Michael and the others finally arrived at the city, the walk did not take long as Orin’s mood became better upon seeing other people walking towards the city.
It was great that he finally stopped sulking, Michael did not know what he would do if it continued like this even when he reached the city.
They went inside the city without trouble, surprisingly, there weren’t any guards around, a safety mechanism might still be in place somewhere.
However, as he looked around, Michael could not feel anything at all, there wasn’t any grand barrier awaiting them, it seemed like the city had some other way of dealing with thieves.
Michael proceeded to walk up to a random man and got their attention “Hello, could you redirect me to an orphanage?”
The man looked up at him with his eyebrows raised “The heck is an orphanage kiddo? If you are looking for a pub, it’s that way” He said and pointed at the direction they just came from.
‘Why is everyone so unreasonable?’ Michael grumbled to himself, this reminded him of the trial, every single person he met so far was either crazy or rude.
Michael glanced at Astraea and noticed she was glaring at the man, however, the moment she saw him, her gaze returned to normal, not bearing any malice like she had just now.
‘Can she read my mind..?’ He thought as a shiver ran down his spine.
No.
‘I didn’t mean it literally..’
Michael inwardly facepalmed and turned back to the man.
He was about to intimidate him, however, he noticed an ailment on the man, it was some kind of disease related to the eyes.
It would certainly explain him not exactly looking at Michael’s eyes, more so, his forehead.
‘…I keep forgetting that I am also a healer’ Michael raised his arm and cast purify as well as a heal on the man, causing his eyes to regain clarity.
“W-What?” The man jumped up in surprise at the fact that he could now see clearly.
Michael stared at him, not saying anything, clearly trying to imply that he wanted answers, not questions.
“R-Right, the orphanage, it is by the adventurer’s guild.. that way” The man finally pointed in an actual direction and Michael left with his group, not saying anything.
Good deed, nice.
‘Yeah, wish I was so noble.. though why wasn’t he healed if only his eyes were the problem, aren’t there healers in this world?’ Michael wondered as they finally approached the orphanage.
When the man said ‘by the adventurer’s guild’, he lied, it was nowhere near, he was just glad that his senses were stretched out to the max.
And he also had the map, from the moment he stepped foot inside of the city, information slowly started appearing, it now displayed the location of everything, including the name of the city.
It was Redmere, a pretty ominous name for such a lively city, nonetheless, an orphanage was an orphanage and Orin did not seem too against it either.
If there was a way for Michael to take him along, he would, however, taking a frail child that high up could potentially kill him, he didn’t want to risk that.
Plus, he doubted this would be his last time in this world, he could always come back and visit him if he wanted, if he ran, he could get here within a few hours.
Michael entered the orphanage and saw a few kids running around as well as the nannies, they all seemed cheery and relatively happy.
Because of that, a small smile appeared on Michael’s face as he approached one of the nannies, explaining Orin’s situation to her.
She seemed shocked and stared at him with pity and tears in her eyes, Michael found it interesting that someone was willing to show so much compassion for another.
‘But I guess I am only alive because Rebecca saved me…’ He thought back to the past that he faintly remembered, it felt like most of his memories before he came to the body slowly went away.
‘Not like there was that much anyway..’
“Please come with me to meet the matron” The nanny said to Michael and the others.
“Lead the way.”
‘System, just in case, but is anything off?’ He asked for clarification, with his luck, he never knew what could happen.
Nothing yet, though the matron or whatever has strange mana, I am not sure if she is human.
‘Good to know’
They headed down the hallways, passing by a few other nannies and kids, until eventually, they arrived in front of the matron’s door.
Michael could immediately understand what the system meant, while the difference was faint, it was certainly there.
The door opened by itself and he immediately met the matron’s deep red eyes and flowing white hair.
Astraea let out a small black thread out of her finger tips and it sped straight at the matron, however, much to everyone’s shock, before the thread could reach her, it was cut.
“Calm down Astraea” Michael said to her and she nodded back at him.
The matron dramatically raised her hands, as if gesturing surrender “You don’t have to be so cautious, I mean you no harm.”
‘How does she look according to you?’ He asked the system and looked at her, trying to gauge her intentions.
Relatively safe, well, besides being nearly Tier 3, just don’t recklessly fight her and the week might pass without issues.
‘Really good advice…’
Michael remained cautious and asked “What is someone like you doing as the matron of an orphanage?”
However, much to his surprise, she shot back “And what might you be doing going around killing vampires?”
Although she said that in a threatening tone, he did not feel any malice.
“It tried to kill me, so I killed it, now mind answering my question?”
The matron seemed to be staring intently at Michael, that was until another thread shot past him and headed directly for the matron.
However, just like before, the thread was severed before it even reached her.
“Calm down girl, as I had already stated, I am not going to harm any of you or anyone at all for that matter.”
“…Don’t try anything funny” Astraea said and sat down in a chair by the side, she was averting Michael’s gaze.
‘What’s with her today?’
Maybe she got a violent portion of her memories back? Who knows at this point, my knowledge does not include womanly matters.
‘No shit’
She pointed at the nanny who had been standing by and shaking in her boots “Go back, nothing happened.”
Just as her words landed, the nanny, almost looking like a marionette, walked out of the room, her previous look of fear and confusion gone, replaced with completely blank eyes.
Michael was slightly startled as he noticed the mind controlling ailment on her, but it was a bit unusual, it looked like it would run out soon.
And it did. The moment she exited the room, her expression returned back to normal and she gave them a small smile before departing.
‘So vampires can control minds now?’
To a certain extent, yes, but don’t worry, it’s pretty flawed, your passive skill Discipline would negate it as it requires the target’s mind to be weak, yours can’t be weakened past a certain threshold so it would not work.
‘Huh? Does that apply to all mind control type magic that could affect me?’
No, you can still be affected if the target excels specifically in that field, this vampire clearly does not.
‘I see..’ Michael returned his gaze back to the matron and met her deep red eyes.
She pointed at the seat in front of her and moved it back with a thin line of blood.
“Let’s talk, shall we?”
