Eric woke up, after the rough day yesterday. He felt slightly embarrassed for his actions in front of Rally but he felt happy and relieved for some reason.

Orph noticed Eric waking up. He gave Eric some time and then asked, “Can I sit there?” while pointing to his bed. Eric agreed.

After sitting, Orph spoke, “I’m sorry for yesterday... It was my fault for going straight into battle without asking for your opinion, my partner... it’s just that after I saw that building... I know it’s no excuse but know this, I'm truly sorry...”

“It’s alright, it wouldn’t have mattered if I was competent...”

Orph didn’t reply to that and he stood up.

“Alright, so I finally heard some news from that Bk guy. He asked us to go to the bar.”, said Orph. Eric complied and they were off to the bar again.

“Looks like he’s not here yet. Let’s get a table.”, said Orph.

They both sat down and Orph continued, “What was that earlier, something about your competence?”

Eric looked at Orph and then decided to speak after some time.

“It’s just that no matter what I do, my skill doesn’t change. It’s like I'm average at everything... It’s like a curse...”

“Or maybe it’s a blessing.”

“Blessing?”

“I mean being average at everything has to be a skill of some sort, right? You’re like a jack of all trades. No, you are the jack of all trades.”

Eric chuckled at Orph’s comment and spoke, “Maybe.”

They waited there for a couple of minutes before BK arrived in his shiny orb form. He turned himself back into a human and sat on one of the chairs at the table.

“I hear you men want some information about a certain group of battle orcs, well, you’ve come to the right place...”, said Bk trying to stand up, only to be interrupted by Orph.

“Look, we’ve waited enough! Do you have the information or not?”

“Yes, I have! If you let me continue...”

Bk stood up from his chair and spoke,” I’ve heard some group of noble children talking about supplying the orcs with glasses and other supplies. I do not know about them but I do know about their supply drop-off point!”

“Great! Finally! Let’s go!”, said Orph. Three of them paid the servers and went off. Bk led them to the place, they passed the orphanage. Eric looked at Orph, who didn’t seem to be as bothered as was the last time they came here. BK pointed them towards an empty space in the jungle. It was only a few minutes away from the orphanage.

“So, this is it?", said Orph in a disappointing voice.

“Maybe, we’ll find some orcs near here.”, said Eric trying to cheer Orph up.

“I’ll let you guys know that I'll run away at the first sign of a fight...”, added Bk.

They soon heard a battle orc screaming, and ran there. Bk turned into a light orb and flew off. Eric and Orph saw a single battle orc trying to attack a girl sitting down, scared with her hands over her head. Both of them ran over and plunged their swords at the orc’s back, putting it down. The girl started crying after looking at Eric and Orph, Bk came near them and turned himself into a human and spoke, “It’s alright...”, trying to hold the girl. The girl stopped crying for a moment and looked at Bk. Thanks to that, Eric was able to see her face.

“You’re the girl I saw in the Orphanage, what are you doing here?”, asked Eric. The girl put up her hands again and tried to hide her face.

“She’s from the Orphanage...?”

“What, you never saw her?”

“No... She looks older than me...”

“Maybe they bought her there recently”, Bk chimed in.

“No, the Orphanage never breaks their rules”, replied Orph.

“Well, we should take her there. Leaving her here would not be good.”, said Bk. He went near the girl and tried to get her up.

“No! Those two have the same color as them...”, said the girl frantically, trying to get away.

“Color? Them? What?”, asked Orph. “Wait, you’re that girl... I rarely if ever saw you... The one who got special attention from the principal”, he continued.

“Special attention...?”, said Eric.

“Yea... They didn’t let her mix with us...”

“Is my color different from theirs?”, asked Bk.

She looked up at him and spoke, "Yes... It’s warm...”

“Want to see a little trick?”

The girl thought for some time and nodded. Bk turned himself into an orb and moved around the girl while she stared in awe.

Bk turned himself back into a human and spoke, “It’s alright, we’re the same... We’re both spell users.”

“I thought of that as a possibility and that makes sense...”, said Eric.

“So, she can see colors in others that tell her something?”, asked Orph.

“Seems like it”

“Can you tell us what you’re doing here?”, asked Bk, trying to speak as softly as he possibly could.

The girl didn’t reply.

“It’s going to be alright... What’s your name?”

“They call me Subject E...”

“What do you call yourself?”

“Emma...”

“That’s a nice name, Emma. It’s nice to meet you, my name’s Beautiful Kite but you can call me Bk”, said BK with a warm smile.

Emma nodded in agreement. Bk held her hands and helped her to stand up.

“What do we do now?”, asked Eric.

“We have no other choice, it’s unsafe to leave her here. Let’s take her back to the orphanage.”, replied Orph.

Orph started walking towards the orphanage, Eric stopped him by his shoulder and asked him, "Subject E?”

“The orphanage has a peculiar way of naming people...”, replied Orph. “Do you have a better idea on what to do with her?”, he continued. Orph started to walk again, with Bk following him slowly holding Emma’s hands. Eric not being able to find the right words to say decided to follow them after thinking about it for a while.

They soon reached the orphanage's main gate. Orph stopped in front of it and look up at the orphanage.

“You’ll never be accepted anywhere but here!”

“You alright?”, asked Eric.

“Yeah... Just memories...”

They all went inside the orphanage.

The principal saw them coming inside and spoke, "What makes you two come inside our orphanage along with her?”

After hearing that, Eric turned around to find Bk. Only for him to find out that he turned himself into an orb.

“She was lost, alone in the woods. You should take more care of your residents, but we both know you’d never do that.”, replied Orph.

The principal smirked and spoke, “Oh is that so?”

He looked at two people wearing different clothes than normally worn by the teachers and said, “What was she doing outside? The duke will not be happy about this.”

One of the two replied, “Maybe she ran away?”

“Yes, that seems likely”, agreed the other one.

“How would she manage to run away? She was supposed to be under your care!”, said the principal in an annoyed tone. He looked at Emma and spoke, “Can you tell me why you choose to go outside?”

Emma didn’t answer.

The principal looked back at the two odd people and spoke,” Did you by any chance use the silent spell on her in order to hide why she would go outside?”

“Maybe...”, replied the two at the same time.

“You fools! What have you done? The silent spell can only hide one thing at a time... That means that she can tell her pow-”

The principal stopped speaking and looked at Orph, he smiled and spoke,” Well, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“What doesn’t matter anymore?”, replied Orph.

“This.”

Orph and Eric looked at the principal shocked and confused as he called two knights to come in.

“What’s going on?”, asked Eric.

“Like I'd know...”, replied Orph.

“It’s nothing personal really. The duke’s orders were very strict regarding this matter.”, said the principal. “You guys know too much, we can’t even use you as slaves...”, he continued.

“Slaves? Is that where John is?”, asked Orph.

The principal didn’t answer but simply smiled as he waved his hands to the knights.

Eric didn’t know what was going on, he knew that Orph had some idea but this wasn’t the right time to ask him questions. The main goal was to survive.

Eric leaped back behind one of the many pillars, he looked for Bk and found him being right beside him.

He moved his hands in such a way that asked Bk to come near him and spoke, “I need you to do something for me.”

Meanwhile, Orph took out his sword and prepared for battle. Emma sat down beside him and started to shake. Orph knew that they wouldn’t harm her so he left her there and went near knights who came from the main gate.

“Looks like you’re all alone here, where did that friend of yours go?”, said one of them.

“Maybe I should go and find him...”, said the other.

“You’re not going anywhere!”, replied Orph.

The two knights smiled and looked over at Orph, "I guess both of us can take care of you alone faster.", said one of them.

Both of them rushed towards Orph with their swords drawn. Orph knew that he couldn't fight two fully-fledged knights alone, so he ran away. Orph looked for Eric and found him hunched over behind a pillar.

"What are you doing?", asked Orph in a hurry.

"Saving our lives..."

"Saving our lives by cowering in fear?", said Orph not letting Eric finish what he was saying.

Orph took Eric's hand and ran away.

"Don't worry, I doubt the knights know the orphanage as well as I do!", exclaimed Orph.

Eric thought to himself that he needed to buy some time anyway, so he went along with him.