Chapter 157 -- Darryl and Eris

The children stopped crying to watch, fascinated as I petted Fer"s head. Put up with it, Fer, I told him telepathically as I smiled at them hoping they would calm down. Finally I tried asking them their names.

"Sniffle..." the boy wiped his nose with his sleeve. "I"m Darryl and this is my sister Eris." He had brown hair like his sister and intelligent-looking eyes, reddened from crying. His sister Eris clung to her brother"s arm, silent and watchful.

“How old are you?” I went on.

"I"m 10 years old and Eris is 8 years old." Darryl replied. So I had guessed about right. But what were kids that young doing out here, all alone?

"Did you come here with a grown-up?" I asked. Darryl shook his head. "You two are out here by yourself?" He nodded, looking down at his sister. "Okay, so where are you from?" Was there a village in the forest near here...

"Doran." Darryl answered.

"Eh? Did you come from Doran?" He wasn"t from somewhere nearby? That was a surprise. Travelling on foot from Doran to this clearing on foot would take 3 hours for an adult. Kids like these two would take a lot longer, I guessed. There was something going on I didn"t understand.

“Why did you come so far into this forest from Doran? You had to have a reason to. Do you want to tell me why?" I asked.

Darryl turned and pointed to the dead Orcs at the side of the clearing. "If you give me one of those Orcs I"ll tell you."

Uh what? but Darryl"s face held a determined expression and his pointing finger never wavered. I sighed and finally nodded. "All right, you can have one of the Orcs. Now will you tell me what you"re doing out here?"

Darryl explained that he and Eris lived in the city of Doran with their mother. Their father was an Adventurer who didn"t return from Doran"s dungeon about the time Darryl was six years old. My heart sank a little on hearing him say this in such a matter-of-fact way. Their mother was a skillful seamstress and the three of them survived on her earnings. However, their mother collapsed about two weeks ago. They talked to the temple priest who used his recovery magic on her and she got a little bit better but after a while she got sicker again.

The temple priest had explained that he could only cure mild illnesses outright. If it was a more serious illness then the recovery magic of a high-ranking priest was needed. Those priests all lived in the capital and it cost a lot of money to bring such a priest to Doran and to make the offerings required for them to use their magical powers to cure someone. The two of them couldn"t earn enough money working in the town to pay for their mother"s treatment so they came out into the forest to collect medicinal herbs instead.

I had to turn my own face away to wipe my own nose as I listened to Darryl"s tale. These kids, they"re so sweet... I"m a sucker for sad stories like this.

"How did you two feed yourself, with your mother being ill?" I asked.

"We did odd jobs in the city and the money we got kept us all fed, just about." Darryl answered. Well, the sorts of jobs a ten-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl could do wouldn"t pay much and their mother couldn"t work at all so they must have been on the edge of starvation. My respect for the children went up another notch.

“Are you hungry?" I asked. "We"re just going to have dinner so you"re welcome to eat with with us."

"Dinner, it"s about time." Fer interjected. "I came back because I was hungry."

“I"m hungry too.” Dora-chan added.

"Sui"s hungry as well-"

Oh, right. You guys are always hungry, of course. Give me a minute and I"ll make something quick. What would be good for Darryl and Eris though? Our usual j.a.panese-style meal with rice wasn"t going to work for them, bread would be a better bet for people from this world. In that case, hmmm... teriyaki in a burger bun would do fine. I"d have to use what I had with me since I didn"t want to use Net Super in front of the kids. I started by taking my Black Magic Cooking Stove out of my Item Box. The kids eyes widened as I pulled the stove seemingly out of nowhere.

"Item Box..." Darryl muttered. "I"ve got Item Box myself, but not that big..." Oh, Darryl has the Item Box skill? That should be useful for him to earn money once he grows up a bit more. “Eris doesn"t. She can only carry what she"s got in her hands." he went on. He shrugged. "That"s okay though." Eris pouted and punched her brother in the side. Watching the two kids interact was really cute, it was obvious they really cared for each other.

Oh, I"ll tell you in advance that I don"t have an interest in children, not THAT way. Honestly. But they were still cute.

Anyway, time to get cooking. I started with some dungeon-drop c.o.c.katrice meat, grilling it on both sides in a frying pan until it was crisp, mopping up the excess fat with a paper towel. I added shop-bought teriyaki sauce I had in my Item Box and flipped the meat over and over, letting the sauce soak in at a lower heat. While that was finis.h.i.+ng cooking I sliced up black bread buns and filled them with chopped cabbage topped with mayonnaise. I added c.o.c.katrice teriyaki meat and Hey Presto! teriyaki burgers.

I filled wooden cups with orange juice and handed them along with the burgers to Darryl and Eris.

"There you go." I said. The children looked at the unfamiliar burgers with some suspicion but when I said "If you don"t eat them my hungry contracted monsters will." they took tentative bites before gobbling them down.

"Delicious!" was Darryl"s verdict.

"It"s really delicious, brother!" Eris said, finally breaking her silence. "This drink is also sweet and delicious."

Yeah yeah, eat up kids. I still had to cook for the Gluttonous Trio, and myself of course, I had to remember to cook enough for my own dinner too. The "three pieces of kaarage" incident still lingered in my memory. Never again, I swore. I made lots of teriyaki burgers, cooking on all four burners of the stove, to feed Fer, Dora-chan and Sui-chan as quickly as I could.

Darryl and Eris were surprised to see my contracted monsters eat so much, dish after dish, as quickly as I made it and put it down in front of them.

"Wow, everyone eats a lot." Darryl said, wide-eyed.

“Oh, we all eat a lot." I told him. "Are you still hungry, Darryl, Eris? I can make more for you if you want."

They both politely replied they were already full. Well, they were only kids and the black bread teriyaki burgers they had eaten were quite substantial so that was expected.

“How about another drink then?” Eris finished her orange juice and then shyly held out her cup to me. I filled it up again and then refilled Darryl"s cup in turn. I left them drinking up happily as I turned back to the stove as Fer and Sui-chan demanded ""Seconds!"" again. Finally, everyone had eaten their fill (including me, of course).

Darryl and Eris handed their cups back before sitting up straight and facing me.

"Uncle, thank you."

"Thank you, uncle."

Ah, what"s with that "uncle", did they really mean me...? It was nice to be thanked so properly by the children, but "uncle"? I was going to protest but they were kids, after all. In this world people who are 20 years old often already have one or two children. I"m only 27 years old but to them I"m an old man. Kuh, that"s a real downer.

"Buahaha... so you really are an old guy, huh?" Fer said telepathically. Hey Fer, don"t make fun of me. Remember you"re over a thousand years old yourself, Grandpa. Great grandpa. G-g-g-g-g-great grandpa.

“Well, at least they didn"t call you "older brother".” Dora-chan added. Are you inferring that I"m old too? It looks like I"ll have to talk to you later, Dora-chan.

“Uncle, are you an Adventurer?” Darryl asked.

“Oh, yes, more or less.” Getting called "uncle" still hurt but I could stand it, I told myself firmly, despite Fer"s silent sn.i.g.g.e.ring.

"About the Orcs, how much money would I get for one Orc? Is it enough to get a priest from the capital?"

Ah, that"s why you wanted one of the Orcs, to pay for a high-ranking priest to come from the capital and make your mother well again? I"m sorry, but whatever you think a single Orc isn"t going to be nearly enough.

"One Orc... it"s not going to be enough..."

"Then how much will it cost?" Darryl interrupted. "If I got all five Orcs, is that enough? I"ll do anything if you"ll give them to me." Darryl bowed his head to me, followed by Eris. That hurt me, seeing them so serious and desperate. Kids, I"d give you all five Orcs if it would help but I didn"t think that even that many Orcs would earn you enough money to pay for a high-ranking priest to come all the way from the capital to treat your mother.

I really wanted to help them out but it would be hypocritical of me to help only them simply because we ran into each other here. Maybe it was Fate that I had encountered Darryl and Eris but, well, the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses I had dealt with didn"t seem the type to arrange such things. What could I do for them?

I could give them one of Sui"s Deluxe High-grade Potions but would it work? It was effective on injuries, like other potions were but I"d never tried it on illnesses. How seriously ill was the children"s mother? It sounded bad if the local temple"s priest couldn"t cure her completely. She"d need something like Elixir, probably...

Of course, I realised, I now had THAT.

“Darryl, Eris, I haven’t introduced my contracted monsters yet." I said. I was going to be busy for a while and the kids would need looking after as well as being distracted. I couldn"t let them see what I was going to attempt to do.

"This big fluffy white thing is called Fer." I ignored Fer"s outraged telepathic complaints. "And this is a Pixie Dragon, his name is Dora-chan and this Slime is Sui. I hope you can get along."

"Will they get mad if we touch them?" Darryl asked nervously, looking at Dora-chan and Fer.

“I won"t get angry.” Dora-chan said, telepathically of course.

"Brats like that touching me, of course I"ll not get mad." Fer said contemptuously, his head high.

"Fer can talk, as you see." I explained to Darryl and Eris. "If you want to ask something just say it to him." I turned to the Pixie Dragon which flew down and landed in front of the fascinated children. "You okay with that, Dora-chan?"

Darryl suddenly reached down and touched Dora-chan"s head once then pulled his hand back abruptly. Dora-chan did nothing except blink and raise his head so Darryl reached down to stroke the Pixie Dragon again and again, across the top of his head, down his neck and between his wings.

Eris on the other hand approached Fer and pushed her hands into his thick (and thankfully just-washed) coat. When Fer didn"t do anything she giggled and started running her fingers through his soft hair.

“Fer’s hair is fluffy and smells good.” she said. Fer gave me a Look but stood still, patiently allowing the little girl to play with him. Okay, things seemed to be working out fine here. I sent Fer and Dora-chan a telepathic message.

“Fer, Dora-chan. I have something to do with Sui. Take care of Darryl and Eris for now, keep them safe. I don"t think it will take much time, I"ll be back soon."

I turned to Sui-chan who was looking up at me. "Sui, I"ve got something I"d like you to do. Come with me will you?"

"Of course, Aruji-"

I left the kids in Fer and Dora-chan"s care while Sui and I headed off into the forest.