[14]

"It won't be okay this time."

I brought my right hand to stroke Lily's silky hair. The night was cold under the moonlight in the sky. 

"I'm always amazed to see those two moons together every night." 

"Don't they look good together during the day too, Nana?"

"They're just prettier when night comes."

Carl chuckled softly and chose to put his iron sword back into the scabbard at his waist. The boy came to sit next to me and looked up.

"Nana knows? There is a time when they will be lined up together, blocking the sun at the same position. And at that time the world will be completely dark."

"Are you talking about the solar eclipse that happens every year?"

"That's right, but this eclipse is a bit special. From the book I read, it only happens once every hundred years. Isn't that amazing?"

"It's the book you read that's amazing."

I chose to get up and climbed on Lily's back.

"I'm not joking, Nana!"

"Don't grumble like that. We better get to where we're going, Carl."

Tonight I intend to follow Carl's instincts. We will visit the Delfanto orphanage, La Delcas village. I had once told Carl to go there alone and the boy complied. He brought home his anger and a floor plan. The purpose I told Carl was to investigate the place with me. But my main goal was to throw him into the forest near the orphanage. Because if you look at the historical records, that forest has a diversity of wild animals. 

So, let's see how good you are, Carl... The beasts in the forest near the capital aren't as strong as there, right?

 "Nana, why are you smiling with that look?"

Carl's words managed to wake me up. I turned my head and saw Carl who was already sitting behind me with his innocent face. I let out my breath for a moment and turned my gaze forward.

 "Let's go."

The plan was to sneak into the basement of the orphanage. Following Carl's instincts, something strange was happening down there because all the orphanage children were forbidden from approaching the area leading to the basement. But just like the tragic horror stories I read about the basement, there should be something strange like human experiments or a prison full of blood and chains. 

The story that triggered his angry aura at that time was set in the forest...

 According to Carl's story, the thing that killed his senior brother happened in the forest near the orphanage. The thing was described not as a wild animal but someone in a black robe. His senior brother tried to help him when they accidentally went into the forest. The problem was that the forest was fenced off with a high wall, so how would they get through?

 "There's a gap there."

 A gap, so what do you two want to do in that forest?

 "I don't know."

 Is that so? Or do you not want to remember?

When I asked her that, she just turned her face away and kept quiet for the duration of the exercise. After that, I didn't have the spirit to ask him anymore. But yesterday when I provoked her to visit her orphanage, she just burst into tears and looked down deeply. I don't know what he was thinking at the time but in his flat tone he only said in one sentence.

 "Then, do you have time tomorrow night?"

I don't even want to remember that I didn't like his question at the time. He seemed to look down on me, damn kid...

 "Nana, over there."

 I refocused my gaze. I could see a large wall stretching from near the shore to the other side of the beach. Lily was now flying quite high and there were no clouds at all blocking my view. It was the fence separating the Southeast Kingdom and the South Kingdom. This was the first time I saw that huge wall. On the other side of the wall, there was only darkness. I couldn't see the side beyond the wall.

 Was it an expanse of grass? There were no city lights there.

The wall was still quite far from where we were flying. I looked down and saw the lights. There was a large village just below us. For a moment I thought it was a city, but who would have thought it was just a village, the village of La Delcas.

 "Shouldn't we fly low?"

If I'm being honest, I'd prefer to go through the great wall. Lily folded her wings slightly and flew down. On the city side, there was a wall dividing the dense forest and the village. The dense forest was large enough to even cover the side of the great wall that was still far ahead. The village would be completely safe because the wall surrounded the entire area of the village. But the fact was that it wasn't enough.

Lily had stopped her pace and we were now flying in circles right above a large three-story house. The house had a large courtyard surrounding it. The backyard of the house actually faced the forest border wall directly.

 "So, where's a good place to land?" I asked.

 "We'll go down in the front yard, Nana."

 "Are you sure? I thought you'd choose the backyard."

 "There are many guards around the wall."

 Guards? So how did this kid sneak in that time?

 "Alright. Are you sure no one will see us in the front yard?"

 "No, I'm not. It's the orphanage's bedtime."

 I chose to follow what the boy said. The two large wings folded after Lily landed. I could see that many auras were gathered there from the children inside the orphanage. Carl stood still not far from the front door. I reached out my hand to pet Lily's head and the white wolf flew away leaving a gentle breeze in its wake.

"So, this is the place."

 After saying that to lure the boy, from my eyes a thin aura enveloped Carl's body. The flow was weak yet very rough. It felt like small thorns piling up on each other in his blood circulation. I unconsciously pulled my smile a little at that moment.

 Never mind... that rough aura was enough to catch my eye... 

 "I will guide you, Nana."

 Carl guided me to enter the orphanage through the door on the left side. Who would have guessed that this kid had a duplicate key to that door. Because the lights were off, the view was quite limited. Up to where I was now was an old door. The old door didn't look too conspicuous but Carl said that this was the way.

 "How did you steal the key to this old door?"

 "I didn't steal it, I copied it."

 I chose to remain silent. Now a cold aura touched the back of my neck as the old door was successfully opened. We rushed inside and closed the old door again.

 "Does someone patrol here every night?"

 "Yes, they're on standby all the time."

 I had thought that the old door was the only barrier to the basement. But now behind it were three different doors with large chains with locked padlocks.

 "Are we supposed to guess?"

 "The door is on this center door, Nana."

 "How do you know?"

"There was a gentle breeze blowing from the gaps of the right and left doors. So I guess the other two doors lead to the outside."

 Hmm ingenious too.

 "Let me cut this chain."

 "No, there's no need. You'll only make the sound of the chain falling."

 I tightly grasped the large chain and lock with both hands. 

 The large chain and padlock floated before finally crinkling and breaking under the heavy pressure centered between my hands. The shards fell slowly as they were still affected by the gravity seal.

 I always liked this skill.

 "Alright, guide me again."

 The door led us down a circular staircase. After passing through the stairs, there was a door with a chain like before. Using the same skill for the two doors ahead again, there was finally a sizable room. The room was filled with piles of food and goods. It looked like a warehouse. I cast a bit of aura on my fingertips and conjured up a flame to light a candle there.

 So they store their food and clothes here? But it's really dusty...

 I glanced at Carl and saw that he was standing in front of an empty wall. 

 [???!!!!]

 What? What's wrong? Why are there only question marks and exclamation marks?

 I approached the wall and touched it. Maybe to an ordinary person this was just an ordinary wall. But as I flowed a little aura in my palm, the wall seemed to undulate like water being touched. My hand pulled quickly on the water wave and it broke apart just like that. 

 "Wow, I didn't expect there to be something like this here."

 Carl remained silent and we entered the hidden room. On the walls of the room were many face paintings displayed. The strange thing was that they were all paintings of a child's face.

 Were these all face paintings of children in this orphanage?

 My ears perked up with the sound of a sword slashing through paper. I could see that there was now one painting with a split frame on the ground. And the one who slashed the painting was Carl. The painting that was slashed was of a boy who was smiling warmly with his brown hair.

"That's your brother?"

"Yes."

"You killed him?"

Carl was silent and stayed where he was. I went back to ask again.

"Then who did you mean by 'them' back then?"

"You won't understand..."

"..Are 'they' controlling the children here?" 

I drew my sword slowly.

"It's not my fault, it's theirs."

"I see."

I brought the tip of the sword to aim right at the boy's nape.

"I'm Valencia, so who are you?"

Carl was silent. Before finally turning around and looking me right in the eye.

"I'm Carl, Nana."

I retracted my smile by stepping back. Because at that moment Carl brought his sword towards my face. Carl lunged forward and I made my sword block the sudden attack. All I could see from his eyes at the moment was a blank stare with red eyes.

"So can you tell me what the purpose of 'them' is?"

After asking that question, Carl continued to attack me by targeting my neck. 

"You won't understand, it's not my fault, it's theirs," Carl whispered. 

"Yes, it's their fault, they made you this bad, right?"

"You know that?"

Attack after attack kept making my hands move to parry them. But after saying that, Carl just lowered his sword and looked at me as if he was searching for something.

"I'm glad I guessed right." 

Carl, when I first met him he always acted like a frightened person. But not infrequently he also seemed to be acting not like himself. He seemed to be trying to deceive himself. I just kept him busy by training him to be stronger. She just had a hard time trusting herself.

"Big Brother, told me to run away... After killing him." Carl paused his sentence.

"'They' are people who are crazy about wealth. 'They' played with magic, played clean, made us into puppets." 

"'They' are wrong!" Carl shouted suddenly.

The boy paused for a moment before finally attacking me again. This time his movements were more agile than before. I twisted my body and kicked his waist. Carl was knocked down before trying to stand up again.

"This painting is a witness to all 'their' deeds. 'They' did dirty things behind the clean name of the orphanage. Even after leaving here, they ask for our money."

If I were to summarize, the managers of this orphanage take advantage of the orphanage children by doing dirty things. Children who have been adopted will steal property from their adoptive parents and bring it to the orphanage without them realizing it. They control them with the magic used on the children's face paintings. I think this has something to do with the black magic curse like when I sent the person who adopted Carl to the palace.

Curse-type magic is annoying...

I didn't give an attack that could inflict any harm on Carl. But the boy didn't soften at all. Right now he was just standing still and bowing his head.

"Strangely, I can still see my dead brother."

"Did he come to you in your dream?"

"Yes. He visits with that annoying smile."

Carl raised his sword, looking at his face from the reflection of the iron blade.

"At that time, the kitchen knife was in my hand."

Carl, who was 7 years old at the time, was confusedly holding a knife in his hand. His senior brother asked him to run away after bringing the knife to stab him. Carl who was just flinching at the time, his brother pulled him and hugged him with quick movements. Who would have guessed that the knife that was aimed at him would be stuck right in his heart. With a blank stare as he saw his brother lying covered in blood, Carl made a hole and buried his brother in the forest.

The boy must have thought that he was the one who killed his brother...

But who would have thought that at the orphanage, Carl still met and saw the friendly smile of his brother. Carl was indeed surprised but also felt happy if his brother turned out to be okay. 

The question arose when 'how is that possible? Didn't I stab him?

The normal life at the orphanage made it seem as if nothing had happened. It was just that the feeling of that question hung over Carl. Until the older brother got a new family and went out of town, Carl still thought about what he had done. Looking at the time of the incident when he buried his brother, a great newspaper spread with the same location of the incident. 

At that time, the newspaper said that the bodies of two guards were found buried in the forest. The boy was the one who did it.

Only two people were found, so the brother's body was still moving like a living human being. If I'm to assume, Carl with his true personality didn't realize he was the one who killed. Until that child was adopted by the bastards I met when I met Carl.

Right now my question is how did he know that this picture and 'they' did all this?

"So you cut it down so that your brother could completely escape their influence?"

"Yes."

That way her brother somewhere who had become a zombie was completely dead and unable to move.

"Why didn't you cut it down a long time ago?"

"It's not my fault."

 I sighed and lowered the sword I was holding down.

"Right, it's not your fault. It's my fault."

 I think Carl was quite shocked and shaken when I said that sentence. From the look on his face, I could tell that what was previously anger had now turned into an inexplicable relief.

"It's my fault that I didn't know about that heinous thing when it happened."

 I decided to put my sword back in and walked slowly toward the boy. Carl remained motionless as if his body was frozen in place as he saw me start moving towards him. I hugged the tall skinny body firmly, as if to let the boy feel a warmth on his cold body.

"You must be having a hard time, is that right?" 

"From here on I'll take care of this until it's resolved, I promise."

After a few sentences, silence fell over us. And a moment later, Carl answered back and asked.

"Is that possible?"

"Very likely, after this is over you should accompany me to visit your brother's funeral."

"Funeral... brother..."

"It's time for him to rest in peace, right?"

"Brother... must rest..."

Subconsciously, when I heard that I slightly pulled my smile.

"Right... you too, Carl."

Carl's vision faded and we sat on the dust on the underground rock. I thought this child had fainted, so I chose to place the child's body safely. In the boy's left hand was a dagger with red blood on the blade. It was the dagger I had given him on Carl's birthday.

"Who would have thought that I would be hit by my own dagger."

I tried to suppress the deep stab wound on my right waist. This was not my body but when I was injured, it hurt just as much as my real body. I sat quietly and began to control my aura flow. The smooth yellow waves of aura now turned turquoise. 

I'm lucky enough that healing myself is easier than healing others...

I don't know why I always thought like that in the past. That was when Ruu was still with me, I didn't have to worry about the many wounds on my body. And for now I can't rely on that. 

Well... although it's a little difficult this time, but it's not impossible...

I could faintly hear the crowd of people above. When the wound on my waist was sufficiently improved, I quickly packed some things down there and carried Carl's body to leave.

"Lily, what's up there?" 

[ Successfully displaying Lily's perspective! ]

A transparent white screen appeared before me with a few sentences and a blurry video taken from Lily's vision flying from above. The video didn't last long as it disappeared shortly afterward like a broken tv screen.

[ Loading... ]

Tsk, you're unreliable, system...

I chose to rush up without making a sound. If I look closely at the short blurry video, something happened in the backyard of the orphanage. There were several people running around. It's just that due to the poor resolution and the nighttime conditions, I couldn't deduce what was going on there. As I approached the last staircase, I felt someone's presence behind the basement door. I don't know if the person was aware of my and Carl's presence or not, but afterwards there was a violent vibration on the ground I stepped on. Still with the system screen trying to justify its broken appearance, I guess the system screen wanted to show that there was something big emerging from underground in the backyard. And from behind a smoky-looking wall, a swarm of something ran in. But then the video crashed again and disappeared.

[ !!! ]

[ Warning! Explosion-- ]

Before the typing on the system screen was finished, a deafeningly high-frequency sound was heard. This sound was silent but I could feel the blood starting to flow from both my ears. I didn't know if this sound was inaudible or if my eardrums had been destroyed before the first sound. 

After my waist, this time my ears... Then what after this?

[ Warning! Magic explosion detected! ]

But what's interesting here is that Carl, who was with me and in an unconscious state, didn't experience anything. I can conclude that the magic explosion will only react to creatures that are conscious and within a certain range.

I guess my worries about the children here are gone for the moment...

I covered both my ears with the cloth I tore off. I wanted to use my healing magic, but after the explosion of the magic, whoever did it would instantly know the location of other magic users nearby. In other words for now it would be better for me not to reveal my location. 

Alright, it's pretty quiet here, I guess I'll just rely on my eyes and the vibrations in my feet for now...

I decided to take a slightly reckless action, by opening the underground door slightly to peek out. And now all I could see was a long dark hallway with dead candles. After successfully carrying Carl's body out through the door we used when we entered this house, Lily flew a little lower. But before she could get any closer, I could feel the vibration in my legs, as if something was running towards me. And sure enough, now behind me was something with a large body and long horns ahead. Lily flapped her wide wings, which could make the wind in front of her rage violently. 

Ukh it's useless for me to keep my location so I don't get caught.

"Lily take Carl away from here."

Lily stepped in and immediately bit the cloak that Carl was wearing and flew away. Due to the effect of the grass that flew after the wind created by Lily, I could see the huge monster groaning, although I couldn't hear its screams. 

"Alright, I'll deal with you."

✼⊷♛⊶✼