them strong enough to be gold ranked. Guessing that’s their chief.”
I honestly saw no reason bandits might have to attack this place. There are no valuables and the money they’d find inside is negligible. They might want to sell the children as slaves to the Empire, but they’d suffer a loss with just transportation and food costs.
Sophia and I visit the orphanage every week. If this is a premeditated attack, they would’ve attacked on another day. Sister Alice is often out around this time, but she never goes far. And her talents should let her come to the rescue if anything dangerous happens. Maybe she’s inside, moving the children to a safe place? I have no way to tell. So what difference is there from today and any other day. Wait…
“Sophia, is there any chance of them being an advance party?”
“Don’t think so. They don’t come close to towns in large groups.”
“Alright. Can you take that mage? If you can, I’m taking the carriage to the building.”
“Oh yeah, can do… Looks like they’re coming out.”
“To attack?”
“Seems they wanna talk.”
“Figured.”
“Ay you. Hand over the kid you’s got in there.” barked a large man. One of his eyes had a discolored pupil with a scar running down it. He had a hand on the sword at his waist, signifying that he would make no room for negotiation.
“Sophia.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Go easy on them.”
“Can’t promise that!” A green aura surged from Sophia’s body and she disappeared in a blur, startling the horse.
I pacified the horse and climbed into the carriage. The boy was holding his knees and glared at me.
“Want a kebab?” I offered him a wrapped kebab.
“...”
I opened the wrapping slightly, letting the scent permeate the enclosed carriage.
The boy’s stomach grumbled. He snatched the kebab from my hand and began scarfing it down. He was quickly finished and I offered him another one. He choked on it and I offered some water and rubbed his back until he calmed down. Strange grunts of pain, clashes of metal and thumps of rugged men dropping to the ground, some even begging before getting ‘thumped’, could be heard outside. I ignored it.
“Are they with you?”
“... No.”
“Who are they?”
“... I don’t know.”
“Are they after you?”
“... I guess.”
“Alright-”
“What. Handing me over?”
“No.”
“... What do you want from me?”
What do I want with this kid? I hadn’t thought much about it. Perhaps I saw a little of myself in him. Life may be good for me now, but that’s because I was lucky. A lot of people I knew, weren’t. Back in the slums, kids died every day. I couldn’t do anything to save them back then. I had my hands full taking care of myself. Maybe, that’s why. I want to…
“...Hey kid. Do you know the story of the sad dragon?”
“Huh? What are you getting at…?”
“Just hear me out on this. It goes something like…”
There was once a dragon, flying high in the sky.
He loved to play tricks on his friends, often surprising them.
One day, he separated from his flock inside a cloud.
Thinking he could pop out from under them.
The cloud turned into a storm and lightning struck him.
The dragon fell into a dark forest with broken wings.
No matter how much the dragon cried, no one approached him.
And he cried, and he cried, and he fell to sleep.
It was a story told to children. The moral of it being, not to stray too far when playing, or the saying mischief begets misfortune. It’s a story I remembered from my own childhood, though I can’t remember who told me. But the thing about this story, children don’t want to learn anything from it. They’d rather not give up their fun. So it’s usually told to a child who made a mistake.
“Yeah, I know it.” The boy said. “Got nothing to do with me.”
“It might not, no. But I wonder, did that dragon really deserve it?“
“Didn’t he? He got lost all on his own. Hey, uh, what’s going on outside?”
“You know, I think everyone deserves a chance to make things right.”
“Don’t ignore me!”
“And that’s what I want from you, kid.” I reached a hand out to him. “I want to give you a chance.”
There was a trick to my hand which made the boy also reach out for it. I’m of course talking about the bag of kebabs which I was still holding.
“And I’m not ‘kid’, my name’s Alex!”
We got down from the carriage to find 16 battered and bruised men tied up all together. Unconscious, but still breathing. The mage was stripped down to his underwear, because you can never be too careful with where they’re storing little tricks, and was tied up separately. He was conscious and showing signs of mana deficiency.
Sophia was standing in front of us with a cheeky grin, the large man under her boot.
“All done, boss. Made sure not to kill any of ‘em.”
“Thank you, Sophia. Alright.” I looked at Alex, “Alex, do you recognize any of them?”
“N-No...” Alex said, face red as a tomato.
“Ha ha, you don’t need to be scared of Sophia. She’s really nice to kids.”
“‘Course I am. You said it,” Sophia smiled and gave me a light punch on the shoulder, “Boss.”
“Oof!”
I of course knew that the boy wasn’t red and fidgeting like that because he was scared of the tall, brown beauty. After all, I was barely managing to not do the same. … I wonder if she’s holding a grudge about that pseudo-confession on the ride here? I won’t think about it too deeply.
“Ah, I… I think I know that guy.” Alex pointed at the half naked mage. “He was the guy Father was...”
“What is it?” I asked the boy. “What about your father?”
“...”
Looks like we’ll have to take our time with that one. Well, one thing’s clear. These ruffians were after this boy and tailed us until we were out of town to attack. Which might mean that Alex knows something they don’t want anyone else to know. And it’s got something to do with his father too… It’s getting complicated.
Was it really a coincidence that he ended up with us?
“His name is Jean Vritta. First prince’s faction. And the boy you have there is Alex Gaja. He’s the son of Count Richmond Gaja who went missing 5 days ago.”
I turned to the familiar voice who nonchalantly revealed some crucial information. Black, tight fitting nun’s habit on a slim body going all the way down to the ankles but with slits along both sides up to the widest point on her hips, revealing white, trained legs and the neatly made bows of a pair of red, side-tie underwear. Those hips had company, as Republic-style black sheathed katanas hung from them, a pair at each hip. A loosely worn veil that let out her long, lemon-green hair that curled in on itself. Short tapered ears that told of her elfen ancestry, and a wide fox-like smile that could make anyone reveal their deepest secrets.
“Good day to you too, Sister Alice.”
“It’s been 7 whole days, Lucky.” She walked up to me and pulled me into a tight hug. “Would you like lunch, some state secrets, or perhaps… my special tea?”