Child's Day

More than four months have passed since the crisis at Ulduar was resolved. In the short time since the Alliance and Horde expeditionary forces landed in Northrend, two Old Gods have been completely destroyed, leaving only N'Zoth alive in all of Azeroth.

Besides N'Zoth, there is also the Old God Y'shaarj on the continent of Pandaria, waiting to be resurrected. However, in this timeline, even the living Old Gods are having trouble protecting themselves, and a dead Y'shaarj has no chance to cause any trouble.

After Yogg-Saron's death, its corpse rapidly decayed and rotted, and the huge underground cavity caused collapses and earthquakes in many parts of Northrend. Many cracks and depressions formed on the ground, and coupled with the energy rifts caused by Malygos's excessive extraction of magic net energy, the living environment in this northern continent became even worse.

This is just one of the prices to be paid for victory in war.

It is now the 24th year since the Dark Portal was opened, and four years since Aiden set foot on the land of the Hinterlands.

The last remnants of the Scourge were completely wiped out not long ago, and the Lich King Arthas has fallen.

The Burning Legion's invasion ended with Archimonde's death. Although Kil'jaeden is still plotting another invasion, the threat is far less than when Archimonde descended.

The Nexus War came to a most satisfactory conclusion, with Malygos regaining his sanity and reaffirming his duty as the "Spell-Weaver."

The Nightmare Crisis was also successfully resolved, and Xavius died completely.

After the Twilight's Hammer suffered heavy losses, the cult's activities have almost completely gone underground. Various forces in Azeroth are stepping up the search for remnants to further eliminate these cultists.

The Second War of the Shifting Sands didn't even truly break out, and the Qiraji Empire and their god, C'Thun, the "Thousand-Eyed Demon," were completely buried.

With the death of Yogg-Saron, there are no real threats left on the land of Azeroth.

After four years of chaotic war, countless battles and destruction, this world has finally ushered in a temporary peace.

—

After bidding farewell to Aman'Thul at the Observatory, Aiden temporarily dismissed the idea of immediately opening the elemental plane seals.

It would be good to strike while the iron is hot, but once the elemental planes are opened, no one knows how much damage Deathwing, plus the four elemental lords, and possibly even a Chromatic Dragon, would cause.

The earth has endured too much suffering. The Burning Legion's fel flames have almost burned out the entire Eastern Kingdoms, and most of Kalimdor is barren. Coupled with the earthquakes and tsunamis caused by C'Thun's death, many farmers have harvested almost nothing from their hard-worked land.

If the food crisis cannot be resolved, the harm it brings may be even more serious than other catastrophes.

People need to recuperate, at least to recover from the famine.

Today is Children's Week in Azeroth, a holiday for children, but the bigwigs are not in the mood to celebrate.

To solve the famine, the leaders of various races and forces are racking their brains. It is said that there will be good news today. Aiden, the leader of Valoran, has a think tank that has developed a "package plan" to deal with the famine, which will be announced at today's meeting.

Los Angeles values Children's Week very much. Festive blessings can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys, and various stores are offering huge discounts for the holiday. Amusement parks are incredibly popular.

The children's faces are filled with pure laughter, running from street to alley, enjoying their holiday.

This time, the representatives of other forces and countries came in the name of jointly celebrating the festival, and of course, they also did some superficial work.

There are a few very special children on the street. They are very particular about their clothes and elegant in their behavior, making it clear at a glance that they are not from ordinary families. If anyone could recognize all of them, they would be very surprised.

Because each of these children has an extraordinary background.

These are the children who came with the delegations from various countries to participate in the Children's Week celebrations—not all of them are children, for example, the leader is a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old. She has beautiful chestnut-colored straight hair, tied in a single ponytail. The girl has a beautiful face, and her skin color is darker than that of ordinary noble girls. Her figure looks very athletic. Her hands are not for dancing and playing the piano, but for mastering weapons.

"Are we almost there, Bridgette?" Another boy, a year or two younger than her, asked beside her. He is much stronger than the average fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy, tall and sunny, and loves to smile.

"It should be soon, let me ask." The girl was a little unsure.

Los Angeles is too big. They have been walking for almost half an hour and still haven't found their destination.

The girl named Bridgette found a middle-aged man selling toys and asked, "Hello, sir, can you tell me how to get to the 'Los Angeles Orphanage'?"

The toy merchant said enthusiastically, "Hello, beautiful lady, are you going to the orphanage? Go straight along this street, and turn left at the third intersection! Are you going to see the orphans? I have a lot of toys that children like here, would you like to take a look?"

Bridgette really couldn't refuse, and took out money to buy a few cute-looking dolls.

"I asked, let's go, it's not far." Bridgette came back and threw a bag of toys to the sunny boy beside her, "Hold this for me, Darion."

Her full name is Bridgette Abbendis, and her father, Alfred Abbendis, is the second-in-command to Highlord Mograine.

The boy who helped her hold the toys was Darion Mograine, the youngest son of her father's lord. They grew up together and are close playmates. Otherwise, ordinary people would not dare to let their lord's son be their follower.

Darion has always regarded Bridgette as his sister, and of course, he doesn't mind.

Darion rolled his eyes, and divided half of the dolls to another child: "Taelan, you help me with some!"

"You are really lazy, Darion!" Taelan Fordring glared at him, but he took it anyway.

Taelan Fordring is the son of Tirion Fordring, and will be an adult in two months—he is the same age as Bridgette, and because he exercises often, he is the tallest of these children.

The children behind them are even more noble than each other.

For example, Prince Anduin Wrynn of Stormwind, who is 9 years old, is also in the crowd.

The little prince inherited his father's kindness and weakness, innocent and kind, but his personality is a bit introverted, and his father, King Varian, has always wanted him to behave like a stalwart man, a brave and fearless warrior.

So his performance made his father a little disappointed.

Beside Prince Anduin is a short-haired girl. She is closer to the little prince, but very distant from the other children.

Her name is Vanessa VanCleef, the daughter of Edwin VanCleef.

Two years ago, when the Burning Legion invaded, Stormwind chose to reconcile with the thief leader of the Defias Brotherhood in order to get the ship from VanCleef.

Before Archbishop Benedictus's true identity was revealed, Varian would never have forgiven VanCleef, the instigator of the Stonemasons' Brotherhood rebellion and the murderer who killed his wife, Queen Tiffin.

But later, it was proven that Benedictus was the one secretly behind everything. Thus, Varian resolved his inner conflicts and seized the opportunity of Van Cleef's introduction to carry out a great purge. All nobles who were verified to be involved with the Twilight's Hammer, or were themselves corrupted, were either executed or imprisoned. Stormwind's politics immediately became clear and clean. After cutting away the rotten flesh, the kingdom was revitalized.

From this point of view, Varian should even be grateful to Van Cleef—now, this former leader of thieves has become the Admiral of Stormwind. He handed over his intelligence network and assassins, only managing the navy. After integrating SI:7 and the Defias elite, Stormwind has become the nation with the second most powerful agents and intelligence departments, only surpassed by the Valoran Federation.

However, Van Cleef's identity has always been criticized. Vanessa also grew up in an ordinary family. Although she is beautiful, she doesn't have any noble temperament, nor the so-called upbringing and connotation. Therefore, she has always been ostracized in noble circles.

Only the simple and kind-hearted Prince Anduin completely disregards her background and is willing to play with her. Therefore, Vanessa is only willing to play with the little prince and ignores the other noble children.

This time, they followed the envoy delegation to visit the Los Angeles Orphanage on behalf of their respective countries and forces. This is not a formal event. The adults also have meetings to attend, so they let them go to their destination on their own.

Although they are of noble status, there is no need to worry about their safety.

Los Angeles can almost be called the safest place in Azeroth. No one would dare to attack them here.

Moreover, someone has been secretly protecting them, just not directly showing themselves.

Bridget and her group had just passed two intersections and had not yet reached their destination when they saw several children coming to greet them.

Leading them were two elves, a boy and a girl.

The girl looked very delicate, with eyes as clear and crystalline as crystals. Seeing them, she took two steps forward, curtsied, and said, "Excuse me, are you the little guests from the envoy delegation?"

"Yes, we came with the envoy delegation," Bridget said, curiously looking at the elven children.

The girl and boy looked like they were fifteen or sixteen years old to humans, but Bridget knew that the lifespan of elves and humans was different. An elf who looks fifteen or sixteen years old usually has an actual age that is multiplied by ten, meaning that either of them could be older than Bridget's grandparents combined.

"Hello! I am Anveina, and this is Arator. Let us lead you the way!" the elven girl Anveina said with a smile.

"That's really great!" Bridget blinked.

However, she didn't know that these two elves were much younger than she guessed.

Anveina is only two years old. She is not even an elf, but the embodiment of the Sunwell.

After the Sunwell was detonated, Krasus used the life essence of the red dragon to condense Anveina's body. She is not actually a high elf.

Arator is also not a pure-blooded elf.

His mother is the high elf ranger-general Alleria Windrunner, but his father is the authentic human expeditionary force commander Turalyon.

Arator is a half-elf, but he doesn't show any obvious human characteristics—except that his growth rate is almost as fast as a human's.

They soon arrived at the "Los Angeles Orphanage," which houses more than two thousand orphans who have lost their parents or been abandoned for various reasons, mostly due to war and disaster, and a few due to illness and hardship.

However, the children here are almost all normal. They are not afraid of strangers, nor are they inferior because of their identity. Because of the upcoming Children's Week, the children are playing in groups in the orphanage and have spontaneously organized various activities.

"I've been to the orphanage in Stormwind, Vanessa. Do you see, these orphans are very different from the children in the Stormwind orphanage," Prince Anduin said. Although he was not yet ten years old, he keenly noticed the difference between the orphans in the two countries.

"What's different?" Vanessa asked.

She also saw the difference, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it and didn't know how to express it.

She had also seen many displaced orphans. After her father occupied the Deadmines and organized the Defias Brotherhood, Westfall became very unsettled. Many people were displaced because of the confrontation between Stormwind and the Brotherhood, and naturally, a large number of orphans roamed Westfall.

Vanessa had personally seen orphans fighting wild dogs for food and rummaging through the belongings of the dead. Some children, even younger than her, would do anything to survive.

Fortunately, everything has passed, and she hasn't seen such a tragic situation for a long time.

"These children are very confident and don't feel sorry for themselves because of their orphan status. They don't seem to be inferior at all, but rather full of vigor—I have to write it down!" Prince Anduin took out a small notebook and quickly wrote down what he saw.

He was going to ask someone for the answer or find the answer himself.

This was the task his father gave him, and he himself liked this kind of "homework."

If he learned the method, perhaps he could promote it in Stormwind as well. After all, the establishment of personality has a great impact on life. The future achievements of a confident orphan and an inferior orphan will definitely be vastly different.

"You're right, Anduin!" Vanessa applauded him, praising him from the bottom of her heart.

Anduin smiled shyly. He liked to hear others praise him, but his father rarely satisfied his needs in this regard and often criticized him instead.

"Hey, there's a stage over there. Are they performing a show? Let's go take a look!"

Tirion Fordring pointed to a stage in the distance, where a group of children seemed to be performing a play.

"Let's go, let's go take a look," Anveina led them over.

The play being performed on stage was "Amumu and Annie," which was currently the most popular among children, and the performers were themselves, plus the best supporting actor, Little Timmy.

Annie is Amumu's best friend. Although he later made many new friends, Annie's position in his heart is different. He wants to protect Annie.

"Amumu and Annie" is a series of adventures he took to protect Annie.

Timmy is a supporting character, often playing the role of the villain BOSS.

He is also an orphan, but he was lucky enough to be adopted by "The Heart of Freljord," Braum, and has a new home in the Valoran Federation.

The children from the envoy delegation came to the stage and watched the play with great interest, and listened to Anveina explain the previous plot.

Tirion Fordring, Bridget Abbendis, Vanessa, Prince Anduin, Arator, Anveina, Timmy… These children are not aware of their fate in the classic plot, and naturally do not know how wonderful a future they are currently enjoying.