Quickly grabbing him by hand, Veliam started walking toward the building where he hid the two girls.
"Akiyo, you were brave back there, but don't fight if you know, you're going to lose, if you had shouted asking for help, guards would have noticed your presence," Opening the door of the building, Velian kept advising him.
"Work smarter, not harder, if you can avoid fighting by intimidating your enemy do that, as long as they won't come back in the future to bite you back,"
Akiyo listened to his big brother's words carefully and noticed how foolish he was in trying to be heroic and put the life of the two girls in danger.
Walking along the dark hallway of the abandoned building, Velian opened the door which was locked by an ice seal, he created since it didn't have a lock in the first place.
"Ahhhhh~"
Seeing their dark figures, two girls shouted but Veliam quickly used his fire magic to get some light and looked at the two girls.
"Don't shout, we won't harm you," He said without getting close to them, while quickly removing his jacket and covering the mother's body, which was partially naked.
"..."
They didn't talk at first, but seeing them genuinely not trying to harm her or their daughter, the mother opened her mouth.
"Who are you?" Her question was a simple one.
"We are something like guards, tell me, are you okay?" Veloan quickly gave them some water and calmed them.
Akiyo kept observing how well his brother handled all this and couldn't help but feel admiration.
"They are already opening up to him, if it was me, I would have freaked out," He muttered and got close to Velian.
The mother, who was protecting her daughter looked really young, maybe close to middle age while the daughter looked like she was no older than ten.
"We are not okay, they tried to force themselves on us, my husband-"
*Sob
Suddenly the woman started crying while tightly holding her child.
"Did they do something?" It was an insensitive question to ask from a victim, but Velian wanted to know whether Akiyo was too late before letting him know the result.
"No, before they could do anything, a young boy came to help us," She answered in the same depressing tone, but Velian felt relieved to hear that.
"I guess you were in a debt, those people who tried to harm you were from a business firm," Velian questioned.
"My husband had a lot of debts, we were allowed to stay peacefully, even though we had ent because he was from the military, but as soon as he died in the war, they started to bother us," Her hand was shaking, but Velian didn't want to touch her because he knew sometimes for people like them, touch can be traumatic.
"Hmm~ still selling two of you because of the debt, that's illegal, human trafficking is illegal in this kingdom, I'm sorry you had to go through such a thing but I promise nothing like that will ever happen again," Kneeling in front of her with a worried look, Velian muttered.
"Do you have a house to go back to?"
Mother looked at Velian with conflicted eyes and answered,
"We don't, they completely destroyed everything,"
Akiyo also got closer and looked at the duo, he helped.
"That's problematic, but even if you fo back, you will starve since you won't have a job," Velian thought about the best thing he can do, but then he decided to let Akiyo decide.
"Akiyo, it's up to you, you're the one who wanted to help these two, so don't do it half-assed, stay until the end," Pushing him forward, Velian carefully listened to whatever decision he is going to make.
"You're that boy!" After getting a closer look at Akiyo, the mother suddenly got up from her position and kneeled in front of him.
"Thanks for helping me and my daughter, I'm forever grateful to you," Her voice had desperation showing how traumatised she was.
Akiyo looked at them with his eyes getting wet feeling happy that he was able to help these two but in the end he knew, it wasn't him that helped them.
He knew if not for Velian finding them, most probably even he would have been killed.
"Brother, I don't want to let them die, can we take them back to the castle, "Looking back, he asked while sending his eyes all around the room showing he wasn't confident.
He couldn't even imagine what would happen to them if they leave these two like this.
"Well, if that's what you want," Velian got close to them.
"Castle?" The woman, who was listening to the question as with a confused look.
"Oh, well I'm your new king, I'm not exactly a guard and this is my brother, we are truly sorry something like this happened to you inside our land, so would you be kind enough to come with us?" Giving his hand, Velian asked.
He decided to give them a proper job, so they can survive on their own.
"Whhhhhat-" The voice of the woman even reached the road, as she shouted like, Velian was forcing her.
"Don't shout, listen, I will make you a servant and give you a living place, and you should serve us with loyalty, good deal right?"
It took a few minutes for Velian to convince them that he was actually the king since the woman didn't believe him but after that, he took them to the castle and introduced them to the head maid.
"Akiyo, I have a job for you," Sitting down on his seat, Velian looked at Akiyo, who had beaten-up marks all over his face.
"Aunt Asumi might hate me for doing this, bit I think as a man you should choose what you want," Leaving those words with him, Velian threw a card in his direction.
"They are the ones responsible for this, it's up to you what you're going to do, I will ask Naomi to help you, so decide,"
Akiyo looked at the card and understood what Velian was talking about. He thought for a few minutes while touching his scars and smile looking at Velian.
"I won't disappoint you, brother," Touching his sword, he gave the response Velian was waiting for.
This content is taken from free web nov𝒆l.com