"Rescue"

"Now to the left!"

"...huh…?"

Then, when they were almost there, Aithne confidently declared while pointing in the opposite direction she stated, causing Rolph to let out a confused gasp.

"Understood~"

Medea nodded and turned left, even though it was the opposite direction that was the correct one!

"Wait, mister!"

After all, the building of the orphanage was already visible… but the attentive boy realized that the black-haired man didn't actually know the place, causing him to call out and tug on his hand.

"Is it that one?"

"Whaa…! Mister! Noo! There! Over there!"

"Mister, it's there! Aithne meant right, not left!"

Seemingly clueless Medea motioned at a completely different building with his chin and confidently turned their way, causing both children to call out.

"Wait, really? Then where should we…?"

"It's there, mister! Over there!"

"There! There! There!"

The black-haired man slowed but didn't stop and asked, causing the boy to rush forward and try to pull him in the right direction while the little girl in his arm started chanting and tugging him in the rhythm.

"Ohhh! Sorry for that. Let's…"

"BASTARD! LET GO OF THEM!"

Medea gasped in realization and was about to turn in the correct direction when someone roared fiercely, interrupting his words.

"..."

"!?'

"!?!?"

The black-haired man who wasn't doing anything wrong wasn't bothered in the slightest, but the children instantly turned around only to see a reddish-brown-haired young man in priest robes sprint at them with a furious expression!

And before anything else could be said or done…

*WHAM*

Medea got punched in the face with all of the force of the speeding priest's fist and was flung across the street, letting go of both children.

"Got you! Rolph! Take her and run to the orpha…!"

The young priest caught the little girl mid-flight and called out, hurriedly putting her down by the boy and calling out to him while focused on the black-haired man who slammed against the wall of some building and dropped to the ground with a worrisome sound.

But the children couldn't pay less attention to the priest's words!

"MISTER!"

"NOOO! MISTER!"

"...wha…?!"

Aithne and Rolph cried out in panic and rushed over to the black-haired man, shocking their wanna-be savior.

"Mister! Mister!? Are you okay!?"

Rolph gasped in panic, reaching out to the fallen Medea and doing his best to pull him up to at least a half-seated position.

"Uuuueeeeee….! M-miiiisteeeeer….!? MISHPFHEEER…!"

Aithne grabbed onto Medea's leg and started bawling her eyes out - crying even harder once she saw the broken glasses and all the blood from dozens of cuts, broken nose, and burst lip of the black-haired man.

"No! No! No! No! Mister?! Please, say something, mister!"

"UBWAAAAAAAAAH!"

Rolph's voice was turning more and more desperate with each second that he couldn't get a response from Medea, which caused Aithne to cry so hard she almost drowned herself with her own tears and snot.

"Wh-what is going on…? He… he wanted to kidnap you, didn't h…"

"BASTARD! IDIOT! MONSTER! WHAT DID YOU HIT MISTER MEDEA!?"

The young priest gulped down his saliva and said with a pale expression as he felt the dread of the possibility that he was mistaken in his action and got shouted at by the desperate Rolph.

The boy was so desperate and shaken that he ended up throwing the box he held onto right in the young priest's face, but the reddish-brown-haired man dodged it by reflex, and its whole content spilled on the road…

"MISTER HELPED ME! HE CAME HERE BECAUSE HIS MASTER WANTED TO DONATE TO OUR ORPHANAGE! HE DIDN'T KNOW THE WAY SO WE WERE SHOWING HIM AROUND! WHY DID YOU HIT HIM!? WHY DID YOU HIT HIM?!"

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! UUUU! UUUU…! UWAAAAAAH!"

Red in the face, Rolph howled at the stunned priest while Aithne could barely catch her breath as her body couldn't really handle such desperate outbursts of tears…

"..."

"Ah! MISTER!"

"M-mishpheeer…?"

Suddenly, the black-haired man twitched, and at that very same moment, his arms were already by the children's necks…

"...arh yhou tfou okhay…?"

Only that he blinked the next moment, and whatever action he had going changed into gently touching the children's faces and asking in a voice distorted by his injury.

"Mister!"

"Uuuuuuu!"

Both children ended up clinging to Medea, and he started to pat their heads…

"..."

"...!"

As the blood started dripping down and staining his shirt, Medea's gaze partially freed from the barrier of the thick glasses, ended up focusing on the frozen priest, making the reddish-brown-haired man flinch and start to look around as if in search of someone who could excuse his actions.

"Mmh. Hfere. Blow yhour nose."

Taking his eyes away from the attacker, Medea stopped patting Rolph's head and took out a handkerchief that he used to start cleaning Aithne's face.

"It whas scaffy, right?"

The black-haired man's voice was gentle, so was his actions.

"It's okhay n… ptfue… nof. Oh. Oh well."

He coddled the sobbing child but ended up spitting two of his teeth broken by the punch, acknowledging the loss by merely raising his brow.

"M-mister…! Don't you have another healing pellet?!"

"Nhot really. It's expensive stuff. For emergency."

"...wait… another…?"

The boy flinched and gasped with hope and anxiety mixing together, but the black-haired man smiled wryly, showing off his bloodied teeth and making the young priest tense up and mutter.

"Umm… listen, I…"

"STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY FROM MISTER!"

The young priest shook his head, cleared his throat, and tried to speak up, but his words caused the little girl to tremble and shriek at him as she faced him, clenching her little fists and spreading her arms to shield the fallen man.

Medea propped himself up, moving away from the children and picking up his teeth before standing up.

"...sorry, little ones…. I must report what happened back to my master…"

"Eh…? Mister, what do you mean…?"

"M-mister…?"

He pointed out while holding up the dirty handkerchief to his mouth to stop the bleeding, making the little girl and the boy cry out in despair.

They might have been asking, but they knew what the black-haired man meant.

"Mister! Wait..!"

"..."

The boy stepped up to stop him, but the black-haired man stumbled away without looking back.

"STUPID LEO! STUPID! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! I HATE YOU!"

Seeing Medea disappear caused Aithne to howl in despair and run at the young priest, trying to kick him in the shin.

"UNFGH…!"

The hit didn't land as the man moved out of the way out of reflex, accidentally brushing against the little girl and made her fall on her butt with a yelp.

"Wait! I… It looked like he was trying to kidnap you! Both of you were trying to break free, but he was dragging you away!"

The young priest, Leon, shook his head and hastily tried to explain himself while trying to help the child up, and once again moved out of the way as Aithne swung at him, trying to slap his hand away.

"STUPID LEO!"

She shrieked and got up on her own before running away, thankfully towards the orphanage.

"Alright. I might have overreacted, but it was justified! I told you that bad people are after our orphanage and…"

"It's all your fault. You got the orphanage in trouble. Since you took over, everything has turned worse."

Leon turned to Rolph and pointed out, but the young boy's response was far more spiteful than what Aithne said.

The young boy was glaring at the young priest not with just hatred but with disgust, so angry that he got teary-eyed.

"That nice mister was here to help out with the money problem. But you had to ruin that, too. The old priest should have never taken you in. You should have died instead of him!"

"...!"

It was clear that the issue was much deeper and started much earlier than just punching Medea. Rolph must have been holding a lot in, and now all the venom has spilled out in one go.

Leon's stunned silence and lack of retort were speaking volumes.

Not expecting a child to say all of that was one thing, but the nonexistent response was mostly caused by a lack of lies in the boy's statement.

"I… I can fix it! I can still fix it!"

The young priest opened and closed his mouth a few times before clenching his fists and finally declaring, looking in the direction where the black-haired man disappeared to…

…and rushing after him….

"..."

As he passed Rolph, the little boy lowered his head and clenched his fists, too.

Then his shoulders and chin started trembling as his eyes started to sting from tears.

Even though he tried so hard to not get his hopes up…