Chapter 115: - The Lord Is With Us (36)

༺ The Lord Is With Us (36) ༻

The orphanage’s utility room had long since become a makeshift command center.

The few documents scattered in the room were handwritten by Leto. In them, he had organized and recorded the progress of the search as well as various pending issues affecting the orphanage.

Among the records, the most significant document was the orphanage’s financial statements.

Since the Guilford Orphanage received support from the Holy Land, they maintained their own ledger. But since Mr. Guilford––who lacked expertise and proper training––was in charge of the ledger, there were a lot of inaccurate portions that needed to be corrected.

So everyone agreed to have Leto temporarily take charge of writing the orphanage’s financial statements. At least as long as we stayed at the orphanage.

During the process of writing the financial statements, Leto realized one thing.

“This orphanage is doomed anyway.”

It was a cold and brutal assessment but Leto was never wrong. He clicked his tongue and slammed the papers onto the table.

“There’s hardly any sources of income. It’s a wonder that they’ve been able to hold on so far. The orphanage should have closed down a long time ago.......”

“It’s not our problem anyway, right?”

Senior Delphine cut Leto off mid-sentence. As always, she sat with a lofty posture with her legs crossed.

The expression on her face was nothing short of impertinent. Her attitude seemed to ask what the problem was.

“Keep in mind, Einstein. Our mission here is simply to subdue the beasts attacking the orphanage. Moreover, we might even have to face a demon soon.”

Senior Delphine’s oddly persuasive words traveled straight into everyone’s ears. That was the effect of Delphine Yurdina’s innate charisma.

Her words were always simple, yet straight to the point.

It was Delphine Yurdina’s language, the language of the strong, and even in her boredom, her crimson eyes betrayed an air of ease as she spoke.

Leto, who had been quietly listening to her words, nodded and agreed to her statement.

“...You’re not wrong. Alright then, since you’ve taken the initiative and led the search team, let’s start with your story, Senior Delphine.”

Senior Delphine opened her mouth to speak right away as if she knew that Leto was going to agree. However, unlike before, her voice wasn’t as relaxed and sounded a little strained.

“We continued our search around the area where the monkey beasts were most frequently spotted. We noticed that their attacks became increasingly aggressive the further we went towards a certain direction. And at the end of their attacks, there was a cave.”

It was a short and simple testimony but contained all the necessary information. Groans escaped from the mouths of those who were listening.

As I listened with a serious expression, I couldn’t help but ask the question that naturally arose in my mind.

“Did you happen to go into the cave?”

Hearing my voice, Senior Delphine’s body slightly trembled. Her eyes flicked to me, and then shifted to the ground.

Her proud manner of speaking soon shrank to a timid murmur.

“No...”

I didn’t have any intention of blaming anyone, but Senior Delphine started to glance back at me. I asked again in a nonchalant tone of voice.

“Were there too many sources of potential risks around?”

“No.”

The response to my question came from another person. While Senior Delphine hesitated, Seria spoke up on her behalf.

Seria spoke in her usual cold, haughty voice. Come to think of it, their similarities made it undeniable that they were sisters even though they were step-sisters.

The way they held themselves with confidence, their beautiful appearances, and their pride in being a Yurdina were similar. They also secretly cared a lot for each other

“But my sister judged the potential risks to be too high. If a demon was actually there, we thought it would be impossible to fight back with just the members in the search group at the time.”

With that, the meeting was over. The goal was set, and at this point, there was no other information to discuss.

All that remained was the final battle.

After the meeting, Celine approached me with tears in her eyes and asked,

“Ian Oppa, will we be okay?”

She always had a soft heart ever since we were young. Asking her to suddenly risk her life in hunting a demon naturally filled her with fear, especially since she was the least experienced member of the group.

I patted her shoulder and tried to comfort her.

“Don’t worry, we can just run away when it gets dangerous.”

I didn’t know if that would work, but it was better than being unnecessarily scared.

After Celine, Leto came up to me. He let out a sigh before asking me a question.

“...Will you be okay?”

“No. Honestly, I just want to get on a horse and run away right now.”

My answer was a far cry to what I had just told Celine a moment ago. Even so, Leto smiled and patted me on the shoulder as if he knew what I was going to say. His way of thinking was the complete opposite of Celine’s.

“Protect Celine, Ian. Or I will kill you with my own hands.”

That was something I had to do even without him saying it. As I nodded with a bitter smile on my face, Leto pulled out a piece of parchment from his pocket.

It was a scroll. Scrolls were magical objects with spells inscribed on them. Tearing a scroll would activate the spell within, regardless of the user’s personal abilities.

Of course, such scrolls were very difficult to make and were also very expensive. Since this was Leto’s specialty, although I knew this was in his skillset, it probably required a lot of effort.

As I looked at him in surprise, Leto spoke casually, as if it was no big deal.

“It’s a scroll with the 2nd Circle Fire Magic recorded on it. Most beasts are afraid of fire, so use it to escape in case of an emergency.”

I was silent for a moment. Although Leto was a noble, I knew that he wasn’t rich enough to be handing out scrolls like it was nothing. I hesitated and debated whether or not I should accept the scroll that had likely cost tens to hundreds of gold coins from him. In the end, there was only one conclusion I could reach.

Leto, too, would have judged that it would be better for me to have the scroll than to die or get hurt. It was disrespectful and downright ungrateful of me to refuse the act of kindness he was showing me.

“...I’ll repay you soon, Leto.”

“You’ll have more than enough to repay me if you sell the beasts you catch tomorrow, you bastard.”

With that, Leto left. I briefly watched him walking away, and then held the scroll in my arms. I realized that I had a lot of things to take with me.

The potion bottle that Emma had given me, the scroll that Leto gave me just now... I was hoping to take a healing potion as well.

With that thought in mind, I started walking. I reiterated the importance of being ready for tomorrow in my head.

***

But that night, I had a particularly unexpected visitor.

Her golden hair gleamed under the moonlight. Her ruby-like crimson eyes were looking at me with sorrow.

She came to beg me.

“...Punishment.”

“Sorry?”

Caught off guard by her sudden request, I blurted out a question in response. But the reality in front of me didn’t change.

“Punish me... Please.”

Senior Delphine’s expression seemed so sincere that I was at a loss for words.

It felt like a rock was hurled into the still waters of a peaceful day as a finalé.