The solid ground was cold, stiffening and the heat of the afternoon sun is scorching hot. There are crawling insects on top of the ground, and you will see five heads sticking out from the dirt.

Holli’s face was swollen with missing teeth, and the makeup she carefully put on are now abstract art of a kid, she also has a few broken bones due to the event that happened a few hours ago.

“Sergio! tell me why a girl had to take a beating for 4 guys, look what happened! How can a 4th-Ranked Paladin be so useless!!!! Once I get out of here, I’ll have you all tortured and killed by my dad.”

“My Lady, I have no excuse for myself. I want to say that it’s better to be alive than dead.”

“Fortunately, they left us in our underwear before burying us in the ground.”

“Fortunate? you call this fortunate? Fart Face! If my fellow apprentice mage finds out, I’ll be mocked and possibly be expelled by my master.”

“I didn’t get paid enough for this. Hopefully, that porter gets back to town to report our current situation or else we’ll die here eaten by monsters or worse; starved to death and our carcasses will be nourishment for mother nature.”

***

It all started with this sentence that let them all knew that this guy isn’t messing around.

“Isn’t that such a wonderful thing?”

Rus Kicked Holli’s knees making her kneel on the ground while still grabbing her hair.

“Everyone, drop your weapons!”

No one seems to be listening to him, so he punched her face breaking several teeth. The situation becomes tense. They can hear the cries for help that’s coming from Holli’s mouth, Rus then stepped on her ankle dislocating the bones. You can feel the pain just by hearing the sound that was made.

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll just kill you right now.”

Holli shut her mouth and an eerie silence crept around them.

*Clang*

The paladin dropped his sword and shield. Though he can survive on his own if Holli dies there will be no place for him anymore. Not only his life but the life of the people he knew will be affected.

Holli’s dad isn’t very well known for his kindness, in fact, it’s the exact opposite.

Following the paladin’s example, the other guys seem to have lost their will and dropped their weapons. Rus unclasped the armor Holli is wearing with his sword, even the tied leather attire was removed only leaving her with undergarments that looks like bloomers and a regular shirt.

The two young red-haired youth Justin and Ronald cannot hide their perverted gaze, because you can see the drool coming out of their mouths. The words uttered by Rus woke them up from their daydreaming.

“Strip, all of you!”

Seemingly not satisfied by their reaction, Rus stepped on the other ankle of Holli. The terrifying scream made their unwilling bodies move and unequipped their armor and clothes until the bare minimum was left.

He ordered the four to dig 5 holes burying the paladin first, 2nd the acolyte, 3rd the bard, 4th the mage and lastly the swordsman.

The porter already ran away when the party is already incapable of fighting. The porter’s priority is to escape as fast as he can, ditch everything and make sure that his safety is above all else.

This action isn’t considered heartless. In the early days, they thought porters to be disposable products even making them the bait to lure monsters, subjects of mockery because they can’t wield mana and a bunch of horrible things happened to porters everywhere.

These all change when the Porter’s Guild was formed and attached themselves to the Adventurer’s Guild. They established rules and most of it consists of not going above their job description. Not just for their safety but also for the sake of information gathering in case their clients didn’t come back alive.

Rus took everything, from the armor, leather, and clothes they are wearing up to the dropped luggage of the porter until the camp where the served breakfast was now cold.

A High Orc, two albino Goblins, a gloomy-looking Pixie a tall guy pulling a wagon and a blonde guy that’s tied at the back being pulled against his will.

“Should we make a meal out of him? chwik”

“Do," “Humans,” “Taste," “Good?”

“I don’t know chwik, let’s find out hik hik hik!”

“Please don’t eat me, I’m a dirty human being, I visit the brothels a lot, I take addictive substances and I have 10 younger siblings to feed!!!”

Rus’s normal face is back with a sleepy vibe as if saying ‘he wants to go to bed’, taking his medicine for the day he offered some to the tied-up guy, but he vehemently refused. Any addicts of the empire would know what the substance he’s taking and could not resist getting a free fix.

“Don’t worry they are good kids and just messing with you.”

“What are you planning to do to me?”

“I’m thinking of hiring you as a porter, so forget what you saw earlier and just say they have been eaten by bears or something.”

“Eh!?, you cannot buy my pride as a porter!”

“I’ll pay you 10% more than the regular porter fee, your missing payment from your previous employer and an advance for this whole month.”

“Quinn Pateli at your service!”

It’s nice having money.

The porter immediately half bowed when he heard the offer is higher than the amount he would regularly get, the average salary for a porter per day ranges from §350-§500 Genny, and a meal for a single person cost around §250-§300 and that’s for the lower-class citizens of a city. He immediately asked to be released so he can sign a new contract.

Quinn pulled out his ledger to let Rus saw the amount of time that was spent with the guys that were buried alive. He paid him a total §15,000 in a form of 3 Damac Cards,

These cards are produced in the Damacium Republic by the Damac Corporation.

The payment he received excite Quinn and gave him a little fear because Rus handed it to him with full confidence.

He took the handle that Rus was pulling and diligently did his job as a porter. Meanwhile, Semira was getting depressed every minute that passed by, her bloated up expectation is blowing up in her face.

Going through the canyon, Rus and Co. were greeted with a sight of a flowing river and going further there is an angled rock that you wouldn’t see the entrance unless you go near it and peek at what’s behind the rock.

Eight oddly shaped carriages are arranged to form a circle and in the middle is a big cooking pot where you can smell beef stew with milk and mixed vegetables. Just a few meters away is an old man with white hair, and 2 missing legs sitting on a wooden wheelchair dozing off.

“Bathel, why are you all alone? Where’s Korpic?”

“Boss! that young’un said he’ll meet us at Inedge Town, and who’s that cute little one beside you?”

Almost forgetting about Semira’s existence he asked everyone to prepare for lunch, but before they could, Quinn already arranged the chairs, table, bread and table wares. They do not understand how he found them in that short time and it’s even the things they usually arrange for daily use.

The stew that was cooking before will take a few more minutes to be done, all of them took a seat and Rus began his introduction.

“Semira is a Pixie, I promised to give her someplace to live. And with that, I’ll give her the 6th carriage”

Semira inspected the carriage, its size from the wheel to roof is around 14’, width 8’ and the length is 24’ the wheels of the carriage is underneath the base and its roof is shaped like a bow.

Semira stood up and walked towards the carriage, the entrance is higher than her head. Rus accompanied her and pulled out the ladder at the bottom of the door. For the first time, she was satisfied with what she saw. Inside the carriage are a bed, a small study table, windows, a closet and a separate room for the lavatory. She got to admit that this was better than what she painted on her mind a day ago.

Standing on the bed and looking out the window she can see Rus arms crossed, eyes closed, and head tilted up as if waiting for something from the heavens to fall.

“What are you doing?”

“Waiting for the blessing, since I already gave you the shelter you asked for!”

He was wondering if he could get those rare permanent blessings. Since the value of the things, he gave out was quite big. Exhaling through his nose the blessing still didn’t come.

“But you still need to provide me with a family!”

“Huh? that’s not part of the deal.”

Not wanting for his pose to go to waste Rus opened his right eye and asked her seriously.

“Since you have nowhere to go do you want to become a part of my family? But you must call me either Boss, Head or Father.”

Hearing the tense conversation, the other members of Rus’s family chimed in to lighten up the mood.

“Ehem, you can call me daddy if you want.”

“Don’t chwik go near anywhere that old lolicon chwik”

“It’s not like that, I just love children”

“He,” “lost,” “his,” “legs,” “cause,” “he,” “kidnapped,” “little,” “girls,”

“Don’t listen to them, I’m an honest and decent guy!”

With a slight smile and a teary eye, Semira nodded in approval while Rus is still in his pose waiting.

It will come now for sure, I wonder what kind of blessing it will be?

“Hmm, why is it still not activating?”

“Uhm, you still need to kill the Red Dragon and Eliminate the whole Blaze Fairy Tribe!”

“What!?”

“What?”

Rus knew it will be a hard-fought road until he gets the special fx he wanted. He’s still a little disappointed that there’s no light pouring down from the heavens for him to bask on.

Quinn was scooping up the stew and plating them neatly, He had no clue he’s witnessing one of the greatest moments in history that will never be written in the books and he could only tell his grandsons and their friends about what happened during that period.

Rus and Semira went back to the table, the stew is ready to be eaten along with a crunchy ciabatta.

“Let me introduce the members of our family, High Orc Emeralda!”

“Finally, a female member besides me chwik, you can call me Emy. chwik”

“The Albino Twins, Geal and Byal!”

“Welcome,” “to,” “the,” “family.”

“Retired Doctor Bathel Grayfield!”

“You can ask me anything you want to know regarding the family, no! just ask me directly I’ll even give you cookies!”

“There’s one more, but he’s not here. We’ll meet with him later, and since we have a new member state the house rules before, we eat.”

Every place or organization have rules to follow, some even have a soul binding contract that will leave you crippled or dead when you break the rules, Semira was aware of it but she’s not prepared on what she’s about to hear coming from the mouths of her newly found family.

“No.1 Loyalty to chwik the family comes over everything else. chwik”

“Number,” “two,” “Always,” “wear,” “a,” “respectable,” “attire,” “when,” “you,” “go,” “to,” “battle.”

“No.3 Lies and deceit can only be used outside the family.”

“No.4 If you can’t decide chwik your superiors will do it for you. chwik”

“Number,” “Five,” “Follow,” “orders,” “from,” “your,” “superiors.”

“No.6 Never take sides with anyone against the family.”

“No.7 Always return favors. chwik”

“Number,” “Eight,” “Your,” “goal,” “is,” “the,” “families,” “goal,” “your,” “troubles,” “are,” “the,” “families,” “trouble.”

“No.9 Don’t make yourself look big, by pointing out how small someone is.”

Rus stood up to deliver the last part of the house rules.

“And lastly. Have a heart that doesn’t sway no matter what happens, doesn’t judge whether beneath or above others.”

“I formally welcome you to the Tessaro Familia!”

A strong wind blew towards them. Semira’s long black hair fluttered, she bowed like a lady and gave a smile that will warm people’s hearts.

“I Semira Zyganar a member of the Night Pixie Tribe will do my very best to meet your expectations, please take care of me!”

With all the introduction taken care of, all of them sat down aside from the porter.

They do not allow porters to use the supplies of their clients they all carry their own rations. But Gael and Byal carried an extra chair and tableware for the porter, they pulled the hem of his shirt gesturing to eat with them.

Seeing monsters act like this bewildered him, goblins are either violent or scared with interacting with humans or other creatures, Orcs are aggressive and will attack everything that moves even if it doesn’t threaten them. The only time they can be in control is when a tamer binds these monsters and they will obey their owners with lifeless eyes; or when they are in captivity and have been tortured and disciplined to be a pet.

A clear difference can be seen just by looking at their eyes, skin that doesn’t have many bruises, and the way they interact is a clear sign they have higher intelligence than most goblins and orcs in their species.

Rus took his time to tell everyone what happened with his visit to the city, and the meeting between Semira and him until dusk arrived at the horizon.

Settling in her new home Semira could finally relax a little. Hiding her deepest grudge in the corners of her heart and sitting on the bed inside the carriage. They told her she can customize anything inside and out the carriage aside from the roof and the wheels, but right now she only has her oversized black scarf that acts as clothing and a pair of slippers that’s too big for her feet.

She sniffed the scarf, afraid that the scent of her mother will go away and stared blankly at the empty table. A knock came from the door of her carriage, she stood up to open the door and saw Emeralda standing in front carrying a bunch of materials, she can hardly hold all of it.

“I bought things chwik to decorate your house chwik and some other girl items that chwik that those boys won’t understand. chwik”

She bought pillows, mattress, lamps, bed sheets, small clothes for girls, toiletries, and random things like curtains, stuffed toys, pencils, papers that you wouldn’t expect coming from an Orc.

“This is too much Ms. Emeralda,”

“It’s ok chwik these are my old things chwik, father bought them for me chwik when I was a little orclet chwik, and call me Emy chwik”

Semira stared at the things that Emy bought and happiness sprinkled in her gloomy face, she decorated her carriage and never thought that arranging her own things could be fun.

For the first time in her life, she will have her own room even though it’s not inside a big city and there’s none of her kind around she was quite satisfied. Because it can be called her own.

“When you get money chwik, you can customize your carriage chwik like I did with mine,”

Emy pointed out the window, and she looked outside only to notice now that some carriages are different in style, the one that Emy pointed out was a carriage that’s colored white and pink, glass windows and with lots of decorative flowers blooming from the sides.

“I got to go Semira chwik we can have tea at my place before dinner chwik”

“Uhhh uhmm, hold on Ms. Emy, Hnnnnggggg!”

“Ah!”

White light poured all over Emy’s body, the wound she got earlier completely vanished without a trace and her skin was also vibrant like she just got out of the steam bath.

Semira was relieved to see her magic working again, for pixies they wield mana by establishing a connection to a close relative or family, the larger the net of connections the larger the mana they can manipulate.

This also proves that there is a certain level of approval within herself and her newfound family.

“That’s amazing chwik, you’re the 4th person in our family that can use magic. chwik”

A tear fell from Semira’s eyes, it was not from sadness or fear it was a tear coming from someone that had just latched on new hope.

The two girls heard a call coming from the outside, so they got out of the carriage to comply in Rus’s call.

“Everyone. Gather up, we will iron out the plan for tomorrow’s travel and preparations!”

***

The solid ground was warm, comforting but the cold sharpness of the wind coming from the north is unbearable.

Hunger churned their stomach and the lack of water chipped their lips as time goes by, and five heads are sticking out from the dirt.

“Sergio! You’re a 4th-Ranked paladin, figure out a way so we can get out of here, and the 4 of you start screaming! Someone might hear us and help us get out of here”

“My Lady, I have enough vitality but not enough mobility to use my strength”

“My throat is so dry I can’t even. . .”

“If I permanently damage my vocal cords, I won’t be able to cast magic anymore!”

“I didn’t get paid enough for this, I just want to go back alive”