440 A Generous Offer
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After lunch, the kids were brought upstairs by Lucia, while Mary stayed with us alongside my parents and the rest of the adults. She seemed to quickly change her face expression as she grew progressively more concerned. My parents quickly asked her if she had seen anything suspicious before, and she seemed to have noticed a few things.
“I’ve been lately seeing Soldiers around these areas of the streets. Usually this place is completely barren of any security, but the last week they had constantly been appearing more and more. And most of the time, always wandering around our orphanage. Due to fear this morning I didn’t wanted to come out, nor let the children come out either.” Sighed Mary. “And then, right after we had breakfast, they came in a group of over twenty people… We don’t have any strength ourselves, against so many people, we would had been easily defeated trying to protect the children.”
Mary seemed to be dispirited, the cheerful smile she always wore seemed to be nowhere to be seen, and instead, she looked very nervous.
“We were scared and had thought about running away from the back, but when the soldiers tried to break in, they were hit by the barrier…” Said Mary. “We felt so relieved that magic barrier was still working, but remained in fear, as the soldiers continued hitting it, they even brought magicians and magic weapons constantly trying to destroy the barrier, but it never faltered. However, they were very insistent, calling us to get out of the orphanage, and that for every hour they spent trying to break the barrier, we would all receive an even worse punishment…”
“Those bastards…” My father said, gripping his fists tightly. “I should had perhaps broken their skulls a bit.”
“I-It was enough with what you did, so please don’t overexert yourselves…” Mary said while panicking a bit. “But now, we don’t really know what will happen to us… W-We know you’re S Ranked Adventurers, but can you go against the country’s government even with your Ranks? For some reason we are being accused of being criminals… If we run away, we will only give them more reasons to chase us down to the ends of the world…”
“Don’t worry, strength is not our only forte.” My mother said with a reassuring smile. “However, for now, you’re kind of right. Things might not get any better if you stay here.”
“Eh?” Asked Mary surprised.
.....
“That’s why we want to invite you and everyone in this orphanage to come with us, Mary.” Said Shade.
“Yeah, this place is too dangerous, and trying to change the minds of people so filled with resentment is completely useless and a waste of time.” Said Nepheline.
“It would be for the best of the children as well, if they can grow in a place where they’re accepted and where they can find others like them too.” Said Ninhursag.
“Others… like them?” Mary was confused.
“Well…” My father said. “We have our own caravan filled with the tribe of amazon of Nepheline’s family, those people are our family and they’re very open minded. We have been rescuing slaves these last weeks, buying them in secret by infiltrating the criminal organizations and then bringing them to our village to free them and protect them.”
“We have freed those that wanted to go on their own, but most of them have remained with us as we have offered shelter and aid.” My mother said. “My plan is going to the Atlanta Continent with everybody. I have ties with the royal family there, and they’ll give me a piece of land, we’ll build our own village there, where those we have rescued can live peacefully.”
“W-What?” Mary was even more shocked every single second. “G-Going so far for us… why? Why would you go so far?”
“Well… We have the strength and the resources.” Said my father.
“And… it is the least we could do. What has happened to the people here is partially all our fault. We ended a war we couldn’t win, we never figured things out completely before, and we only made many suffer.” My mother lamented.
“What… do you mean? Were you part of the war? Please, don’t blame yourselves… E-Even if you killed Demons, that’s all in the past. It shouldn’t be a reason to force yourselves to go to such lengths…!” Mary implored us to not do something so insane just for her and the children.
“Well… We are more than just soldiers that happened to participate in the war.” My father said.
“But we can’t disclose this information yet.” My mother added.
“Indeed, dear. So for now, just come with us. Or are you telling me you prefer to have all these children enslaved and to be turned into those noble’s playthings?” Asked uncle Arafunn, being completely direct and honest.
“Arafunn!” My mother reprimanded my uncle, but he was honestly in the right to be blunt about this.
If we were not blunt and told her how realistic she and the children would be treated, we would never be able to truly convince her.
“Mary you’ve experienced the horrendous things that have happened after war. Right? We can’t change these people’s mind no matter how much we could try. And if we keep trying, we will only make things worse… We have long ago stopped thinking about such ideals, it is futile to try to change such an enormous group of people’s minds by mere words. Brainwashing them with magic is… not something right either.” My mother sighed.
“Even as painful as it sounds. It is better to run away to a place where you can be safer. Don’t you want these children to grow healthy and safe?” Asked my father.
“I… Ah…” Mary suddenly began to cry.
“M-Mary?” My mother asked worried.
“Thank you… I… Thank you for everything… I feel so ashamed I can’t do a single thing to repay you for everything… Thank you…” Mary bowed her head. She seemed to have accepted my parent’s offer at the end.
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