After using light magic to remove Ophilia's dark circles, Sian said. "Even without dark circles, you still look very exhausted."

He made a brief chant and shortly after, a faint white light surrounded Ophilia's body, who seemed confused and surprised. “What kind of magic is that? I'm feeling very well and full of energy. It's as if the exhaustion of before was an illusion.”

"It is a light spell to recover from fatigue." Sian said.

"Do you mean that with this magic you can spend several sleepless nights and never feel tired?" Ophilia asked.

"Well, yes, most light spells are supportive and healing." He said.

"So, if a nobleman wanted to, could he make the servants work day and night non-stop?" She asked.

"That’s not quite how it works." Sian took his magic bag and a new set of clothes appeared along with Ophilia's bag. "Every spell used consumes magic, so you can't just go out using it on multiple people."

"Can't you recover the magic with potions?"

"You can recover, but that is not efficient." He passed the bag to her. "Furthermore, it is difficult to find a user of light magic and even if you do, most are noble and merchants, they would not waste time using it on ordinary people unless they were paid a good amount."

"I hadn't thought of that." She said as she dressed in a brown skirt and white long-sleeve blouse.

Finishing putting on the clothes, Sian said. "Well, many people would probably think the same as you do."

After Ophilia also finished dressing, Sian took some fruits from the magic bag. "As it is still too early, let's have breakfast and come down, I still have a few things to ask the manager. Then we go to the orphanage."

"All right!" When Sian talked about going to the orphanage, Ophilia was clearly anxious.

Without delay, they ate the fruit and went down.

***

After resolving what they had with the manager, who apparently had just woken up, they left straight for the orphanage.

On the way, people seemed excited, passing back and forth. The crowd was so great that a light layer of dust floated across the clay floor.

"They seem quite energetic. Did something happen?" Sian asked.

"Today is the day of the fair, it happens once a week, people usually spend the money they earned in the last six days buying commodities to store." Ophilia said. "But there are also some who exchange goods with merchants or other residents."

As they passed through the crowd, Sian noticed that there were several kinds of tents. They seemed to sell everything, whether from the most basic like fruits, vegetables, clothes and seeds to something that only the rich would buy, like people and jewelry.

Looking at a meat skewer stall, Sian felt like stopping. But when he saw Ophilia's anxious face, which she had had since waking up, he decided to go straight to the orphanage.

Although the crowd slowed their walking speed, it wasn't long before they got there.

In front of the orphanage walls, Sian was surprised. The place was very different from what he imagined. As an orphan, he expected to see a big house falling apart. But what he saw was beyond expectations.

It was a huge two-story house surrounded by a high wall. The yellow-painted on the walls and the brown details showed that it was not something done casually. Examining carefully, he realized that there was not a single crack in the walls and the iron gate did not have a single grain of rust, which made it very obvious that this mansion was new.

As this place was beyond the expected, he asked doubtfully, “Is this place really the orphanage of such a small town?”

“Yes.” Ophilia replied. “Even if it seems extravagant, it is the orphanage, this is where I came to leave my daughter.”

‘Stopping to think about it…’

"What's her name? You haven't told me yet.”

"Emily..." After a brief silence, she said, "I don't know if she still uses the name I gave... I only spent six months with her. When I handed her over, I asked them to keep calling her by that name, but I don't know if my request was accepted..."

Placing both hands on Ophilia's shoulders, San looked at her and said, "Don't worry about it, even if she has a different name, it won't change the fact that we are going to bring her with us."

He turned and headed toward the orphanage gate, but realized that Ophilia was still in the same place.

“Did something happen?” He asked, confused.

Even though she was holding tightly on the sides of her skirt, it was obvious that her hands were shaking.

Returning to where Ophilia was, Sian reached out. "You don't have to be so nervous, everything will be fine, if there is any problem, you can let me handle it."

She just nodded and followed him inside, holding his hand.

Following the path paved with stones, they saw many children. They were running across the courtyard right in the middle of the garden next to the mansion. Even though most were of humans, there were many of other races.

“They really live carefree here. When I lived in the orphanage, the director always forced us to work and then took the money we earned.” Sian said. “If we spent energy running unnecessarily like this, he would always punish us. I often felt like breaking his arms and sticking them down his throat.”

Ophilia firmly tightened Sian's hand.

"You don't have to be so nervous. Looking at them, you can see how happy they are and with the clean and patchless clothes, they are certainly well taken care of." Sian tried to calm Ophilia.

As they kept going, the children noticed them and waved.

Sian waved back to them with a smile and said to Ophilia, "You don't have to be so rigid, come on, wave to them too."

Being urged, she also waved, and amidst the crowd of uniformed children, Sian's gaze stopped on a little girl. Despite not knowing why, he couldn't take his eyes off her.

‘She has nothing strange, even the amount of magic in her body is almost non-existent. She's just a cute little girl, but what is this feeling?… ’

He stopped walking and continued to stare at her, but as she wore a little yellow hat, he couldn't see her race.

He kept looking, but the only thing he could see was that she wore a white blouse and a blue skirt with suspenders just like the other little girls.

Perhaps because she felt the penetrating gaze of Sian, the little girl who also waved, shrunk and hid behind the other children.

"Sian?" Ophilia called him.

"It's nothing.” He shook his head and went back to walking.

Entering the orphanage, there was a spacious room with a few chairs on either side. On each side, there were 4 chairs around a center, which was probably for the visits. And in front was the reception.

"Be welcome, sir and madam!" Said the middle-aged receptionist. "What is the reason for the visit?"

Perhaps because they were well dressed or just because she was instructed to act like that, she spoke respectfully to both of them.

"We came to adopt a child." Sian said bluntly.

"To adopt a child?" The receptionist said surprised.

“Yes, a little Dogkin girl named Emily, she’s 4 years old. Is she still here?”

“She’s still here.” The receptionist said.

Hearing this, Ophilia let out a long sigh of relief but became nervous again when she heard the following words.

"But we can't let her be adopted like this."

Sian looked at the receptionist coolly. "What do you mean by that?"

"I-It's not that I d-don't want to, but some procedures established by Lady Charlotte need to be done." The receptionist said nervously.

"Procedures?" Sian asked, narrowing his eyes, looking like he was going to break the receptionist into pieces at any moment.

Sweating profusely, the receptionist tried to answer. “I-It’s-”

"It's just that some time ago, some people were adopting children and then selling them to slave merchants." An unknown voice said.

After hearing this, Sian calmed down.

'I can't deny that this can happen, after all, that shitty director sold me.'

Then, turning in the direction from which the voice came, there was a couple, or rather, a young lady and her butler, both of whom appeared to be at most 18 years old.

The butler had a fairly common appearance, but the young lady stood out for her beautiful appearance, along with her elegant dress and especially for her pink hair.

Seeing the young lady, Ophilia tightened Sian's hand even more and looked like she was going to bow.

But before she could lean over, Sian grabbed her shoulder and said to the young lady.

"By your hair color, you must be Charlotte Rotherham, right?"