With a dark expression on his face, Eirwen Night ignored his throbbing bottom and ran after the brats who stole his food money. He looks so eager to beat up some kids who had prevented him from enjoying his desserts. He runs over the alleys looking for those thieves and gets back his money.
Meanwhile at the alley…
Those groups of children who just stole Eirwen Night's coin pouch had gathered at a secluded corner within the alleys. This is their hideout. No one else knew about it except for their little group.
Somewhere in the alley, a group of soldiers wearing black armor happens to chase some illegal human trafficker who ran towards the messy alleys to escape pursuit. It just happened that they ran towards the secret hideout of those thief children.
Soldiers who were chasing their targets:
'Have you found them?'
'No, sir!'
'Block all exit! Allow no one to pass through'
'Sir, I saw children running into the alleys and a woman who seemed to have her pouch stolen.'
'Is it the children who stole her pouch!? How reckless!?'
Among the rest of the soldiers, a familiar-looking man leads the troop. It was Duke Damian. It seems that the task of catching illegal slave traders was under his responsibility.
"In the back alleys, many bad guys are running in this place. Look for the lady and protect her. The same thing with the children." ordered Duke Damian.
"Yes, sir!" The black-armored soldiers saluted at the duke before going away.
On the other hand at the secret base, the children were pouring all their prizes at the table. Few pouches which are full of coins and money scatter at the stone table before them. Among the pouch is Eirwen Night's coin black purse. The children started comparing their goods.
'Tsk! Only a few silver and copper coins.'
'At least you have silver, this one is all copper how unlucky~'
'Blake how about you? Did you get anything?'
'I saw you bumping on a young lady in a cloak. Did you get it?'
'Yes. But… There's too much on it.'
Poured the contents of the black pouch he stole from Eirwen Night. Hundreds of copper coins first poured down followed by silver coins then… The children were dumbstruck when a few gold coins had fallen from the coin pouch.
' G-Gold Coins!? Blake, was that lady a noble!?'
'M-maybe… She was wearing… An ordinary yet beautiful piece of clothing. At first, I thought she was only a woman but… When I saw her face, she seemed… Too pretty~'
'If she's a noble won't we be dead!?'
'What to do? Return the money?'
Silence descended with the conversation going in this direction. Stealing from a noble is extremely dangerous. Not only are most of them petty, but they also had no regard for the lives of the commoners.
Suddenly an adult man came out from the shadowy corner of the area, no one knew why he was there and why he got involved with the conversation of the children. But he does not look like a good adult at all.
The adult man who looks like a bad guy says, "Wow~ you guys are quite amazing. There should be at least 20 golds in there in total. Such a large hefty you guys are quite rich. Care to give some to this big brother?"
The children upon seeing a stranger huddle up together while being on guard. They would never expect that someone would be able to find their secret hideout.
Who are you old man!?
Why do you know of our hiding place!?
Get out! Get out!
The smiling bad man suddenly grabbed the last child's mouth who was shouting just now. There's still a smile on his face but it looks so fake.
"Shss~ do you want to lose your tongue brat?" threatens the bad man.
The children panicked when they saw the adult in front of them pull a dagger from his body. There is still a fresh scent of blood on the blade scaring the children out of their wits.
"If you scream or cry out loud this big brother will cut off your necks~" whispered the bad man.
The children gather together in some corner while crying. They couldn't believe that they would fall into this state just because they thought of stealing. They never really wanted to steal but each of their family is undergoing some crisis. One of them had a semi-fatal injured father who needed to amputate his right arm. The other has a sick mother who now lies in bed unable to buy medicine or look for a doctor because of poverty. While the last one is a beggar child who lives his daily life looking for food in the trash and just wishes to help his friends with their problems.
They knew that stealing is bad but pushed to death by their circumstance they could only bite the bullet and do the deed.
What should we do?
I don't want to die. Mother had been crying because of father's arm already.
Mother will have no one to look after her if I die. My father had been out of town looking for work by moving bricks.
Meanwhile, in the shadows, Araysh had already found his target. But he never expected to see children with the target. The bad man they were chasing is a slave trader who sells children and women illegally to the other kingdoms. The kingdom had been receiving news about the human trafficker and had said lost lots of children and women in the outskirts towns within the territories of Kingdom Hart.
Duke Damian was the one who was tasked to track those slave traders down and punish them with the kingdom's laws. It just happened that a few of those human traffickers had escaped from them and they were tracking them within the alleys those bad guys had run into.
Three of them had escaped to the back alley. Just now two were already caught and this last man is now found by him. But he couldn't show himself as his appearance is that of a dark elf. Dark elves are scarier for humans than bad humans. To the other races, dark elves were from the fallen race which allies themselves with the demonic race. They were the enemies of the human race.
Araysh, who was hiding in the shadows that the situation wasn't good for him. He runs back to the duke and reports first.
'This situation is not good. The bastard has hostages. Need to report to the lord first.'
Once the dark elf had blended in the shadows and took his leave, Eirwen Night who was watching the scene from the nearby roofs of the houses looked at the scene below him. He sat at the edge of the roof dangling his legs in the empty air. He could see children huddling in the corner in fear. They were even crying because their eyes had the determination to live. They didn't want to die. He had also heard what they had whispered. The real reason why they were stealing is because of poverty which sometimes kills one due to the lack of money.
Normally for an aloof Eirwen Night, he wouldn't care no matter how many mortals would die in front of him. He never had kindness for strangers and all of his feelings were only given to his family and loved ones. But ever since his son had separated from him due to some circumstances, Eirwen would always remember his beloved son whenever he sees children.
[Host, that hidden figure is the same dark elf who had been hiding in the summoning room when you first transverse to this world. He seems to be following Duke Damian. But according to this world's database he is only a dark elf in appearance even though he is a direct servant of the twin gods.]
Eirwen Night says, "He left without saving these children?"
[Host, he is a dark elf who is considered as the fallen in this world. All humans would be frightened just by seeing him.]
"Isn't that better? The children and that bastard would be scared and they would have to run away regardless of the situation. The children would be able to run away."
[That… is also true. Why didn't he think about that?]
"That man had always been careless and needed Yun Ming's supervision no matter what world. He is a moron."
System Yue who is listening to his host calling Warden Lou a moron could only shut his mouth. He couldn't openly comment as one is a Venerable Lord whom he could never offend and the other is a notorious warden feared in the Nether System. System Yue acted like he was eating melons by the side.
[Host, someone is coming over the soldiers and the duke. They had surrounded the place but the children would be put in great danger if the bad human saw them. The children would be used as a hostage in this situation.]
"That Duke Damian… he feels so much like my husband but… he also feels not. As if he is just a wisp of the soul but not really a whole soul. He is more like a puppet."
[But host I had already checked, Duke Damian, is indeed a human. But his household's bloodline is strange. It seems that even if the last line of their blood is cut off, a new person would be prophesied as a Damian and the bloodline of Damian would continue. Unlike the rumored ageless pope, this duke's bloodline is continuous regardless of which human it is.]
"Put Duke Damian and the Pope under surveillance," ordered Eirwen in his head while he stood up from where he was seated just now.
[H-Host what are you going to do? Please don't forget you are wearing a dress right now!]
Eirwen touched his dress and smoothed the creases on it.
"Don't worry. I wore shorts under the dress," said Eirwen and stared at the hovering little ice pixies around him. "Can you help me secure the child's safety?"
'No problem~'
'Leave the boy to us, my lord!'
'My lord reward. Reward~'
Eirwen chuckles at the excitement of the ice pixies when rewards are mentioned. He knew what kind of thing they wanted for rewards.
Chuckles~, "I will buy you a whole cake," said Eirwen Night as he watched the small glowing white light fly down towards the captured child in the arms of the bad person.
[Host that's not the problem…AH~]
System Yue had watched his host jump off the roof holding the corner of his white dress. At the same time, Duke Damian and the soldiers had appeared at the secluded corner of alleys. The bad man upon seeing the soldiers instantly grabs one of the children to be taken as a hostage.
AAHHHH!!!
The bad man pointed his blade at the child's neck.
"Move away. I'll kill the brat if you don't!"
The other two children had been saved by the soldiers but were struggling in the arms of the soldiers.
"NO. no. Blake! Let go of you, bad guy!"
"Save him. Save blake!"
The weeping children had added up to the chaos in the messy situation and the soldiers didn't know what to do next. Duke Damian is looking coldly at the scene without any emotion on his face. As if the life of the boy had nothing to do with him at all.
"Sire, what are your orders?"
"There's a child in his arms. Should we still jump on him?"
"The child would get hurt."
While Duke Damian is still thinking of what to do in this situation, he noticed a shadow over his head. When he looked up, he saw a dress blowing widely with the wind and a pair of jade-like long slender white legs coming down from above. Before the soldiers looked up, the duke shouted an order.
"All soldiers! Look down! Don't you dare raise your head!" said Duke Damian.
The soldiers had followed their orders but the children and the bad man did not. The five of them, composed of two adult men and three children, looked above and saw a lady in a white dress falling from the sky. The children were dumbfounded but the bad adult felt his nose bleeding when he saw those white thin legs uncovered.
"Wow! so white~" The bad man murmured until the shadow got larger above him and a shoe firmly landed on his face.
Stomped on the face!
He couldn't even yell in that moment of impact. At the same time, the dagger in the bad man's hand had frozen and shattered into countless ice shards. He lost his weapon which he used to threaten the soldiers and the hostage.
