"Sister Saria! Is that you?"
Immediately after hearing this, I whipped my head around to see the figure of a small child that had the same pale, white hair and ice blue eyes as Sari.
Pushing herself up using my body as a base for her hands, which was extremely uncomfortable by the way, she stared at the young snow elf as if she had just seen a ghost.
"Maddie... You're still alive?!!!!"
She pushed me into the ice floor as she quickly launched herself at the little girl.
I watched from a disfigured position as she hugged the little elf with all her might.
Letting them have their moment, I propped myself up whilst rustling my hair.
Standing up, I walked over to them and put my hand on Saria's shoulder.
Leaning down, I whispered into her ear,
"Choose the children as what you will live for."
Hearing my voice, she opened her eyes instantly as she realized what I had just said.
Scanning the surrounding area, her eyes lit up, as she saw the little heads of many children peeking from various doorways and from behind several houses.
"It seems like the slave traders left all the children alive, probably presuming that they would just die on their own. Luckily, we arrived before that happened."
With this, I stood back up.
After some time, Sari also stood back up, as she held the hand of the child, Maddie.
"Sister Saria..." Said a shy voice.
"Big Sis!"
"Sis Saria is back!"
And with that, it was like a damn had burst as all the children flooded out of their hiding spots and ran towards us, before engulfing us in their sea of bubbliness.
Well, there was a happy reunion like you would all expect, with Saria hugging each and every one of the children, whilst I just watched on with a smile on my face, happy for her.
After all, I knew that family was everything, and I would do anything to keep my family happy.
After a while, I saw Saria looking over to me.
Seeing how she had been looking worriedly at the skinny, obviously malnourished children for the past half an hour, I knew what she wanted to do.
"Let me get to it, we can't waste the rations as we still have. With them, we'll probably have months of travel left before we can return to the castle."
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Hearing this, she looked at me in surprise.
"Of course, if they're your family, then they're my family too."
She immediately stood up from the sea of children and ran to me, tackling me in a hug.
"T-thank you so much, Young Master!"
Not even letting us have a moment, one of the children asked,
"Big Sis, why are you calling him Young Master?"
Before she could reply though, I covered her mouth with my hand, half leaned so that I was at the same level as the kids, and then stated so that all of them could hear,
"Just call me Big Bro." I said, with a huge smile on my face as I pointed at myself with my thumb, trying to look as stupid as possible.
"O-okay... Big Bro?"
"Yep!" I said, before ruffling the hair of the kid that had spoken.
"Then, Big Bro, what were you talking to Sis Saria about?"
"I'm going to get you little ones food!"
"F-f-food?"
After saying this, I could hear the audible grumbling of their stomaches as they all fantasized about eating.
Hearing this, my smile faltered for a second, before I started walking out of the village.
They all stared at me in silence, before one of them shouted,
"Go Big Bro! Go Big Bro! Go Big Bro!"
And, like a wildfire, the cheering spread.
"GO BIG BRO!"
"GO BIG BRO!"
"GO BIG BRO!"
The cheering followed me the entire way as I walked out of the village with my rifle in my hand.
Closing my eyes, I blocked out the cheering as I focused and muttered,
"Angel: I know where the nearest demonic beast is."
Immediately, I felt the location of another organism in my mind, and immediately broke off into a sprint in its direction.
After 30 or so minutes, I saw one of the polar bear like beasts about 100 meters away from me.
Quickly laying down on the ground, so that my camouflaged white gear would blend into the snow to hide myself in case anything went wrong, I put the rifle up to my cheek.
"Angel: My vision is zoomed in by 40 times."
Immediately my vision zoomed in as if a scope had been placed on my rifle.
"Angel: My ears are protected from any loud noises."
Finishing my preparations, I took in a deep breath.
"Hoo..."
I held the breath and steadied my aim.
"BANG!"
"Haa..."
I released the breath.
Keeping my eye trained on the polar bear beast, I watched as, a second later after my shot, a puff of reddish mist appeared in the air.
And, right after the mist appeared, the beast dropped.
It was a clean shot that ended the hunt, and that was a huge relief.
...
I arrived back at the village with the already butchered carcass of the beast tied to the pack on my back.
Seeing me in the distance, all of the children stood up from their positions on the floor, presumably having been listening to a story that Sari was telling.
"Big Bro! You're back already?!"
"Yep." That was all I needed to say, as I turned around and showed them the red meat on my back.
"BIG BRO BROUGHT MEAT BACK!"
And with that one shout, the news was spread to even the children in the back of the group.
They then all tried to get up and rush me, but Sari immediately stood up and blocked them.
"Your Big Bro needs space and time to cook the meat, okay? Let's just watch him do his magic for the time being."
Being charmed by their big sister's words, they all just stared at me with wide, gleaming eyes, as I proceeded to untie the meat off my pack and started cooking it.
It was a very plain cooking style, as I just took a portable stove that Char had provided, and began cooking each piece painstakingly.
By the end of it, I had hundreds of servings of meat ready for all the hungry children.
Saria made them all line up in an orderly fashion as they each took their portions with their hands and started chewing them.
Why were they chewing their food instead of gobbling their food up?
Well, that was all because they were under Big Sis Saria's harsh gaze.
I mean, she was just worried about them ingesting too much food too quickly after being starved on nothing but hidden winter stockpiles for weeks.
So, knowing this, they all decided to be good little kids, less they faced the wrath of their Big Sis.
Seeing how much care she was treating her siblings with, I smiled, as I myself started to eat by first digging out the beast's eyeballs and eating the fat behind the eyes while it was still raw.
This, of course, was just something that I had picked up in my days as a super soldier.
Anyways, after all of the children finished, they were each tucked in bed by Saria.
Seeing that they were all asleep, Sari walked over and sat down next to me on my pack that I was using as a seat.
"Grumbbbbbblllllleeeeee!"
Hearing this, I wordlessly handed her a portion of my meat, before proceeding to take the heart of the beast, cutting out the damaged part from the bullet, and starting to cook it.
I noticed her turning red, but I just ignored this, not noticing the small smile that was slowly creeping up the sides of my face.
Seeing that I hadn't noticed her blush, she hungrily started inhaling the meat whilst I was just slowly spinning the skewer around and around above the fire.
And finally, after the heart was fully cooked, I divided it into two, gave half to Saria who was still inhaling her meat, and then started slowly eating my portion, savoring every bite.
Looking up, I took in the scenery of the stars in the sky, all bright and shining, something that you could have never seen back on Earth due to the light pollution.
I took in this moment as I knew that this scene would disappear in about an hour or so, as the sun would rise again, the nights being only two hours long as the change from summer to winter was coming to the frozen north.
"We'll have to leave tomorrow to make it." Said a quiet voice next to me.
"I know... but let's just enjoy this moment."
Feeling a light weight fall on my shoulder, I could only smile as I chewed on the meat whilst looking into the sky.
I finally felt that a part of my family, was now, truly, family.