Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P11

Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P11

~37.11~

*****

After several of her knights escorted the Marquess, the thugs, and his guards away, Lanti approached me. "Eli, are you okay? You're sweating."

Get it together, Elysia. The problem is solved. Don't scare the child.

I took another deep breath and magically evaporated the sweat so that I wouldn't look any different. I turned around and knelt down. "It's okay now. You're safe, sweetie."

"T-th-thank you, miss."

Her cuteness was overwhelming. The anger I felt moments before was being washed away by this child's innocence.

That's right, Elysia. Focus on the good.

"I'm Eli. What's your name?"

"So-so… Sophie."

I smiled at her. "That's a pretty name. Sophie."

She smiled back at me. "I think Eli is pretty, too!"

"Thank you, Sophie. Can you tell me about yourself? Do you have any friends or family?"

She shook her head. "No friends. I have a mom and dad, but I don't know where they are."

"Can you tell me anything about them? Are they at the Marquess's house? Or somewhere else?"

"Somewhere else. I think it was three years ago. I went to play with the other kids in the neighborhood, but then some scary guys took a bunch of us."

"There might be missing child report," Lanti said. "Richard, go straight to the capital guard and tell them I need every missing person's report in the country between now and four years ago. I'll sort through them myself."

"Your Highness, that's likely to be hundreds or even thousands."

"That's all? I can go through that in a day. I'll take care of it, just go get the reports and take them to my office."

"At once, Your Highness." The one guard left with one more in tow to help transport the reports.

"Sophie," I said, "we'll find your parents. If you can tell us anything about them or where you lived, we'll be able to find them sooner."

"I look like my mom. We have the same hair and eye color. My dad has the same eye color, but his hair is blonde."

"Were they married?"

"I don't know what that word means."

"Did they live together with you?"

"Yes. We lived in a small neighborhood, but I don't know what it was called."

"Okay, that helps a lot. You're doing great, Sophie. Are you hungry?"

She nodded timidly.

"Do you want to eat with me?" I looked up at my pink-haired companion. "Maya, do you have any-"

She already had a piece of flavored bread in her hands. "Here, Sophie. It's bread. It'll taste a little bit like bananas. You can have this now, and we'll go have dinner, too."

The girl looked at the bread with stars in her eyes. "Can I really have this? The maid lady at the manor said I can only eat once every three days."

My eyes darted to my aunt and Lanti as Maya answered her, "Of course. Don't mind what that maid lady said. You can eat this and then dinner and then another dinner after that. Then tomorrow, you can eat breakfast, and two more dinners or three if you want. How old are you?"

"I'm ten years old."

I stood up and lowered my voice. "You're not actually going to let that man get off scott free, are you?"

""Absolutely not,"" Alice and Lanti said together. They exchanged glances, and Alice continued. "A man who thinks he has a way out will talk much easier than a man who thinks he's bound for the dungeon. We'll get all the information possible out of him and then let him rot for a few years."

"My thoughts exactly," Lanti added. "That girl is so sweet. It breaks my heart thinking about how a noble could possibly do this to their own subjects."

"Elise, you worry about the child," Alice said. "I'll take care of the investigation personally."

"You will?" Lanti asked. "You'll come out of retirement?"

"To track down slavers, absolutely."

"Is there something I should know? Both of you are very serious about slavery. I despise it myself, but I get the feeling there's something more to it with you."

"It's not my story to tell." Alice leaned in and lowered her voice even more so that only Lanti and I could hear it. "You'll have to ask Elise, but don't expect an answer. Just trust that she and I will flip the country upside down to root out slavery."

The shock on Lanti's face, followed by a smirk, told me everything. She was on board. "In that case, I'll give you my insignia. If you're that serious, I'll give you free rein in this case. Just keep me informed and use my authority however you need it. Shall we get started?" Alice nodded, and the two started to leave. Lanti turned back. "Eli."

"Lanti?"

She tossed card to me. "Use that." I looked at the card. It had her insignia on it. "Whatever Sophie needs, it's on me. You'll have to give your name anywhere you use that, but you can get whatever you want and the bill will be sent to my villa. I know your family isn't as well off due to how well you treat your people. I want to talk to you about that later, but for now keep your money to yourself and use mine for the day. Food, clothes, whatever, I don't care how much you spend."

I put the card in my blazer pocket. "Thank you, Lanti."

She nodded and left with Alice and the rest of her knights.

I knelt back down and patted Sophie's head. "Let's go eat."

She happily nodded. "Yeah!"

As I stood up, I saw Maya and Lena smiling at me. "What?"

"You're a hero, Eli," Maya said.

I shook my head. "I just don't want to see a child being mistreated like that. Or an adult for that matter."

"The world needs more nobles like you," Lena added. "You really are incredible."

I need to add crime detection magic to the list of things I want to do to improve this world.

*****

Revision: 2025-2-12