The Undying Magician - Book 2 - Chapter 52.2 - The Orphans Part II (Patreon)

                                                                 Nathan
                                          Year 2849 | Month 12 | Day 15

I sprint through the forest from tree to tree in the direction of the refugee camp, only to end up finding the refugees before I make it there.

Looks like they really were heading towards my cave. Not really sure why though. All I ended up doing when I first went there was look through their place as they were all trembling in fear before tossing them some food and leaving. And killing the one who sent me there to kill them, of course.

I’m not even sure how they managed to find my cave in the first place.

Gunfire echoes through the trees as I get closer to them, only to pause when I jump straight out of the trees and land on one knee in the middle of the refugees, startling them into stumbling and falling down onto the ground. Then the kids – none of the adults from the refugee camp being here right now – rush around to hide behind me.

A few seconds pass in silence before I hear someone asking from somewhere in the woods, clearly having heard the news about my hearing, “Undying Magician. You already murdered one of our officers. Move out of the way before we are forced to deal with you.”

The voice belongs to the replacement captain contact for the city of Falcon Rest, owned by the magician known as Falkner. Who has no last name apparently, which I find odd.

“I told you before to leave the refugees alone,” I warn while slowly drawing my sword. “Are you willing to test me over this? Or should I be sending your head back to Falkner just like your predecessor?”

I didn’t actually send his head back to him, because that would be pointless provocation and a waste of my time. But the phrase sounds right, so I just roll with it.

The soldiers’ answer is to shoot at me.

Yeah, guess that was to be expected.

The children all run away in the direction I came from, towards my cave. But none of the soldiers seem to be focusing on them right now – likely too busy trying to deal with me.

I just stand in place taking their shots as I focus on figuring out the location of each shooter for the duration of their rounds. And once they each stop to reload, I burst into action, sprinting first towards the voice I heard talking to me whose name I don’t remember. And just seconds later, I find myself right in front of the man who is currently rushing to reload his gun. But I simply grab him by the throat and tear into it, drinking a little bit of his blood before snapping his neck and rushing around to the others, using the strength boost I got from his blood to tear them apart with my sword.

Eventually some of them start shooting again, but the forest is too dark in the middle of the night, and the only light here is the crimson glow radiating from my eyes. So the majority of their fire misses until everything goes silent.

I look back for a second before activating the cleaning enchantment on my sword and sheathing it.

None of them were even magicians. Not really sure why they thought they could be any sort of threat to me.

Anyways, I begin making my way back to my cave.

And what I find after arriving is a bunch of kids hiding close to the barrier to my cave with six kids injured and dying and one adult currently shooting a pistol at a magician who I’d somehow missed.

I frown before noticing that the magician in question has a light layer of wind moving around their body, seemingly blocking their scent and muffling any noise they make.

So that’s how they did it.

I rush over there faster than a regular human can move before drawing my sword and cutting it straight through the man’s wrist holding their gun. Then I kick them, sending them flying into a tree as I begin walking over to the kids.

Time to test out invigorate on actual people I’m meaning to heal instead of just animals and myself.

I kneel down next to one of the kids – a young girl – before raising my hand to the bullet wound on her shoulder and using the spell, a small red magic circle appearing above her skin. The magical circle then moves into her body before mana begins to spread out into her wound, slowly making the wound begin healing on its own.

After watching it for a few seconds, I move on to the next kid, and then the next. All the way till I finish casting it on all six kids. But unfortunately, one of them was killed the moment he was shot, the bullet having gone straight through his heart. So there’s no saving him.

“Th-thank you so much, Undying Magici- no, thank you mister Fox!” the only surviving adult of the group by the looks of it – an elderly woman seemingly in her sixties wearing dusty clothes covered in holes – exclaims while shedding tears without a single sob for the kids that were lost. Because it’s clearly not just this one boy, seeing as their overall numbers are lower entirely.

Whereas before there were twenty-four girls and seven boys, now there are only eighteen girls and four boys. Along with the one adult.

Not really a group that can defend themselves against a magician and his city.

If I remember correctly, the reason Falkner is chasing them down is rather simple. But stupid.

Apparently there was some girl magician there who cared a lot about an orphanage that he’d allowed to exist solely because of her, and he was trying to seduce the girl so that he would have another magician on his side. But of course, she rejected him outright and ran away without thinking about the consequences that might come to the orphanage until it was too late.

The kids from the orphanage and the few adults willing to help them managed to escape with a decent majority of them still alive but were still chased by the soldiers of the city. They were only able to set up their little refugee camp because the soldiers were afraid of the area it was in, the camp being too close to the Dark Forest for their comfort or something.

But I guess they finally decided to take action.

I frown at the thought.

Personally, I don’t feel attached in any way to these kids or the woman. But I can at least say that I don’t want them to die just because of some asshole entitled magician.

“Please…” the woman mutters, making my focus return to her from the crying children. “Please let us stay with you…”

I raise a brow at that request.

Stay with me? In my cave?

That’s…

I stare at her for a few seconds before sighing.

“Do what you wish, but know that you won’t be able to leave the cave without me. And I won’t be here all the time to let you out, nor am I willing to constantly let you in and out as you wish,” I answer, deciding that letting them stay in the other houses in the little village inside of the cave won’t hurt. Especially since I keep everything important in my storage anyways. “As long as you don’t bother me or interrupt my experiments, you’re free to stay.”

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