Alan stepped out of the office, walking down the same hallway as before.
But something was different.
Step Step
The disgusting sounds churning his stomach were gone, a deep silence took hold of the place.
The once lit rooms were now dark and hallow, with no presence.
The nauseating sweet smell subsided, replaced by a heavy chill that froze the surroundings, literally the air around Alan was cold.
Soon he arrived at the lobby, but the reception was empty.
Then he walked to the outside, passing by the broken door and arriving outside.
"All done?" Alan asked.
Lucian stood in the middle of the alley, clinging onto him were four girls.
They were small and young, their clothes were practically rags.
"Yes, these were all of them." Lucian replied.
Looking around, Alan asked. "What about the women working at this place?"
"They… just ran away."
"I see." Alan calmly nodded, he already assumed such things might happen, after all this was the slums.
Alan looked at the four girls again, their eyes were slightly dull and stared at him in wariness.
"Yo!" Alan smiled brightly. "Want to see a magic trick?"
They slightly tilted their heads in confusions.
Still smiling, Alan brought his middle finger and thump together.
Then.
Snap
Snapped his fingers.
The second the small snap resounded through the air, the very brothel behind Alan ignited into violet flames.
Soon the entire building was engulfed in magnificent flames as the four children looked in awe.
"Now then." Alan said. "Shall we get going?"
…
The third district of the capital.
A place most higher class commoners lived and frequented.
And right now, all eyes turned towards the questionable sight before their eyes.
Walking the streets were two young men, whose appearance immediately implemented the idea of a noble into their minds.
And alongside the two men were… four girls whose clothes were incredibly filthy.
Two walked while holding on to each of Lucian's hands.
While the other two were on top of Alan, one rode on his shoulders, while he carried another on his arms.
Completely ignoring the curious looks of the surroundings, Alan and Lucian kept walking.
"So this is the third district, huh." Alan muttered, looking around.
He could see stalls selling all sorts of goods, houses of fairly good quality, and cleaner streets compared to the slums.
It was what he might have naturally assumed a city to look like.
"So, what do you guys want to do?" Alan asked.
Yet, the four girls didn't respond, the four of them were entirely silent their whole journey.
Alan and Lucian couldn't bring themselves to just abandon them, their moral compass wouldn't allow them to.
Still, it was pretty hard deciding what to do, considering they wouldn't respond and cling onto them instead.
As they were walking.
Rumble
Someone's stomach made a rather embarrassing sound.
Alan and Lucian paused, turning their attention to the girl Alan carried in his arms.
Her cheeks were rosy red, the moment eyes turned towards her, she snapped her head to the side and burrowed it into Alan's shoulder.
"Are you hungry?" Alan asked.
After a long pause, the girl slowly nodded into his shoulder.
Grinning Alan said. "We have a destination now."
…
"Give this, that and also that." Alan was pointing towards multiple items on the menu.
Some of his hair fell on his face in bangs, covering the colour of his eyes, to avoid any unwanted attention.
The waitress blinked, her pen hovering over her notebook. "Sir, you just individually selected most of the items in the menu."
"Shut it, also give some of that chocolate cake, hmm maybe that one as well."
"…If you want to order the entire menu… just say so."
"Shh."
Ignoring the waitress, Alan kept pointing towards different items on the menu.
After a while.
"That's all."
"...Yes."
In the end, he ordered the entire menu.
As the waitress turned around and left, Alan leaned into his seat and looked at Lucian.
Currently, the two of them along with the four children were at a restaurant, seating on a long table with six seats.
"What do we do about them?" Alan asked, gesturing towards the girls sitting beside him.
Lucian simply shrugged, after all, even he had no idea on what to do.
As Alan was idly glancing towards the girls, wondering how to help them, someone approached their table.
"My, my, that's quite something you lot have over there." It was an elderly woman, looking over with a gentle smile.
"Uh..." Alan tilted his head.
"You wouldn't happen to be doing ill to them children, would you?" The woman's eyes narrowed.
"No." Alan waved his hands. "It's some kids we picked up, now we don't know what to do."
"Oh, is that so?" The lady's eyes softened, returning to her previous gentle demeanour.
"Allow me to help." She smiled.
"Oh?" Alan raised a brow. "You wouldn't be thinking of anything ill now, would you?"
"No, no." She shook her head. "I might just know a place they could stay."
"Hmm?"
"The church of god." She said. "At the edge of the third district, on a lonely hill, is a church, they accept orphans and raise them."
"Church of god huh..." Alan muttered, seemingly to himself.
In his life as Leon, he was an atheist and never believed in any religion, his very childhood was never allowed him to believe, he never had a family, or a home, he was an orphan of war.
He lived his days walking through ruins, eating anything he could scrape by, his body was malnourished down to his bones, if Charlie hadn't found Leon on that battlefield, he would've died eventually.
Living in such life without a proper hope of tomorrow, naturally he had no belief of god.
But the religion in this world was strange in Alan's eyes.
All the continents and races that lived on the planet, even the demons, all collectively acknowledge one god.
Since ancient times, from thousands of years back, everyone worshipped this specific entity.
There was a no knowledge on the god, no one knew their appearance, no one knew their gender, no one even knows their name.
A nameless god.
A god who left none of their traces, yet their belief exists throughout the entire world.
Of course, many didn't believe in this nameless god, such as Alan, but it didn't change the fact all the races together didn't deny the god.
Shaking the head out of his thoughts, Alan looked at the old lady.
"I see." Alan nodded. "Thank you."
"Fufu~" The woman giggled. "It's quite alright, young man, I come by the church often myself."
Then she left, walking off to the store's exit.
"Here is your meal." And soon after, the waitress returned.
Multiple times, each time returning with different plates of food.
"Well, let's eat!" Alan grinned, completely ignoring the waitress's dismay.
...
"Ah, that was a good meal!" Alan smiled with satisfaction.
Once again they were walking the streets, many pedestrians stared at them, but the two ignored all the attention.
Lucian was walking while holding the hands of the same two girls.
And Alan again carried one on his shoulder, and the other in his arms.
Alan looked up at the sky, the sun was beginning to drop, announcing the upcoming evening.
"Lucian, let's go to the church."
"Yes." Lucian nodded.
After asking a couple of citizens for directions, they finally arrived on a plain of grass.
It was a hill, at the very top was a church.
"There is the church." Alan said, the moment he did, the girls tighten their grip on Alan and Lucian.
Alan looked over, their eyes were downcast, their heads lowered.
He smiled softy before speaking. "Why so sad? You'll have a place to stay now."
They remained silent.
"We'll visit again, when we can, at least."
The girls raised their lowered heads toward Alan.
"So let's at least know each other's names." Alan pointed to himself with his free hand. "I'm Alan, just a simple commoner now."
Then he looked at Lucian.
"I am Lucian, also just a commoner." He replied with his usual stoic face.
After a long moment of silence, the girl on Alan's shoulder stirred.
"...Tania." She whispered in a low voice. "I'm Tania."
"...I'm Hailey." The girl in Alan's arms said.
"Ren." The girl on Lucian's left side replied.
"Rin." The girl on his right side replied.
'Ah, so they are twins' Alan thought to himself, indeed the two girls were quite similar in looks and behaviour.
"Well, nice to meet you all!" Alan simply smiled.
Soon they reached the entrance to the church, standing in front of a wooden door.
Knock Knock
Lucian knocked.
"Coming!" A woman's voice came from within the church.
And soon the door opened.
Out came a woman, who looked to be in her mid-twenties, she was dressed in proper nun uniform.
The moment she came out, her eyes paused on the four girls, her head tilted in momentarily confusion, before straightening as if coming to an understanding.
"I am sister Lily." She introduced herself.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Alan." Alan replied. "An elder lady told us that you take in orphans?"
"Elder lady?" The nun looked confused for a moment, before shaking her head. "Indeed we do."
Then looked over at the four girls.
"I assume you intend to leave these four in our care?" She asked.
"Mhm." Alan nodded.
"I see." She nodded, then fully opened the door. "Please come inside."
"Lucian, you handle this." Alan said to Lucian.
Surprisingly despite being the battle junkie he was, Lucian was also quite smart, and so Alan literally left all the management of the two to him, he even gave all the gold he got from committing arson at the brothel to him.
Lucian nodded, then led the four girls inside, as they were leaving the four turned again to look at Alan.
Alan simply smiled and waved at them.
Click
The door closed.
"Hah..." Alan sighed, turning around.
The hill he was currently at, gave him a fairly great view of the capital.
The sun was sinking into the horizon, colouring the sky in a scarlet hue.
He could see the multiple districts, and in the distance was the royal castle, it was so large, that even Alan could see it despite being so far away.
As he was in the middle of admiring the view before him.
"Excuse me?" A man called out to him.
'What the?' Alan was startled, the man appeared like a ghost, he didn't even sense his presence... didn't even sense his presence?
Did that even make sense? He was a rank 3, he could even feel the slight presence of the surrounding bugs.
The moment he realised this, his blood ran cold, goosebumps raised along his skin, then slowly he turned to look to his side where the man was.
His intuition was already firing off in his head, every cell in his body was telling him to not even think about fighting.
"Hello?" The man gently smiled.
But that smile didn't help Alan in the slightest.
The man was dressed in dark, ornate robes, that didn't seem to belong to this era.
His eyes... were a swirling mass of orange, the vivid glare of his gaze seemed abnormal, it seemed... chaotic.
"Who are you?" Pushing past his immense unease, Alan forced himself to ask.
"Ah." The man nodded. "Right, I suppose it would be rude of me to talk without introducing myself first."
Then he slightly lowered his head.
"You can call me Ziray."