The sight that greeted the party upon entering was not what Damian had expected. The orphanage's interior was nice... really nice. It wasn't anything like the dingy orphanage from his memories. Rotting floor boards, leaky ceilings, dropping food, only for a mouse to swiftly nab the morsel.

  Instead, the interior was well decorated with black wood furnishings. The walls were painted red, adding a sharp contrast to the naturally black wood. Rugs were also in each room, keeping bare feet warm on the black stone floor. Numerous wooden toys were spilling out of a toy box in the corner.

  There were no kids on the main floor, but Damian could hear the pitter-patter of little feet from above—an occasional giggle and hushed shout.

  Good for them...

  A woman in a nun's garb came around the bend. She stopped, and her eyes grew large.

  "Frey!"

  She quickly sped forward and wrapped Frey in a big hug. The woman moved so fast that Damian couldn't react.

  A high tier? Maybe someone at a lower tier and focused on speed?

  "Ah! I didn't know you'd be in town. If I had known, I'd have come to rescue you! You should have let me know as soon as you arrived!"

  "Big sis, Elaina! Now's not the time! The military is after us! We need an escape route!"

  The jovial woman's smile flipped. Instantly becoming serious, she swiftly moved past them and to the door.

  "Dick, Rodger! Cover their tracks and lead them in a different direction! Make it fast!"

  "Yes, ma'am!"

  "That's miss!"

  "Yes, miss!"

  She turned around, no longer with a smile on her face. She looked more like a mother about to scold her child.

  "Now, Frey~ What did I teach you about getting involved with the government?"

  Frey's form shrank like a child getting scolded. She was looking down at the floor, doing her best not to make eye contact.

  "Don't."

  "Hmm~ and what happened that you didn't follow that golden rule?"

  Frey was starting to squirm, likely reliving a traumatic episode from her youth.

  "It's my fault! I got her involved." Damian stepped forward, rightfully claiming the blame.

  "Oh~ And who are you? Hmm, you're not half bad looking. Maybe if we cleaned you up, you'd have a chance~."

  Chance at what? No, never mind that!

  "The reason the military is after us is that we have evidence likely linking them to the attack. Instead of turning it over, we fled..."

  "... ..."

  "Men... always trying to be the hero to impress the girls."

  "Did you think your actions out? Getting my sister involved? The implications of having an entire nation after you!?"

  She poked Damian on the chest, and he fell flat on his butt. Frey flinched. The nun seemed to take notice and stopped pressing him.

  "... No, but this evidence would likely aid the First Prince. His allies with us have been doing the same. I figured by doing the right thing, we'd gain his help and possibly the Valkyrie's."

  "Pah! Foolish. You think a prince would have any use for you after all is said and done? That he'd take care of low tiers until they grew useful? Even if everything went as you had planned, you'd likely just end up killed in some back alley by his enemies. They don't take kindly to those who oppose them."

  She was pacing around Damian's fallen form, making it hard to look her in the eyes.

  "As for the Valkyrie~ Yes, they'd likely help you in the short term, but there are not enough of them to have one protect you all your life. The same result as the former."

  She crouched before Damian and spoke in a stern, low voice.

  "I've been dealing with their kind for a long time, and if you don't have something they want, you're useless to them. If you give them what they want and have nothing else, you're useless to them. Only by having power, money, providing a special service, or a connection can you begin to play the game."

  "I hope you remember this, prince charming." She poked Damian on the head this time, and his head smacked into the rug behind him.

  "So, is there something you can do that follows any of the rules I have listed?" She sauntered to the back of the building, swinging her hips. His party was stunned throughout the exchange. They had walked into an orphanage to escape the military and were now being lectured on being heroes.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Damian's mind, meanwhile, was racing through the events that led up to this moment. His pulse was quickening to compensate.

  Shit! I've been too naive! I've seen the worst of the guards, the nobles. So why did I think this time would be different? Avenging Isaac? That Ms. Sanderson would have our backs? That we built up enough camaraderie to get us through this mess? Maybe it was the sight of Dalen earlier and hearing that he went off to be a hero. I'm better than this— think!

  "... ..." Damian was silent as she walked away until—"You said that the Valkyrie would aid us if our evidence would help them find the people responsible for the attack? Then wouldn't a connection with the Valkyrie be enough to prove useful in the long term to the nobility?"

  As the woman was walking away, she stopped in her tracks and turned around with a mischievous smile on her face. "Oh~ You're not hopeless after all. I hope you think things through next time. Come now, the military won't be able to track you here, but if we don't hurry, we won't be able to leave the city cleanly."

  Frey's sister was like a whirlwind. In a matter of moments, she jumped from a loving reunion to a stern boss, then a scolding mother, and lastly settled on a cheeky teacher. What the hell?

  Her hand reached up and pulled her nun's habit aside, revealing long, flowing, fiery red hair. Just like Frey's. Maybe a tinge darker in color.

  "My name is Elaina, by the way. You can call me Big Sis or Big Sis Elaina~."

  She proceeded to strip in the middle of the hallway. Alex had to cover Fergus's eyes when she started. But under the nun's clothes wasn't underwear, but sturdy-looking leather armor. She had numerous daggers slotted into it—many more in sheaths around her thighs.

  Elaine and Frey looked remarkably alike. Elaine had her hair in a bit of a wavy mess, while Frey tidied hers up into a ponytail. Elaine was a bit taller than her younger sister, about a hand's width.

  As for her age? Surely she's in her younger 20s~. But seriously, she could pull off being Frey's twin sister. As for any other noticeable features—like Frey, she was shapely in all the right places.

  "Missy! I'm going to go out through the back! Close it up for me! I'll be gone for several weeks! I'll send a letter if I'm going to be gone for longer." She was hollering up the stairwell.

  "Understood, Mistress!"

  Mistress?

  She continued toward the back of the building.

  "Now, Frey, come here, and we can catch up on what you've been up to. I hadn't received a letter from you in months! Is this what I get for raising you?"

  "You're not the only one who raised me... I've been sending letters to Big Sis Valeria. She should have forwarded them to you or Mom. I figured that since I was headed to Gamo, I'd see you soon enough."

  As they reached the back room, she shoved aside a heavy-looking oven. Behind it was a stairway leading underground.

  "What? You sent her letters instead of me? I'm hurt, Frey. You'd forgotten about me all this time. You didn't even come to visit once you made it to town. I'm heartbroken." *sniffle*

  'sigh' "We stopped by the Guild and then went straight to the Earthen Spire. We got caught up in the middle of the disaster... One of our party members didn't make it. It was Isaac."

  As they continued descending the stairs, the occasional laughter and yelling of kids faded into the distance.

  "The Count's boy? Damn, Mother really wanted to make a connection with his family."

  What? What the hell is going on? Who the hell is Frey's mom?

  Damian looked down at Donna, and she was bouncing between confusion and sadness. Alex moved closer and wrapped her arm around her.

  "Oh! Sorry, where are my manners? I want to give you my deepest sympathies. It's never easy losing an ally..."

  "It's alright. A lot has happened recently... is happening. I appreciate your help, Elaina. Once we manage to get to a Valkyrie, we'll be able to avenge him." Donna was speaking in a progressively lower voice. Damian reminded himself to never get on her bad side.

  *Clap*

  "Yes, the Valkyrie have been known to wipe out whole noble houses that break their taboos. It is truly madness that someone thought that they could get away with it this time. Most likely, this had been arranged so that only a few noble houses were involved. As they say, ignorance is bliss. If you didn't know, but only lightly suggested to carry out a taboo, you couldn't really be blamed by the Valkyrie, now could you?"

  "... ..." Donna was speechless at the woman's ruthless words.

  "If you want something taken care of, it's best to do it yourself. Grow strong, young one~."

  Is Frey's sister trying to convince Donna to become a high-tier and slaughter the nobility of the Second Prince's faction? What!? Am I reading into this too much? Isn't she all over the place?

  Damian gave a confused look to Frey, but she quickly looked down and away while blushing. It seems that this wasn't new behaviour from her sister.

  "Although~ I haven't actually heard of someone succeeding with that method at such a large scale, especially in the middle of a city. This ended up being far bigger than the other times in history when wraiths were used as weapons."

  "Oh! I bet you don't know the full history of that. Here, let me tell you about it~." Elaina continued.

  "I think the first documented instance of wraiths used as weapons occurred about 800 years ago. The king of a fallen country, Timyonde, thought it smart to break the taboo. He gathered captured soldiers and slaves and had them butchered and buried in the middle of a field where their enemy would later make camp."

  "That night, numerous wraiths arose in the middle of their formation."

  "You can easily imagine the rest. Timyonde won the battle, but lost the war. Everyone who knew of the plan and didn't attempt to stop it or warn the Valkyrie was eliminated before the sun rose the next day. From then on, the Valkyrie made sure to keep watchful eyes both before and after battles."

  "That's also when it became publicly known that the Valkyrie could inspect the history of a person. Since the bodies weren't burned, the Valkyrie easily traced the perpetrators."

  "All the nations were in a big stir at the time. None of them wanted their own dirty laundry aired. They had all come together and unanimously requested a law for the Valkyrie to follow."

  "I believe it was worded: If there is no reason to believe a party was involved with one of the taboos, it'd be illegal for the Valkyrie to inspect their history without permission."

  "Surprisingly, they simply agreed with the arrangement. No assurances or additional laws of their own."

  "Of course, the law didn't stay as it was for long. The Valkyrie implemented a workaround to check the history of objects in the general vicinity of a crime. A simple locket hanging around the neck of a madam had captured the plot of a military nobleman who tried to usurp his king with wraiths."

  "Again, the law was changed. But the Valkyrie fought back this time, and there was another amendment to the law. They could no longer check the history related to nobles or government workers without definite proof."

  "People still tried to use wraiths as weapons throughout history, and each time, the Valkyrie would eventually find the parties responsible, with or without the use of their seer-like power."

  "The only real way to get away from a Valkyrie on a mission is to complete it for them before they even arrive. Wink, wink."