The inside of the building was surprisingly much less dilapidated than what one would expect. There were obvious attempts at repair on every nook and cranny one laid eyes on. The floor was clean, with no broken glass or wood splinters anywhere. Even the walls had been wiped, allowing the old stones to regain some of their original polish.

The furniture they were using was brand new. Though they were only the cheapest ones money could buy, they suited the ambiance of the place. Overall, it gave the interior a very… tolerable feel.

“Here’s some tea.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Jelyn placed a teacup in front of each of them. While she was able to do so naturally for him, her expression looked quite cramped when she did for Manna.

“The hell happened between them?”

The tea still had steam coming out of it. The aroma it exuded was inviting. He recalled an old proverb he often heard at his old company. It went something like, “even terrible food will taste great if you’re near garbage”. Though, he did not mean the tea wasn’t delicious.

“It smells great.”

Those words were to convince himself more than a compliment. But someone had a different idea.

“You first.”

Jelyn recoiled at Manna’s order. She pressed the tray to her chest and nervously looked at the latter. But all she saw was an impatient tyrant, with her arms crossed, gesturing with her chin at the tea that she obviously didn’t poison.

Well, who knows?

Matthias held his hand up in an attempt to calm Manna down.

"Relax. I was kidding."

What a terrible joke. Manna crossed her legs and drank the tea nonchalantly. A wry smile wrapped around Matthias' face. Hell, he thought she was serious. Judging from Jelyn's face, she must have thought so as well.

"Anyway, what are you doing here? Aren't you in the Pharmacy Guild now?"

She shouldn't be in any kind of financial trouble since the drake horns fetched a huge sum of money, even when the money had been split between her and the high priestess. Plus, the Pharmacy Guild, unlike the Adventurer Guild, gave its members wages instead of having to rely on the rewards from commissions. It was very unlikely that she would be residing in the slums.

"I've been asked to take care of the children here. It was by your party member, Miss Soleil."

"By her?"

Jelyn nodded.

"It was when I delivered a shipment of potions for the Adventurers Guild. She said she needed someone to watch over the house since she was always out with you guys. She… well, I didn’t get a chance to refuse."

That was just like her, talking over people whenever she wanted something done her way.

"Watch over the… you mean she lives here?"

He looked around. Even if the building's interiors passed the bare minimum to be inhabitable, it was by no means a good place. There were holes in the windows, the chains that locked the doors were rusted, and the odors from the outside could still be picked up there. The small depressions on the ground and the water damage from the walls indicated that the roof had many leaks too.

He thought she had been living at the barracks the guild provided their members for free.

"Mhm. According to the kids, she's been living here with them for around a month now." Jelyn said as she poured herself another cup of tea. "But they initially didn't live here. I think Miss Soleil used the money from the drake horn rewards to buy this place. She also bought new furniture and stuff.”

“Was that why Soleil was already broke just a few days after that incident?”

Matthias recalled a time less than two weeks ago when he invited the two girls out to an outdoor barbecue. It was something he thought of as a kind of vacation for them. Instead of allowing them to spend a day or two however they wanted, it would be more productive for their party to spend it together. They were supposed to bring their own necessities, including supplies and food. However, Soleil joined them with nothing but three bags of meat that she had hunted, not bought. She didn’t even bring any camping equipment and ended up having to sleep with Manna… which also didn’t happen because Manna snuck into his tent late that night.

That time, Matthias thought that she had simply forgotten her equipment. She was quite air-headed at times after all. But after listening to Jelyn, he realized that it may not have been the case. She probably just didn’t have the money to buy some.

“Why didn’t she tell us…?”

“We never asked,” Manna shrugged.

He choked.

“That’s… true.” Honestly, he almost forgot that Soleil was not the kind of person to say stuff she was never questioned for despite how honest she was.

“Oh, by the way.” He remembered. The huge parcel Soleil needed him to deliver was still on the floor. “This is from her. She didn’t tell me whom I should deliver this to, but it’s probably for you.”

With a heave, he placed the large package on the table. Thankfully, the table was brand new, and had little trouble handling the veritable tower of what was likely all meat.

“This is…?”

“Food. Probably. Possibly.”

A look of wonder was on Jelyn’s face. “That’s quite a lot… Now that I think about it, where’s Miss Soleil? I haven’t seen her since yesterday. The town guard came by last night looking for her as well…”

Right. He forgot that Jelyn was no longer associated with the Adventurers Guild, and no longer had any close acquaintances there since her friends died, so nobody had told her yet. The town didn’t implement any sort of publicity regarding people they were trying to arrest unless it was a special case. That was why she had no idea what had happened.

The moment she heard about the accusations and Soleil’s house arrest inside the guild, Jelyn almost screamed out in shock.

“Miss Soleil? Murder? No way!”

“Yeah, we can’t believe it either. She’s more like the type to…”

“Beat someone up and brag to them about it…”

“Exactly.”

He was somewhat glad that someone else had the exact same thoughts as him.

“Anyway, there’s not much point talking about it. The guild’s protecting her right now and doing their own snooping around. If anything happens, we’ll be the first to know.”

He wanted that to be the end of it, so put a lot of weight on the last set of words. Fortunately, Jelyn seemed to have understood immediately and worked on loosening the twine on the package.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

It was a shame that she didn’t want to continue being an adventurer. Though she and Manna were like oil and water, he didn’t think it was anything his reasoning and Soleil’s optimism couldn’t fix.

“Huh? That’s weird.”

She stared at the unveiled mountain of food on the table.

“Yeah… that’s damn strange.”

Even Manna, who had kept her silence for most of their earlier conversation, couldn’t help but remark on the absurdity they were seeing.

“How come there’s no meat here?”

For someone like Soleil to even think of the word “food” without any sort of meat, red or white, was pure insanity.

He remembered Soleil’s letter to them a while ago; that the guild isn't feeding her any meat. Considering her financial situation a couple of weeks ago and the fact that she hadn’t earned any of the commission money from the bandit subjugation, then… it’s not that the guild isn’t giving her meat, but more like she couldn’t afford it.

Manna burst out laughing.

“We should give her some allowance later, otherwise the meat shit soup in prison’ll start to sound good. Is this the guild’s way of making her spill the beans?”

The parcel contained mostly fruits and vegetables, with some wheat stacked messily at the bottom. As the town was surrounded by farming villages, these kinds of food were relatively cheap after the harvest season. Meanwhile, meat was always a rarity, especially during the winter.

“The kids are going to be disappointed… Oh!” Jelyn suddenly exclaimed with a fist. “I forgot to introduce you to them. I’ll fetch them now–”

“Wait!”

Almost by reflex, Matthias reached out to stop her.

“We’re not gonna stay for long. We just came to deliver the package.”

Manna nodded in approval. He was still worried about Soleil, and the matter with Mie’s sister was also something that alarmed him. The less time they were away from the guild, the better.

“... I understand.”

There was a look of disappointment on her face. He recognized it. His mother in that world wore that expression whenever she missed a chance to talk about her achievements. Did she perhaps want to show them off?

“Fine,” he relented. It wouldn’t hurt to meet the kids Soleil and Jelyn were taking care of. On the other hand, Manna’s mood soured slightly.

----------------------------------------

Five kids were lined up before them. They were the same kids he and Manna saw earlier. But unlike the first time, when they had been wearing nothing but dirty rags, they now had proper clothes that fit them nicely. It must have been another one of Soleil’s gifts.

Jelyn proudly introduced them.

The oldest was a human boy named Gered. He was a tall kid with a mischievous face. There was something in his body language that screamed “look at me!” As such he ended up becoming the leader of the orphans. Or perhaps it was just so because of his big mouth.

Matthias nodded in approval. He was the stereotypical noisy kid who liked to get into trouble.

According to Jelyn, he had spent the longest time in the slums among everyone there. Both of his parents, who were also slum-dwellers, had died a couple of years ago and a gang took over his home. He had been homeless ever since until Soleil had bought the old church.

Next came the smallest one, named Dorian. She was the only dwarf in the group. When Jelyn introduced her, she simply nodded toward the group and stayed silent. But she didn’t strike Matthias as the kind of kid that was easy to push around. There was a kind of conviction in her eyes that made her look much older than her appearance suggested.

Nobody knew how she ended up in the slums. She wouldn’t talk about it either. But what they did know was that she had first appeared around a year before, battered and bruised. And unlike the other orphans, she never stole from anybody and instead dove into garbage heaps to find food.

Last were the three beastkin. Jelyn introduced all three of them at once. They were siblings who had been abandoned by a slave trader because of their poor constitution. That was around the same time as when Soleil had first arrived at the town, which also made them the most recent arrivals. They were also the kids who acted the most like real orphans. The moment they saw Matthias and Manna, they immediately hid behind Jelyn like they had seen a scary monster.

Two of them were boys and the middle sibling was a girl. They went by the names Ekl, Tisse, and Muon starting from the oldest. They didn’t say much after being introduced, but the older two siblings seemed very protective of their youngest.

It wasn’t like he was going to bite.

“And these two are Miss Soleil’s companions.”

She gestured towards both of them.

“This is Sir Matthias. He’s the party leader.”

The moment she said that Gered scoffed insultingly. “That kid? What does he do? Chase after Teacher Soleil’s tail?” He crossed his arms and turned his gaze away smugly. “I bet he partied with Teacher so he could leech off–hie!”

Just as soon as he started rambling, he jumped back in fright. It even looked like the blood had drained from his face.

Jelyn’s reaction was even more exaggerated as she tried to block their line of sight to him with her body in a protective manner.

"Gered! You didn't mean that! Apologize, right now!" she pleaded almost desperately. But it was no use; he appeared to be paralyzed. Realizing that it wouldn't happen, Jelyn dropped her head and apologized to both of them profusely. "He's just a kid. He doesn't know any better. Please forgive him!"

Matthias tilted his head. He really didn't mind. Perhaps it was because she was aware that he was a noble, and a lot of nobility didn't think much about physically punishing commoners for even the most minor of offenses. Yeah, that was it.

Right?

"That's okay," he assured them. "Even if I'm a noble, I'm also an adventurer. It doesn't bother me."

Jelyn looked up at him. He expected her to have a thankful look. But instead, all he saw was a look of astonishment, which quickly changed into one of shock. Then, it became warped in panic. That was the most animated face he’d seen in a long while.

"You're a… noble?!" she gasped. "Gered! Apologize right now!"

It was chaos again.

----------------------------------------

It took a while for everyone to calm down. Gered was severely chastised and sent away to his room. The two elder beastkin siblings went with him, dragging their little brother along.

Of the five children, only Dorian was left in the living room.

"Umm…"

"..."

"Hi. What's up?"

"..."

"Do you want to play?"

"..."

“...”

He had to admit; he would rather deal with a noisy kid than one who never spoke a word.

He couldn't even ask for help. Manna had called Jelyn to come with her outside, most likely to scold her about the children's behavior. He was still curious about what had happened between the two of them and, if his hunch was correct, then Jelyn would likely return even more spooked.

"Maybe we should just go back to the guild…"

Dorian had her eyes fixed on the two swords on his waist. As a dwarf, she had a natural attraction to worked metals. The finer the quality, the more appealing it was for them. Obviously, she was enamored by his prized sword in particular, which she could likely sense even through the plain scabbard he used to disguise it with.

Well, the hilt was fancy, so that may have been the reason.

"Uhh… you wanna touch it?"

If that had been taken out of context in the world he came from, it would have been really bad; especially since she was just a 12-year-old girl… who looked like she was 8 because of her stature.

That was actually the first time Matthias had ever seen a dwarf up close. Though he didn't have any misconceptions about them because of the books he had read, it was still a different experience.

They were indeed… short. But perhaps that was the wrong word. It was said that elves stopped aging physically when they hit their peak age of around fourteen to twenty-four years old, but for the dwarves, it was only their height that stops increasing, and at an earlier age. That was why male dwarves were short but burly, yet in comparison, the female dwarves were always lithe. Perhaps Dorian still had an inch or two left to grow before she reached her final height.

Back to reality, Dorian eagerly nodded after hearing his question. Sure enough, that was her aim from the start. Sighing, he pulled Demon Culling out of his belt and fastened the sheath and sword with strong twine. It would be a big problem if she started swinging a sword around. Dwarves had unnaturally strong arms, so doing that shouldn't be much of an issue for her.

The moment she touched the sword, her eyes lit up. Her breathing quickened while she lovingly caressed the hilt with her free hand.

"Thank you," she said. Her voice was so soft that Matthias could barely register the words. And while that was happening, Manna and Jelyn came back into the room. The former had a grim look on her face, which unnerved him slightly.

“We have a problem,” she said. “Remember what that stupid kid said earlier?

He nodded. It was hard to forget the first words of Soleil being referred to as a “teacher”. Just remembering it made his mood brighten a little.

“Well, he was referring to the town guard. They said they’ll be coming back.”

Oh.

He looked at Jelyn. She was only clothed in the Pharmacy Guild’s pure-white uniform. The only weapon she had on her was a small dagger. Then, he recalled the kids. Dorian’s intoxicated face came into view. They were nothing but defenseless women and children.

Well... that’s not good.