Editor: SleepyMango123
Proofreader: Lore
In the early morning, in an inconspicuous house in Vernal City, a stout middle-aged man with a potbelly got up.
It was located in the local civilian area but close to the wealthy area of the city. Most of the people who lived here were wealthy businessmen who had become rich within one to two generations. But their families were looked down upon by the wealthy nobles that existed for centuries.
In this flood situation, this group of people suffered the most. Most of their houses were destroyed, and a substantial amount of their wealth was also lost. Their once relatively rich life fell into an embarrassing state all at once. In addition, the officials of Vernal City had been unable to salvage things from the flood. Therefore, this group of people, as well as some civilians, chose to leave Vernal City and go to other nearby cities to seek a living.
At this moment, half of the house had been washed down by the flood and there were only two rooms that were still intact. The wealthy middle-aged man gently knocked on one of the doors.
After a while, with a creak, the door opened and a blond-haired child appeared, looking up at the man.
The middle-aged man lowered his head slightly, looked a little cautious, and whispered, “Your Royal Highness…”
“Call me Garl.” The child who looked at him with a pair of big golden-amber eyes said.
“Y-yes.” The rich man coughed and uncomfortably replied as he straightened his back.
He said, “Garl, we should set off now.”
This man was not an ordinary civilian. He belonged as a hidden member of the Supervisory Office. He was a hidden line1, using the identity of an inconspicuous middle-level wealthy businessman to investigate the situation.
This time, it was him and a few colleagues that secretly sent out the information about Vernal City. Most of the news that Ziemuer waited for these days to inquire about, came from them.
However, he didn’t think that King Camos would actually come in person. What made him most anxious was that, in order to rescue those missing children, Prince Garlan would discard his honorable status and subject himself to danger.
However, despite the panic in his heart, he, who was used to monitoring and had become an undercover spy, had to have certain abilities. When Garlan said that, he coughed, controlled his expression, and then reached out to hold the hand that Garlan stretched towards him. Holding his ‘little nephew’’s hands, they left the house together with a servant carrying two big bags on his back.
He looked like one of the very ordinary wealthy businessmen who went bankrupt due to the flood. He was taking his nephew, his only servant, and the remaining assets to leave the flood-stricken Vernal City and restart their life in another city.
When the man led his ‘little nephew’ out of this room, a black shadow flashed from the hidden door and a person appeared, looking through the crack to stare at the child’s back who was walking away.
The young man stood there quietly, most of his face obscured by the shadows. Those golden-red eyes were hidden in the shadow behind the door, making others unable to see the expression of the young man watching the child leaving. The light from the crack in the door fell on the bridge of his straight nose and his thin tightened lips, giving an unusually sharp feeling.
“Prince, we should go.” There were other people in the room, and one of them stepped forward and spoke to Heimos in a low voice.
“We must reach Ayre Town before them.”
The town of Ayre was a central town not far from Vernal City. It wasn’t very big, but it was quite prosperous because of its location in the main traffic. It took about half a day to ride a horse from the City of Vernal to arrive there.
Especially during this period of time, thieves frequently appeared on the road from Vernal City to other cities, so many bankrupt wealthy businessmen and civilians who planned to leave the city chose to gather in that small town to form a group. The large teams would then pool money together to hire guards from the town or some vagrant rangers to escort them to other cities.
But even so, many small teams were attacked by thieves on their way to other cities from Ayre.
By the time Heimos rushed to the outskirts of Ayre Town, it was full of people. It seemed like they had escaped from the flood. At first glance, the temporary tents were densely packed, and many poor people were holding a few bundles of straw while sleeping in the open space.
The crowd was bustling and noisy. When they got closer, they felt the buzzing in their ears. One needed to speak loudly for the person beside them to hear.
They moved a little farther away and found the agreed upon marked spot. As soon as they got off their horses behind a big tree, someone immediately greeted them.
“Where is King Camos?” Heimos asked.
“The King went ahead to check, Lord Ziemuer is arranging the people to secretly follow along the road.”
Heimos hummed and didn’t say another word.
The steed had been led away by his men and tied to the side to feed. The young man folded his arms on his chest and leaned against the big tree behind him. He leaned slightly, putting one jet-black boot on top of the other.
He lowered his head, and his lowered forehead concealed his drooping eyes, revealing only the half of his face below the tip of his nose. The sun was extremely bright at noon, and specks of light and shadow fell on his dark hair through the dense canopy of trees. As the branches and leaves swayed, the light spots swayed on the lower half of the young man’s handsome face.
Heimos, who was waiting quietly by the big tree, looked calm and composed, but the force of his fingers wearing brown-black leather finger cots grasping his arm had completely exposed the teenager, revealing an anxious mood.
After waiting for a while, he looked up at the sky and suddenly frowned. Although they were faster on horses and had arrived earlier, it was already this particular time in the afternoon. Garlan and the others should have already arrived.
They had yet to appear and it felt like something was wrong.
While thinking about this, he turned his head and glanced in the direction of the road. However, as soon as he looked, chaos suddenly broke out near the road.
Heimos felt his heart beat violently inexplicably, and he quickly ran in that direction. The cavalry, who were also waiting nearby, looked at each other and chased behind.
At the moment, the entrance of Ayre was in a mess. Some people were screaming names, some were crying, and others were in a hysterical mess. Heimos grabbed a few people and asked them what had happened and finally learned from one person that the two or three groups of people who came here from Vernal City today had been attacked by thieves on their way.
Because in the past, thieves would only attack passers-by outside the town of Ayre and far away from the City of Vernal, nobody expected that this time the thieves would go deep into the city and attack people who wanted to flee. Now the entrance was completely chaotic. In addition to some people injured by thieves who were rushing to call a doctor, some people who had escaped by chance were still crying about their stolen finances and abducted relatives, and some people were begging for others to save their relatives and friends.
Breaking away from the man, Heimos rushed over in two to three steps. His eyes constantly searched among the disorganised crowd.
In a split second, he suddenly recalled that not long ago, he felt a little flustered when he watched Garlan nearly fall from the high platform before his eyes.
At this moment, a wealthy middle-aged man who looked embarrassed, struggled to push aside the crowd and stumbled towards Heimos. He looked like he had been running for a long time, and the cloth on his head showed signs of bleeding. Panting and gasping for air, his face was sweaty, showing a panicked expression.
When Heimos saw that the man was alone, his heart suddenly stopped.
He reached out and grabbed the man who staggered towards him, and asked in a low voice, “Where is Garlan?!”
The man looked at him in dismay, as if he wanted to kneel down to him but held back.
“Garl…no, the p-prince, he…”
His mouth was trembling, and his voice was shaking even more.
“…He… was captured by the thieves!”
The boy’s pupils shrank violently for a moment in the harsh sunlight.
…
…
Feeling groggy and dizzy, Garlan felt extremely sluggish. In between consciousness and sleep, it seemed that someone was tapping his face gently, and there was a thin voice shouting something.
As his face was patted lightly again, the voice became anxious, and his drowsy consciousness vaguely became alert. He could feel a little dazzling light jumping in front of his closed eyes.
Garlan struggled to open his heavy eyelids, and the world in front of him went from blurry to clear. Someone lowered their head above his, blocking the slightly dazzling red flame.
“Ah, you’re awake?”
It was a childish voice, with a tone of surprise. The long linen ponytail hung down, and the tip of their hair fell on his cheek, making him a little itchy.
As soon as he sat up with his arms being supported, he saw the little girl kneeling beside him shouting, “Grandpa! Wake up—the little brother is awake! Come and take a look—”
Garlan, who was sitting on the ground, was still a little confused, and what appeared before his eyes at this moment was an extremely strange place. He felt as though he was sitting on the cold stone ground. With his fingers, he could feel the ground was a little moist as well.
He turned his head and looked around. It was a small stone house, dark and damp. Under the faint light of the oil lamp hanging on the wall, countless mottled cracks on the blackened stone wall could be seen, as well as the moss that covered most of the wall.
A rusty iron door was erected not far away, arched, and outside was a narrow corridor. The opposite was also an arched rusty iron door. The fire was too weak to see clearly inside, and he could only blurrily make out a few children shrinking at the doorway…
Children!
Garlan’s eyes widened suddenly, and he got up and ran to the iron gate.
He stood by the iron railing, grabbed the rusty iron rod, and looked out. Looking around, he could see that there were gloomy stone prisons along the corridor, and many children were locked in it.
He finally remembered what had happened not long ago. He and the man who pretended to be his uncle were on the way to Ayre. There were about thirty or forty people with him. As they were approaching the town, a group of riders suddenly rushed out.
He saw with his own eyes that the leader slashed the people who were trying to resist. The man next to him grabbed his hand in a panic and tried to escape, but was knocked down by a galloping horse. He was immediately picked up by someone and knocked out.
It seemed that he had been taken into captivity by those so called thieves.
Holding the rusty iron, Garlan frowned and thought, this is bad, our plan has been disrupted.
Because those ‘thieves’ had always taken action outside Vernal City, Brother King and the others had arranged the plan outside the city, but now… Damn, he didn’t expect those ‘thieves’ to directly enter the city without restraint to rob!
“Child.”
Just when Garlan was feeling anxious, a hoarse and old voice sounded behind him.
He turned around and saw a skinny old man approaching him with the support of the little girl with a flaxen-coloured ponytail.
At the same time, he also found that in the stone cell he himself was in, there were four or five children huddled in the shadows.
It was probably Garlan’s dazed look that made the old man misunderstand, thinking that the child was frightened, and he returned with an expression full of sympathy and helplessness.
This child looked fair and delicate, with a weak appearance. At first glance, he knew that he was pampered while growing up. He hadn’t had any hardships. Now that he was suddenly caught by these damn thieves. Maybe his relatives were…
Thinking of this, the old man sighed, but still tried to talk to Garlan in a kind tone, “Child, don’t be afraid.”
He coaxed the blond-haired child in a low voice. The child looked up at him with his eyes open, a small face as big as a palm wrapped in golden velvet hair. At that moment, he was shocked and stared at this little child who looked cute yet pitiful.
“It’s okay, it’s okay now.” The old man comforted him.
The little girl next to him took the initiative to hold Garlan’s hand, as if she were also coaxing him.
“Little brother, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”
As soon as this little brother was thrown in, she felt that this was the cutest child she had ever met.
She originally hated those dirty boys who liked to bully others, but when the little boy looked at her, those big eyes were like gems. It immediately made her feel tender-hearted.
She coaxed the scared brother in a low voice, “Sister is with you, don’t be afraid.”
The cell was too dark, and neither the grandfather nor grandchild saw the eyes of the boy they were trying to comfort, twitch.
Ah, I’m a child.
A poorly frightened child.
After repeating these two sentences to himself several times, Garlan felt much better.
“Where is… this place?” After thinking about it, Garlan asked in a low voice.
He spoke very softly, and it sounded like he was scared.
“Why did those people want to capture me? Were you also abducted?”
The old man sighed. He stretched out his dry hand, held Garlan’s hand, and led him into the depths of the cell. Taking him to the corner of the wall with the oil lamp, he patted Garlan on the head and let him sit.
This was because the elderly felt that children would no longer be so scared when there was light.
“Child, where are you from?”
Garlan, who sat down, hesitated for a moment and answered softly, “My uncle and I live in Vernal City. Mom and Dad sent me over and told me to read and write with my uncle.”
He continued, “L-later, afterwards, there was a lot of water. Uncle said that he would take me back to my parents. He took me out this morning. Then, we met a lot of people. They kidnapped me, and here I am.”
Listening to the child’s stammering remarks, the old man thought the child was just afraid and had no doubts at all. He just shook his head and sighed. “Those damn thieves.”
“Little brother, we were also caught. All the children here were caught by the band of thieves.”
The little girl with the ponytail continued, with an angry expression on her face, “Grandpa and I have been kept here for two days and one night! There are even those who stayed longer. They have been here for two days!”
She wanted to say something more, but suddenly there was a croaking sound. The iron railing was beaten hard a few times.
“Time to eat.”
An impatient voice sounded, and the man hitting the iron railing with an iron rod put a few palm-sized basins in and then walked to the next cell.
The few children who had been curled up in the shadows all rushed over at this moment, one by one they took a small bowl, lowered their heads, and started to gobble the food up.
Garlan hadn’t reacted yet. The little girl beside him rushed over like a tiger descending a mountain with a terrifying aura. She picked up two small bowls and ran back. When the little girl came back, Garlan was still in a daze.
“Here, little brother, something to eat.”
Handing one of the small bowls to Garlan, the little girl took the other left in her hand and looked at the old man with an ugly look on her face.
“Grandpa…” she said angrily and was sad again, “They didn’t prepare your share.”
The old man sighed and touched her head.
The little girl stopped talking and sensibly shared the little food with the old man slowly.
In the two days after being captured, those people would give regular rations of food for the children, but never gave any to her grandfather. It was as if they didn’t care about his life or death.
In the past two days, she shared her portion with her grandfather, but the portion was originally small, and now she had to share it with another. She was already very hungry.
This little bit was not enough for her to fill up her stomach, and eating it was the same as if she didn’t.
When she finished eating, she saw that the little brother was still holding the small bowl. The smell of the food made her swallow a mouthful of saliva, and she had an urge to grab it.
But she resisted, swallowing her saliva and persuaded the other to quickly eat.
“Eat, little brother. There are only two meals a day. If you don’t eat, you’ll be hungry by noon tomorrow. You should eat as soon as possible.”
The bowl in his hand looked like gruel, but it had a faintly rotten smell. There were some unknown pitch-black substances floating in it. Garlan looked at the little girl who persuaded him to eat while staring at the bowl of gruel in his hand and drooling. He was a little bit dumbfounded.
Ah, I can’t eat it, he thought. Looking at the insatiable look of the girl and the skinny old man, he reached out and passed the bowl of porridge.
“For you to eat.”
“No, no, I can’t eat little brother’s food.” The little girl swallowed and shook her head vigorously, and the ponytail was thrown into a mess by her action.
“I ate a lot with my uncle not long ago, and I’m not hungry at all. Give it to you.”
“Really? Can I really eat—”
“En. Share it with Grandpa.” The blond-haired child said, showing a smile that was adorable to the little girl.
“Thank you, little brother.”
After receiving the bowl that Garlan handed over, the little girl was so grateful that she suddenly leaned in and gave Garlan a hard kiss on the cheek. “This sister will repay you!”
She said, “You gave me this bowl of porridge today. When we are all out, I’ll support you for a lifetime!” After she finished saying that, she ran to find her grandfather with the food in a hurry leaving Garlan stunned by her kiss.
Garlan, “???”
A look of dumbfoundedness.
Wait a moment
It feels like this scene is really familiar.
…
…
Ah!
Isn’t this the part of the harem of the Son of Destiny (the protagonist) in the novel?
So after being reborn several times, at this moment, has the aura of his Son of Destiny finally come into play?
Editor: SleepyMango123
Proofreader: Lore
In the early morning, in an inconspicuous house in Vernal City, a stout middle-aged man with a potbelly got up.
It was located in the local civilian area but close to the wealthy area of the city. Most of the people who lived here were wealthy businessmen who had become rich within one to two generations. But their families were looked down upon by the wealthy nobles that existed for centuries.
In this flood situation, this group of people suffered the most. Most of their houses were destroyed, and a substantial amount of their wealth was also lost. Their once relatively rich life fell into an embarrassing state all at once. In addition, the officials of Vernal City had been unable to salvage things from the flood. Therefore, this group of people, as well as some civilians, chose to leave Vernal City and go to other nearby cities to seek a living.
At this moment, half of the house had been washed down by the flood and there were only two rooms that were still intact. The wealthy middle-aged man gently knocked on one of the doors.
After a while, with a creak, the door opened and a blond-haired child appeared, looking up at the man.
The middle-aged man lowered his head slightly, looked a little cautious, and whispered, “Your Royal Highness…”
“Call me Garl.” The child who looked at him with a pair of big golden-amber eyes said.
“Y-yes.” The rich man coughed and uncomfortably replied as he straightened his back.
He said, “Garl, we should set off now.”
This man was not an ordinary civilian. He belonged as a hidden member of the Supervisory Office. He was a hidden line1, using the identity of an inconspicuous middle-level wealthy businessman to investigate the situation.
This time, it was him and a few colleagues that secretly sent out the information about Vernal City. Most of the news that Ziemuer waited for these days to inquire about, came from them.
However, he didn’t think that King Camos would actually come in person. What made him most anxious was that, in order to rescue those missing children, Prince Garlan would discard his honorable status and subject himself to danger.
However, despite the panic in his heart, he, who was used to monitoring and had become an undercover spy, had to have certain abilities. When Garlan said that, he coughed, controlled his expression, and then reached out to hold the hand that Garlan stretched towards him. Holding his ‘little nephew’’s hands, they left the house together with a servant carrying two big bags on his back.
He looked like one of the very ordinary wealthy businessmen who went bankrupt due to the flood. He was taking his nephew, his only servant, and the remaining assets to leave the flood-stricken Vernal City and restart their life in another city.
When the man led his ‘little nephew’ out of this room, a black shadow flashed from the hidden door and a person appeared, looking through the crack to stare at the child’s back who was walking away.
The young man stood there quietly, most of his face obscured by the shadows. Those golden-red eyes were hidden in the shadow behind the door, making others unable to see the expression of the young man watching the child leaving. The light from the crack in the door fell on the bridge of his straight nose and his thin tightened lips, giving an unusually sharp feeling.
“Prince, we should go.” There were other people in the room, and one of them stepped forward and spoke to Heimos in a low voice.
“We must reach Ayre Town before them.”
The town of Ayre was a central town not far from Vernal City. It wasn’t very big, but it was quite prosperous because of its location in the main traffic. It took about half a day to ride a horse from the City of Vernal to arrive there.
Especially during this period of time, thieves frequently appeared on the road from Vernal City to other cities, so many bankrupt wealthy businessmen and civilians who planned to leave the city chose to gather in that small town to form a group. The large teams would then pool money together to hire guards from the town or some vagrant rangers to escort them to other cities.
But even so, many small teams were attacked by thieves on their way to other cities from Ayre.
By the time Heimos rushed to the outskirts of Ayre Town, it was full of people. It seemed like they had escaped from the flood. At first glance, the temporary tents were densely packed, and many poor people were holding a few bundles of straw while sleeping in the open space.
The crowd was bustling and noisy. When they got closer, they felt the buzzing in their ears. One needed to speak loudly for the person beside them to hear.
They moved a little farther away and found the agreed upon marked spot. As soon as they got off their horses behind a big tree, someone immediately greeted them.
“Where is King Camos?” Heimos asked.
“The King went ahead to check, Lord Ziemuer is arranging the people to secretly follow along the road.”
Heimos hummed and didn’t say another word.
The steed had been led away by his men and tied to the side to feed. The young man folded his arms on his chest and leaned against the big tree behind him. He leaned slightly, putting one jet-black boot on top of the other.
He lowered his head, and his lowered forehead concealed his drooping eyes, revealing only the half of his face below the tip of his nose. The sun was extremely bright at noon, and specks of light and shadow fell on his dark hair through the dense canopy of trees. As the branches and leaves swayed, the light spots swayed on the lower half of the young man’s handsome face.
Heimos, who was waiting quietly by the big tree, looked calm and composed, but the force of his fingers wearing brown-black leather finger cots grasping his arm had completely exposed the teenager, revealing an anxious mood.
After waiting for a while, he looked up at the sky and suddenly frowned. Although they were faster on horses and had arrived earlier, it was already this particular time in the afternoon. Garlan and the others should have already arrived.
They had yet to appear and it felt like something was wrong.
While thinking about this, he turned his head and glanced in the direction of the road. However, as soon as he looked, chaos suddenly broke out near the road.
Heimos felt his heart beat violently inexplicably, and he quickly ran in that direction. The cavalry, who were also waiting nearby, looked at each other and chased behind.
At the moment, the entrance of Ayre was in a mess. Some people were screaming names, some were crying, and others were in a hysterical mess. Heimos grabbed a few people and asked them what had happened and finally learned from one person that the two or three groups of people who came here from Vernal City today had been attacked by thieves on their way.
Because in the past, thieves would only attack passers-by outside the town of Ayre and far away from the City of Vernal, nobody expected that this time the thieves would go deep into the city and attack people who wanted to flee. Now the entrance was completely chaotic. In addition to some people injured by thieves who were rushing to call a doctor, some people who had escaped by chance were still crying about their stolen finances and abducted relatives, and some people were begging for others to save their relatives and friends.
Breaking away from the man, Heimos rushed over in two to three steps. His eyes constantly searched among the disorganised crowd.
In a split second, he suddenly recalled that not long ago, he felt a little flustered when he watched Garlan nearly fall from the high platform before his eyes.
At this moment, a wealthy middle-aged man who looked embarrassed, struggled to push aside the crowd and stumbled towards Heimos. He looked like he had been running for a long time, and the cloth on his head showed signs of bleeding. Panting and gasping for air, his face was sweaty, showing a panicked expression.
When Heimos saw that the man was alone, his heart suddenly stopped.
He reached out and grabbed the man who staggered towards him, and asked in a low voice, “Where is Garlan?!”
The man looked at him in dismay, as if he wanted to kneel down to him but held back.
“Garl…no, the p-prince, he…”
His mouth was trembling, and his voice was shaking even more.
“…He… was captured by the thieves!”
The boy’s pupils shrank violently for a moment in the harsh sunlight.
…
…
Feeling groggy and dizzy, Garlan felt extremely sluggish. In between consciousness and sleep, it seemed that someone was tapping his face gently, and there was a thin voice shouting something.
As his face was patted lightly again, the voice became anxious, and his drowsy consciousness vaguely became alert. He could feel a little dazzling light jumping in front of his closed eyes.
Garlan struggled to open his heavy eyelids, and the world in front of him went from blurry to clear. Someone lowered their head above his, blocking the slightly dazzling red flame.
“Ah, you’re awake?”
It was a childish voice, with a tone of surprise. The long linen ponytail hung down, and the tip of their hair fell on his cheek, making him a little itchy.
As soon as he sat up with his arms being supported, he saw the little girl kneeling beside him shouting, “Grandpa! Wake up—the little brother is awake! Come and take a look—”
Garlan, who was sitting on the ground, was still a little confused, and what appeared before his eyes at this moment was an extremely strange place. He felt as though he was sitting on the cold stone ground. With his fingers, he could feel the ground was a little moist as well.
He turned his head and looked around. It was a small stone house, dark and damp. Under the faint light of the oil lamp hanging on the wall, countless mottled cracks on the blackened stone wall could be seen, as well as the moss that covered most of the wall.
A rusty iron door was erected not far away, arched, and outside was a narrow corridor. The opposite was also an arched rusty iron door. The fire was too weak to see clearly inside, and he could only blurrily make out a few children shrinking at the doorway…
Children!
Garlan’s eyes widened suddenly, and he got up and ran to the iron gate.
He stood by the iron railing, grabbed the rusty iron rod, and looked out. Looking around, he could see that there were gloomy stone prisons along the corridor, and many children were locked in it.
He finally remembered what had happened not long ago. He and the man who pretended to be his uncle were on the way to Ayre. There were about thirty or forty people with him. As they were approaching the town, a group of riders suddenly rushed out.
He saw with his own eyes that the leader slashed the people who were trying to resist. The man next to him grabbed his hand in a panic and tried to escape, but was knocked down by a galloping horse. He was immediately picked up by someone and knocked out.
It seemed that he had been taken into captivity by those so called thieves.
Holding the rusty iron, Garlan frowned and thought, this is bad, our plan has been disrupted.
Because those ‘thieves’ had always taken action outside Vernal City, Brother King and the others had arranged the plan outside the city, but now… Damn, he didn’t expect those ‘thieves’ to directly enter the city without restraint to rob!
“Child.”
Just when Garlan was feeling anxious, a hoarse and old voice sounded behind him.
He turned around and saw a skinny old man approaching him with the support of the little girl with a flaxen-coloured ponytail.
At the same time, he also found that in the stone cell he himself was in, there were four or five children huddled in the shadows.
It was probably Garlan’s dazed look that made the old man misunderstand, thinking that the child was frightened, and he returned with an expression full of sympathy and helplessness.
This child looked fair and delicate, with a weak appearance. At first glance, he knew that he was pampered while growing up. He hadn’t had any hardships. Now that he was suddenly caught by these damn thieves. Maybe his relatives were…
Thinking of this, the old man sighed, but still tried to talk to Garlan in a kind tone, “Child, don’t be afraid.”
He coaxed the blond-haired child in a low voice. The child looked up at him with his eyes open, a small face as big as a palm wrapped in golden velvet hair. At that moment, he was shocked and stared at this little child who looked cute yet pitiful.
“It’s okay, it’s okay now.” The old man comforted him.
The little girl next to him took the initiative to hold Garlan’s hand, as if she were also coaxing him.
“Little brother, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”
As soon as this little brother was thrown in, she felt that this was the cutest child she had ever met.
She originally hated those dirty boys who liked to bully others, but when the little boy looked at her, those big eyes were like gems. It immediately made her feel tender-hearted.
She coaxed the scared brother in a low voice, “Sister is with you, don’t be afraid.”
The cell was too dark, and neither the grandfather nor grandchild saw the eyes of the boy they were trying to comfort, twitch.
Ah, I’m a child.
A poorly frightened child.
After repeating these two sentences to himself several times, Garlan felt much better.
“Where is… this place?” After thinking about it, Garlan asked in a low voice.
He spoke very softly, and it sounded like he was scared.
“Why did those people want to capture me? Were you also abducted?”
The old man sighed. He stretched out his dry hand, held Garlan’s hand, and led him into the depths of the cell. Taking him to the corner of the wall with the oil lamp, he patted Garlan on the head and let him sit.
This was because the elderly felt that children would no longer be so scared when there was light.
“Child, where are you from?”
Garlan, who sat down, hesitated for a moment and answered softly, “My uncle and I live in Vernal City. Mom and Dad sent me over and told me to read and write with my uncle.”
He continued, “L-later, afterwards, there was a lot of water. Uncle said that he would take me back to my parents. He took me out this morning. Then, we met a lot of people. They kidnapped me, and here I am.”
Listening to the child’s stammering remarks, the old man thought the child was just afraid and had no doubts at all. He just shook his head and sighed. “Those damn thieves.”
“Little brother, we were also caught. All the children here were caught by the band of thieves.”
The little girl with the ponytail continued, with an angry expression on her face, “Grandpa and I have been kept here for two days and one night! There are even those who stayed longer. They have been here for two days!”
She wanted to say something more, but suddenly there was a croaking sound. The iron railing was beaten hard a few times.
“Time to eat.”
An impatient voice sounded, and the man hitting the iron railing with an iron rod put a few palm-sized basins in and then walked to the next cell.
The few children who had been curled up in the shadows all rushed over at this moment, one by one they took a small bowl, lowered their heads, and started to gobble the food up.
Garlan hadn’t reacted yet. The little girl beside him rushed over like a tiger descending a mountain with a terrifying aura. She picked up two small bowls and ran back. When the little girl came back, Garlan was still in a daze.
“Here, little brother, something to eat.”
Handing one of the small bowls to Garlan, the little girl took the other left in her hand and looked at the old man with an ugly look on her face.
“Grandpa…” she said angrily and was sad again, “They didn’t prepare your share.”
The old man sighed and touched her head.
The little girl stopped talking and sensibly shared the little food with the old man slowly.
In the two days after being captured, those people would give regular rations of food for the children, but never gave any to her grandfather. It was as if they didn’t care about his life or death.
In the past two days, she shared her portion with her grandfather, but the portion was originally small, and now she had to share it with another. She was already very hungry.
This little bit was not enough for her to fill up her stomach, and eating it was the same as if she didn’t.
When she finished eating, she saw that the little brother was still holding the small bowl. The smell of the food made her swallow a mouthful of saliva, and she had an urge to grab it.
But she resisted, swallowing her saliva and persuaded the other to quickly eat.
“Eat, little brother. There are only two meals a day. If you don’t eat, you’ll be hungry by noon tomorrow. You should eat as soon as possible.”
The bowl in his hand looked like gruel, but it had a faintly rotten smell. There were some unknown pitch-black substances floating in it. Garlan looked at the little girl who persuaded him to eat while staring at the bowl of gruel in his hand and drooling. He was a little bit dumbfounded.
Ah, I can’t eat it, he thought. Looking at the insatiable look of the girl and the skinny old man, he reached out and passed the bowl of porridge.
“For you to eat.”
“No, no, I can’t eat little brother’s food.” The little girl swallowed and shook her head vigorously, and the ponytail was thrown into a mess by her action.
“I ate a lot with my uncle not long ago, and I’m not hungry at all. Give it to you.”
“Really? Can I really eat—”
“En. Share it with Grandpa.” The blond-haired child said, showing a smile that was adorable to the little girl.
“Thank you, little brother.”
After receiving the bowl that Garlan handed over, the little girl was so grateful that she suddenly leaned in and gave Garlan a hard kiss on the cheek. “This sister will repay you!”
She said, “You gave me this bowl of porridge today. When we are all out, I’ll support you for a lifetime!” After she finished saying that, she ran to find her grandfather with the food in a hurry leaving Garlan stunned by her kiss.
Garlan, “???”
A look of dumbfoundedness.
Wait a moment
It feels like this scene is really familiar.
…
…
Ah!
Isn’t this the part of the harem of the Son of Destiny (the protagonist) in the novel?
So after being reborn several times, at this moment, has the aura of his Son of Destiny finally come into play?
