The woman guzzled down the rest of the water, the atmosphere in the room coming to a depressing lull as her words hung in the air.

Over the past few days, Lynn had come face to face with the vile nature of humanity. Everything that had happened felt so different from the rest of her life. Knowing what the people with her now had been through, she felt lucky that her life was so peaceful.

She would much rather deal with everyone complaining about her than deal with even a portion of what this woman had gone through.

Lucien had dealt with similar situations to this before. He rarely left the village since his father’s death, but as a guard, he had come across a few such ‘businessmen’ who tried to target the people of Locham.

People who would make a business out of exploiting vulnerable and desperate people and extorting them for all they had were no less than scum in his eyes. He rather enjoyed kicking them out of the village.

Because of this, he knew a few of their tricks. “How much money did they give you?”

“Just a silver coin. I knew not to borrow too much from them, and this was just enough that I felt it could last the two of us for a while...” She trailed off, a mixed look of fear, anger, and regret evident on her face.

“But even when you gave them what you owed, they still kept coming back, didn’t they?” Lucien asked, filling in what she had to say.

She nodded, slowly reining in her emotions. “I’ve already paid back five times the amount. But I can’t stop them.”

“This is illegal!” Lynn had had enough of listening to this, her anger reaching a tipping point. She wanted to go back out there and chase after those men and deal with them herself, but was held in her seat by Lucien.

“What they’re doing is illegal, but you need to calm down. There is something that needs our attention more,” Lucien explained, calming her down and clearing her head.

“You’re right.” Lynn rubbed her face before turning her attention back to the woman. “Do you know where your son might be? Any bit of information would do.”

“I don’t know. He could be anywhere by now.” The woman tried hard to think of anything that could help. Her son had been missing for a few days now, and she was really worried. She appreciated what these two had done for her just now, but she was more worried about her son.

Suddenly, a place popped into her mind, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that her son was there. “He might have gone into the forest. When he was younger, we used to go out there as a family to pick berries and watch the local wildlife.

One time, it started storming while we were out there, and we found a cave in the hillside. We spent the night in there, watching the storm and telling him stories at the campfire.”

“We’ll go look for him. How do we get there?” Lucien asked.

She bunched up her face in thought, struggling to think about where exactly it was. “Go through the north exit, you should be able to see a forest to the left of the main road from there. Walk straight to it from the entrance and keep walking in that direction. That should take you to the hill with the cave.”

She sounded unsure of herself, but Lucien knew that probably no amount of time would be able to help her remember exactly what happened that day.

He also knew that they didn’t have a lot of time. If her son really was out in the forest alone, then there was a chance that something bad had already happened to him. And every second they wasted here, the higher that chance would become.

“What’s his name? And what does he look like? Just in case he’s still in the town.” Lynn asked.

“His name is Sam. He’s got light blond hair that just reaches his ears, brown eyes, a round squishy face and rosy cheeks. And he’s about this tall.” She held out her hand at what was just over a metre tall.

Lynn seemed to realise something, but before she could say anything she was stopped by Lucien. “We’ll find your son. Find someplace safe to wait for us where they won’t find you. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

The woman began crying again, but this time with a smile. “Thank you. Thank you. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Just don’t die before I bring your son back.” Lucien left, leaving Lynn no choice but to follow him. Just by looking at her, Lucien could tell that something was bothering her “Is something on your mind?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“If he’s only that tall, doesn’t it mean...” Her question trailed off and was immediately picked up by Lucien.

“That he’s only a small child? My guess is that he’s probably around 7, 8 years old.” Lucien realised the implications of this, and felt even more sympathetic for the woman. It was hard to believe that someone who looked his age was actually young enough to be his daughter.

“Oh Goddess.” Lynn was shocked by this realisation, her eyes darting back to the dilapidated shack every few steps.

“Come. The best thing we can do for the young lass is to find her son.” Lucien comforted her as the two made their way back to their horses.

Climbing into the saddle, the two made haste towards the northern exit. Reaching the exit, there was a small line of people and caravans exiting the town, so without much choice, they brought themselves to a stop and waited for their turn to leave.

Considering how little they had on them, it didn’t take long for them to be allowed to leave when it got to their turn.

Looking out, he immediately spotted the forest she was talking about. Following her instructions, they rode their horses to the edge of the forest before stopping. “It’s not wise to ride through here. You take the horse’s reins and I’ll lead from the front.”

Sliding off the horse, Lucien passed Chase’s reins to Lynn and dropped his hand to his sword. He was on constant alert, both for the child, and for anything dangerous that could come at them.

“Do you think we’ll be able to find him out here?” Lynn asked.

Lucien’s eyes darted around as he kept a fast, but steady pace through the forest, following the path told to him. “I don’t know. But we have to try.”

Lynn started silently praying to Matron Stellara, wishing for the child’s safety as she followed behind Lucien. Neither of them said another word as they walked deeper into the forest.

The forest was peaceful, just like what the woman had said. Lucien couldn’t find any signs of large predators, at least, none in the area that he could see. He could hear the birds singing, and could see the occasional small critter scampering across the forest floor.

It was nice.

Despite how nice it was, Lucien was still feeling tense. Both because he refused to let down his guard in case anything dangerous was lurking around, and because he didn’t know if they could really find the kid.

He was primed and ready for anything bad to come his way. Luckily, despite the tense atmosphere, it didn’t take long for them to spot a hill matching the woman’s description.

And just like the woman said, there was a small cave clearly visible from this distance.

Lucien signalled for Lynn to stop. “I think you should wait out here.” Seeing Lynn nod, he continued forward to the cave alone. If something bad had happened to Sam, he didn’t want Lynn to walk in on a dead child.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to see that himself. Upon entering the cave, he saw a small figure curled up on the floor and shivering, a pair of scared eyes staring directly at him.

Sam was alive. As for how healthy he was, that would have to wait until Lucien could get the kid out of here and to a priest or physician who could give him a checkup.

But for now, Lucien still had to worry about getting Sam out of here. Lucien knew that his appearance wasn’t exactly something that could calm a frightened child, especially given the current situation. He was already lucky that the child wasn’t screaming or trying to flee.

He stopped at the entrance of the cave, keeping enough distance so as to not scare Sam. He also crouched down, trying to make himself as small as possible so that he wouldn’t look so terrifying. “Your mother sent me to find you Sam. Do you want me to take you to her?”

Unfortunately, even though he tried his best to be gentle, it seemed like his usual strategies were ineffective with kids who didn’t already know him.

Sam remained steadfast where he was, refusing to get up. He was smart enough to know to not go anywhere with strangers. Even if they said they knew his mum.

Seeing this, Lucien sighed and shook his head. Slowly retreating from the cave so as not to scare Sam, he returned to Lynn who was waiting outside. “He’s in there, but he doesn’t trust me and I didn’t want to scare him.”

“Leave this to me.” Lynn tapped her chest, handed the reins over to Lucien, and entered the cave. And somehow, within only a few short minutes, she walked back out carrying the child who was sleeping peacefully in her arms.

Lucien had many questions, but now was not the time. He could ask them after they left the forest and returned to the relative safety of the town.

Seeing that she had was carrying the child, he didn’t hand her horse’s reins back to her and instead started walking. Heading back in the opposite direction, they were once again lucky enough to not run into anything dangerous.

It seemed like this forest was as harmless as the woman had said. Lucien was glad they didn’t have to deal with any aggressive beasts or anything with powerful magic.

They safely left the forest, and soon returned to the entrance. Given that they had only left not too long ago, the same guards were still on duty when they returned.

They joined the line of people waiting to enter the town. Luckily the line in front of them wasn’t as long as when they were trying to leave,

Them returning with a child would normally raise concerns, and more than a few weapons, from the guards. However, they had already explained the situation to them when they were leaving, so instead the guards were relieved.

“It really is him. I’m glad you found him,” one of the older guards said, waving them through after confirming everything was okay.

Sam had woken up at this point, and was feeling very happy that he back home. He was now walking beside Lynn, pointing at the various stalls and shops that he had visited with his mother.

Lucien was looking around at the shops when he noticed some familiar faces. Through the window of a tavern, he saw the two men that had tried to ransack the woman’s house.

“Take the kid back to his mother, I’ve got something I need to handle.” Lucien said, passing the reins to her now that her hands were free.

“Hmm? Okay.” She wanted to ask him what he was going to do, but decided to take the child back first.

“I’ll meet you back there soon.” Watching them walk off, he turned around and walked towards the tavern. The place looked seedy and dangerous, but he wasn’t worried about that. He could keep himself safe even if something bad happened.