Chapter 10: Where the answer lies

At the break of dawn when the sun will soon rise and the animals and creatures that have gone to sleep for the night will awaken. Birds tweeted and chirped to welcome the new day as they hunted for prey—as they say, early bird gets the worm.

However, unlike them, two men had spent the night reading and figuring out who else is involved with the so-called Care Program Service that claims they help take care of children and will return them once they become a capable adult, saying that their children will have a bright future with them.

"There sure are a lot of corrupted nobles and merchants," Arlo tched as he read through the account book records of who the city lord of Trek transacted with. Surprisingly, Arlo was not shocked at all with the degree and amount of corrupted nobles and people. He seemed to have never really trusted in those people in the first place.

Flipping from page to page, Arlo wowed at how much they earn by taking away children from their families. They sell those children and even train them to become guards or suicide soldiers to sell to rich client.

To elaborate more on the Care Program Service, they are a group of people who covertly goes from settlements to settlements offer their services to poor families. They come under the guise of supporting those poor families but are actually trying to snatch away their children forever. They do this for easy money and it seems like this is not the only type of jobs they do---at least not under the same organization's name.

None of their activities were ever known publicly and they also don't target every area in the Ever Kingdom. They mostly operate in small towns and villages, and sometimes they would work in small cities.

The above mentioned details were speculated by Abner and Arlo after going to big and small villages, towns, and cities while on their way to the Slums and only seeing those people operating in small areas. Abner and Arlo have been slowly tracing their footsteps because they have a feeling that they are connected to the Mono organization's activities. They also suspect that the Mono organization has their hands in a lot of other immoral and sinister undertakings happening in the Ever Kingdom---maybe not just in the Ever Kingdom---that no one knows about.

The great injustice being done greatly upset Abner and made him want to uproot the Mono organization even more.

The Care Program Service's operations mostly work from the poor families to taking the taken children to their rich clients or for training before being sold. Apparently some smart people like the old men Abner and Arlo eavesdropped on before knows about the truth, and those in the known are mostly terrified and afraid to offend them---like those old men.

Abner wasn't sure exactly how long this program service has been active, however, he did know that they have been around for quite some time.

Looking through the account book once more, Abner's index finger slid down from the top of the page column to stop at a specific name. A name that he recognized.

Tapping on the name a few times, Abner was deep in thoughts with a shadow covering his face, causing Arlo to unable to guess his emotional state.

It took a few minutes for Abner to think everything out in his head as he decided to meet the person with the name he had pointed to---that person's place is the same as their destination's after all. And he might be able to tell Abner a bit about what he knows as long as Abner pays the right price for it.

Looking up, Abner watched as the sun slowly rose over the horizon, "Arlo. Our destination is still the same as before. We're going to the Slums. There, is where the answer lies."