The night had gone slowly after getting the information out of the children. A few interesting discoveries were made as they spoke to the children. First, the orphanage was part of the outer city, which congregated against the walls but not within them. The second was that none of the children knew any of the names of the adults, only ever addressing them by occupation or title, like “Mother” and “Father.” The whole thing was rubbing him the wrong way, and he was lost in contemplation as he tried to sleep.

It never really came, though he managed to shake off the feeling of drowsiness with his inhuman hibernation skill. It worked surprisingly well for keeping him awake, despite what the name might imply. They were planning on going with the sunrise, his brother having informed the orphanage of their visit. The reason he was going with was that they found the children running about late at night and decided that they would return them in the morning, due to the celebrations.

Luke had been excited when he heard of the festivals but didn’t really feel like attending. The situation with the children was weighing on all their thoughts last night, and celebration was the last thing on their minds. Mash was glad he brought the children to his brother because only his brother could let them in on the investigation. Normally, this kind of job would be something solely for the knights, but his brother didn’t mind bending the rules a bit for him.

Accepting that he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight, Mash pushed himself out of bed. The blanket fell to the side, but Mash didn’t bother picking it up. Typically, Mash would tend to his room better, even if the servants would come in and make everything perfect. It was a habit that his mother had ingrained in him but forgot about it now, and the blanket remained on the floor. He needed to do something, to move his body. For some reason seeing the children’s situation felt more urgent than everything else. Knowing that the children were unable to do anything to get out of their situation, left the worst kind of taste in his mouth.

His brother might be seeking out justice, but Mash just wanted to see the people get their due. Honestly, he knew that a part of them wanted a battle, a chance to kill them, or even just watch Arthur do it. Either way, he wanted them dead, not in prison. The thought might be wrong, and perhaps it was the influence of the class system, but at the moment, he didn’t really care. It was not a feeling he disagreed with, even if he should. His sympathy would be saved for the future, for he just let the anger build.

The emotions drove him to action, and he knew that he needed to cool down. Keep some semblance of calm and focus. Thinking that a bath might be good, he walked towards the biggest bathroom in the house. Ironically it was the servant's bathhouse that held the largest bath since it was meant for groups of people to take baths at once.

Walking through the empty halls always felt ominous, especially since the only light in the hallway was from the narrow gaps in the window curtains. The small bit of light that shone in the night filtered through the gaps and lit the hallway in sections. He strolled from one patch of light to the next, feeling more comfortable in the darkness than the light at that moment. It didn’t take too long to get to the servants’ portion of the house, and the bathhouse was indeed empty. He didn’t know how long he planned on being in there and formed a sign to let the servants know he was there. The sign was heavily marred with black scales and scars and looked particularly ominous with the night.

The bathroom wasn’t nearly as dark as the rest of the house, a magical crystal lighting up as he entered the changing room. In the room were rows of small bins where someone would keep their clothing. Depositing his clothes in a bin meant for the purpose, he stepped into the actual bathroom. Inside he was pleased to see that the room was lit with more than just moonlight, the engravings on the walls and floor emitting a faint light. There weren’t any traditional water crystals for cleaning oneself, instead of a simple tub of water that someone would scoop out a bucket for themselves.

Mash felt more familiar with this style of bath and followed the motions he remembered from back home. His family hadn’t gone to the public bathhouses often but did visit more frequently when the weather got particularly cold. It didn’t take long, and he sank deeply into the wide bath. This larger bath was heated through mana, and he poured more than enough to get the water hot. In fact, he could see his skin reddening from the heat, but didn’t mind the feeling.

He didn’t fall asleep but instead used the comfortable position to practice his old form of meditation. It was more a curiosity now, but it still felt good to move the mana in his core around. Priscilla found it interesting as well, since she was effectively part of his core now. Unknowingly the night had passed, and Mash got out of the bath when he heard noises from the changing room. It seemed like some of the servants had ignored his sign, though he didn’t really care. He had put it up so that they could avoid him, not the other way around.

Still, he took their arrival as his cue to get out and proceeded to exit the bath and dry himself off. When he entered the changing room, he saw several servants frozen at his entrance. Not bothering with a greeting, he simply changed into his mending clothes, before heading out. He sought out his brother certain, that he would be in the dining room or kitchen. In all his time here, his brother had never missed a meal, and Mash figured that he would find him at his usual spot.

As expected, Arthur was at the dining room eating a simple breakfast. The strange part was the group of other knights sitting at the table. Entering the room, Mash could tell that his brother was the strongest person in the room. A few others were probably at the same rank as him, but most seemed to be closer to Mash. This made sense, considering his brother was getting close to the next rank. Mash took a seat at the table, trying his hardest to act as he belonged. The knights didn’t seem to mind, though Mash felt the urge to squirm a little.

No words were said during the meal, the plan was already decided last night. Instead, they just ate in silence as more people entered the dining room. Once everyone was ready, they headed out for the orphanage. Luna was staying with the children and had contacted some other healers to arrive to heal the children that were still in the orphanage. That was Jill’s primary job since she was the only one with teleportation capabilities. There were seven knights other than his brother, each was trained for missions within the city and would be good at handling any odd situations. One even had a class related to the investigation, but Mash didn’t get to learn what it was called. Either way, he was feeling very confident with the mission.

The streets were mostly empty with how early the mission began, but Mash still saw a few people walking among the streets. Though the majority of people seemed to be stumbling home, likely still dazed from the aftereffects of the festival. The signs of celebration were still littered across the street. Food wrappers, empty bottles, and articles of clothing lying about. He even saw some undergarments, both men and women's clothing lying about unattended. Festivals had happened back home, and he never remembered seeing the streets ever get this dirty. He was somewhat disgusted by the celebration, especially when he compared it to the situation of the children.

So far, Mash had been enjoying his time in the capital. With meeting his family and the surprising amount of progress he was making, there was not much more he needed right now. While true freedom would be nice, it was not something he could achieve with his level of power. Plus, there were still the dungeons he was going to explore, each of which interested Mash. However, this one thing seemed so wrong to him that it stung like a bug's bite. How had the city leaders not known about this orphanage?

No, Mash believed that they did know, but chose not to get involved because of some inane ideology. He didn’t really care if there was some kind of reasoning behind the kid’s treatment, because it wouldn’t matter to him. In his mind, one of the worst things he experienced was being forced into a class, and he didn’t like that it was happening to these kids. Their class shouldn’t be so heavily corrupted and should be given as they deserved. His runner class had felt wrong when he received it, but now he wouldn’t give it up for the world. His endure skill was by far his most valuable skill. A person’s first class was meant for them, even if the system itself was not. They went through the town quickly, nobody stopping or idling about.

They arrived early enough that the sun was still hidden, but late enough that the moon was also gone from sight. It was that in-between of darkness that enveloped the sky and the city. This ominous light did nothing to better his impression of the orphanage, and Mash stared at it trying to figure out what was bothering him.

The building was several times larger than the other buildings of the external city. There was also an odd cleanliness about the building as if the dirt of the city couldn’t touch the building. It really looked like that too, as the bits of trash in the streets seemed to vanish as they neared the building. There were no walls to the building, Instead, a shallow wooden fence of old brown wood was the only thing separating the building from the others. A yard of short grass surrounded the dark wood building that resembled an old church. The wood was dark and made even darker by the sunless skies, but none of that was what bothered him. One of the knights ended up pointing out the first oddity.

‘There are no religious markings.”

The place was clearly an old church, but all the religious symbols one would normally find had been scratched out. He could barely make out what the patches were in the darkness, but after the knight pointed them out, he could make out the scratches much more easily. The empty patches of scratched-out wood, where he would typically see a religious symbol was jarring, to say the least. Although, his scan of the front of the building did more than illuminating that one thing.

“Not a single window in sight.”

Although that was not all he needed to say, but as he looked towards his brother, he felt that he should keep his mouth shut. However, his eyes still wandered to where a window might be in the building. He didn’t know if it was a skill or just his natural instincts, but it felt like someone was watching him from there. Not that he could see anything but a scratched-out patch of wall. The feeling did make him anxious, and he grew more prepared to react quickly. Mash wore a very thin version of his wooden armor, beneath much baggier clothing and had Priscilla start outlining some attacks. He didn’t know if he would need them but realized this would make a surprise attack much quicker. Like a true predator, he stood prepared to lash out at anything that jumped at them.