NOVEL SIMPLE Side Story 2: The Heads of the Orphanage
A month after Amelia’s graduation and the banishment of Ophelia, the same time around when Percy ordered the knights to move out and repel the infiltrators they had detected.
It was a typical Tuesday morning in the Erstad Orphanage, the kids had just finished eating breakfast and their chores and had begun playing around in the open field nearby, under the watchful eye of the headmistress Mother Felice,
“You kids be careful now you hear? The adventurers guild told me that some monsters are out and about, so if you hear something that isn’t right. Tell me immediately” she called out to the several groups of kids.
“We will!” they all answered as they began running around and playing games,
Mother Felice let out a smile as she casted some earth magic and made herself a chair to lounge on, also making a table for a tea set she brought out of her storage bag, pushing aside her silver hair to enjoy the tea.
“I put up a barrier, so they should be fine” she mumbled to herself as she poured out a cup and took a sip
Meanwhile, inside the orphanage, there was a commotion going on in the kitchen,
“Sister Mary! Jack stole my pudding cup” a little brunette girl cried out with tears in her eyes as she pointed at the boy whose lips were covered in pudding
“Nuh-uh! Marissa is lying!” the boy with short black hair retorted as he yelled back at her
“No I’m not!”
“Yes you are!”
“Children, children, please no shouting” Sister Mary said as she put down the bowl and the whisk and walked over to the pair, crouching down to reach their height. Placing her hands on each child
“Now what was the problem?” she asked in a calm and caring voice
“Jack..Jack stole my pudding cup” Marissa answered, barely holding back from crying as tears were welling up
“Did you steal Marissa’s pudding cup, Jack?” Sister Mary asked as she looked at Jack with a saddened expression, making Jack turn away before nodding his head
“Did you just really like the pudding that you wanted another one?” Sister Mary added, with Jack once again nodding before turning back to face her, a look of immense sadness and regret on his face.
“Are you sorry for not giving Marissa a chance to eat her pudding?”
“Uhuh…I am…” Jack answered her, some tears flowing down,
“Did you see Marissa crying because of what you did? You hurt her, it doens’t feel good to be hurt right? So what will you tell Marissa?”
“I..I’m sorry I stole your pudding cup…I can give you mine next time” Jack apologized, tears fully flowing down his face,
“Yeah…ok…I forgive you…and thank you” Marissa answered, the sight of the boy she was yelling at crying had made also her feel a sense of sadness for which she did not know why.
Their interaction made Sister Mary smile as she patted both of them on the head and wiped away their tears, her actions confused the two children who were now just staring at her, wondering what was happening.
“Did you two make up?” she asked the confused kids
“Mhmm”
“Yeah”
“Very good, and do you promise not to do it to one another again?”
“Yes”
“Mhmm”
“Very good, now both of you go upstairs, and play with one another ok? Because I have a surprise for everyone later”
“Yes Sister Mary” both of them answered, with both of them standing up and holding each other’s hands as they walked out
Sister Mary smiled as she watched both of them exit the kitchen and heard them walk upstairs, she then turned back and began cooking the surprise dessert she had planned for everyone today, diligently following the baking book's instructions to the letter and making sure everything was just right.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
SPILL SPILL SPILL
“Oh for goodness sake” Sister Mary remarked as she spilled the measuring cup filled with milk, pushing aside her curly brown locks as they covered her face.
“Chrono-rewind” she said as she cast a spell on the spill, making it rewind to before the spill had happened.
She then walked over to the back door nearby and looked through the peephole. On the other side was a knight clad in a silver suit with golden trimmings and a red cape on his back, the sight of this made Sister Mary take a deep breath before opening the door.
“Can I help you?” she asked the knight standing before her
“Are you Sister Mary Halena?” the knight asked
“Yes. I am her” she answered, calmly
“I am from the Holy Order of Histy, I believe you know why I am here” the knight said to her as he gave her a letter that had the seal of the Pope.
“So she sent you personally?” she asked
“Indeed, she wishes to meet with the Saintess soon, preferably before the end of the month, other details are in the letter” the knight answered as Sister Mary took the letter into her hands and began reading it
Dear Sister,
It has been a while no? I hope this letter finds you well, I have returned from my pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Arthus after a year, I have been reading the letters you have sent me as I was there detailing some of the events that had transpired. I wish to speak with Amelia myself, as she is the new Saintess and as I am the Pope, I wish to speak with her regarding my successor. This does not mean I do not trust the letters you have sent on him on that matter, but I intend to hear it from the girl herself. I hope that does not inconvenience you. I wish to speak with her by the end of the month, preferably there in the orphanage as it is far, far from the prying and watchful eyes and ears of the Holy Order of Histy, you being one of them previously should know how annoying they are when it comes to secrecy and security of the institution the church provides. And do not worry, the knight I had asked to give you this letter is a trusted friend of mine, even though he is part of the order, he knows what is real from the delusional reality the rest of them live in. On another note, I also wish to speak with Commander Felice, or rather ex-commander, the stunt she pulled saving my life had gotten her in trouble and I finally mustered up the courage to apologize to her for the entire thing, so could you also perhaps set a meeting between the two of us sometime in the near future?
As always I love you and I hope you quickly reply to this letter, the knight will be staying over in a nearby town for the week to wait for your reply so there is no need to reply now.
I hope to meet them and I hope to see you again soon.
- Love your dearest sister, Liliana
“I will give you a reply two days from now, so goodbye and thank you for bringing this” Sister Mary said to the knight as she continued to stare at the letter
“Understood, I will be in the village inn just south of here” the knight replied as he bowed out and turned around, walking away
“Alright”
She then turned around and closed the door, placing the letter on the kitchen countertop before continuing with her baking, putting aside everything she was thinking about in order to focus on finishing the cake that was meant for everyone later tonight.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
A few hours had passed as Mother Felice finished all the tea in her set, it was already an hour before lunch, clasping both of her hands on her lap and looking as if she was sleeping, the barriers she had put up around the area had not gone off and she could still sense the children playing in the distance out of her sight. She even felt the presence of several children creeping up from behind her, closing her eyes and accessing her skill <Third Eyesight> she quickly had a good image of the children behind her, the four in front had leather armor on and held up their wooden swords, while behind them were a group of the younger kids, all of them cheering on the group. This made Mother Felice smile as she thought of a way to mess with these kids, quickly mumbling the enchantment <Doppleganger> and <Mirror Image> she quickly swapped out her body with a fake, using illusion magic to ensure that the kids didn’t notice, and hiding behind a tree that was behind them.
“Hehehe, sneaking up on this old lady will be a bit more than you bargained for” she mumbled in delight as she hid behind the tree.
She then watched as the kids snuck up onto her body double, and the moment the leading kid grabbed the double and quickly spun it around, revealing instead of Mother Felice’s surprised face, a bare skeleton.
KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE!!! it cried as the kids looked at it
“AAAAAAGH!” the children screamed as they all saw the skeleton, the kid who grabbed the double quickly let go and ran as the double fell to the ground, prompting the other children to also make a run for it.
“RAAAGH!” Mother Felice shouted as she lept out from behind the tree,
“AAAAAAAAGHHHH!” the kids screamed, some of them falling on their behinds as they scrambled away from her,
“Haahahahahhaha!” Mother Felice couldn’t hold it in anymore and began cracking up as the children were terrified of what just happened some of the younger ones on the verge of tears and even crying.
“Hey now don’t cry” she added as she quickly ran over to the kids who were sobbing, wiping away their tears.
“Shush now, there is no need to cry, I was just playing with you guys that’s all” she continued to say as she began to soothe the children, the older ones wearing armor standing to the side, not knowing what to do. As she huddled all the younger kids together, with her in the center.
After a few minutes of soothing and cuddling, the younger kids had recomposed themselves, sucking on candy that Mother Felice had brought out from her storage bag. Double-checking the kids to see if they were all ok, she then turned to face the group of older kids who were basically teenagers, standing nearby.
“So? What did we learn?” she asked with a smirk
“Never to try and sneak up on you” one of them answered
“Well, I wouldn’t say never more like, expect me to sense you coming and do the same thing to you” she added with a grin, as she looked at the kids again to make sure they were listening.
“But how did you even sense us?” one of the teenagers asked
“Hehe, my danger sense of course. This lady can still sense danger and pranksters even while sleeping” she replied followed by a laugh that made the younger kids laugh along with her,
TING! TING! TING!
But as the kids were laughing, an alert from the barriers she had put up began ringing. While her face still showed laughter, her mind was immediately inspecting the alarm and trying to figure out where it came from, quickly and discreetly switching over to the barrier where the alarm came from, she saw something that angered her to the core. A group of bandits with cages, Slavers. There were about twenty to thirty and they were being led by someone dressed in a aristocratic outfit.
“Ok, you kids head inside now, alright” she told them as she stood up, patting each of them on the head, doing the same to the teenagers as she walked past them.
“Yes Mother” the teenagers answered her, ushering the kids back towards the orphanage
“Kids! Time to come back!” she shouted out to the children still playing in the field and near the trees. All of whom immediately came running back to her and running past her as they listened to her words.
Using her magic to ensure that no one was left outside, and looking back at the children as they all entered the safety of the building, she took a deep breath as she turned to where the slavers were. But as she was about to go, she felt the presence of Sister Mary approaching from behind, giving a side glance, she saw that she was holding the stave she would normally use when fighting.
“How many of them?” Sister Mary asked, handing over the ornately decorated stave over to her
“Twenty to Thirty, to think they would have the balls to show up specifically here means that they want to the children. That makes me mad” Mother Felice answered as she clutched the stave tightly.
“I’ll keep an eye on the children, so make sure that you make it as painful as possible” Sister Mary added,
“I will. These no good slavers will regret coming here” Mother Felice replied, turning to where the intruders were sensed
“Happy hunting”
“Thanks”
She then used the spell <Instant Relocation> disappearing in the blink of an eye.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Alright, we safely made it inside the duchy, now boys, our sponsor wants us to capture as many children as we can for leverage” the one dressed in aristocratic attire told the men behind him
“But boss, who is this sponsor?” one of them asked, his ugly and scarred mug looking like his face was caved in
“Count Chernin, and apparently he is working under the orders of some higher noble, or at least that was the sense I got from talking with him” he answered his subordinate.
“How much are we bein' paid for this boss?” another slaver asked the man fixing the armor plate on his chest
“A good 100 gold for each kid we nab, and I hear that orphanage is full of em, heck it’s run by two ladies from the church so this job should be easy!” their boss answered. Making the slavers cheer in joy
“Easy money boys! Easy money!” one of them shouted.
The slavers began setting aside the cages from the wagons and setting up small tents, they were being directed by their boss as usual and they were all in high spirits thanks to the amount they’ll be receiving thanks to the job. But as they continued to set up, several bands of men, each with eight members were huddled together in front of their boss, listening to his orders.
“Alright boys, the first group to move out is your’s Simmerson, I want you guys to scout out the perimeter and find the best way to hit the orphanage”
“Yes sir” replied a burly man with scars over his body.
“Next, Riley, Alen and Joab, you guys will follow behind and make sure no one sees us coming, use those A-Rank magic skills to the best of your abilities”
“Got it boss” replied three men, each one wearing a different piece of armor,
“And lastly, Ilan, you guys will handle killing the staff or any responders, unless they are women then you can bring them back here and we can sell them for their bodies” the boss’ last remark earned the laughter of the men before him.
“Alright, that is all, so go out there and make us some mone-” but before he could finish
THRUST THRUST THRUST
Suddenly, three large sharp icicles had burst forth from the ground behind him, each one piercing through his body and coming out the other side, one in his stomach, another through his chest, and the last one sticking out from his mouth, each one drenched in blood.
“Wha-what the fuck?!” screamed one of them,
KRAKOOM
But before they could do anything else, a lightning bolt struck the body, exploding it in a loud and explosive shower of ice and blood. Making everyone freeze for a moment as they tried to comprehend what had just happened,
“We’re under attack!” shouted one of them as they recomposed themself, scrambling to find cover, with others following suit.
KRAKOOM KRAKOOM KRAKOOM
But as people were running for cover, several more lightning strikes came down, hitting one person then scattering to the others who were near the one that was struck, vaporizing them in the process.
“Where the hell are the magic barriers?! Set them up” one of the slavers called as they all were now either hiding under the wagons or by the trees.
Meanwhile, only a few hundred meters away, hiding behind a tree of her own, with an angered look on her face was Mother Felice.
‘Kidnap my children huh. Count Chernin you have signed your death warrant, and I already have a clue who put you up to this’ she thought as the grip on her stave tightened.
She was currently resting from using such high-level spells in such a long time that her body was still readjusting to this sudden shift, this usually took a few minutes to an hour if one was not ready but she had also activated two spells <Magic Recovery> and <Body Rejuvination> to quickly allow her to readjust. Taking a deep breath she then surveyed the area, using her skills <Appraisal> and <Enhanced Sight> to look a the status of every single person who was still hiding. Her vision was filled with information on people who were either B or A rank meaning these slavers were no joke to any adventurer along those ranks, perhaps a S-Rank even given that there are so many of them. Mother Felice herself is an S-Rank as well, bordering SS, and her memories before becoming the head of the orphanage were memories of fighting against giant cults and organizations that were as strong if not stronger and more coordinated than this rabble here.
“Right, let’s see if I still got it” she muttered as she focused on her empty left palm, keeping calm
“<Conjure Weapon>” she muttered, and as she did a purple mist covered her hand and quickly swirled into the shape of a mace that fit perfectly in her hand. The wind that made up the mace continued to swirl around and gave an eerie vibe thanks to its purplish colour.
“Hehe, still got it” she remarked as she then looked back at the people hiding
“Let’s play pop goes the kobold” she muttered before using <Instant Relocation>
As they were hiding, one of the goons crawled next to another hiding under the wagon, his scarred and ugly face filled with fear and uncertainty,
“What the hell just happened Simmerson?!”
“I..I don’t know!”
“Do you think it’s an attack?!”
“Obviously! But from where and who? We snuck past the duchy knights thanks to that distraction by the bandits in the town far south, if anything there should be no one here!”
“Quit your shouting!” yelled someone from behind them, the pair looked over and near the end of the tree line, saw the second-in-command of the group, he was hiding behind a tree and he wielded his greatsword,
“Alright everyone, we push past cover and advance in all directions, make sure you have at least a partner, find out who is attacking us” he ordered them,
“Understood”
“Copy”
“Alright”
“Yes”
His orders were met with confirmative answers from the men in hiding, all of them unsheathed their various weapons and waited for the order, and as he was about to give out said order
SPISH!
THUD
Everyone had heard the sudden sounds, one of which sounded like a body dropped to the ground. Simmerson looked back and edged on by his comrade, ran over to the tree to where the second-in-command was hiding behind,
“Wha…what the fuck?!” he shouted as he gazed upon the second-in-command’s corpse, with his head bashed into the point of no recognition,
He turned around to inform his comrades what he had seen but unbeknownst to him, a figure dressed in a dark cloak and brandishing a bloodied conjured mace in hand appeared behind him, ready to add another dead slaver to the pile.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Please! Please spare me! I…I won’t tell anyone about this and I uhh will ensure that things like this never happen again so please spare me!”
“Shut up”
KRAKOOM
A lightning bolt had struck the last slaver who was on his backside trying to crawl away as Mother Felice approached him, about thirty minutes had passed since she detected and proceeded to slaughter the slavers, some of them had surprised her by being able to dodge her lightning strikes only to die by a one-tap mace to the head as she appeared to close for either of them to react.
She now stood in the middle of several bloodied bodies with their heads beyond recognition and even more charred ones, the smell of blood and charred flesh filling the air, some of the trees had been used as posts to throw people at, resulting in some of them having imprints on their trunks. With a satisfied smirk, Mother Felice then used <Instant Relocation> to get back to the orphanage before anything or anyone else could disturb her, making a small mental note of the location so that the duchy knights can clean up afterward.
Appearing in front of the orphanage, Mother Felice examined her clothes to see if there was any blood that the children could possibly see, she even examined her smell since some of the kids were beastkin they could sniff out blood. Using a cleaning spell on herself to ensure no visible blood or stench of blood was on her, she then walked inside the building. She saw groups of children walking around talking to one another while others were busy helping set up the dining tables in the dining hall, a smile appeared on her face as she too entered the kitchen and began helping Sister Mary in cooking the food, smiling and laughing alongside the children.
Soon, a large lunch was prepared for everyone in the orphanage, from roasted chicken to vegetables, all served with rice and some water. The children began to dig in after saying a short prayer and the dining hall was filled with the noise of utensils clattering and children talking to one another as they ate. And after a while, making sure that everyone finished eating, Sister Mary brought out a giant cake that was five layers tall, covered in white frosting and on each layer was a figurine of each child in the orphanage, from the youngest at the top of the cake to the eldest at the bottom. The sight of such a treat made many of the kids cheer in joy as they all lined up to get a slice, thanking Sister Mary with a smile, a hug, or a kiss on the cheek for the treat.
As the last child got their piece and everyone was seated again and enjoying their dessert, Sister Mary turned to her compatriot who was also enjoying her own piece of the cake, complete with her own figurine
“So, how was the hunt?” she asked as she sliced a piece with her fork and ate it
“Successful, looks like Count Chernin is working with someone higher in the aristocratic ladder, but I believe we both know who it may be” Mother Felice answered as she took another bite
“Indeed, should we tell Percy?”
“Later, for now, let’s enjoy the sight before us” Mother Felice answered as she gestured toward the smiling faces of the children
“It really is a beautiful sight, I am happy they enjoy it” Sister Mary said with a smile on her face
“Indeed it is…I am happy that I chose this job, beats staying on long missions that “have a greater purpose” helping these children is a thousand times better” Mother Felice remarked with a smile
“I agree, seeing the results of helping those who are less fortunate really puts a smile on my face” Sister Mary added
“The order has really fallen far, abandoning those who need it the most” Mother Felice said as she finished her cake, a little annoyed
“Indeed it has” Sister Mary replied, disgust could be heard in her tone
“It will only get worse from here”
“That is why we’re going to protect them no?” Sister Mary added a small smirk on her face
“Of course, I won’t let another child suffer by living on the streets again…never again” Mother Felice answered, a bit of regret in her voice mixed with determination as both of them continued to watch children smiling at one another, their hearts burning with the desire to ensure that smile never goes away.
A/N; Heyoo! sorry for the small lateness for the posting. the file for this chapter got corrupted so I had to redo it. anyways, the next chapter will be a character info sheet with their stats, but the sheet will only have like side characters such as Mother Felice, Sharon, Lance, Sister Mary etc. this is because the stats of our duo will be revealed later in the coming chapters. anyways, after the character sheet it's gonna be a Sharon side story then back to the other continent with Ophelia's. anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading and will continue to enjoy the series. many thanks!!!