"Are you alright there?"
"Fuuu. It's been a while since I was able to drink like this."
I placed a hand on Philia's back and rubbed it lightly. The older dwarf's face was bright red, though despite that she had only slowed down a bit. She wasn't slurring her words nor losing her balance at all.
Quite impressive considering the bottles of various liqueurs she had emptied this night.
(Was it her constitution? There's no way I could've drank that much in my last life.)
"I'm surprised. I never saw you drink before."
"We couldn't afford it. Not the money, nor the ti. But here, it feels like I don't have to worry so much about the children. That there are others who can cover for what I miss when I'm drinking."
Philia raised her face and glanced at wearing a warm smile. It felt a bit like she was transferring the warmth in her cheeks directly towards .
"This ti, you'll be paid properly for taking care of the kids. And other people's kids as well once you're ready for that."
"That...sounds nice. But at the sa ti, I don't even know what I'd do with the money. Maybe we can spend it on so nicer bedding?"
"You can spend it on yourself. I'll deal with the bedding and any other supplies you need."
"Spend it on myself, is it? It really has been a long ti..."
Philia looked down into her mostly empty cup, as nostalgia overflowed from her words.
"What would I even spend it on?"
"You'll be able to drink when you want to. You seem to like it."
"You're trying to make a drunkard, aren't you?"
The orphanage director poked in the side with her elbow as she gave an offset grin.
"Is it working?"
"Hmm...maybe?"
Finishing off her drink, Philia looked out at our surroundings.
The feast had mostly died down. The eating had mostly stopped, and most of the adults were only sipping at drinks, or caring for the children who had fallen asleep.
Despite everything, it was easy to lose track of ti as I didn't feel tired, nor my babies would fall asleep either.
"Maybe it's ti to wrap things up. Or else we'll all end up sleeping on the cold earth."
"I guess so."
With that confirmation, we started to go around and gathered everyone up. The older children were woken up but the younger ones were carried in the arms of their seniors as we headed off to the temporary sleeping quarters.
We'd already been inford during the latter stages of the feast that a basic shelter had been built. It was located beside my own place, since there was plenty of open space all around it. Furs had also been placed there and at my own house for everyone to sleep on for the night.
Frigg and Alvaldi moved quite fast despite the fact that they were enjoying the feast with everyone the entire ti. Beyond the initial orders they gave, I hadn't even noticed what was going on behind the scenes.
Maybe that was how to properly do delegation?
Regardless, we all gathered around the entrance to the dungeon as the place everyone will sleep tonight was on the western settlent.
"This is the entrance to the country's dungeon, as well as the main path between the two sides of the Commonwealth for the ti being. Don't worry though, as we won't be passing through any of the actual floors to reach the other side."
I explained what we were doing together with a simple application of [wind magic] to help broadcast my words to the entire group.
As most of the people were probably nervous about passing through a dungeon, even if it was only its entrance, Epione and Philia had volunteered to be the first to go through, then Epione would return with to help take the rest over while Philia watched over those who were waiting on the other side.
"Umm, Miss Scarlet, can I co with you?"
"Oh? You're not scared?"
I looked over at Flix who was looking towards us with eager eyes.
"I, umm, I'm not scared, at all!"
"It's okay to say you're scared you know. Bravery isn't the absence of fear, but the acknowledgent of it."
No matter how obvious such a thing felt to , it was still sothing that people even on Earth often forgot. Not to ntion kids.
Flix fidgeted and squird for a bit before looking back up at .
"I'm...a little scared. But I still want to go!"
"Oh, you really are a brave one, aren't you? Okay then."
Giving her the brightest smile I could, I nodded towards the brave little foxkin who's tight expression blossod with a tint of red as she rushed over to us.
Epione, Philia, Flix, Alicia, Fate, and I all passed into the dungeon entrance together. While Alicia and Fate took things in stride, being that they were quite used to seeing this scenery, everyone else rotated their heads on a swivel as they took in the sights as we exited the rocky passage and entered the fountain room.
"I've heard of it, but it's so strange to see sothing which looked like was built, when it connects to sothing so dangerous and wild like a dungeon."
"I don't know. While dungeons are dangerous, I don't think wild describes them very well."
"That's hard to imagine for soone like ."
I supposed that I couldn't fault Philia. She was a person who had nothing to do with dungeons in the first place.
"Is it your first ti in a dungeon as well Epione?"
"Yes. I've never had the chance before."
The three of them stepped forward, examining the room. There was so trash and tracked mud though. I needed to talk to Peitho about it at so point.
"I've always thought that dungeons were nothing but scary and dangerous places, but sohow this place feels more like a place or worship."
"I've...never thought of it that way."
Philia stepped up to the fountain and placed her hands on the lip.
"There are a few things missing, but it feels a little like a church."
When I thought about it, if you added so benches and maybe a podium, it did kinda feel like that was possible. That said, it was missing the all important object of worship. All there was in the end was a fountain with an empty platform within this perfect half-sphere. No real religious symbols anywhere.
"I think it's because this is a place of rest. There's a fountain room on every floor of the dungeon, and they're so of the few places that's safe to rest at. They also act as checkpoints since you can transition between them, so for people diving into dungeons, they're quite important."
Especially for this dungeon, if you had to go through every floor consecutively, it would take months, if not years to traverse. Even with the fountains and the advantages that being a vampire brought , I still hadn't finished this dungeon yet.
"Anyways, we shouldn't keep everyone waiting. Co over to the fountain and grab hold of ."
I stepped up and touched the fountain with the others grabbed onto my robes.
With a single thought, the ambient lights flickered, but other than a few details, nothing had visibly changed.
"Alright, and we're done. This way is the exit."
"Huh?"
"Already?"
"But nothing happened, I think?"
"Nothing, but also everything happened, I suppose?"
I gave the three of them a knowing grin before turning towards the exit.
"Incredible. Even though it didn't seem like anything had happened, we ca out to an entirely different settlent."
"The power of a dungeon. It's the first ti I've ever seen it."
"Wow..."
A short distance away from the dungeon entrance, the view of a different settlent than before spread out.
"And here I was wondering where you went. You brought a dwarf with you this ti?"
Passing nearby was a familiar figure who turned towards us when she heard us.
"And a bigoted elf? If she's still like this, I suppose that she's not one of your friends, Scarlet?"
"Bigo...what do you think you're saying, dwarf?!"
"You're really not helping your case there girl."
I stood there surprised at the open hostility Philia was expressing.
(Well, maybe it's a bit strong of a word, but she was being more defiant than I had expected.)
"The dark ones were quite the surprise, but a pleasant one. The regular elf on the other hand is as typical as they usually are."
"Ah, that reminds . They're called dokkalfar. Don't ever call them dark elves if you want to stay on their good side, alright?"
"They're called Dokkalfar?"
Epione quickly caught on to what I was conveying.
"Dokk...uh..."
"Dokkalfar. The grey skinned pointy eared ones."
"Dokkalfar. Okay!"
"Good girl."
I shifted my babies in my arms to give Flix a head pat as she smiled brightly when she answered .
""...Mommy~""
"What is it you two?"
I turned to my cute little daughters as they called out to while grabbing my robes. But all they did was stare into my eyes with a hint of unease, so I squeezed the two and rubbed my cheeks against their own.
""Ehehehe!""
There was the distinct feeling that I was ingraining bad habits into them, but they were still young. There was plenty of ti to fix that if it ended up being true.
Though the older girl beside puffed her cheeks out, there wasn't exactly much I could do. I had to follow my priorities.
*Sigh...*
"So, let guess, you've brought even more work again?"
Clearly fed up with my playing around, Peitho cut into what was most relevant to her.
"I guess so."
"Great."
The way the elf held herself and muttered that word made feel bad. I've always been giving her so much work, and while I tried to ease her burden where I could, it was still more than what one person should shoulder.
Hopefully there was sothing that I could do to ease her burden a bit more. Or rather, sothing soone else could do.
"I'll ask around, but maybe so of the people I brought could work for you? I heard that so of them were traders or worked for traders, so maybe you can put them to work without much need for training?"
*Cough!*
"Is that so? Well, let's hope that there's soone that's at least half as good as you claim."
Peitho perked up a little but kept her head turned away while covering her mouth with a fist.
"But before that..."
"Yes yes. I know. I'll serve food for your break when you do the interviews."
Peitho's eyes glazed over as her gaze rose up to the air and saliva started to flow a glistening path down to her chin.
It seed like I would have to work extra hard to avoid not eting her expectation.
"Philia, would you be alright staying on this side to collect everyone being brought over?"
"Thanks. It would be better on my knees."
"...You're not not old."
She might have been quite a bit older than , even including my previous life, but she didn't even look that old. Maybe a bit past middle age at best.
"Hahaha, you'd be surprised how quickly your knees can go if you're always carrying the little ones on your back."
I hadn't really noticed during our travels, but maybe she really was starting to feel it in her knees. At the very least, the long walk wouldn't have done any favours for her.
"Here, I can make a simple chair for you to sit on."
"Quit it."
Philia gave a stiff look before letting her expression lt into a soft smile.
"I was joking. I'm a bit tired, but that doesn't make a cripple."
"Oh, alright. But if you want to sit down to rest or sothing, just tell ."
"I'll have plenty to rest now that we've gotten this far...but thank you."
I gave the aging dwarf a once over before turning away, satisfied she wasn't lying to make feel better or sothing.
"Alright. Let's go and get everybody Epione. Flix?"
"Yes, Miss Scarlet?"
"Stay with Philia."
"Huh? But I want to go with you!"
"I want soone to stay with Philia, soone she's familiar with."
"I can hear you, you know. Don't treat like a cripple!"
Deliberately avoiding her gaze, I continued to firmly look the little foxkin girl in the eye.
"Despite everything, I don't want Philia to feel lonely, do you?"
"...Okay, Miss Scarlet."
I knew that the little girl just wanted to be with , but she wasn't a baby. She needed to learn to accept that we couldn't always be together.
"Don't worry. I'll be back soon."
Giving Flix a quick head rub, I turned and headed back to the dungeon entrance.
Epione and I went back and forth bringing people in over to the western entrance in groups.
Once a good third of the mbers had arrived, I started on the next phase while letting the others bring everyone over through the dungeon.
"Alright. The others said that the shelter was already finished, and was made beside my house."
"Your house...is it that mansion?"
"...It is..."
I looked away from the various looks of awe and amazent.
"It wasn't my idea. I just wanted a normal house, but the others made it behind my back."
The gazes at my back felt hot, but there really wasn't much I could do about it.
"Umm, anyways! The place beside it will be the temporary residence until everyone finds their own place."
I pointed to the other building. It was a simple structure made of stone. Flat walls that arced in to form a simple roof. There was only a single opening for an entrance that was covered with a heavy sheet. There was so light peeking through the edges, so it seed like despite the lack of windows, there were so lights set up at least.
It was simple and rudintary, but it would do until sothing more permanent was set up.
Or rather, I was a bit impressed that Frigg managed to get sothing this decent set up in such a short period of ti.
I really needed to thank her for that.
"Miss Scarlet?"
"Yes? What is it?"
Flix tugged at my robes while glancing up at .
"Can so of us stay at your house instead?"
"Hmm...There's tons of unused rooms, so I guess that's not a problem. Oh right, Philia?"
"What have you co up with this ti?"
"Don't say that like I only co up with bad things."
"I didn't ant it like that. I'm grateful for all the things you've co up with."
It seed like my little joke wasn't taken very favourably. Philia frowned as she responded, and the kids all gave their own words of denial as well.
"Umm, right. My bad."
"So what is it you wanted to suggest?"
"Ah, right. So, I was thinking maybe you could use the unused rooms for taking care of the kids? There's plenty of unused space, so you won't have to find a new place later on."
"Are you sure? Isn't it your ho?"
"I only use one room, really. It's way too big for only us."
Really, it was such a waste. I was used to using only a small space to live in as my old ho was quite small in my previous life. Even after that, I had made do with living in the fountain rooms of the dungeon, but even that was quite an upgrade for .
A single room in this mansion was even larger than that, so I felt uneasy if I didn't partition a single room into several functions.
It was just far too much for .
"Well, if you really are fine with it, then I'll take you up on your offer."
"Thanks. I guess it really was worth it to have Claret keep the entire thing clean. Thanks."
I looked over to where my familiar was floating. A bright smile burst onto her face when receiving the acknowledgent.
"You too! Really, thanks for everything you've been helping us with!"
Just as I turned back, I saw a few familiar faces approaching.
"We are only doing what we are already inclined towards. 'Tis only common sense to help our own."
"That's right. You've done the sa for us already. You can't even call this paying back what we owe you."
"You guys..."
Their words tugged at my cheeks hard enough that I was forced to turn away for a few monts.
"And so, we have heard what you have spoken. Allow us to help organize those who will rest in the temporary shelter."
"Yea. You just concentrate on the kiddies that'll be living in your place."
"Alright. Thanks, really."
I nodded towards Frigg and Alvaldi, as well as the helpers they had brought.
"So, Philia..."
"Lead the way, Scarlet."
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