The Dutiful Kid Who Saved the Villainous Family - Chapter 119

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 119

Chapter 21: Airi Goes to the Capital!

The Empire’s capital, Clamitant.

A city whose very name means ‘a place where sacred light shines’.

The Empire’s most important administrative district, directly overseen by the Emperor himself.

Seasoned politicians, ambitious merchants, and students all gather in this place where Airi has finally set foot.

And right after simply unpacking at the capital’s town house.

Declan called Berry, Serafin, and Airi together to give them a warning.

“Now, troublemakers. Listen well. I’m going to visit the Imperial Palace to have an audience with the Emperor, so don’t cause trouble while I’m gone.”

“Understood, Dad.”

“I’m just ‘Dad’ now?”

“…”

“…Anyway, troublemaker. Keep it small scale, small scale. The knights will be following you around anyway.”

Airi recalled the Elder’s words: ‘Even if you cause trouble, keep the scale small.’

And just as he left for the Imperial Palace, she was about to make her move!

The knights cautiously spoke to Airi.

“Um, Lady Airi. Numerous invitations have arrived at the town house in your name.”

“Huh, gasp. What? There must be many people who know I came here!”

“Could that be it?”

Airi nodded vigorously after hearing the knight’s words.

“But I’ll look at those invitations later. I have things to do!”

“Yes? What kind of…”

The knights’ eyes wavered.

Finally, today!

It was time to unfold the 【Magi Map】 she had prepared with Cookie!

Airi held the 【Magi Map】 close to her chest as she thought.

‘They said a terrible plague broke out at the orphanage in the slums, right?’

Then there was no time to delay.

The Airi trio immediately rushed toward the slums.

Today, there were so many things to do!

* * *

…Is this the slums?

Airi rolled her eyes around as she looked at her surroundings.

“Huh, gasp.”

She thought she had a good grasp of the location of the capital’s 【Palace Orphanage】.

But the path to the orphanage was a space twisted like a maze.

A place without even a single ant!

‘I’m lost! Where should I go!’

Airi rolled her eyes around as she looked at her surroundings.

When a child faces such a difficult situation, the first thing they should do!

That is…

“Um, knights! I don’t know which way to go from here…”

“Ah, well… We don’t know the location of the 【Palace Orphanage】 you mentioned either.”

Great despair.

Airi looked at Serafin, her considerably older brother.

But Serafin only pulled out a few toys from his bag.

“Won’t it appear if I show them a troll?”

“…”

Even Cookie gave a hopeless answer.

[I’ve lived in the North, so I’m clueless about the capital’s geography. Especially the slums.]

But just then.

Berry cautiously stepped forward.

“I know.”

“Gasp?”

“I used to live in the capital’s slums. The slums have a different structure.”

“Hmm…?”

“Could you show me the map? I’ll try to find the way.”

Berry immediately took the map and narrowed his eyes.

Airi looked at Berry with wonder.

‘He’s only seven years old, how can he speak so smartly and well?’

Soon Berry spoke.

“Go left, then spin around and go right, then go straight, then knock on the dead-end alley and the 【Palace Orphanage】 will appear.”

“Huh, gasp…”

I didn’t understand…

“I’ll lead the way.”

Airi gave Berry a thumbs up.

“Wow! Berry’s amazing! The best!”

Berry thought seriously.

The memory of struggling in the slums before coming here.

Being able to help Airi made even those painful memories seem to transform into something good.

Before coming to the capital, his father, Jackvell Marquess of the East, had said:

“Berry, my son. I hope you go to the capital and make many warm memories with Lady Airi.”

“Yes. I’ll go and come back.”

“I’d like to make more memories with you, but it seems you already have someone else as your first priority.”

His blue eyes had flickered subtly then.

It was similar to the expression Declan, who had become his role model, made when calling someone a ‘quiet lunatic.’

He hadn’t really believed those words then…

‘Being helpful to Lady Airi, this is the best memory.’

Now he finally understood what his father’s words meant.

Perhaps because he walked through the slums earnestly while thinking such thoughts.

Going left and spinning around the maze that appeared, then walking briskly to the right, he stood tall in front of an alley.

“This is the 【Palace Orphanage】.”

“It’s not a palace…?!”

Contrary to the name Palace Orphanage, this place had a very gloomy atmosphere.

As if not maintained at all, ivy vines climbed wildly up the stone wall.

The wooden door located in the middle of the stone wall was covered with mold.

‘Magi is flickering in front of the door!’

Airi bravely knocked on the door and said.

“Um, is anyone there?”

The door opened slightly and a boy who looked a little over ten years old appeared.

“What?”

“Hello! I am…”

“A noble? Did you come to see the plague-ridden beggars?”

Airi looked at the child with the sharp expression.

Behind him, she could see boys with curious expressions appearing one by one.

Around the children, whitish mist was gathered like fluffy clouds.

The edges were being eaten away by black.

Airi carefully took a step closer to absorb the children’s magi.

But the tall boy pulled out a stone from his pocket and shouted loudly.

“This place is closed due to plague, so get lost!”

A stone came flying over the stone wall surrounding the orphanage.

Berry hurriedly tried to block in front of Airi, but the stone came flying first.

Of course, Airi’s eyes flashed as she kicked off toward the air.

“You don’t throw stones at friends!”

Thwack!

The stone was tossed by Airi and flew back to the other side, hitting the young boy square in the forehead.

“Ow, oww!”

The young boy who got hit in the head by the stone hurriedly went inside the orphanage and click, locked the door.

Thus, Airi and the knight party were left outside the stone wall.

* * *

The young boy who got hit in the head by the stone, Camille, sat leaning against the locked orphanage door, fuming.

Then he heard a little girl’s voice chirping from outside.

“Doesn’t it hurt? If you open the door, I’ll give you medicine!”

At the sweet child’s voice coming from beyond the stone wall, the boys inside the orphanage building held their breath.

【Palace Orphanage】.

A place where children born in the slums without knowing their fathers are abandoned.

An orphanage that only accepts boys under the pretext of teaching them skills from childhood before sending them out.

Though it was painful due to the director’s bullying, these children had grown up happily, supporting each other.

But even that happiness disappeared starting three months ago.

One morning, wart-like things began appearing one by one on the boys’ faces.

Doctors who came to the slums for volunteer work took care of the children, but only briefly.

They too were said to have caught the disease and were suffering.

The orphanage director, perhaps fearing he would also catch the plague, closed the orphanage and secluded himself in his own home.

The higher-ups didn’t show interest in or visit such slums.

Naturally, this place became a fortress for abandoned children.

Among them, the relatively healthy boys were living by secretly leaving the slums at night to dig up grass roots in the hillside to eat.

Three-year-old baby Monen drooped his shoulders.

“…Big brother, let’s get the medicine. It hurts.”

“I’m fine. What reason do we have to trust those people? I don’t think they’ll give us proper medicine either.”

“…”

“And you’re the one who needs to apply medicine.”

“Really? Big brother, is my face very ugly?”

One side of Monen’s face, who asked cautiously, was completely distorted.

It looked exactly like burn scars.

Monen tried hard to cover his left face with his small, skinny hand.

‘Something’ that had covered the boy’s body at some point had made his small, clear face so hideously ugly.

Fifteen-year-old boy Camille, who had inadvertently become the leader of the orphanage, drooped his shoulders.

“It’s okay. It’s not ugly at all. When those nobles leave, let’s go dig up grass.”

“Mm-hmm…”

“We’d need to eat meat to get healthier though.”

“I’m fine. Big brother is having a hard time. Big brother should eat lots of meat.”

That’s when it happened.

A booming voice echoed from outside the stone wall.

“Kids! Come out here for a moment!”

“…”

Camille hated even that kind of cheap sympathy.

‘They’re obviously nobles. If rumors spread that we’re spreading the plague to those nobles…’

They would all be sentenced to death.

Camille had no intention whatsoever of playing along with the immature noble children’s amusement.

He opened the door, went out to the courtyard, and shouted loudly with great vigor.

“Get lost right now!”

His vigor was so tremendous that even the bird sitting on the stone wall was startled and flew away with a flutter.

He deliberately threw another stone over the stone wall and shouted.

“Don’t come and spread the plague, just get lost!”

Had they heard his words?

Beyond the stone wall, the presence of people disappeared and it became quiet.

But then, Monen, who had somehow followed him out, whispered softly.

“You know, big brother Camille. Still, that girl child.”

“…Girl child?”

“Yeah, hearing her voice somehow made me feel good too…”

Camille’s gaze became fierce.

“Don’t be fooled. It was the same when the priests came last time!”

The low-ranking priests had approached seeming kind, but when they actually saw them, they giggled.

Then they pathetically caught the plague and were carried out on stretchers.

Camille opened his mouth with a worried expression.

“Never open the door for them. Remember my words.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Airi’s party beyond the stone wall had ended up hearing all those words.

Especially Airi, who sighed heavily.

‘This is really, really strange.’

There was definitely artificial magi around the children.

So she absorbed all that magi, but…

‘At some point, the magi stopped being absorbed anymore.’

Cookie, who poked his head out from the bag, sent a telepathic message.

[I think the magi has evolved in this 【Orphanage】!]

Had the children become test subjects?

It was just as Cookie said.

So just absorbing artificial magi made it difficult to grasp the situation.

‘This won’t do!’

Airi recalled the method she used to absorb the natural magi of the Northern Region before absorbing ‘artificial magi’.

‘Right. Originally, I became friends first and then absorbed magi, right?’

In that case…

Berry and Serafin looked at Airi.

“I think I need to become friends with those kids.”

But those friends were all male children.

‘How do I become friends with them? Should I teach them etiquette?’

But just as she was thinking deeply about it.

Serafin shrugged his shoulders.

“Becoming friends with those guys? Easy.”

“Huh…?”

“Hmph, little squirt. Watch carefully. From now on, it’s this big brother’s time.”

“…Big brother?”

Serafin Ortejo, currently thirteen years old.

The current strongest at the Academy, who had conquered male children of his age group.

This boy arrogantly lifted his chin.

“Just wait 10 minutes.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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