Just as Eric and the others entered the orphanage gate, they noticed another 'family' of three walking out. Two adults—a husband and wife—along with a short girl around five years old, whose hands were currently held by both adults on either side.

  After noticing Eric and the others, the little girl left her 'parents' and dashed toward them, excitedly shouting at the three giant monsters.

  "Big Brother Eric! Big Sister Lyria! Livy! And also Hannah! I have parents now!" she said, pointing at the two adults, whose faces had already gone pale while gawking at the three inhuman humanoid species, as they themselves were merely four and a half feet in height.

  Eric laughed and picked the little girl up. "Is that so, Sarah? I hope you can be happy and grow up well."

  Though Eric said this with a smile, he felt slightly melancholy.

  Sarah was another orphan; both her parents had perished due to a wild animal attack in the southern fields of the town when she was barely a year and a half old.

  She had been brought to the orphanage and stayed since then. Eric occasionally interacted with her.

  Though Eric didn’t feel attached to Sarah, her departure reminded him that he, too, would leave someday.

  Lyria, Livy, and Eric had grown much closer over the years. Eric could tell both girls had developed troublesome emotions toward him—ones they hadn’t yet realized. He planned to escape before they did.

  He had also grown attached to Hannah and Wilburn, and eventually, he would leave them behind, just as Sarah and other orphanage children had in the past.

  Riya spoke in an emotional tone. "Why don’t you consider taking both Ly and Liv with you? They’re already strong and capable." Her anger suddenly flared. "What else do you want from them!?"

  Riya had grown very much attached to both Lyria and Livy, although they had never met. She had seen and experienced their interactions, laughter, and so on.

  She was like an invisible ghost whom no one noticed, but she was always hanging beside everyone… haunting them… cough. She had come to love both Lyria and Livy as sisters and honestly hoped Eric would change his mind about leaving them behind.

  Eric snorted. "They’re just two cripples. Also, do they share the same interests as me? They probably only wish to prove themselves to their 'ex'-family. I don’t know what kind of danger is out there. If they suddenly died after following me, what do you want me to feel about that?"

  Eric remembered an incident from when he was just a teen in his past life. He saved—or rather found—two small kittens in front of his home, with no cat parents around, crying and trying to follow him into his house. He knew that mother cats often did that so humans could be their 'good huumaan' and take care of their children by bringing them inside, feeding them, and so on.

  So, he innocently adopted them. One was taken away by a friend, and the other stayed with him.

  Innocent Eric fed her well, and she grew fat—but after only two weeks or so, she was crying and screaming. He didn’t quite understand her problem and planned to take her to a vet the next day. But the next morning, Eric found her dead under his bed.

  Innocent Eric was heartbroken, as he was just a kid and hadn’t matured enough to become a demonic entity yet. He guessed the kitten had probably cried all night and died painfully.

  Riya sighed and consoled Eric. "You don’t need to feel that bad about it. Anyway, leave those two to me. I’ll figure something out. I’ll make sure they can help you and not become a burden—and more importantly, I’ll make sure they can protect themselves well!"

  Eric snorted at Riya with disdain. What could she do? She couldn’t even leave his body. She didn’t even have a physical form!

  Riya snorted back. Even if she couldn’t do anything, as a ghost, she could at least accompany Eric silently and console him if he was heartbroken. She was still useful!

  Eric glanced at the 'new' parents of Sarah, whose faces were bloodless for some unknown reason. He smiled. "Sarah is a very energetic little girl and often falls down stairs. So be careful."

  Lyria nodded. She was poking Sarah’s puffed-up cheeks and said while smiling, "Yes, she’s also very naughty. She might draw random graffiti on walls or important papers if you’re not careful."

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Livy also commented while tickling Sarah’s naked feet, which dangled midair, "Please take care of her—and if possible, bring her to the orphanage sometimes so we can play together again. We’re friends!"

  The scared parents finally smiled, secretly sighing with relief. They’d thought they’d be beaten up and their new child 'robbed' away by the humanoid monsters, but it seemed they were friends. So they happily nodded.

  Hannah wasn’t so gentle. She crossed her arms beneath her 'new' ample breasts and reminded the parents, "I’d better hope you do take good care of Sarah. I’ll keep an eye on your house every once in a while. You’d better remember—House Mother Bella Noll loves all children, even if they’ve already left the orphanage. She’ll punish their parents if they treat the children badly."

  Hannah openly threatened Sarah’s parents. She’d done similar things to many other adoptive parents and had become addicted to it…

  It was also true that all the orphanage workers who cared for the children were attached and loved them like their own siblings or children. Hannah wasn’t lying—Bella Noll had made it clear when meeting prospective adoptive parents.

  Both parents nodded. They didn’t mind too much, as it showed their care for Sarah, but they wouldn’t tolerate constant interference either. After all, they genuinely wanted to adopt Sarah. But if Sarah had too many 'fathers' and 'mothers' from elsewhere, it wouldn’t be a small, happy family anymore.

  Eric handed Sarah back to her new parents. She giggled as Livy tickled her feet.

  Hannah picked up the shoes that had fallen and put them back on Sarah’s feet. After that, they all parted with smiles.

  Dark clouds loomed above, and it could rain at any moment, so Wilburn left for his carpenter shop beside his house.

  Hannah walked into the orphanage with Wilhan on her arm, accompanied by Eric, Lyria, and Livy. She would go to Wilburn’s home in the evening when he came to pick them up.

  After washing up, Eric returned to his room.

  He pulled out the two coins and observed them closely.

  The coins were indeed very lightweight, which made no sense. How could such large, thick objects weigh so little? The strange connection he felt from them was also odd.

  “What do you think?”

  Riya knew Eric was asking her, so she replied, “I also think they’re some sort of token or perhaps a representation of your family. As for the language, it’s completely different from what you’ve come across, including the library books.”

  The coins have some unknown language or symbols inscribed upon them. Both coins also looked the same.

  Eric had found a few other languages on the higher floors of the town’s library, along with other information, but those were mostly local—their radius probably only stretched till Batley City and its surroundings.

  Riya spoke while scrutinizing the coins from Eric’s perspective, "The two identical engravings in the center of both coins are probably alphabets or your house symbol, and they likely say 'Nightglow,' since that is your family name."

  Eric agreed. What Riya said did make sense.

  "And what about the strange feeling I’m having?" Eric asked with a weird expression on his face.

  Ever since he saw the coins, he’d had a very weird feeling about them—almost like they were his children, whom he had beaten, abused, and thrown away, and now they had returned while saying they now fully understood why he had done so in the past. It was all thanks to his bullying that they had become shining objects.

  Yes, that was the kind of feeling he was having while looking at the two oversized coins.

  Riya coughed while trying to hold back her laughter. "I think..." She paused and thought deeply.

  She couldn’t sense or feel these kinds of things, as she was not Eric. She could only take in his five senses and simulate some of his experiences.

  After a while, Riya spoke thoughtfully, "These coins probably have something that attracts your family members—or specifically you. Perhaps your blood, DNA, or whatever was secretly taken and put into these coins through some unknown method to attract you to them in the future."

  Eric nodded in agreement. He didn’t know what that titan butler had done, but he had been sleeping a little too peacefully, even during such a major event.

  With each passing year, his baby memories were also disappearing, as normally happens with anyone. But thanks to Riya, he had managed to pack up those bits and pieces of memories and store them in his backup files.

  After observing both coins for a while and not finding anything other than how gorgeous they were, Eric locked them back inside his wardrobe’s hidden compartment. Then he lay back on his bed, feeling relaxed.

  After a while, Eric asked about something that had been bothering him. "Riya, what do you think happened to that eight-foot-gigantic butler?"

  Riya gave Eric a strange look and chose not to mock him for his fear of human height.

  She thought deeply and answered, "I think he’s dead. That’s the most logical answer. But we also don’t know what constitutes a deadly injury for such an... entity. If he were still alive, he should have either come back to take you or at least tried to contact you. Though we also can’t deny the possibility that he might have been secretly watching over you this whole time, unnoticed—after all, he’s a very high-Rank Mana Wielder. What he can and can’t do is beyond our current understanding."

  Eric also thought so, but he had a feeling that the giant butler had already perished. He couldn’t be certain, but his intuitions were often correct.

  Either way, whether the monstrous butler lived or died, there was nothing Eric could do about it. But if such a titan had truly perished, it might be worth looting... ahem, collecting the corpse for proper burial and respect!

  Eric was just being logical. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate the guy for saving him from whatever had happened at his parents’ home, but that butler’s wealth could be very useful to him—whereas the dead butler had no use for it.

  Riya responded to Eric’s thoughts, "You’re probably right about that. If that high-level butler has indeed died, then it’s worth salvaging his wealth, but for that, we need to find his corpse first. And who knows? He might have already prepared something for you that only you can claim once you’ve grown enough."

  Eric looked at Riya with approval—of course, in his imagination.

  "Where do you think he might have left his body?"

  Riya thought and pulled out a map from her 'inventory,' which marked the surrounding area of Ringwood Town.

  "Come inside."