Chapter 168: Chapter 160 – The Truth of the Letter

I followed Epione deeper into the building.

Faces peeked out here and there. Most of them were familiar, though most of them were also women. The only ones that weren't were those of little children, all slightly older than Alicia and Fate, but not by much.

A few of them followed us, but most didn't. Even then, they didn't just duck back out of disinterest or something and continued to watch until we were out of sight.

We ended up in a large room dominated with an old worn out table and surrounded by equally battered chairs.

"Sorry for the accommodations, but we weren't planning on living here for long."

I nodded. Unless if they had a magic bag, there wasn't much point in buying much when it came to furniture. This table and the chairs were probably something which came with the place or something.

Epione directed me towards the seat at the head, and once I sat down, she sat on one of the other chairs. The other women who came with us either sat down in their own seats or stood along the walls. Some of them were caring for a child about four years old or so.

"Now, I suppose you're wondering why we called for you."

Once again I nodded. It was nice that the young catkin decided to get to the point so quickly.

"The things is...please help us again!"

"""Please!"""

Everyone lowered their heads to me. My eyes ran from one figure to the next at the unexpected act.

Or rather, I kinda expected that they needed help. Once I realized who it was that had tried to get into contact with me, it didn't take much to realize that they needed something from me.

The last time I had talked to these people, they hadn't even restarted their lives yet. After being kidnapped and abused, all I did was give them the bare minimum help they needed to get back onto their feet.

It could be argued that it wasn't even the bare minimum as I was in a hurry to get back home at the time. Giving them some food and money, then escorting them to the nearest settlement was hardly all they needed, but it was all I could afford to give them.

No, it wasn't that I couldn't afford to give them more, but I didn't want to. I didn't want to take time away from reviving Alicia to help a group of strangers, no matter how much they needed that help. I just gave them a bunch of money to give them something to survive off of and made them fend for themselves.

Technically I had offloaded them to the local lord, but I didn't even check to see what the lord intended to do with them in the first place.

If it was Earth, I could have reasonably presumed that they would have been given a new home and some money to live off of until they could get back onto their feet. But here, I had no idea what was normal for how people who had lost everything were handled.

When I thought about it, it wouldn't have been strange that they would have been entirely neglected and forced to fend for themselves.

The fact that I was so completely absorbed in my own circumstances and didn't even think about what would happen to these people after I went my own way left a bitter taste in my mouth.

"A, anyways. Before that, tell me what happened."

I had no idea what was going on. The first thing I needed to know was what sort of help they needed and why.

"Well, after you saved us and gave us so much money..."

 

"I see..."

Epione gave me a summary of what had happened, with some of the others adding bits and pieces on top of that.

It seemed like the local lord had given them the bare minimum to survive.

At least at first.

They were allowed to live in Parietina Village, the village that the bastard had destroyed kidnapping and murdering all of its inhabitants. Those who originally lived there were able to keep their old homes, but those who didn't were given homes from those who didn't survive.

Even then, more than half of the village's houses were left empty. Even more once they realized that almost everyone ended up being alone with an entire house, so they consolidated their homes so that several people would live together to make it easier to help each other.

For the short term, supplies were sent from the nearest city for them to survive off of. People moved in and the village slowly grew livelier again.

But as the babies were born and others realized that they were dhampires, the women and their babies ended being ostracized.

No, rather, the others didn't realize exactly what their race was, but deemed their red eyes as suspicious and potentially monstrous.

As the village grew with new people, the victims of that bastard grew more isolated.

But even still, they managed to survive for a few years, at first off of the lord's charity, and after on they money I had given them once that wore off.

Eventually though, they reached their limit. They had difficulty finding jobs as not only did they have to care for a large number of babies, but not many people would even give them jobs.

In the first place, it was a farming village, so aside from farming, there weren't that many jobs that were available.

But a group of women, most of whom had never farmed before, having to do intense manual labour after spending weeks or months, or even years locked up underground, it simply wasn't possible. Especially when almost all of them ended up having a child over the course of that first year.

I remembered how difficult it was to do anything, and I had the benefit of extremely high stats, support from loving friends, and the ability to heal myself right after giving birth. These people only had each other, and almost all of them were in the same boat, so even helping each other was extremely difficult.

In the end, they had made the decision to leave the village and seek me out for help.

"I see. You've all had it hard."

The atmosphere in the room was dark. A few were even holding back tears.

It seemed like it was really hard over there for them.

"Umm, is there any chance anyone knows what happened to the prisoners we took when we rescued you?"

"Those older children right?"

I nodded.

"They were all executed as bandits."

"...I see."

It was the one fate I was hoping to protect those kids from, but it seemed like I had failed.

This too was a result of me not following up with any of the initial charity I had done. But unlike those kids, these people hadn't been forced over the edge yet. There were things I could still do.

"Alright. I'll see what I can do."

All around me were voices of relief and gratitude, some even cried when they suppressed it earlier.

"But before that..."

I got up and walked over to one person who was sitting at the table.

Adjusting Alicia and Fate in my arms, I pat the woman on the head.

"It must have been especially difficult for you. Good job."

"Miss Scarlet...!"

The woman, the one who I took especially good care of back when I first found everyone, looked up at me with tears running down her cheeks.

When we first met, her eyes were dead and she couldn't even take care of herself. I had to spoon her all her meals and take care of everything for her. In the end, she recovered well enough that she was able to give me her name, but apparently after I left, her condition drastically improved and she ended up taking charge to care for all the others who were as bad in as she originally was.

According to Epione's story, she ardently protected those invalids while the new people at the village wanted to just get rid of them, thinking that trying to make them recover was a waste of food and effort.

And while it took longer than for her, all of them ended up recovering and managed to make the long journey here.

When I looked at it, it was frankly amazing. A group that couldn't even feed themselves due to how broken they were, managed to make a difficult several month journey all the way here.

"Alright. Well, I guess if your original village didn't work out, I don't think living here would work out either."

Many heads nodded all around.

"We're really sorry for coming just to beg for your help..."

I put up my hand to stop the words that were directed towards me.

"It's my fault for not checking up on you. My help back then was quite half-hearted and only good for self-gratification."

"No, that's...!"

"It's not your...!"

"We're thankful for...!"

Everyone started to voice out their disagreement, but I shook my head.

"It's true. I had the ability and resources to properly help you, but I ignored you and made you fend for yourselves when what you needed wasn't money but someone to help you recover and find a new livelihood. I didn't even consider giving that to you, which was my failing."

Some might say that I had no obligation to go that far, and they would be right.

But that said, simply giving them some money then making myself scarce was nothing more than self-gratification. It was at best a band-aid solution, and at worst pretending the problem didn't even exist.

These sorts of self-gratification was common on Earth to the point that I actively shut my ears off from it after getting sick and tired of hearing about it all the time, but to think I helped perpetuate it in another world.

It was disgusting, and I loathed myself for it.

At the minimum, I should have come to visit every once in a while to check up on them. It was the same thing with Philia and the orphanage. I helped them once then jetted out of their lives, satisfied and full of myself for the good I did.

It was pathetic.

But this time, I was going to take responsibility. I would make a lasting difference no matter how long it took, rather than just a one-time quick and easy slap of charity.

"Fortunately, I know a place where everyone can live. I can even supply the basics until everyone gets back onto their feets as well!"

There was a large number of exclamations and someone even ran out of the room. I could hear more yelling and cries of joy from the other rooms.

"It sounds like a dream, but will the people there accept us?"

"Don't worry. They accepted us, so I don't see why they'll reject your kids."

Emphasizing that point, I opened my mouth to reveal my fangs.

There was a quiet acknowledgement from everyone as they were reminded about my own constitution.

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I didn't worry about them, since they already knew I was a vampire. And since they knew, they also understood that anyone who would accept a full blooded vampire like me were likely to accept mixed blooded vampires like their own children.

Well, from my perspective, I knew for sure that they'd be accepted. The people at the Hourai Commonwealth were generally people who disliked pointless conflict, aside from Chieftain Harja at least. And as long as they didn't present themselves as a threat, they were generally pretty accepting people.

"Anyways, can you guy gather enough supplies for a trip of a few weeks? Preferably a month just in case."

"Ah, yes. I think we can get it all prepared by tomorrow."

"Sounds good. Here."

I pulled out a single coin and placed it on the table. It was a divine silver coin.

"Use this to pay for whatever you need."

"Ah, we still have a bit of money left, so you don't need to..."

"Don't skimp on supplies. The journey's going to be hard since there's no roads where we're going. And the amount of supplies we'll need means that you'll have to buy a wagon or magic bag to carry it all."

"Thank you, really. For all our sakes, Miss Scarlet."

Following Epione's words, everyone gave me their thanks.

After that, we spent time time talking together, and before I knew it, I was being led around the building, greeting everyone who had come.

While I couldn't be sure, it seemed like everyone I had met in that underground prison had come. Not a single person decided to stay behind and took the long and difficult journey without any guarantee that something would come out of it.

It was even more amazing, because there were almost as many children as there were adults, and they were all around four years old, making the journey that much more difficult.

Frankly, I was pretty amazed that they had managed the journey in the first place, with that impression being strengthened the more they told me about it.

If it was written into a book, it would be an adventure that rivalled many of the great epics.

Well, maybe not quite, but the hardship they had suffered on the way was all real. It was easy to see how everyone's expression was bright knowing that there was certain light at the end of the tunnel now.

Once I finished talking to everyone, I said my goodbyes and headed back to Philia's place. I had rushed things over there, and now that the mothers and their children had to spend the day preparing, I had time to play with all the kids over there.

*Knock knock*

"Hello? Philia? I'm..."

*Stomp stomp stomp. Bang!*

"You're back!"

Interrupted by the sound of running, I froze on the spot wondering what was going on, only for the door to slam open, revealing a foxkin girl standing there while breathing a bit heavily. No, not any foxkin, but the same one who greeted me when I arrived this morning.

"Oh hey, it's your again. Is your nose better now?"

"Miss Scarlet!"

The little girl's eyes glittered as she realized that I recognized her. At least from this morning.

But still...

(Sorry. I can't remember your name.)

I played with quite a few of the kids of this orphanage, and I could remember that she was particularly attached to me. But as for her name, it had completely escaped me.

"Oh, Scarlet. That didn't take long."

Behind the little girl, came another who was of roughly equal height. Though the deep wrinkles prevented me from considering them anywhere near the same age, no matter how much I tried to blur the concept of age.

"Yea. There wasn't too much they needed to tell me."

In the end, I only spent a few hours there, and most of the time was used doing a giant meet and greet.

Frankly, it was amazing how many people were packed into that building. It seemed like it was something for a company, but there were hundreds using the place as a temporary home.

The conditions were, quite frankly, quite terrible. It looked like they were sleeping on the floor and barely had any personal possessions with them. Most likely to make the trip easier, though it wouldn't surprise me that they didn't have much to dispose of before making the trip, from what I heard.

The fact that they've been spending over a week in that place was horrible enough.

Though...

"You know, thanks for helping them out."

It turned out that they got help from Philia originally. While there wasn't much she could do directly, she was the one who found them a place big enough for all of them to stay, if only just barely.

It seemed that I told them about Philia, which was how they managed to find her in the first place. Though my memories on those details were a bit hazy, I did recall having mentioned her to them at some point.

"It's fine. I'm glad to help, and they certainly needed it. Though..."

"?"

"I wonder why you told them that I'd be able to take care of them myself?"

"Erm, did I tell them that?"

"Apparently you did! This orphanage might be large, but there's no way it can house so many people at once! Did you even use your head when you pushed them off onto me?"

(Shit, she figured it out.)

The fact was, mentioning Philia was just a way to reassure them so I could leave more quickly. I didn't actually expect them to make the journey, or even need any further help. Or rather, I didn't even consider the possibility at the time.

"Anyways, come on in."

With a huff, Philia turned around and lead me inside.

We sat down in one of the larger rooms. A bunch of the kids who were playing stopped and came up to me.

I sat Alicia and Fate on my lap so I could pat the kids on their heads as they talked with excited voices. Though, for some reason my twins held onto me tightly, their eyes shifting from one of orphan to the next nervously.

"It's okay you two. Nobody here is going to hurt you."

"Despite becoming a mother, you still don't understand children it seems."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I felt offended at Philia's implication. While she was far more experienced when it came to handling children, Alicia and Fate were MY babies. Nobody knew them better then me.

"Just that what they're nervous about isn't the fear that someone might hurt them."

"Then what is it you're worried about you two?"

I looked down and pat my adorable babies, trying to reassure them. But rather than say anything, they just buried their faces into my chest while continuing to hold on to me tightly.

All I could do was grit my teeth, realizing that maybe Philia might have been right.

(What the hell am I doing?)

After a moment of contemplation, I realized how stupid my thoughts were. Of course Philia would be able to understand Alicia and Fate in ways I had trouble understanding. She had decades of raising children under her belt, and while I might know a lot of little things about my babies better than anyone, that didn't mean I knew everything better.

It was stupid when I realized that I was just feeling jealous.

This wasn't even something worth feeling jealous about anyways.

I was just being childish. And to think I was doing that while surrounded by children.

Maybe I wasn't really as mature as I thought I was.

Or maybe the concept of becoming an adult was flawed in the first place, and that nobody fully threw away their childishness?

"Umm, Miss Scarlet?"

Over at the room's entrance stood that girl that greeted me at the door both times.

"Oh, hey."

"I, I did what you told me to do when you last came."

(I told her? I don't remember what that was.)

Maybe because it was something I just did on a whim, or maybe because so many things had happened since then, but my memories of the time I spent here was quite vague. Aside from some stuff that involved Philia that made my cheeks grow warm, and other things I'd rather just forget.

"Look."

Extending her arms, the girl concentrated, and a flame appeared over her hands.

"Oh wow! Great work!"

I clapped my hands while giving her a sincere smile.

"Not just that, I can do other things too now!"

The girl grew more confident and a smile sprung up on her face as she showed off more magic she had learned. From floating a conjured orb of water to making the air flow around the room, the foxkin showed off each of the elements. While none of it was particularly strong, the fact that such a small child did all that was quite impressive.

Though that was just my impression. For myself, I had completely cheated when it came to learning magic, being a vampire. I had no idea how difficult it was to learn magic the proper way, but it couldn't have been easy.

I continued to clap while praising her dedication when suddenly Alicia and Fate grabbed my arms, stopping me from continuing.

"Ummm, what are you two..."

But rather than turning to me like usual, my twins instead glared at the other girl for some reason.

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