Chapter 169: Chapter 161 – Pilgrimage Preparation

"Umm...Alicia? Fate?"

The two of them coordinated to keep my arms still while glaring at the girl I was just praising.

The girl on the other hand, puffed up her cheeks while glaring at my two babies.

It was an absurd sight, of a pair of babies less than two years old participating on a glaring contest with a girl around eight.

Though while I wasn't exactly sure how or why this had come to be, I was glad it hadn't gotten physical. While they have yet to show any violent predispositions yet, if they did, they could seriously hurt the average person if let be.

"Ummm...Philia?"

I swallowed my meagre pride and looked over at the only person who might be able to help me.

"My my. How long has it been since I've spotted such a sight?"

"If you've seen it before, then you know how to fix it, right?"

"My, no. I don't."

"Huh?"

Philia, the all knowing woman of how to handle kids, doesn't know how to deal with this situation which exclusively involves kids?

"This isn't the sort of problem you simply get out of. It's the sort you prevent in the first place."

"Prevent?!"

That wasn't what I wanted to hear.

"There is no easy solution to your problem now."

I didn't even understand what sort of problem I was facing!

"Umm...Alicia? Fate? What's wrong?"

But despite my insistence, the two continued to stare at the other girl while they held my arms tightly.

"Flix? Can you go help Torii make dinner?"

"But Miss Philia! He doesn't need me to help him!"

"You're much better at paying attention to the details. I know he's in charge of dinner today, but I want to make sure nothing goes wrong."

"...Fine, Miss Philia."

With that, the girl, Flix, turned and left the room. And with her gone, Alicia and Fate turned back to me and buried their faces in my chest.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you two? Can't you tell me?"

But they just shook their heads. Maybe they didn't understand it themselves?

"Philia, you really don't have any tips for this?"

"Well, it's something which will take time, I suppose. Unless if you want to break Flix's heart."

I shook my head. She was a nice girl and looked up at me. I didn't want to hurt her honest feelings if I could help it.

"Then you'll have to figure out how to accept her, and how to make your babies accept her as well."

"Accepting her huh? Do you two really not like her?"

Rather than voicing their answer, the two of them simply squeezed me a bit tighter. It was enough for me to understand.

"Oh yea, speaking of accepting, I wanted to tell you about the people I went to meet."

"Yes? I heard a little bit about their plight. Quite horrible."

Philia lowered her head as she spoke.

"I figured I'd take them in. I helped establish a new settlement a few years ago, and I'm pretty sure everyone there'll accept Epione's people."

"I heard some bits and pieces from Mister Mint, but that's what you've been up to lately is it?"

"Yea. Though, it's not excuse for not visiting even once. Sorry about that."

"Apology accepted. Though I'm not the only one you should be apologizing to. Right everyone?"

A whole slew of rounded eyes looked up at Philia, then over to me.

"Ah, erm. Sorry for not visiting for so long."

It was a little bit awkward, but I did at least get my words out properly.

But just like in the morning, they all started to speak at the same time, their words becoming a jumbled mess as they tried to tell me all sorts of things.

All the while I struggled to deal with so many children trying to get my attention, Philia looked on with a warm smile plastered on her face at my expense.

 

"Ah, geez, I thought it wouldn't end."

"You know it's going to continue in the afternoon."

"Yea."

But I couldn't hate it. Those kids were all pretty cute.

Not as cute as Alicia and Fate, but certainly cute.

The kids had gone off to eat dinner.

Philia was having her dinner separate from everyone else so she could talk to me, who had no need of eating dinner. One big meal a day was enough for me, and I usually had that at night.

In turn, Alicia and Fate were having their meal, having grown hungry at all the excitement.

"So you haven't started to wean your babies yet?"

"No. None of my attempts have worked so far. Maybe it's still too early for them."

"Well, I don't know much about vampires, but it's quite common for a baby to resist weaning. Once their teeth start to grow in, you need to teach them the flavours of normal food. In a mush form at least. Though I suppose that's not a problem for you."

"Well, we can't handle a solid diet in the first place."

There was a tiny part of me which longed for the sensation of chewing solid foods, yet every time I thought about it, I kept getting distracted by the desire to bite my fangs into something to draw its blood out.

Some day, the idea of consuming solid foods might feel more like a nostalgic novelty rather than something I longed for.

"Though, it's possible that for your kind, the need to change diets might be rooted more in convenience than necessity."

"What do you mean?"

"For the rest of us, we need to eat solid foods to keep our jaws and teeth strong, as well as our insides. I've heard stories of some people who subsist almost entirely on liquids, but it seems to do some terrible things to them. Though admittedly most of them are old dwarven cautionary tales about excess drinking."

"I...see..."

It kinda figures that dwarves of all people would have cautionary tales about consuming nothing but drink.

"Anyways, you can only keep breastfeeding them for so long. Your milk might have everything they need to survive, but you can't always be with them to feed them you know. Especially as they grow up."

"That's pretty obvious."

"Sometimes, it's the obvious things that people need to be told."

I didn't know what to say. It was true that I hadn't really even thought too much about it in the first place, but figured that eventually they'll try drinking blood and find that they enjoy it.

Instead of saying anything, I simply looked down and lightly rubbed my babies heads as they ate, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world as they did one of their instinctive duties.

"Now, considering how quickly you came back, can I presume that you've figured out a solution to their problem?"

"Yea. Frankly, there's only one I can think of."

"That you're going to take responsibility for them?"

I nodded.

*Sigh*

"You know you don't have to do that, right?"

"I know."

"If I figured things right, you don't owe them anything."

"I don't."

"So then why?"

I took in a deep breath. What Philia said so far entirely made sense. All I did was cause trouble for myself. At a time when I really should have been directing my energies elsewhere in the first place.

"I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't."

"..."

"I helped them when we first met. It wasn't a lot, but I did, and I offered to help again if they needed it."

"I know. It's what they told me when they first came here. It's why I didn't turn them away the moment I heard their plea."

My eyes opened up like saucers.

"You were going to turn them away just like that?"

Philia nodded.

"Just like that. I didn't owe them anything, and I couldn't afford to feed so many mouths. Even for a short while. Not when I'm caring for so many orphans, kids who still have their mothers aren't my problem, even if they are that desperate."

My eyes fell to the floor.

It was shocking, but her words made sense. It was logical. She was already doing everything she could, and it could barely be called much more than just surviving. And that was after the help I had given her already. Helping a group larger than her own when they were already being stretched thin was asking the impossible.

The orphanage, after fixing it up four years ago, already looked quite worn. Things must have been difficult, even with the ability to make soap that I had set them up with.

"I'm sure you've noticed, but the number of children under my care have almost doubled since you last visited."

Now that I thought about it, it was true. There were a lot more kids than before. I had thought all the new faces was just the typical influx of young orphans, but maybe it wasn't that typical.

"Did something happen since I was last here?"

"Since then? Nothing too big, though the streets have been less busy lately."

I hadn't noticed any real difference in the main street, but the alleys were pretty empty. Before, there were at least a few people at any time in the day, but today I had barely seen a single person walking around. Not even the kids were playing in the streets in front of the orphanage like before.

"Is that..."

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"Not something for you to worry about. Rather than that, do you have a plan, aside from just taking them under your wing?"

"Kinda. So I mentioned that I had helped establish a new settlement?"

"You did. Apparently it was part of how you've been helping the village Mister Mint came from."

"That's right. I helped set up a new industry in Edgeworth Village, and my settlement is trading goods for the new product they make."

I could confidently say that it was the one act of charity I did in this life that I hadn't neglected to properly follow through on.

Though it could be argued that adopting Alicia was also one of those, it didn't feel right to call it charity. I benefited from it quite a bit as well. It was something I wanted, even if the initial meeting couldn't be called little more than charity.

"So, the settlement I now live at, there's enough space and resources to support them all, and even enough work for everyone, if it's the bare minimum for them to sustain themselves at least."

I couldn't say that there was enough proper work for them to do immediately, but when it came to getting enough to eat, that shouldn't be an issue.

"To sustain themselves? It doesn't sound like you're talking about working for a guild or something."

"No, I guess not. But there's a dungeon over there, so for the bare minimum of food, they should be able to gather that on their own after a little bit of training."

My attention was split to monitor the presences in the building. While it wasn't like I had any ill will towards anyone here, children didn't know how to keep a secret. And of all secrets, this was one I didn't want to get out of the commonwealth for as long as possible.

Fortunately it seemed like everyone was still eating dinner.

That said, Philia's eyes grew wide at the mention of a dungeon. It seemed she understood the importance of it immediately.

"There's even a dungeon there. Or rather, it's because of the dungeon that a settlement was made there, isn't it?"

"Pretty much. It seems like people gather where there is resources, and there's no resource more precious than a dungeon in this world."

"No, perhaps there isn't."

That one dungeon is the sole reason for our little nation's prosperity. It was the reason why not only could the people there survive, but thrive beyond what the people outside were capable of. Not only did we have a dungeon, but we had one that supplied almost all our needs. It wasn't like the one in Knossos that gave out a pool balance of resources at all.

Our nation was small and we didn't have any proper defences. There were no moats, no walls. We relied on the fact that it was hidden from outsiders and nothing bigger than goblins would wander close to our cities. If a proper army tried to invade, we would have trouble defending our home.

We've already been attacked once, though I doubted that they would have had any hint of the dungeon, they did know that there was a settlement there at least.

Fortunately, we could just abandon the fairy city and just defend the dungeon as a choke point while all the civilians hide out in the dark city. The two parts of the nation were growing towards each other, but they were on different sides of Hourai Mountain, so it would take years if not decades before they even came within line of sight of each other.

Though, that was only if an army managed to reach the commonwealth in the first place. The forest itself was a natural barrier, and while it was one thing for a small group of people to cross it, it was another for an army to do the same thing.

I already knew that moving a single wagon through that forest would be a pain in the ass, but dozens of them would be a nightmare.

And they would have to deal with the monsters along the way as well. Up to a certain point, the deeper you went into the forest surrounding our home, the stronger the monsters got before growing weak again at the end.

If a high percentage of the people going through were high levelled, they could defend against the monster attacks. But if a significant portion of the group moving through weren't that high level, the strongest monsters in the forest could pose a serious threat. Even an army would have difficulty going through unless if they were quite serious or prepared for lots of losses.

Thinking about it, I felt better about our odds. Small but elite invaders like the previous attack was a larger threat to us than a large scale invasion. But that was something we could also handle better, as the commonwealth's strength lied in a small number of elite fighters.

Our hunters were growing stronger by the day, but there wasn't that many of them. And many of them preferred to stay on the lower levels for the sake of profits gathering popular materials than pushing themselves raising their levels and going deeper.

"So while things might be rough, they'll most likely be able to make a living for themselves over there then?"

"Probably. Or rather, I don't see why not. Once their base livelihoods are ensured and they become part of the community, I don't really see a reason why they can't flourish over there. Though it does depend on them individually as well."

"True. It's easy to give sweeping statements, but hard to account for every single person."

I nodded.

But that was a problem for the future me. Only once it became clear that there even was going to be a problem, could I do something about it. It sounded like I was just putting off the issue, but in reality, watching over every single one of them until they properly restarted their lives was far more work than I would be able to put in as a single person. Especially when I had other things to worry about as well.

"A large number of new mothers with their children arriving at a new community will be quite a lot of work for everyone."

"Probably."

I barely knew where to even start when it came to all of this.

There was getting there, then making space and building homes for everyone. After that came supplying all their daily necessities until they could handle it on their own.

But how to get all that done...

(Well, let's do it one step at a time.)

[Claret?]

[Yes Master?]

Despite still being invisible, my ever faithful familiar had been nearby this entire time, with only me being able to see her.

[Go back home and find Orphne. Get her to find a bunch of fairies to help out with escort duties. Tell her to also bring at least a month's supplies and that I'll pay for everything. We'll be meeting at Edgeworth Village.]

[Master...]

[What's wrong?]

Usually Claret would immediately go and do what I asked, but this time she looked apprehensive.

[You'll be by yourself if I went.]

[I've got Alicia and Fate with me. I won't be lonely.]

[No, I mean, I'm supposed to protect you all as your familiar! If I go, there's nobody else left to protect you!]

[I...]

Thinking about it, this was the first time that would be true since I had met up with the fairies over three years ago.

But even still...

[There's no way we can escort everyone back home on our own. We need Orphne and her old subordinates to help us out.]

[But...]

[It'll be more dangerous if you don't do it. And besides, nobody'll try to attack us here. It's safe at Philia's place.]

I couldn't say it for sure, as trouble had come around here once before, but such a thing wasn't likely to happen again. And it was more important to worry about a real, tangible threat than one that had slim chances of occurring.

[Understood Master. I'll be back quickly.]

And with that, Claret flew right through the walls and bolted straight home as quickly as she could.

I only hoped she wouldn't push herself too hard.

"Say Scarlet?"

"Yes?"

"If there's enough space for so many people at your settlement, do you think you'll be able to take a few more?"

"I suppose it wouldn't make much of a difference. Do you have some people in mind that needs that sort of help?"

"I do."

"Well, if you're the one recommending them, then I can go talk to them at least. Who is it?"

"Us."

"You?"

"Yes."

I sat there, looking at Philia in the face.

Her eyes stared directly back at mine, showing that she wasn't joking or just saying it for the sake of conversation.

"You're serious."

"I am."

"Why though? I thought things have gotten better here."

"I'm not sure how much you noticed it, but things haven't been that good in this city lately."

"You mean how the alleys are all empty?"

"That's only a part of it. Things have...been getting worse since, right around the time you left."

(It started that soon?!)

"I only realized it after a while, but maybe a day or two before you left, the situation in the city's been getting worse."

Philia held my hands as she confessed her thoughts.

"No, rather, they've been getting bad for a few years. I know you saw a bit of it, with those people harassing the children."

I nodded. It was how I originally found this orphanage in the first place.

"Well, after you left, it seems that some people in the city's darkness started to move more boldly or something, and things have started to deteriorate."

"That sort of thing's been going on while I was away?"

"It's not your fault. You had no way of knowing."

While her words were a little reassuring, they didn't really make me feel much better. In the end, my lack of taking responsibility and being satisfied with myself with a one-time charity had let Philia and the kids here suffer.

"I might not have, but if I came by to check up on you all, I would have found out. It's my fault for not coming for so long. You and the kids might have been pretty scared."

"It takes more than something like this to bother this old woman, but the children, yes. You know, they talked about you almost every day, wondering when you'll come show yourself. No, sorry. That's just me guilt tripping you."

The elderly dwarf let go of my hands and turned her face away from me.

"Well, regardless, if you want to come and bring all the kids, I don't mind. There's plenty of space for everyone."

"Are you sure? You don't have to do this for us. We will survive, one way or another anyways. You've done plenty for us already. More than we could ever repay you."

"It's not about repaying or anything. I have the power to make a difference, so I will."

I grabbed Philia's hands and squeezed them. Her downcast eyes rose up to meet my own.

"So come. Bring all the kids with you. And if you're worried about debts or whatever, how about you head a nursery or something?"

"A nursery?"

"You're already caring for so many kids. If you also care for the others' kids while they're working, they'll have one less thing to worry about during the day. Though of course, you'll need people to help you, but some of the women with Epione are likely to want to help. And they could really benefit from your experience."

"That...that sounds good. I think."

Philia nodded, and squeezed my hand back.

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