Reborn to be Royal

Chapter 22: Solben "City"

[Kai] "This place looks like shit."

The words escape my mouth as I gaze up at the cracked stone wall separating the small city from the wilderness. With no guard on duty, I'm able to stroll inside, where I quickly notice that quite a few of the houses are rundown or burned to the ground.

[Kai] "<Detect>"

Standing in the middle of the street, I decide to try out a detection ability. Searching for heat signatures, heartbeats, anything, I'm only able to find three areas with any concentration of people nearby. The first; a tavern that looks like it's seen better days with around 7 people present inside. The second; an alleyway with two weak heartbeats sitting still. The third; an area beneath the surface. Though I don't know how to enter, I do know that it has the largest concentration of people, being in the high twenties or thirties."

My first stop has to be the two weak heartbeats in the alley. If they're members of the dark guild, I can interrogate them, while if they're people who live here, I can probably exchange some money or healing for information. Walking along the broken stone path and down the dark alley, I start to hear faint whimpering, as though they're trying to muffle the noise in an attempt to hide. This won't work for them however. I direct my gaze towards a pitch black shadow and point my open palm in the same direction.

[Kai] "<Light>"

A glowing orb of white light appears in my outstretched palm, supplying light to the previously pitch black shadow and revealing the shaking figures of two children. A girl with brown skin, messy, white hair, dark purple eyes, two small, budding horns protruding from her forehead and wearing a tattered dress. Her legs are shaking as she stands in a protective stance in front of a small, crying boy that looks similar to her behind her with blood leaking from his stomach and running down his face.

[Kai] "What happened to you two?"

Neither of the children answer, whether it's out of fear, resistance or exhaustion, I don't know, what I do know is that if this keeps up, the boy is going to die and the girl isn't going to last much longer than him.

[Kai] "<Sleep>"

Considering how injured and exhausted the children are, putting them to sleep like this is simple and doesn't take much effort. The boy falls asleep first, alarming the little girl before she too, collapses. I manage catch her before she hits the ground and lay her down softly next to what I assume is her little brother.

[Kai] "<Heal>"

Placing one hand over each of the children's chests, a faint green glow escapes from my hands and spreads across the children's bodies. Their would-be-fatal wounds begin to seal up quickly, leaving not even the smallest of scars.

[Kai] "<Clean>"

The dried blood on their clothes regains it's liquid state, running off of their bodies as the dirt and dust is blown away by an invisible wind. The red, running blood has moved on as the two children begin to regain the colour in their cheeks. The healing process must have finished. Picking up and moving the two children to another area hidden by shadow, I place them down next to each other as they continue to get the sleep they have no doubt been avoiding.

[Kai] "<Barrier>"

A blue glow appears around the two children before fading away, still there, only invisible to the naked eye. Set up to vanish completely once the two have woken up and leave its protection. That should prevent anyone from taking advantage of the two sleeping demons.

Satisfied with my work here, I leave a small amount of gold coins hidden behind the children who will hopefully notice it, and make my way towards the rundown tavern. The door creaks as I open it, bringing my presence to everyone's attention. Obviously they're not used to seeing a masked man walk in since they're all glaring at me like I've killed their family. Ignoring the glares, I walk up to the wooden counter at the back. Behind it, stands a middle aged, brown skinned woman with a large horn protruding from her forehead, chin-length white hair and purple eyes.