Chapter 139 – Difficult Times In The North!?

An hour had now passed since I made a small hut for the children to sleep in.

As we cared for them, Iria and Melk, who had heard word from the Ents, came to the hut.

“Sir Joshua. We came from the village with a carriage.”

“Thank you, Iria and Melk.”

“For you, Sir Joshua, I would rush through any mountain or forest! So, should we transport these children back to the village?”

“Indeed, when they are better… But first, we should listen to what they have to say.”

In the meantime, Melk went around and cast healing magic on them with her staff.

Her healing magic was more powerful than mine.

It seemed to me that they all suddenly looked relieved.

These children seemed to be around twelve years old.

So it must have been a very difficult journey to reach this place.

After some time, one of the girls opened her eyes.

“Uh, huh… Where am I?”

“You had all collapsed in this forest. Here, drink this first.”

A cup of freshly squeezed orange juice was given to her.

“Perhaps water would have been better?”

“N-no! I wanted to drink something sweet!”

The girl accepted the cup and drank the orange juice.

“It’s so delicious… I can’t remember the last time I had something like this.”

“There is plenty more of it. So take your time. There is also some food.”

And then I gave her some bread and grilled fish.

As she ate her food, I decided to see if would answer my question.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but where did you all come from?”

“Torelia…”

“Torelia? From the Toria?”

The girl nodded.

Toria was a human country that was slight to the north of Fendel.

And Torelia was their royal capital.

A giant city with great walls. It was considered to be one of the finest among the human fortress cities.

As the Shwartz Knights Order had been close by, I had visited it a number of times, and saw that it was a prosperous place.

And so why were children from that city here now?

“Why are you all the way out here, and alone?”

“So many…many…died in the city. We escaped with our mothers. But then we were separated.”

“People died…in the city?”

I had known that something was wrong with the priests from the temples.

Was this also Kyuby’s fault?

In any case, something serious was happening.

And so as to comfort the reassure the girl with tear-filled eyes, I said,

“There is a human town close by. Perhaps your mothers are over there. Once everyone has healed and eaten some food, we shall head towards it. Now, we have some honey sweets as well.”

I shared some of the sweets with the girl.

Though she was crying, she must have been very hungry as well. And so she devoured all of the food hungrily.

And then I turned to Iria, Melk, and Ecleshia.

“We should take them to Varthburg first… Perhaps some information has reached Solm.”

And like that, we decided to take the children to Varthburg.