Forgiveness

"Looks like Boss Nolan finally accepted his feelings," Nolan heard a voice.

"They also took their relationship a step further."

Nolan slowly opened his eyes.

Through a blurry vision, Nolan could see Alfred, Harley, and Kelton before him. They had a grin from ear to ear on their faces.

Nolan felt a weight on his lower body, so he looked down.

Seeing Stephany lying in his lap, his eyes widened. He blushed as he understood why Alfred Harley and Kelton had grins on their faces.

"Stephany," Nolan gently shook Stephany. "Wake up."

Stephany slowly opened her beautiful, deep blue eyes.

Opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was Nolan's face. She found herself lying in his lap.

She blushed a little.

Coming to herself, she raised her head to further look around herself.

Seeing Alfred Harley and Kelton staring at her and Nolan with a wide grins, Stephany's cheek reddened.

Feeling their gazes, she felt her ears and face set on fire, so she immediately jumped on her feet and left the house in embarrassment.

After Stephany left the house, Nolan stood up.

"Boss, you didn't tell me you have a special person you hold dear," Harley said. "You need to make things clear. Don't give Layla false hope..."

"Shut up!" Nolan shouted, his cheeks red. "T-There is nothing between me and Stephany."

"Is that so?" Kelton asked. "Then why are you blushing so much?"

"Boss, don't lie to yourself," Alfred advised.

"Shut up!" Nolan shouted once again and stormed out of the house.

"Aighhh!" Alfred shook his head.

"It's good to be young," Alfred commented.

...

Nolan headed to the river to wash his face.

Halfway to the river, in the distance, before the river, Nolan saw Stephany washing her face.

He blushed and stopped for a moment, but still, he could not turn back. If he turned back, Alfred Harley and Kelton would tease him even more. So, he continued walking toward the river.

Arriving at the river, he stopped beside Stephany.

He bent down and cupped his hands, filling them with water.

Splash!

He splashed the water on his face.

Out of the corner of her eye, Stephany secretly glanced at Nolan.

Just feeling him beside herself, the memory of her lying in his lap returned to her, making her blush.

She couldn't bear to stand beside him anymore, so she turned and took a few steps, slowly walking away.

"Are you alright?" Nolan asked, still facing the river. "Does it hurt?"

Stephany stopped and turned back toward Nolan. "I-I am fine,"

"You don't need to cook today." Nolan turned to her. "I will cook."

"NO!" Stephany shouted, determinedly looking straight into Nolan's eyes. "This is the only thing I can do to help you all. If I don't even cook, I will feel useless."

Seeing her determined look, Nolan gave in. "Alright, just don't push yourself too much."

Stephany nodded and embarrassedly walked away.

Nolan splashed his face with water several more times and then returned to the extinguished bonfire from the last night.

There, a little campfire was burning.

On the campfire was placed a large metal pot full of water.

"Cough!" Nolan cleared his throat. "Brothers!" He shouted.

All the beggars immediately turned towards him.

"Some of you might have noticed, there was no food in the carts!" Nolan said. "Don't worry. I did buy food.

Today, once again, I will show you why following me was the best decision you have ever made.

I will make the food appear before me out of nowhere!"

"Inventory!" Nolan shouted.

Just as he shouted, the bales of hay appeared out of nowhere, making the jaws of everyone present drop.

Nolan moved just a few meters away from the bales and shouted again. "Inventory!"

The bags of grain started appearing out of nowhere. They looked like they were falling out of Nolan's hand.

The bags of grain quickly stacked one on top of the other. In just a minute, a mountain of forty bags of grain and ten rice bags piled.

The eyes of the beggars almost came out of their sockets.

"Don't be afraid!" Nolan shouted, noticing the terrified look of a few beggars. "I did not show you this to scare you. I showed you this to let you know that even alone, I can still transport a great number of resources to this village."

"Now!" Nolan clapped his hands before continuing. "I see that you have finished the bridge. With it, it will be easier to transport the trees to the village.

However, that is only the beginning. For now, our top priority is to build a storage for the food.

According to my calculations, with our manpower, it should not take longer than a day to build the storage."

"Boss, with our manpower, we could indeed finish the storage in a day. But that is only if we focus all our manpower on building the storage. Which means we need to postpone clearing the way around the mountain." Kelton said.

Nolan nodded. He trusted Kelton's judgment. He knew Kelton would not say that casually. He must have used his rich experience as a mason to carefully analyze Nolan's plan to build a storage in a day.

"This time, I came to this side of the mountain through the way the shovel group was clearing. And I can only say, Great job." Nolan continued speaking. "But even though the shovel group is almost done clearing the way, let's postpone it for now."

"But Boss, only a little is left. Is it necessary to postpone clearing the way?" A beggar asked.

"I understand you. You want to finish the way first, but that is not our priority. Though the weather these days is rather good, we must not forget that we are in the middle of autumn. If rain suddenly started pouring, all our food would go to waste." Nolan explained.

"Now, let me tell you my plan," Nolan paused for a while before continuing. " I have brought a lot of new axes and pickaxes. We will divide our manpower equally into two groups. One group will gather resources, and the other will focus on building the storage. Kelton will be in charge of the group building the storage, while Alfred will be in charge of the group gathering resources.

I also want to inform you that, me and Harley, the friend I came with, have unfinished business in the city, so we will leave after breakfast. "

"Boss, don't worry. By the time you return, we will have finished building the storage. " A beggar shouted.

"Yes!"

"That's right!"

The other beggars agreed.

"What happened to you!" A voice came from the distance, instantly capturing everyone's attention.

All the beggars turned toward the voice.

What they saw was a man standing before the ten women. His face was twitching in anger.

"Who did this to you?" He questioned the woman again.

Seeing the women, the other beggars gasped in shock. On both of their cheeks, they had bluish hand prints.

"I did it!" Nolan said.

The beggars again turned towards Nolan. Shocked.

They received shock after shock.

"Why did you do it?" The angry man stormed towards Nolan.

Poff!

Before the man could even touch Nolan, Harley reacted, slamming the man onto the ground, immobilizing him.

"Why? Because they harmed her!" Nolan yelled, pointing at Stephany. "They harmed her because they wanted to feel superior and important. But since I caught them, I taught them a lesson. Since they don't want to live with us in peace, after they eat, they can get out of this place."

"She! She! She! Everything is about her!" The beggar screamed, struggling on the ground, trying to break free from Harley. "Since you came here yesterday and saw the bruises on Stephany's face, your mood changed. You searched for a reason to punish someone and vent your anger. If it was someone else than her, you would not have cared so much. If Stephany tells you not to chase them, you will not. Is she alone more important than ten other, fully capable women?"

"Capable women?" Nolan pushed Harley away from the man. "Then let me ask you," Nolan grabbed the man by the clothes, lifting him a little off the ground. "Who cooked for you in the past few days? Did the other women ever help Stephany? NO!!

They are useless. And on top of that, they don't want to help us, but they want to rule and command everyone here.

But what about Stephany? Did she ever hurt anyone? If you can find someone kinder than her, I will become your slave!" Nolan shouted, throwing the man back.

Nolan didn't want to hear a reply or anything else. He just spoke the truth and did not plan to start a fight.

Without paying mind to the behavior of everyone else around, Nolan walked to the pile of bags and took one bag of rice. He walked to the campfire with a pot on top and cut the bag open, pouring the rice into the pot till he filled it. Only a third of the bag was enough to fill the pot.

While Nolan did all this, all the beggars kept silent. The man that got into the fight with Nolan wanted to continue fighting, but two other beggars covered his mouth, stopping him.

After carefully placing the bag of rice on the ground, Nolan sat on the ground near the campfire in silence, waiting for the rice porridge to cook.

The beggars around felt uncomfortable standing in silence, and they also didn't know any topic to start a conversation with Nolan to lighten the mood, so they took the axes and after crossing the river, they started cutting the trees on the other side of the river.

However, not everyone left. Stephany sat next to Nolan. The ten women, Harley, Kelton, and Alfred, also remained.

"Stephany," Nolan turned to Stephany, breaking the silence. "Do you want me to let them leave?" Nolan pointed at the ten women.

Stephany lowered her head. "If you would not let them leave because you plan to do something more horrible to them than what you already did, then please let them go now.

But if you could, please help them and don't chase them away. They have been beggars for a long time. I don't think they would be able to live a good life if you chase them away from here."

"I agree with Stephany," Alfred said. "Even if they have had any skills before becoming a beggar, by now, their skills must have deteriorated. They won't be able to find any honest work if they return to the city. They could only return to being a beggar."

Nolan smiled. He couldn't believe that Stephany didn't hate the women even after everything they did to her. And not only did she not hate them, she wanted to help them. "I see," Nolan looked towards the ten women. Of course, looking at them, his smile vanished, and his face turned cold, dead serious. "What do you think?"

The women looked at each other and nodded.

They walked over and stood before Stephany.

Poff!

They all fell on their knees simultaneously.

"WE are sorry!"

They all kowtowed to Stephany, their foreheads touching the ground.

"Last night, we thought it through." The oldest woman, at most in her early fifties, spoke. "Please, let us stay! We will change and will help around, just don't chase us away!"

"Umm...Ahh!" Stephany looked around nervously. She didn't know what to say.

"Please!" All the women again simultaneously hit their foreheads off the ground.

"A-Alright. We won't chase you away. S-So please raise." Stephany said.

"Ohh?" With a slight smile, Nolan looked Stephany straight in the eyes, making her blush slightly. "Since when did you become the boss here?"

"I...I..." Stephany didn't know what to say. After all, Nolan was right. Only he could decide who could n stay and who could leave.

"Don't worry," Nolan's smiles widened. "They mistreated and hurt you. Since you want to forgive them, what can I do? Can I stop you?"

"You," Nolan turned to the ten women still kneeling. "Raise."

The women didn't dare disobey Nolan, so they immediately raised.

"Harley, don't we lack workers in the restaurant?" Nolan asked.

Harley smiled. "We don't need that many people to help, but it will not be bad to have a few more hands around."

"Good. You will all work at my restaurant in the city. Of course, I will pay you like the other workers." Nolan said to the women. "This is the best deal I can give you. What do you say."

"Thank you! Thank you for forgiving us, Boss Nolan." The women bowed to Nolan. "Thank you for your forgiveness, Sister Stephany." The women bowed to Stephany too.

Stephany smiled and stood up. She headed to check on the porridge.

With a wooden spoon, she stirred the porridge. "Boss, the food is ready." She said.

Stephany ran to one house and took out dozens of bowls.

Since Nolan and Harley were in a hurry, Stephany filled their bowls first and then filled the bowls of the ten women.

Nolan and Harley let the food cool and went to take care of the horses.

They fed the horses with hay.

Early in the morning, the beggars had unloaded the carts, so Harley and Nolan didn't lose time and attached a cart to a horse.

When they made sure they prepared the horse, Nolan and Harley got back to the campfire and ate their bowl of porridge.

Then, all the women got on the cart, barely fitting.

Nolan and Harley got on the horse, and they set on their way back to Womvale City.