Adrest woke around dawn as usual, taking his time to stretch and get dressed. He slowly strolled to the first floor where he ordered their breakfast, carrying it all back on a platter.

Now that the sun had almost fully broke the horizon, Adrest went in his neighbor’s room to wake them. He couldn’t help but grin seeing a mess of brown hair buried between Belle’s ears, hugging the rabbit who was curled up in front of her.

Carefully, he set the breakfast and drinks down on a table and woke the girls up, Rin blushing when she realized how much of a mess her hair was, rushing to take out a brush before even getting out of the bed.

Belle was giggling as she rushed from under the blankets to hug Adrest, “Morning Big bro!”

“Morning Belle, Rin.”

Rin was still too distracted to do more than make a noise of acknowledgement, so Belle was the first to sit at the small table. Rin, satisfied with her hair, stood up and smiled, “Morning Adrest. Thanks for the help last night.”

Adrest waved it off and gestured for Rin to take a seat, “I forgot I bought it until last night, Belle was the one that decided to go running over as soon as she got them.”

Rin just nodded and started eating, Adrest following suit. It was a quick and simple eggs and toast, but filling. Feeling ready to take on the day, Rin led them out into the bright morning light.

Rin looked a little more confident as she walked the streets today. They found a friendly vendor selling spiced hot tea to sip on as they walked to the edge of town. It was on the complete opposite side of town where they were staying, with only stone houses spotting the area here and there.

Coming to one of the largest houses, complete with a small courtyard. Rin loudly clanged an iron bell hanging near the double doors. Rin and the others patiently waited for some minutes before the door swung back to reveal a teen with dark blue hair staring confusedly at Rin. The young woman was wearing a simple black long sleeved shirt, and her face was covered in freckles dotting her pale skin.

Eye’s widening the young woman closed in on Rin and circled her twice, then excitedly asked, “Rin!?”

As soon as she shyly nodded, the young woman jumped straight into her arms, almost knocking Rin back. “It’s been almost ten years, we thought you would never visit.”

Rin had no trouble handling the teen hugging with all her might, reassuringly rubbing her back while saying, “I’m sorry. I really wanted to, but this is the first time I’ve been allowed to travel freely.”

Rin was able to peel off the woman before making introductions.

“Delia, this is Adrest and Belle, we’ve been traveling together for a few months now.”

Delia’s crystal blue eyes took in the appearance of the two strangers, one that looked around her age, the other as young as some of the children she helped look after. Delia was surprised by how handsome the young man was though, something about his eyes made it hard for her to look away.

“Uh. Nice to meet you, my name is Delia, and I help take care of this orphanage. Please, come in!”

Adrest nodded in greeting to the young woman as he passed, Belle jumping over excitedly, “Hi! It’s nice to meet you!”

For Delia it was like adding another child to the group she was already looking after, instantly taking a liking to Belle. As Belle got closer to Delia, Adrest took in their surroundings as they entered the courtyard. It was wide open with thick and short uniform verdant grass. They were following a stone pathway that was meticulously maintained, leading to a large stone building looming three stories high. Scattered through the yard were traces of children, forgotten toys, swings hanging from a huge tree, and Adrest could easily spot a half dozen children looking on in curiosity from their hiding spots.

They made it to the large porch with several sets of tables and chairs made simply but quite sturdy. Everyone took a seat and Delia rushed inside only to return in seconds with a pitcher of water and several cups.

Before Rin could even speak, several of the younger children came running over surrounding the strangers, staring up wide-eyed in curiosity.

One particularly fearless boy said through a missing tooth or two, “Nice to meet you!”

Adrest laughed and stuck a hand out in greeting, “It’s nice to meet you as well, I’m Adrest, what can I call you?”

The boy lit up, “I’m Bren! We don’t get a lot of visitors, who are you?”

Adrest laughed at the children’s straightforward nature, and motioned to Rin, “The nice young lady there is the one to ask about that, we’re just following her.”

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Rin now in the spotlight with many small sets of eyes looking her way, “My name is Rin, and I grew up here with Delia. I had to leave early, but really wanted to visit while I was nearby.”

She leaned in, talking in a stage whisper, “Thank you for taking care of Del, I know how much trouble she can get into. There was this one time, Del wanted honey really badly, so she tried getting it herself. That is still the fastest I’ve ever seen a seven year old move, running all the way back to the house with an entire swarm of bees right behind her. You can’t imagine how mad Ms. Alren got!”

As the children laughed and looked wide eyed at Delia, she stood up from her seat blushing furiously, “That was a decade ago Rin! I can tell these two some stories too! How about when you tried to give yourself a haircut? It was so bad, Ms. Alren had to cut almost all of it off. People were mistaking you for a little boy for weeks!”

Rin was stunned, she’d completely forgotten the incident, happier that way. She broke and had to hold her head in her hands when Adrest added fuel to the fire, “Oh! Is that why you like to keep your hair short Rin?”

She thought about drawing her sword then and there, not sure if she should use it on her traitor lord Adrest, herself, or both at this point.

Delia couldn’t help but laugh seeing Rin still act like the same naive and straight forward friend that left so abruptly. She’d been worried that Rin would turn into one of the snooty tourists that swarmed the town every summer.

The group sat on the porch long enough for Rin to recover and drink some of the ice cold tea, then Delia took the lead in a tour, starting with their chicken coop outside a large two story barn.

“Since you got accepted into Estasia, the Guild’s been giving us more resources, we were able to make an addition to the house and expand the farms a little. Right now, we have twenty-seven children under fifteen living here, and we’re up to ten caretakers!”

Rin looked over the large walk-in coop and fenced in yard, “Wow! You had to crouch over and try to not trip over chickens to get eggs before!”

Continuing the tour, they were shown several plots of land filled with various crops just sprouting from the ground, inches tall. They had several cows lazily grazing through fields, mooing at the new faces and chewing interestedly, pigs happily rolling in the mud pens, and even a few cats out enjoying the sunshine lazily lounging wherever they could find.

Rin was just as amazed as Belle was through the tour. After the short but dense walk-through, Rin couldn’t help but sigh over the near unrecognizable homestead. They were halfway back to the house when an older woman in a long sleeved sweater and black pants came rushing over. She looked to be in her forties or fifties, but a life of labor made her move as fast as women half her age as she speed walked over with a big smile.

When Rin saw the blue-eyed and freckle covered woman rushing over, she looked like electricity just ran though her, then kicked up a cloud of dust as rushed off to meet her halfway, leaving Adrest who was closest sputtering and coughing and Belle laughing.

“Ms. Alren! I missed you so much!”

Rin was careful to slow down just before impact, landing softly into her chest and wrapping her up tightly. The older woman, Ms. Alren, tightly embraced Rin back, Adrest able to see the beginnings of tears in the corners of her eyes.

Her voice, husky and reassuring, cracked on the first word, “R-Rin. It’s been so long! We all missed you so much, it’s great to finally see how much our little Rin's blossomed.”

Rin was crying into Ms. Alren’s sweater, Belle hugging Adrest’s arm and fighting back her own at such a sweet scene. Adrest was just happy he got to be here for such a special moment for Rin.

They walked back to the house after Rin calmed down a bit, Ms. Alren introducing herself to Adrest and Belle on the walk.

“It’s a pleasure to meet Rin’s friends, thank you for taking care of her. I’m the head of our little orphanage, and you can call me Alren.”

The two demi-humans exchanged greetings, Adrest surprised by the calluses and strength hidden behind the grip of her handshake. Adrest could clearly feel she was in the D rank, but a life of hard work left her stronger than average C ranks in terms of strength alone.

Belle blushed when the older woman rubbed her silky white hair then offered her a round fruit that was white and speckled pink. Belle looked at the exotic fruit in confusion, making Alren laugh heartily, “It’s a Summer’s Greeting fruit, a local specialty that matures about a month before summer. They’re sweet and you just eat it like an apple.”

Belle took a careful bite, her sparkling white teeth taking out just a nibble. As she chewed on the skin and crisp pink flesh underneath, her ears perked up in joy as she quickly finished the fruit in small bites.

Adrest was curious and was happy to take the one Alren offered him as well. It tasted great, like a sweet grape and the consistency of an apple. They snacked as they walked, now being led inside the large house.

The inside was the same as all the other buildings they’d seen on the property, made of thick stone and hard wood. The first Room they entered from the side door was a large kitchen with a caretaker and three young teens forming an assembly line as they prepared the huge house’s lunch. They were also several young children covered in flour, dust and dirt giggling as they ran around scrubbing every inch of the kitchen they could get to.

Adrest looked from the spectacle to their resident orphan, whispering just loud enough the people nearest could barely hear him over the loud kitchen.

“How come you’re never so excited to clean? Our lil Rin had to do chores like this too, right?”

Delia couldn’t hold back her laughter as Rin nearly went ballistic, her small fists making deep thuds ring out as she battered Adrest’s back and arm.

“Don’t call me lil Rin! And I was the one they sent to town and helped with the animals usually. Of course I’m not as good at cleaning or excited as them!”

Even the older Ms. Alren’s face cracked and wrinkled as she grinned sweetly at the scene.

Hearing the commotion, the busy workers stopped what they were doing and looked over. The cook, about the same age as Delia looked hard at Rin, who was still in the midst of beating Adrest, and took them in for a full fifteen seconds before her eyes lit in recognition.

“Rin?”

She walked closer, cleaning her hands on her apron as she approached. Rin looked closely at the Sister approaching, hesitantly calling out,

“Ellie?”

Ellie closed the latter half of the distance rapidly as she dashed over hearing that old but familiar voice. Both forgot the state of Ellie’s apron as they embraced, jumping in joy at the surprise reunion.

The children assisting and cleaning paused their tasks as they looked over at the excitement, but were back working twice as hard after a harsh stare from Alren.