Chapter 40: Sister Maria (First Update)

Sister Maria is a good person.

No, she is a perfect person, even a saint.

In the eyes of many old people in the dock district, Sister Maria is a true saint.

She is not particularly tall, nor particularly pretty, but she always wears a gentle smile that reminds people of a mother's loving smile.

Whether it is the children of the orphanage or the occasional passing dignitaries, she treats them all the same. Even if the orphanage children directly call her "Mama," she has never refused.

She is even often seen holding some child who calls her "Mother," telling stories to help him fall asleep.

By the time Maria arrived here one day, she had already been serving the children for a very long time—so long that the people of the dock district took it for granted.

It is not hard for a person to do one good deed, nor to do it for a period of time. But she—

"Sister Maria, next week will mark twenty years since you came here. The children and the sisters all want to help you celebrate." The young sister looked at her happily; she too had come here because of Sister Maria's calling.

"Twenty years already?" Reminded by her colleague, Maria at this moment felt a little dazed.

Twenty years—she had served Fuli Academy for a full twenty years, had been a sister-mother for a full twenty years.

The crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, her increasingly stiff body, the silver white at the tips of her hair—perhaps all of these are the marks left by time.

What has not changed is that ever-consistent gentle smile, and her nearly infinite patience with the children.

If it were not so, those children who occasionally came back to visit would not always "accidentally" call out "Maria Mama." At such moments, she would usually respond with her ever-consistent gentle smile.

Perhaps "these children" are the result of the greatest measure of motherly love that her loving heart could give over these years.

"No need to celebrate. The pastries and cakes sent by the benefactors—leave them for the children. They are growing."

It seems that today, this twentieth-anniversary day, is no different for her.

After prayer, it is cooking for the children, playing with them, receiving visiting benefactors—she truly hopes a few more kind-hearted people will adopt the children away. Life in other districts, no matter how hard, is still better than the orphanage.

No matter how hard we sisters try, we cannot give the children the motherly love and fatherly love they need most.

There are too many children, and my energy is no longer what it was when I was young—I cannot look after them all.

"Did you hear? That holy knight my lord who often comes by—he stormed the slave market, tore down the main gate himself, and stood blocking the door cursing all night."

Rumors always arrive quickly, and grow stranger with each telling.

But the rumors about Li En even piqued Sister Maria's interest; while her colleagues were chatting, she took the initiative to ask for the specifics.

"They say his Hero's Blood was stolen. By that very famous Tail-Cutter."

The ladies who enjoy gossip gathered together, and by piecing things here and there, they pieced together most of last night's story.

And Sister Maria, amid the covered-mouth giggles of spreading the amusing tale, seemed to have found the key point of the rumor.

"Looks like that Tail-Hunter is done for—that evil person who harms children is going to be killed by the slave market," a sister said cheerfully to Maria.

They all knew that Sister Maria had always attached great importance to the threat the Tail-Hunter posed to children.

Maria indeed laughed very happily, repeating over and over: "That's good then, that's good then."

It seems this lunch was eaten with particular relish.

The lunch break is very short; once the children finish eating, they must be settled down for their nap.

But this time, Sister Maria seemed to remember something.

"Right, a major benefactor said he would come by to visit, and he promised to help us rebuild the house. Notify the other sisters—we'll hold a meeting to discuss how to receive him. You may want to consider which room to repair first."

Such wonderful news instantly made the sisters overjoyed.

Their living conditions could hardly be called good; a leaking roof was the norm.

The various uncontrollable small animals were what troubled them most as women.

And while the others busied themselves notifying everyone about the meeting, Maria smiled as she looked out the window.

A child who refused to nap and snuck out to play ball was sent back to bed by her.

"What a fine scheme," she murmured suddenly, out of nowhere—but it was a murmur of one who had already seen through everything.

After the other sisters arrived one after another, looking at their jubilant faces, Maria also smiled.

It seemed everyone had not been this happy in a long time.

"Life is full of suffering—at the very least, let them be a little happy at the very end." That was a woman's most sincere smile.

Two minutes later, the "meeting" ended.

But the only one who walked out of the room was Sister Maria, still wearing her smile.

"Don't go in—the sisters are napping." She stopped the children who had woken from their nap and gotten into a fight, and were looking for their "mamas" to tattle.

At the same time, she told them a piece of good news.

"Tell them—we're going on a spring outing, to the amusement park in the city. Call all your little friends."

Instantly, the good news spread throughout Fuli Academy, and all the children sprang into action.

Twenty minutes later, Sister Maria, with all the children, set out cheerfully on their "spring outing."

Another dozen or so minutes later, the preset device ignited on its own, and flames quickly consumed the entire orphanage.

Only in that tightly locked meeting room—only some tailless dry corpses—they perhaps never have to worry again about fighting children or small animals in the rooms.

——

"It's really Sister Maria? How could that be."

If not for the client's betrayal, even with the slave market's connections, tracking down Sister Maria would not have been a simple matter.

But once the forces behind the slave market were fully mobilized, and those great nobles thirsting for the Hero's Blood applied pressure with all their might, the entire circle was shaken. Then, it was only a matter of time before those "customers" sold Maria out.

Yet the people from the slave market still arrived too late; all they saw was the burned ruins of Fuli Academy.

"We found a room, full of charred dry corpses. Judging by their builds, the sisters were all inside—except Maria. It can basically be confirmed: she is the Tail-Hunter."

Reaching the conclusion was not difficult, but further searching ran into difficulties.

"She took the children, went to the west side of the dock district—seems like she went into the abandoned ships area. That place is quite chaotic."

By the time Li En received the news, it was already rather late.

But compared to other trackers, their advantage was obvious.

"In this direction?"

A living dot shimmered on the magic map, paired with a compass constantly pointing west; the target's direction was clear.

"Ship Graveyard, how in this ghost place?"

The dock district has no shipyards; the skill level of the shipwrights doing repairs is all average.

Over the accumulation of years, many ships in the surrounding seas fell into disrepair and were finally retired in this area.

Some of these old ships sank permanently into the deep sea, while others completed the most basic dismantling in the dock district.

That is, taking only the useful parts off the top, leaving the main body here to rot.

Those broken ships that could no longer sail had labor costs for complete dismantling worth more than the rotten planks, so they were simply dragged to the corners of the dock district and piled up.

The more they piled up, the more it became the Ship Graveyard area before their eyes.

Inside, only wild dogs and wolves howled occasionally; even vagrants found it creepy.

This place is actually already considered outside the dock district; the piles of rotten ships stretch far along the coast, but with no one around, what meaning does it have?

"Gang members and people from the market." Li En and his group entered the Ship Graveyard district; amidst the ruins piled with wood and garbage, search teams were everywhere along the way.

The paladin squad led by Li En was already considered the flagship of the dock district.

The relationship between the two sides had always been quite subtle; considering the recent deal had stopped the fighting, now that they met face-to-face, there was no obstruction.

Of course, this was also related to the unmistakable killing intent of Li En's squad.

Li En at this moment was completely different from his previous state.

Silver armor covered his entire body; the ancient shield on his back was no ordinary object; the two-handed sword remained unsheathed; the magic gloves radiated arcane light; it was a rare state of full armament.

This set of armor was borrowed from Miss Shaliman; it was a decoration in the mansion's hallway, yet it was far better than ordinary street goods.

He couldn't pay it back anyway; let them do as they please.

Also fully armed was Larry, wearing mithril heavy armor and carrying six magic swords.

Actually, if Li En hadn't stopped her, she would have even ridden her war beast, the Great Sword Spider, directly here; that was an extremely ferocious magical creature, basically only seen on battlefields.

A knight's armament in normal state and on the battlefield is not the same; putting on full armor is time-consuming and physically draining; the current temporary squad is in a battlefield state with no concealment.

Even Dimon had switched to two better blades and a suit of chain mail; this was not because Miss Shaliman's side lacked better stock.

Rather, fighting while wearing armor is itself a skill requiring time to master, and now Dimon could only wear simple chain mail that didn't hinder movement.

This small squad of knights, fully armed and brimming with killing intent, clearly intended to cut people down at the slightest disagreement; no wonder these outer henchmen dared not stop them.

With the guidance of the "compass," Li En did not circle the outskirts like other squads but went straight into the depths of the Ship Graveyard district.

"This way."

In the shadows, Talia constantly guided the direction.

Her blood-scenting talent remained quite useful at this time.

In her interactions with the children, Larry had received many small gifts in return.

At this moment, this also allowed Talia to make route guidance based on scent.

"What do you mean?" A sudden male voice, carrying hostility.

In the depths of the Ship Graveyard, Li En and his group met an old acquaintance.

"Roar of the Volcano" Kverduff appeared abruptly before the squad; it seemed someone had urgently notified him.

This time Miss Shaliman was not present; he made no concealment of his dominance and ferocious appearance, seeming ready to act at the slightest disagreement.

"Why have you come? Do you intend to go back on your word?!" He cared only about this.

"That bag of items has already been traded; we have no interest in breaching the contract. We are here to rescue those children who were taken." At this moment, the paladin squad had no need to conflict with him.

Instantly, the hostility vanished, and the atmosphere eased.

As long as it didn't affect Kverduff completing his mission, everything was negotiable.

The slave market had been having problems constantly recently; trading volume and profits had plummeted; he was reprimanded by superiors, and his pressure was great.

Now, he was just waiting for his subordinates to find the Hero's Blood to help him report back.

The other heads of the slave market had all been kicked out to find people.

As for those children, if they found them, tossing them into the slave market would fetch little money, but if they could ease relations with the old noble faction, it would be quite worthwhile.

Of course, if Li En and his group hadn't come and applied pressure, they might have found it troublesome and simply killed them.

Being willing to resell them was already being kind-hearted.

"Follow me."

Since they could find their way here, clearly Li En and his group also had tracking methods; there was no reason to refuse the power they could borrow.

The superiors had also hinted that they should express goodwill to Miss Shaliman and try to ease relations with the noble circles.

Li En could die, but not on our side... at least not for the near future.

"See, it should be here."

Kverduff led everyone into the rotted floorboards of a broken ship.

There, a large open hole led down a crude staircase to the underground.

"We have already found four such holes; all have artificial traces."

"There is an underground ruin here too?"

The knowledgeable Larry suddenly grew anxious; he knew how chaotic the underground areas of this city truly were.

The most famous resource of Radiant City is the underground ruins, a vast area resembling an underground city cluster.

If it really connected to the large-scale underground ruins of the entire city, she would be like a fish entering the ocean, very hard to find.

"No, if it were really that convenient, she wouldn't have needed to make that noble boy a cargo carrier."

Li En saw through it quite clearly; this should only be a relatively independent underground area; otherwise, the light dot on the living map would not be underground, but in another district!

They should still be underground.

Now that the people of the slave market have sealed off the land and sea routes above, even if there truly is an escape route below, it should be quite inconvenient.

"Let's go." Time, at this very moment, is the line between life and death; once the children are taken away, there will be no possibility of survival.

Li En and his group stepped into it without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)