Unlike the previous day when they avoided it, they entered it this time and saw the true condition and it could only be said to be tragic.

“It is so cold.” Jade said.

At that moment an elderly woman walked in with an apron and what you would basically think of servant clothing.

“Hello, I’m Logan Holt.” Logan said.

Storm looked at him discreetly at the fact that he did not say his adoptive father’s name.

“Hello, what can I do for you children?” She asked, “I am the Matron of this Orphanage, you can call me Rachel.” She said.

“Um, madam Rachel, sorry if this is inconsiderate but I must ask, why does the orphanage have such a… cold air about it.” Jade asked.

“Cold air? Is it not mid spring, i find it quite warm.” Rachel said.

“Sorry about that, this is Jade. She is a special race of humanoid monsters who are sensitive to sadness and suffering.” Logan said as simply as possible

That said, that description made a deep tired sigh come from the elder lady's mouth. “Oh dear, so it is that bad that others can feel it?” She said depressed.

“Is there a problem?” Jade asked, “Maybe we can help.” She said.

“No, not without at least a few million Tip to properly put these children in school and get a better education and not require them to work for the little food we can get on the table. Without the western lands which were massive food producers 14 years ago, Eshen has been slowly going in a downward spiral. We only have the god’s to thank that so many disaster zones have mostly closed and the dungeons that cleaned those areas are basically finished and soon to return to their original owners. Once they do, the land can finally be reopened and all these children, young and old, who have not been able to get a new life with a new family will be able to carve their own lives in new villages to be opened.” She said. “You seem quite well off.” She said.

“I was very lucky to have been adopted by a B rank mercenary and together with my sister, we have been given ownership of the name of the group he once owned but was disbanded.” He said.

“Oh my! Does… does that mean you plan to recruit children as mercenaries?!” she asked.

“We do not plan to put children in danger, I would take them as trainees until they have at least F rank strength, it is difficult to be of much greater use in such a dangerous world.” he said.

“Yes, but you need a place for them to train, without a safe place, I cannot allow you to take a single child!” She said.

Logan nodded and took out the orb, “Please allow me to show you then.” He said and he channeled mana into the orb.

Soon the door opened spooking the woman, “W-what is this?!” She shouted.

“This orb…” he said, showing her. She marveled as she saw a tiny island. “This is a small portable island we obtained in a dungeon. It is quite small but it is enough for a few children to train and farm.” He said.

The Matron was shocked but after Storm walked in, she followed and they appeared at the doorway which was right in front of the house.

“This is such an amazing tool but it is small.” She said.

She saw the house and walked in and in a few minutes she came out. “There are only 3 rooms.” She said.

“Two rooms, one is for myself and us. The other two have enough space for three single beds.” he said.

“I see you at least checked with someone about the sizes. Alright, let’s leave first.” She said and he opened the doorway first and returned to the orphanage.

“Alright, although the house is 6 members big it is stretched until your farms are properly active and flourishing. Do you have any ideas of any preferences?” she asked.

“Not really, I’m not skilled in the ability my own adoptive father used to identify my own magical talent.” Logan said.

“Oh, if it is talent, the government does an annual test on all orphanages alongside a medical test, it isn’t extensive but children with better mana channels are identified and those with muscles and bodies better for physical training are easier to pick out.” She said.

Jade faintly frowned.

“Can you please bring all them, the teens as well. Also, please do not isolate children who are called ‘talentless’ that is what training is for.” He said.

“Understood but we will arrange them from best talents to least as we always do.” She said.

He sighed and understood.

The Matron walks off and shouts for her children who run the orphanage with her while Logan pats Jade’s head, “Remember that we can’t help everyone as we are. We don’t have unlimited money or anything, even if we sell all our goods we still need money to move around, buy food for ourselves and more.” He said.

“I understand but i don’t like how ‘talentless’ is used and divided.” She said.

“Sadly that is how the world works. Don’t worry because those children will likely learn trades like farming and animal ranching as they grow up. Reopening the western lands will give a second wave of adoptions as farmers need helping hands to cultivate the land.” He said.

She warmed up hearing that and knowing that the lots of the western lands were soon to open meaning this might end soon.

Soon enough children began to come out and line up but not by age but by identified talent. They each had some papers. That said, they soon made a packet with the top talents on top and the weakest at the bottom before they went to have their breakfast.

“Sorry for that, it is rude but they have to eat what they can.” The matron said as she gave them the pages.

Logan nodded and looked around as well. He could easily pick out the so called, strong bodied ones. To say nothing else, they were thick boned and a bit fat. In other words, they were probably orphanage bullies and took food from others. The so called weaker ones were skin and bones and Jade instantly picked up on these children and wanted to use magic healing instantly to try and get their bodies to a healthier state.

He made sure to hold her down and they looked at the pages. Logan needed at least a few who could become knights, if they all could grow up into them it would be better but after looking through them, he stood up and used similar medical identification as Jade used to heal him to see the mana channels.

Unlike himself and his battle beasts, the mana pool of these children were like candle fires and their channels were like threads. Only some areas were bigger areas.

While he was looking, he was surprised when he saw a very skinny and weak child that looked to around 4 in size. However, her mana pool was like a dying camp fire flame. He asked for the papers again and with them still in order he was surprised that he found her near the back. Looking through it he saw that what put her down there was a frail constitution which could barely handle her own mana. Even if it was bigger, it was tiny compared to anyone. Even Logan’s own mana pool when he had trained just through usage was five times bigger than her own.

If that little bit was a pressure it showed how frail her body was but there was a strange feeling about her.

Jade just proved it even more as she spotted the girl and couldn’t control herself and pick her up. Jade’s body began to release a faint light as if releasing healing magic while she hugged her.

The girl was shocked by the sudden grab and was confused.

“Master…” Storm said looking over his shoulder.

“What?” He asked.

Storm pointed at the top of the paper and he looked at the age.

“Huh! No way! This girl is 14 years old! She looks like a 4 year old!” he exclaimed. The matron was watching him and came over seeing what was happening, “Please be careful. She has weak bone development as well as a number of health problems.” she said.

“Why have you left her poisoned for so long!?” Jade suddenly exclaimed.

“Huh?!” the matron exclaimed.

“Poison! She is poisoned. There is both a poison and a virus in her bones which is destroying her body, why was it never cleared out?” Jade said.

“I-Is that the cause?!” she said shocked.

“Did the identifiers never pick it up? Is it some novice that does this or something?!” Jade shouted like a mother that had found her child beaten.

“Jade…”

“Master, we are taking her. I can quickly heal this problem and with proper nutrition and training she will quickly grow up.” She said with extreme determination.

Logan was frozen and sighed, “Stop hugging her so tight first.” he said.

“Huh.” She said. She looked down and saw the girl’s red face and loosened her grip and she breathed in making Jade exclaim and apologize while carefully putting her down.

“Sorry about the noise.” Logan said but frowned, “You should complain about the identifier, she has only basic medical identification magic but picked that up, for him not to be negligent or he is covering it.” he said.

“I will definitely note that down.” Rachel said with a scowl. It was hard but she cared for all the children, to find this kind of thing happened under her watch made her very angry.

They continued and picked two more girls, one that was 15 and another that was 10. For the boys, he picked those about 12. The eldest was a 16 years old boy who got up hoping to join as a mercenary to have the chance to protect himself and his family in the future.

Logan knew the pain of being weak and unable to do anything so he accepted.

Sadly, despite others seeing he liked that type of determination, he couldn’t support more than this.

“Now, about the adoption papers and taxes.” the matron said calling Logan and the children who were picked.

“We need your full name and need to decide if the children are going to adopt your name or not.” she asked.

“That is their choice.” Logan said and wrote his name along with ‘McEwen’.

“Huh? Are you Maxwell McEwen’s child?” She asked.

“You know him? He shouldn’t be that well known despite being only B rank.” Logan said.

“Look at you talking about him as ‘only’ a B rank. B rank hunt dragon’s child. Your father is quite famous thanks to his power and has led many forward charges and opened a lot of land in many vital islands.” She said.

“Yeah… I know.” Logan said.

Logan lived through it, Maxwell would be gone for weeks sometimes completing these missions.

“My original surname is Holt so if the children decided to take a name, it is my original family name.” He said.

Instantly the Matron realized there were family problems and no longer probed.

The children eventually ended up doing just like Logan, they adopted his original surname without forgetting their original name.

“Okay. That is done, I will send these to the government building and you will be officially their guardian.” She said.

She was quite good at the job, for a 22 year old to be called the father of teens, that would be very awkward so being their guardian is much better. It also wasn’t that strange for adventures or mercenaries to adopt children who eventually compose their close circle of companions.

The kids were allowed to gather their things and Logan stored it before they left with them. The first thing he did was go to a tailor and get them proper clothing. He didn’t know what to get so he just got clothing that fit comfortably and clothing meant for work. He then headed to a blacksmith and got farming tools but also training weapons of all kinds. Most of them were just wooden but they were skillfully made and meant to last.

Finally, and most importantly, he purchased six single beds and a double bed for the house.

They headed to a good spot to open the gate, away from prying eyes.

The children gasped when they entered the island and looked around.

“This will be your new home, it is just a little boring because it is small but it shouldn’t be a problem. Three of the plots we will work together to make a long asking farm and one will be your training area.” Logan said.

They nodded and walked in. Logan unloaded the beds and some furniture they got alongside it, he groaned when he realized he forgot to make a shed but decided that they would have to do with just hanging them on the side of the house.

When the beds were in place, Jade instantly called on the poisoned girl and had her undress to her underwear.

The boys were kicked out of the room except for Logan who could help if needed. She laid face down on the bed and Jade took out a lot of her needles and coated in mana she began to place a very large number along every last spinal joint before putting some in acupoints and others in veins.

When she was done, she touched one and channeled mana. The girl gasped in pain, “Breath, it will hurt but this will help clear this problem.” She said.

The girl grit her teeth and she moved down and each needle she touched she would take out and push down against the area and they would see a black liquid come out as the very tiny entrance of the needle would close.

This went on for an hour until the last needle came out.

“Good, that is quite a lot. ‘Wash’.” Jade said and magical soap suddenly formed and covered the girl washing all the toxic liquid off. “‘Dry’” she said and the water left was blown away. “Now the front, there will be a lot more but let’s do this part first.” She said and made her sit and had her lift her feet and filled the leg with needles and the process repeated all the way to under her feet where a lot more toxic liquid came out. “Good, now you can stand so I can do the rest. Let’s just tie up this hair.” She said.

Like that, a few hours flew by as the girl was stuck with needles all over even on the back again and even the scalp covered by hair.

What was amazing was that Jade only touched a single needle on the girl’s forehead between her brows.

“‘Regenerative Blessing’... ‘Cure’.” She chanted the two spells and pushed them into the needle.

Instantly all the needles began to react and glow yellow like the mana released and they watched in horror as if water started to leak from her body. Every needle became like a running pipe and the girl was in clear pain but Jade didn’t stop her mana and for a full three minutes the liquid leaked until nothing more came out.

She removed her hand and began to take the needles out. “Master, please get her some water.” Jade said.

Logan nodded and took a barrel out and opened it to reveal the fresh spring water and took a water skin and filled it. Jade removed the needles on her hands and closed the openings before she took it and drank desperately. It was clear that a lot of fluids were extracted with it.

“Did that fully remove it all?” Logan asked.

“Not completely, we will need to do this for a few days but at least 80% of it is out, the rest is deeper in the bones and it is harder to get out.” She said.

Logan nodded and smiled as he saw Jade had passed the problem with the orphanage since the children were here now.

“Alright, since we are done for today, we can go get some proper food and then we can move on to some serious talk.” Logan said and opened the door as Jade started to clean the girl.

After a bit they walked out and they left the orb and walked around town until Logan picked a restaurant for lunch.

It was likely their first time and they were excited, however, Logan instantly began to teach them a valuable lesson, “Listen, although the prices of those higher priced single dishes makes them sound delicious, trust me when i say that it isn’t worth it.” He said.

“Is there a problem with them?” a boy asked.

“No, but they aren’t worth their price, the amount of meat doesn’t match the price range because of the current prices of a lot of things. Meat is mostly all imported because we have no available cattle ranch so the prices are exaggerated. The true good food you look at is the monster meat section.” Logan said.

“Isn’t that triple the price of normal meat?” A girl exclaimed.

“Yes but they are worth the price because there is simply that much monster meat. It is ‘only’ three times as expensive as cattle meat. The meat you are eating is E rank monsters not unranked cattle. Mana is capable of a lot of things and when eating magical meat, the effect is nourishment. Every last one of you lacks a lot of that and you need to make up your strength. After everything is settled, we will start farming but farming only lasts from the time you start tilling to the time you finish sowing seeds. After that you just watch out for weeds and properly water plants. During that time you will be training to improve your strength and starting to train your mana.” he said.

“Train mana?” the smallest girl said.

“You will understand but only after we do something important after lunch.” He said.

Logan ordered a few portions of monster meat and what arrived was a platter that was overfilled with meat.

“T-there is no way for us to eat all this!” a boy shouted.

“Yeah, but we are eating as well.” Logan said and took a piece as did Storm and Jade. Jin actually hopped out and sat in the last empty seat and everyone jumped in shock. “Oh right, this is Jin, he is my third battle beast and he is a spirit who lives inside my mana pool. He still can’t talk so he just stays inside me.” Logan said and looked him over. “Are your injuries healed?” He asked.

Jin nodded but waved his left hand showing that it was only so-so. He lifted his right arm and Logan saw that it was trembling.

Jade saw that as well, “Later I will help heal your mana channels.” She said.

He nodded.

The kids soon saw the four take meat and woke up as they each took a piece and started to eat.

They all exclaimed in happiness at the flavor they have never been able to taste before but as you would expect from them, they barely finished a single piece but the four were still shovelling away.

“How are you eating so much?” one of the boys asked.

“You will… eat like this eventually. This is the price for higher strength.” Logan said.

“The stronger you are, the more food you need.” Storm said.

They watched as the four left only bones on separate plates until they were satisfied. Even Jade, who ate the calmest, ate several pieces of monster meat that felt like it didn’t fit in her body.

“Where the heck does it all go?” one of the young boys asked.

“That was good. I should see if they don’t have the recipe for the sauce, that was great.” Logan said.

The waitress walked over, “Was it good sir?” She asked.

Logan smiled and nodded before asking about the cooking recipes.

“Oh, are you interested, we have a cookbook that the executive chef wrote himself. He also wrote books on meat preservation of a number of different breeds of monsters.” she said.

“Is the executive chef an adventurer cook?” Logan asked.

“Yes sir, both the executive and the sous chef. The executive chef is a C rank adventurer and he regularly parties with B and A rank adventurers to access prime ingredients outside his rank to train his skills.” She said.

“Alright, i will get the books as well.” He said.

She smiled and took his bill and added in the price.

The total ended at 2,000 tip for the meat alone and 8,000 tip for the two books.

They left happy since the kids didn’t learn the prices and Logan didn’t tell them either. None of the kids still understood the gap between each level of strength so they wouldn’t understand the strength of a B rank dragon or a F rank lizard. He would let that be until they can finally fight at those levels.

What was important was the ritual to accept them as disciples and them understanding the rules of the Golden Lion’s as well as the history that, for now, would have to be kept a secret.

They found a spot to open the door again and this time Logan was serious as he called them inside and pulled out the altar and then took out the book of rules.

“What you see before you is an Oath altar. It is a special item which helps create powerful oaths between parties and many parties with a long history are likely to have this object. It is likely that most empires have one which all the most loyal nobles, royal guards and others have sworn an oath of loyalty to. Today I will tell you about my group and you can choose to join or not.” Logan said.

“Did you not adopt us to have us join?” One boy asked.

Logan shook his head, “I can’t make you join but I am not allowed to pass along the mana development technique without this oath. I can still train you in many different things, cooking, farming, even just the forms of weapon techniques but that is all.” Logan said.

“What is mana development?” the sick girl asked.

Logan smiled, doing unlike Maxwell and telling them from the start. With everyone sitting, he told them about the human limits and the purpose of mana development.

He then began to talk about the rules of the Golden Lion which unranked disciples would adhere to and are expected to follow during their training period. After that, he told them about the long history of the Golden Lions and how he and his sister were the first Golden Lions with the complete mana development technique since the 4th grandmaster over 700 years ago and how they were going to rebuild the golden lions to be the Order of Knights that would span the entire continent to fight against the evils like what happened to Eshen whose people were slaughtered and enslaved.

All their eyes burned with passion to be part of that kind of history.

Logan smiled as he saw their passion, “Still, revenge is not possible with our strength. A common army has B ranks in spades along with A rank generals. If required, the few S rank royal guards can be sent to deal with the greatest problems with utmost loyalty to their power.” Logan warned.

“Then… how do we save our families?” the eldest boy asked.

“There is more to saving than just slaughter. Saving the enslaved Eshen can be done from the dark, a Golden Lion Knight should not care about the price needed to pay for the greater good and for the safety of innocents. Remember that.” Logan said.

They nodded, “Alright, are you all going to accept becoming disciples of the Golden Lions?” He asked.

“Yes!” They exclaimed.

“Good.” Logan smiled and got up and one by one they made the proper oath for a disciple on the altar and a faint lion brand formed on their left hand before fading. “Now, we must quickly start cultivating the farms so that we will not be caught by any problems.” He said.

They all agreed and Logan took out tools and on the western field, they began to till the land for an orchid field and split the area for a few different trees.

When they were nearly finished, the light coming into the orb was faded already as the sun had clearly set already.

“That was a lot of work.” Logan said, stretching his back from the unfamiliar job.

He cast cleaning magic on everyone and their clothing and tried to remove all the dirt from them.

“Master, I shall take this time to absorb the crystal now that we have had time to recover fully.” Storm said.

“Alright.” Logan said.

The kids looked curiously as Storm stretched since he had worked as well and like Logan, farming was a very unfamiliar affair for him to do.

Logan tossed him the blue lightning crystal and taking it he walked to the northern space before his body suddenly got covered in light and suddenly expanded.

The six children felt trembling as a massive 15 meter long figure stomped down and began to stretch himself.

Their jaws all dropped and they trembled in fear.

“Huh? Oh that’s right. Storm isn’t a lizardman, he is a young drake, he will continue to get bigger as his power grows. An adult drake is C rank like the executive chef was said to be and they are said to possess enough physical power to punch a crater of around 30 meters of length into existence with one punch.” Logan said putting sufficient fear into them so that they will understand the world beyond the walls of human civilization. Maxwell put this fear into them once, he took him and Olivia to see him kill a B rank dragon that had settled on some islands. From the boat, they witnessed the power that lifted high waves and pushed clouds. It was the biggest display of power Maxwell had ever shown them and it ended with him killing it alone.

The same feat Logan’s grandfather did at the cost of his arm, Maxwell did it with only some wounds from the claws and cracked bones that healed after a week in bed while eating dragon meat.

Storm wasn’t even a fraction of the power but his very form, size and magical pressure was sufficient to produce a sense of pressure that was perfect for them to wake up to the real world.

They saw Storm toss the crystal into his mouth and curled up to sleep while trying to assimilate the new breed of lightning.

“Alright, all of you should go to bed. We will have an early morning tomorrow.” he said.

He had them go inside but Logan and Jade looked at him.

It was for a reason, the lightning erupted inside Storm and it was like a viper burning him from the inside, it was clearly intensely higher quality lightning and now he had to get it under control. It was unlikely that a day would be enough and Logan realized this as he felt mana start to draw towards him.

When the children put on their new sleep wear, he exits and frowns, “Go to bed, I will watch Storm in case he draws in too much mana and needs support.” Logan said.

“Alright.” Jade said and went to bed.

Logan walked outside and started a fire before pulling a log and putting it a short distance from the house before pulling out a hammock and tied it down to the house and the new log and watched Storm. With the light from the fire, he continued to read the rule book of the Golden Lion.