Free Web NovelChapter 309: The Orphanage
Standing outside the ’orphanage’ in Crystal Lake’s slums, Sasha and Victoria couldn’t help raising their brows.
It was... not what they were expecting.
Most nearby buildings were either rotting or already starting to collapsed, but this one, despite looking shabby, was in surprisingly good condition.
Stone walls, a sturdy roof, wood-slat windows for sunlight, smoke coming from its chimneys... it wasn’t an exaggeration to say this was the best structure around.
That alone made it suspicious.
What was more suspicious, however, was how much ’dirt’ and ’damage’ was on the orphanage.
At first glance, the caked-on mud and cracks appeared perfectly normal, but as women who with many years of governing experience, both Victoria and Sasha knew better.
"They intentionally made it look worn down," Sasha muttered quietly.
"En," Victoria nodded subtly, "It’s camouflage. Someone’s trying to make it seem like it’s in worse condition than it really is."
Fixing their expressions, the two women glanced down at the two children who had guided them here and saw how visibly nervous they were.
Toby was trying his best to not look scared, but his lowered head and clenched fists gave away his inner turmoil.
As for Mabel, her shoulders were trembling slightly and her little body was completely tense. Her gaze was also darting around, as if she was worried someone, or something would suddenly leap out and attack her.
Back at the Radiant Gem Inn, Toby and Mabel had explained that the orphanage they were raised in only took in children from the slums, and that the adults in charge there treated them extremely harshly.
All the children were woken at sunrise and forced to do hard manual labour, like scrubbing floors, chopping firewood, carrying rubble, or even construction work in the surrounding area. This lasted for hours before they were each given a single piece of stale bread and dirty water for breakfast.
After their morning ’meal’, several of the adults would bring the younger kids out, forcing them to study the layout of the city, especially its back-alleys, narrow corridors, hidden nooks, and other shadowy spots.
This would also carry on for several hours before the younger kids were simply left to fend for themselves, their only orders being to return to the orphanage by curfew or punishment would await them.
As for the older kids, those who were older than 10, they were given ’training’ by the orphanages’ directors.
Carrying sacks and running until they collapsed, lifting weights until their hands bled, forced cultivation sessions where a single mistake resulted in being whipped.
Many of the older kids were injured or fell ill during this training, and Toby had mentioned that those who were too weak to continue were sent away for ’treatment’, but none of them ever returned.
Every now and then, one of the kids would be ’adopted’ by rich people who almost always wore black cloaks and masks, but those children were also never seen again. They never came back to the orphanage to visit, nor were they ever seen around Crystal Lake by the other orphans.
Honestly, it sounded almost like a cross between a slave ring and a military camp, just without any real combat training.
Sasha wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but after a brief discussion, it was decided she would take the lead in this matter with Victoria serving as her ’bodyguard’.
The idea was for Sasha to pose as a rich but relatively harmless merchant who was looking for a few children to work in a new business venture of hers. That would hopefully be enough to get the attention of whoever was in charge of this orphanage but not cause them to be on guard.
Sending Allina directly would probably be safer, but a Peak Spirit Initiate showing up on their doorstep would undoubtedly result in whatever schemes or activities were going on in the background being locked down tight.
It was risky, yes, but no one among Sasha’s group was the type to just deal with surface issues while allowing such an obvious problem to fester. If they were going to intervene here, they weren’t going to just chop down the rotting tree, they were going to dig up its foundation and pull out its roots.
Of course, just because Sasha and Victoria were going in to perform some on-site investigation didn’t mean the others were idling away. freewebnovel.cσ๓
Lucas and Eris were heading back to the docks to organize some of the Raging River Legion’s soldiers as backup, while Allina and Christina were making their way to the Lord’s Manor to try probing the situation from that angle.
There was a chance that this was just some minor illegal operation being run without anyone in the upper circles knowing or caring about it, but something about the whole situation seemed fishy.
It was too clean, too coordinated, and too well hidden.
Someone with real power was behind this, so if they wanted to settle things once and for all, they needed to find this hidden backer and ’deal’ with them.
"Well, no point just standing around outside," Sasha muttered before stepping towards the orphanage’s doors, "Let’s shake the tree and see what falls loose."
Nodding in agreement, Victoria, dressed in light leather armour with a sword hanging at her waist, followed one step behind her, playing her role as a guard perfectly despite never having done anything like this before in her life.
Were it not for the grim circumstances, Victoria might even have felt a bit excited right now. freeweɓnøvel.com
Before the whole explosion crisis, her life had been busy but also somewhat monotonous. Meetings, negotiations, and a seemingly endless pile of paperwork consumed all her time, leaving very little for anything else.
Now, Victoria was roaming new cities, sight-seeing, starting up new businesses, and even going on adventures to fight underground organizations. The rush of danger and the feeling of the unknown got her blood pumping, to say the least.
.....
After knocking on the door of the supposed orphanage, Sasha waited, and waited, and waited...
Toby, who was standing right next to her, whispered quietly, "It’s unusual for people to come around during the day. Most of the people who want to see the Director come in the evening or at night."
Only getting visitors at night? That’s not suspicious at all, Sasha mused to herself, and knocked again, harder this time.
A minute or so later, someone finally answered the door.
It was an older gentleman, with a neatly trimmed beard, wearing a long black robe. He had a kind smile on his wrinkled face, but there was something about the way he stood there, they way he held his arms, his very posture that made Sasha uncomfortable.
She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but despite this old man appearing harmless, Sasha’s instincts were telling her he was dangerous.
Victoria, on the other hand, unconsciously gripped her sword a little tighter. Not because of what she sensed from this old man, but because of what she didn’t sense from him.
She was a Sea Establishment Realm Practitioner, so her senses were much sharper than Sasha’s, yet Victoria was unable to feel any trace of Qi or Aura from this man.
Under normal circumstances, Victoria would have just assumed he was a Body Tempering Practitioner without any Spirit Qi flowing through his body, but given the unusual situation, she felt it was more likely this old man was concealing his strength somehow.
The silence lingered for a couple seconds before the old man’s smile widened slightly and he said, "Welcome, young ladies. How can this old fellow help you today?"
Slipping into her practiced business mode, Sasha smiled back and replied, "Hello, old sir. My caravan was passing through the area and decided to stop in Crystal Lake for a few days to rest. We were hoping to hire a few... extra hands to help with some of the business’ chores and happened to come across these two little ones."
"I see, I see," the old man nodded, lowering his gaze, "Is that so, Toby, Mabel?"
The two children shivered slightly, but quickly nodded back, neither of them seemingly daring to actually respond verbally despite how gently this old man was speaking to them.
Turning back to Sasha, the old man maintained his smile, though it appeared a bit strained now, as he explained, "This is but a humble orphanage of meager means, but even then, we normally don’t let the children in our care work for strangers. However, things have been... difficult recently, so if it’s a few of the older ones, and just for a few days inside the city..."
"Of course, we’ll pay them appropriately," Sasha said immediately, deciding to play along for now.
The old man wore a look of reluctance, but eventually let out a sigh, as if he was carrying a heavy burden, "In that case, I will call some of the older children over. For now, why don’t you come in so we can discuss things more privately."
With that, the old man opened the doors fully, stepping aside to allow Sasha and Victoria to pass, followed by Toby and Mabel.
As they stepped over the orphanage’s threshold, however, the old man gently placed his hand on Toby’s shoulder, causing the young boy to tremble.
"Is something wrong, sir?" Sasha called out from up ahead.
"Oh ho, not at all," the old man smiled and waved his hand casually, "Everything is just fine."
