Chapter 01

“Mother Esia, mother Esia!” A kid of no more than ten years of age trotted to a woman sitting at a desk filled with papers. He held up high with a bright smile a crown of flowers. “Look at what I made!”

“Oh wow! This look rather well made.” Esia took the flower crown and gently placed it atop her head. “Did you make this yourself?”

“No. Alana taught me earlier.” Slightly embarrassed, he avoided Esia’s gaze.

“I see. Thank you.” Esia placed her head atop the boy’s head and gently rubbed it. But only a few moments later, he was lightly struck on the head with the same hand.

“Also, it’s not mother. It’s ‘sister’.” She scolded the child and breathed a sigh. “I’m still young and have to look over you guys and the orphanage.”

“Ouch!”

Esia is the orphanage keeper of the eastern district of the trade city Heom. She normally wears a loose long-sleeved dress with laces at the cuffs and fastened by a cincher at the waist. Long light brown coloured hair and ash-coloured ends reaching the waist. Bangs just slightly covering the eyebrows. Thin lips that radiate a warm smile, round eyes that are gentle yet strict, and a slim body that looks so frail yet elegant. She’s a beauty through and through.

People let out concerned sighs for her future when they heard she rejected multiple suitors, rich and poor, young and old. She said she would to watch over the kids, and grew overly attached to both them and the orphanage, just like her mother once was.

“But sister Frianne is waaaaay younger than you. She’s also married and we’re gonna have a younger sibling soon.”

Elia felt heard her heart shatter into millions of pieces after being stabbed multiple times. She can tolerate the geezers and other townsfolks’ never-ending chant about her marriage and letting them see a grandchild, even if it isn’t of their own blood and kin. But hearing that from a child, and one she cares for at that, just hits home hard.

“Y-you all call Frianne as ‘sister’ and I’m like a sister to her. So that makes me your sister as well.” She spoke with a trembling voice, asserting her stance as a sister and not a ‘mother’.

“But you’re still waaay older than sister Frianne and you scold us lots like a mother. Sister Frianne doesn’t scold us.”

“B-but Frianne will soon have a child, right? So, she’ll be a mother soon. She’s more of a mother than me.”

“Hmmm, that’s right.

“Right? Now scamper along and –“ Just as she was about to finish, another child, a girl slightly older than the boy, interrupted.

“But the mother is always the head of a family and usually older.” With innocent eyes, she speaks as she holds another flower crown. “And you’re the eldest, so you are our mother.”

The boy was happy to see the girl standing behind him. Both of them, Alana and Eliam, smiled so innocently, so illuminating, so blinding. But that just made something snap inside Esia.

Alana is a non-human child with fox like ears at the sides of her head, stretching back and folded slightly downwards and two fluffy tails.

“I will become a demon and haunt you in your sleep.” Esia threateningly declared to the two.

“Quickly, Eliam.” Alana grabbed the wrist of the boy and dashed for the orphanage garden entrance. “Let’s run before our single mother curses us in our sleep.”

“Hey! Come back! I’ll spank your asses!” Esia stood up from her chair, infuriated. “And it’s ‘sister’ you incorrigible brats!”

“Hahaha noooope. You’re still our mother.” The two children hurried outside, thinking of it as a safe zone where the monster would not dare approach.

From behind Esia, another woman appeared wearing an apron. Her name is Frianne, the woman spoken of earlier.

“Everyone, it’s time for lunch!” She shouted from the window to the garden.

The kids ran and cheered, racing towards the table, excited for meal time. After the children rushed in, the two from earlier, Alana and Eliam, tried sneaking in from a window but was soon caught by Esia. The two children gave a wry smile and Esia responded in kind with a bright smile, but her eyes were not smiling in the least bit.

After a prayer to the gods and thanking them for the food and each other’s’ company, everyone chomped and munched on their soup and bread. At one of the tables was Esia and beside her were Alana and Eliam.

“Mother truly is such a strict mother.” Wiggles around while eating her lunch. So is true with Eliam.

Both of them were spanked at their rear. Although not to the point their bum turned red as a tomato, but enough for them to feel tingles from time to time.

“Sister.” Esia declared.

“Mother.” Alana opposed.

They sat silent for a while until Esia gave in and just sighed. Alana smirked and snorted at her, acting all triumphant. Esia felt some slight annoyance, being beaten, or rather, letting be beat by a child of only 11 years old.

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The night has fallen on the Kingdom as silence fill the streets in the residential district. A few street lamps, torches held by patrols, and the moon illuminate the streets, yet still so faint. Taverns of the entertainment and red-light district in the eastern part of the city with their bright lights and their noisy and rowdy customers seemed so otherworldly compared to the quiet and serene residential district. Even if both areas stand inside the trade city of Heom, and just beside each other at that, they are like two separate worlds.

Someone came out of a tavern, holding an empty cup of ale, scratched his crotch and felt his spine tingle. He slowly made his way towards the city entrance, shouting at the guards when they insisted that he does not go out this late at night. The gates of the city do not close because even this late at night, merchant carriages still move about.

The drunk who went out of the city finally finished his business. As he wraps up, he heard faint screams from a distance. Drunk as he may be with his fuzzy mind, his curiosity got the better of him.

Screams grew louder ever so slightly. As the drunk drew closer to the sound, he found a man crawling, or rather pulling himself with his hands as his feet do not move. The man on the ground pants heavily and shrieks from time to time. Someone appeared from behind the crawling man and quickly stabbed his hand. A loud, ear shattering wail echoed in the forest, yet frighteningly so it felt dull, it felt as if the sound was just a hoot of an owl.

The drunk immediately sobered up. Feeling his legs grow weak, the drunk fell on his knees while watching the downed man’s arms be filled with holes. He wanted to scream. He wanted to run. He wanted to cry. Yet the drunk only watched with his mouth agape.

The moon’s brilliant glow lit up the area and the face of the assailant. It was someone who he was familiar with. Someone who everyone at the eastern district was familiar with. She is the keeper of the orphanage who cares for both humans and non-humans. Esia’s face was on full display and the hand that held the knife trickled with blood. She’s Esia, yet at the same time, not. Her ears are more elongated and she had two large horns protruding fropm her head, following its contour.

The woman who looked like Esia looked over to the direction of the man. She only stood behind Illar and gave off the gentle smile she always shows, yet her expression was dark, it was sinister.