1 The Orphanage

A soothing voice resonates around the room in a certain building located on the outskirts of Romhr Port Town. That building is an orphanage ran by volunteers, although being an orphanage, this establishment rarely ever gets funds from the city lord.

Flames crackled around inside a brick chimney, the warmth permeating into the bodies of the people surrounding it. In front of the chimney sat a woman holding a book titled "The Memoirs of Lady Daumoor", she was narrating it to the children of the orphanage.

The woman seemed divine, the light emanating from the flames behind her figure accentuated her beauty in the dark room.

"She was in awe of the charms that adventurers had, never had she ever thought that in her life; she wanted something more," said the woman, as she flips the page.

"Lady Daumoor is a high-born woman, the thought of ever wanting to go have adventures in the wild shook her very core, what would my family think? What will my future even hold? She asked herself," she narrated.

"What? but Lady Lorea, why would you want to become an explorer when your life is already perfect? this story doesn't make any sense!" hissed a child from the audience.

"I would've kept living on as a princess, that way I could eat cake everyday!, Lady Daumoor is so stupid!" yelled another kid from the audience.

"Children.. that's not how you are supposed to talk about your elders, I bet you didn't know that our orphanage was actually built in her name!" explained Lorea.

The children were confused, they asked "But isn't the orphanage's name Erma's Orphanage? Isn't it the director's last name?"

"The director doesnt have a last name, Lady Daumoor's full name is actually Daumoor Erma Val Helen, quite a long name isn't it? I heard that the director once got saved by the traveling Lady Daumoor when he was a sickly child, ever since then, never had he ever forgotten her good grace," Lorea confirmed.

"Oh well, I still would have preferred living as a princess!" exclaimed the same child.

Lorea could only chuckle to that response, after having to hunt for jobs from town to town, the orphanage was the only place that took her in, although she gets close to zero pay, the housing that came with working in the orphanage was enough for someone like her; a girl whose home was ravaged by a witch attack, nobody wanted to employ a survivor of a witch's attack, afraid that the witch's bad luck would in turn befall on them.

"Children, it is time to sleep," said the orphanage's director who came in the room to remind the children with a smile. He is an old lanky man wearing a long-sleeved ivory colored tunic shirt tucked in his brown trousers and secured with a leather belt.

"Noo, but we all want to hear more about what happened next!" a child said as she held onto Lorea's legs before she could get up, pleading while pouting.

"It's a shame, it seems like we'll have to continue the story tomorrow then," Lorea said as she smiled wryly, trying to get the child off of her.

"I will kill off the chimney, you go ahead and put the children to sleep," said the Director.

Lorea nodded and led the children to their rooms, a single room consists of 2 bunk beds, 4 drawer cabinets, and a single pair of table and chair in between both of the bunk-beds for the children to share, in total, a single room could host 4 children.

Contrary to the other children's room, Uriel and Clementine's room could only fit 2 people in it, the room was once a storage unit that was transformed to become a living place. However, both girls didn't have any complaints about it, they actually preferred it being so, as it made them become closer friends.

"Uriel.. lets go be explorers!" yelled Clementine excitedly, as she laid on her bed staring at the wooden ceiling.

"Haha, you're so funny sometimes, we wouldn't even survive one day out there, aren't you scared of the demon beasts and witches? I mean, i sure am.." replied Uriel.

"I'll be there to protect you! I'm gonna be a knight and.. and.. have fun, I want to get out of this orphanage," confessed Clementine, she was truly an adventurous soul, she didn't like being tied around inside the orphanage and wanted to travel the continent, just like Lady Daumoor.

"Can girls even become knights? if you do become one though, I'll definitely take you up on that offer!" Uriel joked as she smiled and chuckled before drifting off to sleep.

However, Clementine couldn't fall asleep at all, motionless, she stared at the blank wooden ceiling and kept on thinking about it, adventuring with Uriel, she closed her eyes and smiled before jerking up and climbing down the bed.

She laid her gaze upon the outside world behind the window and had a thought.

"Uriel, knock-knock, wake up.. hey.." whispered Clementine.

"Clem.. why are you awake?" asked Uriel as she laid in bed, unwilling to rise up.

"Let's go to the town! I heard that there's a carnival group or something thats performing, like.. around.. this time!" she requested.

Uriel immediately jerked up from her bed and held on to Clem's shoulders, she reasoned, "Are you crazy? what if they catch us? moreover, the town is a long way walk from here, additionally, there are no lights to guide us!"

"It's fine, i remember the road just like the back of my hand, to boot, I have this amazing... SWORD!!" she shouted as she pulled out a bent sword from her bottom drawer.

"Where did you get that from?? did you steal it??" Uriel screeched.

"The side of the road! there were so many of them I picked one that looked the best, sorry I forgot about you, I should've gotten you one too.." she giggled.

"You're unbelievable.." Uriel looked at Clementine and couldn't help but raise a smile.

Both girls decided to wait until it is midnight to sneak out through the window and go to the city, as they were sneaking out, they heard a voice. It sounded alot like the director's voice, he was talking to a man wearing a pair of glasses with thick lenses, the girls spied on them in the darkness.

The only thing that they heard were the words: experiment, money, and test. Maybe the man with the glasses was offering the director money in exchange for his participation in his experiment. Not wanting to get caught eavesdropping on their conversation, they sneakily left the premise and walked out of the orphanage.