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The few documents scattered in the room were handwritten by Leto. In them, he had organized and recorded the progress of the search as well as various pending issues affecting the orphanage.

Among the records, the most significant document was the orphanage’s financial statements.

Since the Guilford Orphanage received support from the Holy Land, they maintained their own ledger. But since Mr. Guilford––who lacked expertise and proper training––was in charge of the ledger, there were a lot of inaccurate portions that needed to be corrected.

So everyone agreed to have Leto temporarily take charge of writing the orphanage’s financial statements. At least as long as we stayed at the orphanage.

During the process of writing the financial statements, Leto realized one thing.

“This orphanage is doomed anyway.”

It was a cold and brutal assessment but Leto was never wrong. He clicked his tongue and slammed the papers onto the table.

“There’s hardly any sources of income. It’s a wonder that they’ve been able to hold on so far. The orphanage should have closed down a long time ago…….”

“It’s not our problem anyway, right?”

Senior Delphine cut Leto off mid-sentence. As always, she sat with a lofty posture with her legs crossed.

The expression on her face was nothing short of impertinent. Her attitude seemed to ask what the problem was.

“Keep in mind, Einstein. Our mission here is simply to subdue the beasts attacking the orphanage. Moreover, we might even have to face a demon soon.”

Senior Delphine’s oddly persuasive words traveled straight into everyone’s ears. That was the effect of Delphine Yurdina’s innate charisma.

Her words were always simple, yet straight to the point.

It was Delphine Yurdina’s language, the language of the strong, and even in her boredom, her crimson eyes betrayed an air of ease as she spoke.

Leto, who had been quietly listening to her words, nodded and agreed to her statement.

“…You’re not wrong. Alright then, since you’ve taken the initiative and led the search team, let’s start with your story, Senior Delphine.”

Senior Delphine opened her mouth to speak right away as if she knew that Leto was going to agree. However, unlike before, her voice wasn’t as relaxed and sounded a little strained.

“We continued our search around the area where the monkey beasts were most frequently spotted. We noticed that their attacks became increasingly aggressive the further we went towards a certain direction. And at the end of their attacks, there was a cave.”

It was a short and simple testimony but contained all the necessary information. Groans escaped from the mouths of those who were listening.

As I listened with a serious expression, I couldn’t help but ask the question that naturally arose in my mind.

“Did you happen to go into the cave?”

Hearing my voice, Senior Delphine’s body slightly trembled. Her eyes flicked to me, and then shifted to the ground.

Her proud manner of speaking soon shrank to a timid murmur.

“No…”

I didn’t have any intention of blaming anyone, but Senior Delphine started to glance back at me. I asked again in a nonchalant tone of voice.

“Were there too many sources of potential risks around?”

“No.”

The response to my question came from another person. While Senior Delphine hesitated, Seria spoke up on her behalf.

Seria spoke in her usual cold, haughty voice. Come to think of it, their similarities made it undeniable that they were sisters even though they were step-sisters.

The way they held themselves with confidence, their beautiful appearances, and their pride in being a Yurdina were similar. They also secretly cared a lot for each other

“But my sister judged the potential risks to be too high. If a demon was actually there, we thought it would be impossible to fight back with just the members in the search group at the time.”

Yuren, who had been another member of the search team, raised his hand in agreement with Seria.

“Yeah, demons are really on a different level. And what if this was the one that manipulated the beasts to kidnap the children and take them to its lair? It was the right choice not to go in.”

The Saintess was the last to give her opinion. Since the search team had a total of four members, her opinion concluded the combined story of the forest expedition’s members.

“As servants of the Lord, rescuing the innocent is our duty. But for everything beyond that… Please don’t overlook the heavy burdens that are on each of our shoulders. Saving the children is important, but fulfilling our individual responsibilities is just as important.”

In other words, the Saintess meant to say that we should cooperate to finish the mission but not risk our lives while doing so.

It was a bit harsh, but her logic was sound. Even if there were hundreds of orphans in this world, weighing them against one Academy student would have anyone choosing to save the latter over the former.

Especially so because the talented students at the Academy were a valuable resource to the country. Not to mention, all the people gathered here were either nobles or dignitaries from the Holy Land.

They were people in this world who needed to be protected even if it meant sacrificing dozens of orphanages, let alone just one. It was cruel and depressing but the Saintess’ words made sense.

Since even the benevolent Saintess agreed, there was nothing else we could say or do. There were many orphans in the world but not enough Academy students.

Senior Delphine continued to glance nervously at my face for a while before finally opening her mouth, choosing her words carefully.

“…Y-Yeah. Hatchet Lord.”

I never intended to blame anyone in the first place, so I nodded my head.

“It was a wise decision. If anyone had died, it would’ve been a serious mistake since we might have leaked our plans to the beasts on top of losing a teammate.”

As I finished saying that, Senior Delphine returned to her usual self. Instantly, her arrogant attitude was back, causing Senior Elsie to click her tongue.

However, the situation was too serious for me to be concerned with Senior Elsie’s smallest complaints. Senior Delphine continued to speak.

“And just estimating the number of monkey beasts that we caught would go well above dozens. I don’t know how many we cut through to reach the cave but the fact that so many of the monkey beasts are still alive suggests that there are a lot more than we initially thought.”

“…Is that even possible? Even though the forest is large, I don’t think there’s enough food to feed hundreds of monsters.”

At my reasonable question, a loud clap echoed throughout the area.

Everyone’s gaze turned to the source of the clap. It was Leto.

“That’s why we need to explore the cave. If there’s a secret in the forest, the cave is the only place where it could be.”

With that, Leto glanced at me, as if urging me to make the final decision since all the relevant information was now on the table.

I was the leader of the group, with Senior Delphine and Senior Elsie by my side. Seria and Celine also practically followed me everywhere. Even if the Saintess wanted to be uncooperative, she wouldn’t argue with my final decision.

She knew better than everyone that standing out like a sore thumb in our current situation wasn’t a good idea.

However, the Saintess added on once again. It was a piece of serious advice.

“Brother Ian, you know right? If you overdo it…”

“…Yes, I know.”

I knew what the Saintess was worrying about. She probably wanted to exert some pressure on me to ensure that I acted with an appropriate level of caution, considering my known tendency to be reckless.

I, personally, had no intention of taking any unnecessary risks. I had no desire to deal with a demon that was plotting something by controlling a large number of beasts and kidnapping children.

Securing physical evidence would be more than enough. That meant that the army could be called in since Senior Delphine, Senior Elsie, and the Saintess were all here.

“First, we’ll aim to investigate a bit further. We might be able to take on a single demon, but if it is with an unknown number of beasts, it would be impossible for us to defeat them alone. The moment we find evidence of the demon’s existence, we should retreat immediately.”

It was the most logical choice. Everyone in the group nodded their heads in agreement.

Nonetheless, I felt compelled to add a few words.

“As you all know, we can’t predict everything that might happen when we’re out there. None of us here have faced a demon before. Let’s prepare ourselves today, and we will leave at dawn tomorrow.”

Like the beasts we’ve seen, demons also grew stronger at night. Leaving at dawn and fighting in the morning was the best choice.

If we left in the afternoon, it would be a disaster. Since it was a very logical decision, everyone expressed their agreement.

With that, the meeting was over. The goal was set, and at this point, there was no other information to discuss.

All that remained was the final battle.

After the meeting, Celine approached me with tears in her eyes and asked,

“Ian Oppa, will we be okay?”

She always had a soft heart ever since we were young. Asking her to suddenly risk her life in hunting a demon naturally filled her with fear, especially since she was the least experienced member of the group.

I patted her shoulder and tried to comfort her.

“Don’t worry, we can just run away when it gets dangerous.”

I didn’t know if that would work, but it was better than being unnecessarily scared.

After Celine, Leto came up to me. He let out a sigh before asking me a question.

“…Will you be okay?”

“No. Honestly, I just want to get on a horse and run away right now.”

My answer was a far cry to what I had just told Celine a moment ago. Even so, Leto smiled and patted me on the shoulder as if he knew what I was going to say. His way of thinking was the complete opposite of Celine’s.

“Protect Celine, Ian. Or I will kill you with my own hands.”

That was something I had to do even without him saying it. As I nodded with a bitter smile on my face, Leto pulled out a piece of parchment from his pocket.

It was a scroll. Scrolls were magical objects with spells inscribed on them. Tearing a scroll would activate the spell within, regardless of the user’s personal abilities.

Of course, such scrolls were very difficult to make and were also very expensive. Since this was Leto’s specialty, although I knew this was in his skillset, it probably required a lot of effort.

As I looked at him in surprise, Leto spoke casually, as if it was no big deal.

“It’s a scroll with the 2nd Circle Fire Magic recorded on it. Most beasts are afraid of fire, so use it to escape in case of an emergency.”

I was silent for a moment. Although Leto was a noble, I knew that he wasn’t rich enough to be handing out scrolls like it was nothing. I hesitated and debated whether or not I should accept the scroll that had likely cost tens to hundreds of gold coins from him. In the end, there was only one conclusion I could reach.

Leto, too, would have judged that it would be better for me to have the scroll than to die or get hurt. It was disrespectful and downright ungrateful of me to refuse the act of kindness he was showing me.

“…I’ll repay you soon, Leto.”

“You’ll have more than enough to repay me if you sell the beasts you catch tomorrow, you bastard.”

With that, Leto left. I briefly watched him walking away, and then held the scroll in my arms. I realized that I had a lot of things to take with me.

The potion bottle that Emma had given me, the scroll that Leto gave me just now… I was hoping to take a healing potion as well.

With that thought in mind, I started walking. I reiterated the importance of being ready for tomorrow in my head.

***

But that night, I had a particularly unexpected visitor.

Her golden hair gleamed under the moonlight. Her ruby-like crimson eyes were looking at me with sorrow.

She came to beg me.

“…Punishment.”

“Sorry?”

Caught off guard by her sudden request, I blurted out a question in response. But the reality in front of me didn’t change.

“Punish me… Please.”

Senior Delphine’s expression seemed so sincere that I was at a loss for words.

It felt like a rock was hurled into the still waters of a peaceful day as a finalé.