The sun begins to rise an hour or so after we got everyone back to safety, we should let them rest further, at least the ones that manage to fall asleep to begin with, it seems most if not all the caretakers are fully awake and, well they could be in a better shape but they could also be way worse.

  ...

  ...

  “Morning everyone”

  “Lady Marisa! I- no, I think I speak from everyone here, but we’re grateful to you, from the bottom of our hearts, from saving us and taking care of the kids”

  I gathered all the important people of the burned orphanages, that is, all the owners and responsible caretakers, the rest of the adults are keeping an eye on the kids, at least we managed to give everyone breakfast with the stuff we manage to scrounge from the pantry, so they’re doing a bit better I want to believe, I can hear kids pying in the gardens, so I feel a bit relieved that they’re doing better, at least some of them are.

  Anyways, for now.

  “Please, I don’t deserve any praise, it is my literal job to look after all of you”

  “Oh please, we couldn’t-“

  “Stop, there’s not much time for pleasantries, let’s get on to business, and I hate to say this to you guys, seeing what you just went through, but I need a headcount, how many of your kids you have, and how many are you missing”

  It’s a grim topic, but we need to reorganize ourselves, and start rebuilding. Fortunately, I already have a rough estimate from Lassie’s reports, she’s here as well but, well she can’t exactly raise her opinion with ease for obvious reasons.

  One by one they all started writing down the kids they have, and with a broken heart, the ones they lost, some of the papers they handed to me had tear stains, but I won’t say anything, I also have an official headcount from the pace knights, so I’m gonna cross reference those with these, and that gives me about...

  “Well then, that still leaves us with 76 people unaccounted for, 31 children and 45 adults, they’re all probably from the church or the basement”

  Here hoping I didn’t botch the numbers, well technically 77 if you count the piggy as well, I don’t, He’s more than accounted for, where is he anyways?

  “That’s a lot”

  “Yes, for now the church has to remain closed for investigation, although I’m pnning to eventually demolish it and build another proper orphanage, still that’ll take time, and I doubt anyone wants to take that pce as home right now”

  Given the situation and also, I still need to gather information and evidence from there, I don’t think they would be happy with a stigmatized property like that.

  “Midy, if it’s not too rude to interrupt but, beggars can’t be choosers, even if we hate it, it’s better than to live on the streets”

  “Yeah you’re right, still, the pace will give you all hospice while the orphanages are being rebuild, which takes us to our next topic, our rebuilding pn”

  “The town will rebuild all the orphanages!?”

  “Yes, however, I have a confession to make, and that is that, we’re pretty broke! Truth be told, all the money from the original support program already squeezed our budget dry, sure we still have that money, but with this tragedy, it’s obvious that it won’t be enough to rebuild, so I have a favor to ask of all of you!”

  I said in a coy manner, I really don’t like it but also, I can’t help people who can’t help themselves.

  “I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but I’ll need you guys help to help with rebuilding! I know it’s shameless of me since it falls as my responsibility, but we need all the working hands we can get!”

  ...

  Why is no one saying anything?

  “What are you talking about Midy, of course we’ll help!”

  “We wouldn’t dream of zing around while you do all the work!”

  “Guys...”

  “We’re all more than happy to help!”

  “Ok then! Let’s begin!”

  And like that, we started to see which orphanage to rebuild first, we sorted them by size, and we’ll do the biggest and the smallest first, the biggest could accommodate the most for the ‘least’ amount of resources, but it’ll take time to build, meanwhile it’s the opposite for the small one, we can start sending kids home quicker.

  “Even so, there’s still a lot of pces to rebuild! Would it be ok to merge some of them together in areas where we could fit more of them?”

  “Sure, if it’s not too cramped, we can merge some”

  “No problem over here either”

  “Seems like a good idea to be honest”

  Good thing there’s some on board with the idea, less to build, and less pces to keep track of, I wonder why there were so many orphanages to begin with, the town is rger than it seems at first gnce to be honest.

  “Now for the church kids, would it be ok if we distribute them among you guys, I can’t have them fend off for themselves, nor I trust the religious organization to take them back”

  “Of course! We’ll be more than happy to welcome them”

  “Great! Still some of the pces you were located in were pretty small, let’s see if we can rearrange people and maybe open a few new orphanages in other pces in the process”

  “Of course!”

  Now I’m gonna have to do city pnning, isn’t that just wonderful, moments like this I begin to regret my position, but it’s not like I can just quit, for much that I would want to right now, still, we started off by seeing resources needed and manpower.

  “For now, I’ll talk to the army, I’ll make them all help with this”

  “Midy! There’s no way we can-“

  I interrupted the speaker mid sentence.

  “I already pnned on employing the army for a few tasks before all of this happen, this just accelerated the process”

  “But is it wise to move the army like that?”

  “It’s fine! If there’s a threat I’ll just deal with it myself! Hopefully not too te this time!”

  And like that, and with the help of a builder we got from the pace, we have a rough estimate of materials needed for construction of a few orphanages, even if it took a good chunk of the morning to get everything in order, for now we have the plot of nd and the construction pns, let’s start with that, surprised piggy was the one who organized all of this st time with the refugees.

  I also ordered the army to go to an unowned forest, and commanded them to chop down some wood, other bunch are in the mines, getting stone and such, and then the orphanage people and another part of the army started demolishing the burnt orphanages, and salvaging anything that they find useful that survived being burnt to a crisp.

  If we all get the resources and manpower, and then taxes are 0 on this, then the final price it’s 0, so the only price we’re paying it’s the food, which was already an estimated price for the original program, so it’s all good, still, there’s all the furniture and other things to buy or produce, and then I actually pn on paying a bit to the architect/builder, since making him work for free it’s a bit of a dick thing to do.

  The orphanage people won’t get paid though, they’re literally building their own home, not that they’re all working, half of them are still at the pace, taking care of the kids, meanwhile Heather and Rushka are also helping with organizing everyone and even more paperwork.

  In the grand scheme of things, everything is going smoothly I want to believe, for now I’m chopping wood in the middle of a forest and creating boxes instead of helping everyone with the work.

  Why you may ask, they’re coffins, once I’m done with this I’ll go back to the church, pick all the corpses, and then take them all to the pace, there’s work to do I know but, this afternoon we’ll have a proper funeral for all the kids that are no longer with us, all the staff are aware of this, since they’re all coming back to the pace ter.

  ...

  ...

  Still, it’s quite a sad sight, all the kids ying on the floor, I’m with the pace knights, picking dead kids and pcing them on coffins, not before washing their clothes and drying them with magic, I’m treating them so they’re as decent as possible within our limited time frame, we neatly arranged them in the carriages, and we headed back to the pace, all the while I suppressed my guilt so that the people working with me doesn’t break down as well.

  There’s more investigation to be done so I ordered the pace knights that, unless you want to say your farewells to someone at the funeral, they must remain working and looking for anything suspicious in the church, same with the military, they’ll get a break once I know there’s no more immediate danger or someone tries to tamper the evidence further, Doe is in charge of the investigation for now.

  Back at the pace I arrived along the carriages we used for transport, and started unloading them. Now, with the help of the staff we put all the coffins in rows at the garden, to let everyone say their farewells, I...

  I feel terrible seeing them all crying, even the kids are having a rough time, they shouldn’t have a grasp on death so early on, still, there’s nothing else we could do but send them off with dignity surrounded by their loved ones...

  For now I went with Lassie, she’s mourning her lost kids as well, her orphanage was quite small as she only had 15 children but now there’s only 11 kids, and they’re all saying their farewells, in reality I barely know any of them, still, I picked a bunch of flowers from the forest, make some grew with magic too, and went coffin by coffin, wishing them the best, and leaving a flower on their coffin.

  Lassie looked at me, and after gesturing to her kids to stay here and making a sign to follow her, I couldn’t do anything but comply.

  Moving to the corridors just past the gardens, in a little corner where there’s currently no one but us, she sat down on a bench we put for more people to sleep in, and then showed me her notebook.

  I was hesitant to look, would she insult me? Threaten me or say that she hates me? I...

  I have to face her head on, so I looked at what she wrote.

  ‘Please, stop bming yourself, this was not your fault’

  “Eh?”

  She then proceeded to keep writing.

  ‘It pains me to see you like this’

  “Lassie...”

  I sat down next to her, did she perhaps realize my mental state like Heather and Rushka? I don’t want to worry her any further, we already have enough on our pte for me to break down as well, and she’s probably in an even worse condition than I am.

  “I’m fine really, just taken aback is... all...”

  She then proceeded to give me a hug, holding my head in her bosom while stroking my hair, even though my horns are kinda poking her a bit, I tried to get my head up so she’s not getting pierced by them but she held me down with even more strength.

  I can’t see her face but I felt drops of water falling on top of me, and the soft whimpering of her broken voice, I couldn’t say anything anymore, I held her down in a hug as well, truth be told she’s really making me feel like crying as well, but if this brings her some comfort then, I will let her stay like this for as long as she needs to.

  Only when she couldn’t hold down her crying anymore, did she finally let go of me, averting her gaze to clean her tears.

  “It’s ok, let it all out”

  I used my hand across her body and held her head, moving my own head to the side so we were forehead to forehead, I wanted to be side to side but again, the horns.

  And so Lassie cried, all that she couldn’t before, she’s glued next to me, I held her hand with my other free hand, and her dropping tail found her way touching mine, before I knew it, we intertwined together, holding each other in a warm embrace for a moment while Lassie could finally mourn proper...

  ...

  ...

  Back at the funeral, one of the butlers intercepted me immediately.

  “Lady Marisa”

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “The angel dy it’s screaming at the top of her lungs that she wants to speak with you, I know it’s not the right time but-”

  “It’s fine, I did told you to report me anything about those two, thanks, I’ll go there”

  “Sorry for the inconvenience Midy”

  And like that, I headed to the dungeons that were once a basement, where bastard Ecir and that angel are locked. Ecir it’s gagged and chained down since he would try to kill himself if we let him bite his tongue.

  “What is it?”

  “L-dy Marisa!”

  “Yes? Are you finally going to talk? You were pretty lifeless these past hours”

  “I! I’m sorry! I really don’t know anything about the church’s pns, not even the sacrifices going on their back, I just...”

  “What is it?”

  She’s literally a mess of a face, with sunken eyes and just generally disheveled, I know she’s not lying, but still.

  “I know it’s selfish of me, and I don’t deserve anything from you however! I-I heard from the guards that you’re holding a send off for the kids...”

  “Yes”

  “I beg of you! Please let me go too! I... I want to say goodbye properly!”

  ...What?

  “Like if I’d trust you, it’s not-”

  “PLEASE!! I’LL DO ANYTHING!! EVEN IF IT COSTS ME MY LIFE!! PLEASE JUST LET ME SAY GOODBYE TO MY CHILDREN!!”

  She’s screaming and crying loudly, she even got on the floor to beg, putting her face on the ground at my feet next to the cell, repeating the word ‘please’ over and over again, something about the sight gave me really mixed feelings.

  “Sigh... it’s fine I guess, but I’ll keep my eyes on you”

  “Eh? T-THANK YOU SHO MUUUUCH!!”

  “Yeah right, just stop with the waterworks will you!”

  I opened the door, not before grabbing a pair of shackles. I felt bad putting it on her but it’s a necessity as a prisoner, I chained her arms together, and like that, I took her to the garden.

  Many of the guys looked at her with disdain, but a lot of kids rushed towards her, yelling her name, which honestly I couldn’t quite get, it was a weird name, and the kids are crying so it’s pretty impossible to understand them to begin with.

  The angel girl just limited herself to try to hug the kids, as best as she could with the shackles holding her down.

  I gave her the time to talk to the kids, but it seems she looks pressured by my gaze, still, I won’t look away for a second.

  She then headed to the coffins, we pced them in order by orphanage, so the people had an easier time looking for their family, still, we could only assume that all the kids that didn’t get recognized were from the church, I’m guessing we weren’t wrong seeing that the angel girl recognized them immediately, and mourned them all as well.

  She’s just crying, looking at the coffins, murmuring under her breath.

  Still she said goodbye with the rest of the church’s kids.

  “I... did you kids give your friends flowers?”

  “No... the demon dy did it”

  She’s asking the other kids, I guess it is quite a baren funeral, gathering flowers for every kid and adult to give a flower to every kid would probably make the town flower market to dry, and I understand the wish to give them flowers, but at least the adults were all reasonable and understood the implications.

  Still, I gathered at least a flower for every kid, and I asked the proper caretakers if they wanted to be the one pcing the flowers, some of them agreed, others wanted me to do the honors, but for the kids at the church, there wasn’t any caretakers, so I personally pced them.

  The angel girl just looked at me.

  “Thank you so much”

  “It’s nothing, they deserve a proper farewell”

  Funny how the mourning practices are so simir to what I know, I asked Heather beforehand and for the flower types, I wouldn’t want to be irresponsible, the grim afternoon continued and yet, the mood was not as dark as I thought it was gonna be, it’s still depressing however.

  ...

  ...

  “I’m back”

  “Celestial, how did it go?”

  She literally walked through the front gate of the pace instead of flying back as she always does, thank you for not interrupting the ceremony and all that.

  “Bad, there was nothing in the meeting pce anymore, I couldn’t find any traces either”

  “Figures, this is no pce to talk of that, follow me”

  I said, taking her to a living room, so we can talk in peace, I need to have a proper talk, so I already had this pnned. I pulled a deck of cards.

  “Let us enjoy a moment together”

  “Marisa, if you’re expecting to bet against me for information, I’m not gonna py”

  “It’s fine, let us do so just for fun, kinda like the day we met, yeah”

  “If you say so”

  And so after shuffling the cards, we started pying once again, all the while I made small talk, sure not betting is fine, she always leaves her guard down with games, I found out about the casino fiasco by some of the people at the refugee vilge, speaking of their popution is gonna increase since that’s where I’m sending the other non-orphanage people, unless they want to work for me.

  “So you got nothing?”

  “Sadly, I hate to admit it, but the piggy lord was another dead end”

  “That’s unfortunate, who are they anyway? What’s their deal?”

  “That’s... not something you should worry about”

  She’s putting more attention to the conversation that the card game, I need to do something, since it was my turn to pick a card from her hands, I deliberately took my time as if I were thinking, and when I realized with her facial expressions that I found the odd queen out, I took it so she thinks she’s winning.

  “Celestial, why won’t you tell me”

  “You have more urgent matters at hand right?”

  I hate to admit it but, I don’t have the manpower nor can I divert my attention too much right now to investigate.

  “Tch... yeah I guess you’re right, still, I don’t like how you’re lying to me”

  “I’m not lying”

  “Not telling the whole truth could be considered a lie”

  I know she doesn’t lie, but she’s also not telling me things.

  “You don’t need to worry about that”

  “People got hurt Celestial, I cannot sit with my arms crossed and do nothing”

  I guess screw the game, we’re both obviously neglecting it...

  “I’m telling you, do not get involved!”

  “I’m already way involved!”

  “But you shouldn’t! won’t just listen to me!”

  Our conversation escated to shouting at each other.

  “How can I do that if you keep doing things behind my back! Where were you when they attacked!? How did they take the piggy from under YOUR nose!”

  “They tricked me by getting my guard down!!”

  “Well isn’t that convenient!? And now we found ourselves in the middle of a problem all because of them!”

  “I told you I WILL take care of them, do you not trust me or something!?”

  “HOW CAN I!? WHEN YOU DON’T GIVE ME AN EXPLANATION OR REASON TO!”

  I... might have lost composure there for a moment, since I smmed the table while I yelled, still, I won’t take my words back, it’s the truth.

  “Sigh... Marisa I-”

  “Ahem, sorry, that was a bit rude of me as well”

  “It’s ok, maybe you’re right, I don’t give you enough of a reason to trust me...”

  “It’s hard when you’re being kept in the dark”

  “I will tell you everything, once I sort things out, is that acceptable?”

  “I’d much rather you tell me now”

  “I can’t Marisa, because even I am not so sure myself”

  “Then?”

  “I will go now, I need answers, and once I find them and come back, I hope everything will be under control again”

  “So you’re going on your own again...”

  “Yes, one st time, can you put your faith in me, just this once?”

  I took a deep breath, and after a long sigh, calming my thoughts, I gave my verdict.

  “Just once more Celestial, and I mean it, will you be alright on your own?”

  “Yes, I can take care of myself, I worry more about leaving you alone Marisa”

  “I will be fine as well”

  “I know, I can see that now more than ever...”

  “Why the long face?”

  “Nothing, you remind me of your mother so much, I will go now”

  She said, taking cards from the ones I smmed to the table, and smiling.

  “See you soon Marisa”

  “Yeah, have safe travels”

  And Celestial left once again, I got stuck with the odd queen out, Celestial won the card match, even if I let her win to begin with...

  ...

  ...

  After such a long day, the sun has finally set, and the time was up to wrap things up, we will now take them to the graveyard for their forever resting pce, still, a bunch of people accompanied us to bury them, but before all of that, I left the angel girl back in her cell.

  “Thank you so much Lady Marisa, for granting my selfish and unreasonable request”

  “It’s fine, atrocities aside, you seem to really care about the kids”

  “Yes, as I said before, I had no clue about the things going behind my back, I was simply the one in charge of taking care of the kids, had I known what father Ecir was doing I! I would’ve tried to do something myself...”

  Well she’s not lying...

  “You really are somewhat innocent huh?”

  “I’m not, I allowed father to do such things, maybe if I stepped in sooner... I’m just as guilty as him, the blood of all my kids are on my hands, I know that much...”

  “True, even so, locking you here when you know nothing it’s useless”

  “Is that so... I know I’m a burden, I’ll take any punishment you find suitable, I’ll atone with whatever I can! Even if it means an execution!”

  “Why does everyone think I’m gonna kill them? That doesn’t help me either”

  “Then?”

  “We’re currently rebuilding all the burnt orphanages, we need all the working hands we can get, so your punishment will be endless working hours”

  “I! I will gdly help!”

  “Great, having someone that flies will help in construction and other tasks, ah! But remember this! One slip up, that is any mean thing you do, will result in you getting severely punished! There’s no third chance understood?”

  “Of course!”

  “I mean it! If you do I’ll cut your limbs, pull your teeth out, and make you the dungeons sex sves for all the criminals”

  “Wha!? I!...”

  “Are we clear?”

  “Yes!”

  I said it as a joke but she got rather scared.

  “Cool, I’ll come pick you tomorrow to work, that cell will be your sleeping quarters until further notice”

  “Of course!”

  “Oh I almost forget, I didn’t quite get your name”

  “I’m Azaquiel, but people call me Az, a pleasure to work under you!”

  ...

  ...

  Sigh... I hate to rely on her but flying would be useful...

  I only know Celestial and her that have wings, although I can fly with magic too maybe and- wait Can Adele fly too!? She can help and- wait! wasn’t she gonna show up today? What happened to Adele!? I hope nothing bad happened since she said she was coming over today!

  Oh crap, I just got more worried, so for now I’m tracking her down across the city, looking for her presence.

  Joanne_carper