Su Hualing smiled, 'As expected of my children...'

"But you have to listen to him..."

"... Alright." Both of them gave off a defeated sigh, their expressions quite reluctant.

"Then go wait beside the gate, I have something to talk to Davis."

"Yes..." They moved away as their shoulders dropped sadly.

Su Hualing then turned to look at him, she moved forward and held his shoulders.

She slightly knelt down slightly and reached face to face with him, "Davis, can you protect those two children of mine?"

Davis was already taken aback when she came so close but when he heard her, he blinked.

"I know that I'm asking too much but this is their first time heading out without any protectors..."

"I see..."

"Those two play nice but they're secretly arrogant and prideful. They'll naturally cause some trouble, eventually... But even so, I want you to protect them."

Davis slightly nodded his head.

"Good child..." She slowly patted his head gently like how a mother would do, causing him to break out in a cold sweat.

'Oye! What is this? Does she think that I'm an orphan with the phoney story I made up!?'

"If you find yourself in danger, you can use your soul attacks and defense. Ah! Don't worry, even though you'll lose the bet, you'll still get your promised reward, I'll make sure of it!" She then let go of his shoulders and tidied his uniform, "Now go, they're waiting..."

Looking at her gentle smile, he was suddenly reminded of his mother, Claire.

He blinked and nodded his head feigning indifference, "Okay..."

While approaching those two, he thought, 'I have no idea why she treats me good? Could it be that she is a natural-born mother or did something happen to her in the past??'

Why couldn't he meet such a mother when he was in the slums on Earth? Davis narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

"Ready?" Dropping off his thoughts, he uttered.

"Of course!" Lucia snapped with a pout while Lucas confidently declared, "Long ago!"

Davis shrugged, then continued walking ahead.

"Eh? We're not going to use carriages!?" Lucia's eyes went wide.

Davis stopped, turned back to look at her and replied, "No."

Lucia blinked, "How about... mounts?"

"No..."

"At le..."

"No..." Davis cut her off.

Lucia's facial expression trembled, she turned to look back at her mom for help but only received a glare back at her.

She suddenly felt wronged and wanted to go back but suddenly changed her mind when she saw her brother smiling smugly at her.

"Davis is leaving, better catch up or we'll leave you behind, hehe." Lucas laughed and took off.

"Hey! Wait!!" Lucia followed after him.

In the front, Davis shook his head, 'The elder sister image she tried to build up has come crashing down, poor Lucia...'

...

Davis and his party, headed to the closest mission destination, Jie Ming Town.

It was situated five towns North of Elmer Town, so they had to pass each Town by travelling on foot which was quite tiring....

During this time, they chatted a lot and got to know each other well. In Davis's mind, their statuses went from acquaintances to friends slightly.

Although he wanted to make friends, he wanted to do so with someone his mental age, not physical age. So he was conscious of being friends with them because he already had enough of Ellia's antics.

Babysitting in the name of friends was the last thing he wanted to do right now because he wanted to grow stronger.

If they held him back, he'll simply leave them behind in a safe place.

Also, he had the doubt that they sent these two to monitor him from using Soul Attacks and Defense.

"This town is less populated..." Lucas narrowed his eyes as he said.

"It's obvious if you think about it. It's infested by Five-Clawed Rats, who would want to stay here?" Lucia rolled her eyes.

Davis nodded his head.

They just entered through the South Gate of Jie Ming Town.

There were no people except patrols and guards in the streets.

A guard quickly ran towards them and greeted with a heavy bow, "I'm Jie Ming Town's Head Guard."

"What's the situation right now?" Davis questioned, his tone filled with authority.

"Reporting! The Five-Clawed Rats continue to infest and terrorize Jie Ming Town. This has been going for a month and there seems to be no end to this calamity!" Even though the Head Guard was confused by their appearances, he still reported the situation inside because of the clothes they wore!

"So far, thousands of rats have been killed but there seems to be no end to this infestation." He then added, "Two mercenary groups from your Cloud Spring Mercenaries are currently investigating!"

"Where's the Town Lord?"

The head guard expression turned ugly before he uttered hesitantly, "The Town Lord... has escaped..."

"Hmm? Despicable!" Lucia shouted at the head guard.

"Why didn't you all escape?" Davis asked without even changing his expression.

"We... We were ordered to contain the infestation from spreading, or die for disobeying." The head guard clenched his fists in fury.

Lucas narrowed his eyes while observing the furious head guard but didn't say anything.

Before they reached the South Gate, they saw the whole town being guarded tightly from the outside by more than a few thousand soldiers.

"I see..." Davis nodded and walked towards the centre of the town.

Without even looking back, he could hear the gates closing.

The road diverged at a lot of turns but it all connected to the centre one way or another. Most of the buildings were in ruins as if it experienced immense catastrophe.

"Despicable Town Lord! Does he even deserve his status!?" Lucia was still angry and anger increased when she saw the buildings that were painted in blood.

"Lot of people must have died..." Lucas muttered under his breath.

"Don't get any weird ideas you two... We're only here to exterminate the Five-Clawed Rats..." Davis casually commented, stopping their thoughts.

"The Town Lord must have been the reason for this infestation." He added.

"Huh?" Both of them were startled.

"I've checked with my Soul Sense just now." He looked at them and smiled.

"The Five-Clawed Rats look like they're searching for something while the two of our groups are currently in the West and East part of the town, hunting those rats."

"There are about 2483 Five-Clawed Rats and there's a cave that's 2500 metres below the northern part of the town."

Lucia and Lucas had their mouths agape.

A moment later, they both soundly gulped in admiration.