Orleans' Parents

I knocked on the door and it slowly opened.

"Who is it?"

The question came out timid and fearful, so I pushed Orleans forward.

"I found this girl and brought her back. Let us inside for now."

"Orleans! Oh, thank goodness you're safe. Ah, please, come in."

We were led inside.

I'd already guessed from the outside, but it was a small house.

A bit cramped for two adults living together.

With Orleans there as well, even more so.

Not everyone could fit, so I had Azu and the others wait outside while Orleans and I went in.

Inside was the woman who'd answered the door and a man who appeared to be the father.

"And you are?"

"A merchant. Name's Yohane."

"Yohane-san, then. You say you took our daughter in. Thank you so much. I'm Linet, and my husband is Garla."

With that, the two of them bowed their heads to me.

I accepted their thanks and sat down on the hemp mat spread across the floor.

"We were supposed to travel together as a family, but in the end only our daughter made it out, and we've been worried sick about what happened to her."

… Now then, how to put this.

They must have known nothing good would come of a young girl being on her own, but telling them exactly what happened might be too much of a shock.

"By the way, are you both alright? If your escape attempt was caught, surely there would have been some punishment?"

"About that, one of the veteran guards hushed it up. He said it would cause trouble for them too if the duke found out. Of course, next time we wouldn't be so lucky."

"I see."

From what I could tell, the two of them looked healthy enough.

If they'd been flogged, it wouldn't have been strange if they were bedridden.

That said, Orleans had been on the verge of death.

I should be straightforward, at least to some extent.

"Your daughter, Orleans… I'm sorry to say she'd been captured by bandits. We raided their hideout after dealing with them, and that's where I found her."

"No…"

"I see. A little girl on her own… of course that would happen."

The mother, Linet, was struck speechless. Garla only seemed to realize the danger when it was spelled out for him.

Honestly, even without the bandits, nothing good awaited her.

She would have starved to death or been taken by kidnappers.

Without me, she'd have died in that bandit hideout.

Sending their daughter out alone had been a mistake, plain and simple.

They should have stayed together and been captured as a family.

It would be easy enough to say that to two people already devastated, but what good would it do.

Linet was holding Orleans tight.

For the moment, this was the best possible outcome.

"Thank you for saving our daughter, Yohane-san."

"Sure, don't worry about it. Well then, I should be going…"

I thought it best not to meddle further and stood up to leave.

"Yohane-san."

As I was about to turn toward the door, Garla called out and I stopped.

"If it's not too much trouble, would you take our daughter with you?"

"What?"

"On this estate, aside from the on-site soldiers, no one keeps an exact headcount, so it wouldn't be a problem."

"No, that's not the issue."

"… All we have here is farming. The only one who can read and write is the elder, and there's no time to learn. I'm ashamed to say, until just now, I'd been deluding myself that at least our daughter could escape the life of a serf. That's how little we know."

Garla said this while stroking Orleans' head.

"I believe our daughter is bright, unlike us. I don't want her to spend her whole life farming."

"Father, I'm fine here—"

"Hush. You listen too."

I understood what he was getting at.

But the girl had her own feelings on the matter…

"At the very least, I want her to see something of the world outside. You said you're a merchant, Yohane-san. Merchants travel to all sorts of places, don't they?"

"Well, yes, that's true."

Children belong with their parents. I believed that.

Even if this place had no future, if the child wished to stay, then so be it.

It seemed more peaceful here than I'd expected, after all.

But when asked like this, what could I say.

"I suppose taking her along for a bit of education wouldn't hurt."

"Understood. That would be more than enough. Please."

Linet and Garla both bowed their heads to me.

What an odd turn of events.

Better than I'd feared, at least.

Come to think of it, serfs were to their masters what Azu and the others were to me. As long as there were no problems, any damage to them lowered their value. Keeping them healthy and whole was the best approach.

The veteran guard who'd looked the other way probably figured that as long as the estate kept running smoothly, he could send good reports to the noble who owned it.

The head of security here seemed like the neurotic type especially, so minimizing problems was probably in everyone's best interest.

"I'll be staying for a while and looking after Orleans. I can't take her permanently, though."

I made sure to emphasize that point.

The fact that I'd been secretly considering adopting her if she'd turned out to be an orphan was something I'd keep to myself.

Orleans was held by her parents for a good long while before she came with me.

"Yohane-sama, please take care of me."

"Yeah, sure. Likewise."

I gave that reply and led Orleans out of the house.

I explained the situation to Azu and the others outside.

"True, the noble who owns the estate probably wouldn't care. Not unless there was an actual rebellion or something."

"If that happened, heads would roll left and right. In a way, the failed escape attempt might have been a blessing in disguise."

"It's hard to say what happiness really means."

"It is. But being alive comes first."

Azu nodded.

Nothing left to sell, and we had some time. Might as well take Orleans along while working as adventurers for a bit.

We left the estate.

There seemed to be a replacement guard on watch, but he was already fast asleep, so no one would know we'd been there.