Chapter 85 Planning And Problems
Chapter 85 Planning And Problems
After waking the children and giving them some food, they all looked a bit better.
The group of seven demihuman children—each from a different race—finally had a chance to rest and feel a little more at ease.
Yumi gently approached and knelt beside the oldest girl.
“Do you know where your home is, little one?” she asked softly.
The girl—Kima—shook her head hesitantly, side to side. Her furred ears twitched slightly.
“Our town is called Orun’kai,” she said, the name carrying a faint, melodic rhythm. “But… I’m not sure how to get there…”
Her eyes began to shimmer with tears.
“My parents… they were merchants. We traveled in a carriage with another group of people when… when those people attacked us. And… and…”
She broke down, sobbing hard.
Iryoku and the girls looked down, sadness heavy on their faces.
They could imagine what had happened to Kima’s parents—and it hurt just to think about it.
They gently tried to ask the other children for information.
Gota, Kanky, Toka, Naina, and Luma—all younger—were unsure. Their memories were scattered, broken by fear.
Like Kima and Kael, most had been separated from their families during similar attacks.
After a while, the children lay down again near the bonfire, slowly drifting off to sleep.
Rhogan settled beside them protectively, his large body curled like a warm barrier.
A few meters away, Reika, Yumi, Alessandra, and Iryoku sat quietly, their voices low.
Reika broke the silence.
“What are we going to do?” she asked the group, her expression troubled.
Yumi looked down, uncertain.
“We need to take them somewhere safe…”
Alessandra’s voice came next, firm but tinged with guilt.
“We can take care of them… It’s our—my responsibility.”
Iryoku chewed on a dry stick, glancing between the sleeping children and the girls.
Reika spoke up.
“Maybe in Babel, we’ll find someone who can look after them.
Maybe the old priest at the church we visited there? He seemed kind… like a good person.”
Yumi perked up slightly.
“I liked him too.”
Alessandra frowned, hesitation creeping into her voice.
“The Church of Light… isn’t that…?”
She paused—like us was on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped herself.
She had already thrown away her Dominion insignia and scraped the emblem off her shield with a rock.
Yumi smiled gently.
“Sensei, the priest there is a demihuman. Actually, in another town, we met a nun too—also a demihuman. She ran an orphanage for children like them… but her town is much, much farther away.”
Alessandra’s eyes widened.
“What…? But everything they taught me at the Dominion of Light… was all wrong…”
Iryoku took the stick out of his mouth and twirled it between his fingers.
“The thing is,” he said seriously, “kids need food, shelter, and care. That costs money. Even for good people, that kind of responsibility is a heavy burden.”
The girls fell silent, their expressions dimming.
“Then why don’t we ask Princess Agnes for help?” Reika suggested hopefully. “Or better yet—let’s take the kids to the castle. With her power and resources, they could easily care for a few children.”
Yumi brightened.
“That’s true… That would be the best solution.”
Alessandra looked up.
“Where is this place?”
But her question made both Yumi and Reika slump a little.
“It’s… actually really far,” Reika admitted. “It’s where we first landed after being transported to this world. The capital of the Uruk Kingdom—the human kingdom.”
The name made Alessandra’s thoughts drift back to something—the Motherland the High Priest had once mentioned.
Yumi added, “If we ride Roghan at full speed, we could probably get there in three days…”
She counted on her small, delicate fingers, frowning.
“But at this pace… maybe a couple of weeks. Maybe even longer…”
Then Reika’s face lit up. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the blue return stone.
“If this works right now… we can arrive at the castle safely!”
The group perked up with sudden hope.
“That’s right!” Yumi said excitedly.
“Let’s try it,” Reika added.
They all moved closer—Alessandra looking unsure of what was going on—as Reika brought out the glowing blue stone. They gathered near the sleeping children and Roghan, who stirred slightly but remained curled around them protectively.
Reika closed her eyes and concentrated. The stone began to glow faintly in her hands.
“It’s doing something…” she whispered.
Yumi nearly jumped from excitement.
“Yay!”
Alessandra, still confused, looked between them. She had no idea what this stone was supposed to do. Iryoku crossed his arms, skeptical—he had never experienced being transported by it before.
Then, without warning, the glow faded and blinked out.
“No…” Reika tapped the stone with her knuckle.
“Ahh…” she sighed, deflating. “It’s not working yet…”
She looked down. “It probably needs more time to recharge… or maybe it has a cooldown period.”
Still holding the stone, she focused again. Subtle strands of energy pulsed through it—she could feel them, faint.
“It’s still absorbing our energy… like always,” she murmured. “From the four of us. Hopefully, it’ll charge up soon.”
Iryoku muttered, “If I’d taken the stone with me when I infiltrated that Dominion church, it might’ve already been working.”
The girls turned toward him.
“That Blessed bastard’s power was supposedly from a god,” he said, making exaggerated quotation marks with his fingers.
“We know now this thing absorbs demonic power, godly power… and our own.”
He paused, glancing at Alessandra, who still seemed a bit lost in the conversation.
“Musclehead here already lost her golden light crap—it faded over time, just like she said before.”
Alessandra’s brow furrowed at the insult, but she said nothing.
“So our options are…” Iryoku continued, counting on his fingers, “Find more places with blessings. Go back to that Blessed bastard and drain some of his power. Or hunt demons and kill them.”
Reika groaned.
“None of those sound safe… and we’ve got children to protect.”
Yumi lowered her head.
“Then… we can only go back to the castle on foot… or maybe go to Christina’s church and try to get her blessing again.”
Alessandra, still confused, finally spoke up.
“Please… can you explain everything? I don’t understand any of this.”
Iryoku grinned.
“Well, you were never the brightest mind anyway. Just let us handle it, buff girl.”
Alessandra frowned.
“Stop it already, Iryoku.”
Both Yumi and Reika looked at them and started smiling.
Alessandra noticed and frowned slightly.
“Why are you smiling? That’s not how a student should speak to a teacher, is it?”
Yumi giggled softly.
“I’m sorry, Sensei… it just feels like before. Like back when we were still at school—before we got transported.”
Reika nodded, smiling.
“Yeah. Don’t take it personally. Iryoku’s name-calling is kind of… his love language.”
Alessandra turned to Iryoku, squinting at him in mock challenge. He looked back lazily, unfazed—then stuck his tongue out at her with a teasing smirk.
She sighed.
“Iryoku… can you…” her tone shifted, becoming serious.
“Please… fill me in. Those two names you mentioned before… Kei and Kota... who were they?”
His expression changed immediately. His eyes sharpened, the teasing gone.
Yumi and Reika both leaned in slightly, curious—they hadn’t heard those names before either.
“No,” Iryoku said flatly.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Alessandra asked, glaring.
He leaned in closer, his gaze piercing.
“You need to remember on your own.”
“Ugh…” she groaned, touching her face. “Why do you have to make everything harder than it already is?”
Without breaking eye contact, Iryoku shifted the conversation.
“Let me ask you something. Going back to the kids… during your time with that crap church—did you get any information about where the children came from? Or anything about demihuman settlements nearby?”
Alessandra looked down, guilt flickering across her face.
“Not much,” she admitted. “They just loaded me into a carriage with other knights and threw us into battlefields. Honestly… I didn’t think much. I just fought enemies, returned to base, and trained.”
She looked ashamed.
“Figures,” Iryoku muttered under his breath.
“Please, Iryoku… don’t push her anymore,” Yumi said gently, her tone serious.
He simply shrugged his shoulders.
Then suddenly, under his breath:
“Oh, fuck me… I hate this shit,” Iryoku cursed.
The girls turned to him in alarm.
“Get the kids. Now,” he said sharply, eyes scanning the shadows around them as he unsheathed his daggers.