Chapter 107: The Unfortunate Blondie (2)

The slums of Valhalla City were often called the Ant Nest by outsiders, notorious for their poor public safety. But flowers could bloom even in the mud. Even in this infamous neighborhood, there were children with pure, untarnished souls. And as we arrived at the rundown orphanage, those very same children came pouring out in a rush.

“Waaah! It’s Big Bro Dale!”

“Big Sis Iris! I missed you!”

“There’s a new guy we’ve never seen before!”

“Haah! Haah! Big Sis Camilla, can you please step on my cheek just once in those heels?”

Jules, who had been dragged along to carry supplies, looked around the orphanage, clearly confused. “Why am I even here?”

I gave him a pat on the back and grinned. “First time volunteering at an orphanage, huh?”

Jules nodded with a dazed expression. “This is my first time even setting foot in the Ant Nest.”

Well, it made sense. What reason would a young heir from one of the Republic’s top conglomerate families have to come to a place like this?

“Well, now that you’re here, think of it as a new experience. Go have some fun with the kids.”

“Have fun with the kids?” Jules turned his gaze toward the children. “With those kids?”

For kids from an orphanage in the slums, these children were relatively clean, but their clothes were still caked in dust and dirt. As the kids approached him with curious eyes, a look of thinly veiled disgust crossed Jules’s face. He recoiled like he had just encountered a filthy wild animal, and the kids seemed to understand what his reaction meant.

“Ah.”

“Mmm!”

The kids stopped in their tracks, flinching slightly.

“L-let’s go somewhere else!”

“Y-yeah!”

They fled back toward the orphanage, hiding behind the door and peeking out with wary eyes. It was a movement that looked all too natural, as if Jules’s reaction was no different from that of the kind of “adults” they were used to encountering.

Jules looked flustered, glancing at me for guidance. “Ah! S-sorry. It was just so sudden.”

I gestured toward the children with a nod. “Why are you apologizing to me? You should apologize to them.”

Jules gulped and nodded slightly. Then he hesitantly said, “Um! Kids?”

However, the children remained behind the door, still watching him cautiously. Seeing them so reluctant to open up, Jules seemed lost in thought, then suddenly, he had an idea. He swung his backpack around and opened it.

He said, “Uh, I-I bought some bread from the academy store on the way here. Want to try some?”

The kids’ eyes lit up when they saw the bread, dozens of them, stuffed into the bag.

“Huh

?”

“Bread from the academy store!”

As if approaching a sleeping beast, they crept closer with utmost care.

A boy named Leo, who stood at the front of the group, looked up at Jules and asked, “Did you buy these, Big Bro?”

Jules quickly nodded. “Y-yeah! I bought all of these myself!”

There were over a hundred pieces of bread, maybe more, piled into one bag. The kids looked at him with wide, sparkling eyes.

“Whoa, really? All of this bread?”

“Big Bro, you must be rich!”

“Awesome!”

Jules gave an awkward smile and scratched his head, clearly overwhelmed by their reaction. “Y-yeah.”

The children looked at him in awe, showering compliments about the bread.

“Huh? Isn’t this the limited-edition mint chocolate bread?”

“I heard that one’s super hard to get!”

“How’d you manage to get so many of them?”

Jules blinked, caught off guard by all the attention. He cleared his throat and straightened up a bit. “I, uh, have a bit of a knack for bread shopping. The academy store’s bread section is pretty big, so you have to search every nook and cranny to find the limited editions.”

The kids beamed at him with sparkling eyes full of admiration.

“Woooow! That’s amazing!”

“You’re the bread king, Big Bro!”

“King of Bread!”

Jules’s face turned bright red with embarrassment. “K-King of Bread. That’s, uh, a bit much.”

A rich kid, happy just to be praised for buying bread. In his past life, he had some bite to him. How did he turn out like this? Is it because of me? I wondered.

I chuckled and watched as the kids surrounded Jules. Compared to how he had flinched earlier at their approach, now he was handing out bread with a soft smile on his face.

“You guys must be hungry, right? I bought plenty, so eat as much as you want,” he said.

Finally, the kids let their guard down and came closer to Jules.

“Thanks, Big Bro!”

“Hehe! I thought you were scary at first, but you’re nice!”

“What’s your name, Big Bro?”

Just before they started eating, one of them looked up at him and asked, “Are you friends with Big Bro Dale?”

Jules glanced at me, then cautiously said, “My name’s Jules Kang. And Dale and I, um…”

I casually draped an arm over Jules’s shoulder and smiled. “We’re friends.”

Jules turned to me, eyes wide. A single tear welled up, and he gave a deep, emphatic nod. “Y-yeah! Dale is my friend!”

The last bit of suspicion still lingering on the children’s faces vanished completely. They laughed brightly as they ate their bread.

“Waaaah! I knew it, you’re Big Bro Dale’s friend!”

“If you’re Big Bro Dale’s friend, then we can trust you!”

“Hehehe! Big Bro! Thanks for the bread!”

“Big Bro Jules, you’re so cool!”

“You’re like Power Man!”

“Yeah! And you even have the same blond hair!”

Surrounded by the kids, Jules scratched his head awkwardly, clearly a bit embarrassed. “Uh, thanks. But… Power Man?”

A kind-faced elderly priest stepped out from the orphanage and explained, “He’s a popular hero among the slum kids these days. He takes down vile criminals in the slums and protects the weak. A true guardian.”

Jules asked, “And you are?”

“I’m Antonio, the head of this orphanage. You must be Jules?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right.”

“Thank you for the bread. Lately, the kids have been going on and on about wanting to try the bread from the hero academy’s store. Haha.” Father Antonio made the sign of the cross and bowed his head. “Thanks to you, I can finally relax a bit.”

“Have you been well?” I asked.

“It’s been a while, Dale. How are things between you and the Saintess lately? Any progress?”

Iris shrieked, her face turning bright red. “F-Father! Is that really the first thing you’re going to ask?”

Father Antonio chuckled, the corners of his lips lifting into a warm smile as he looked at her. “Well, for this old man, that’s the most important matter of all. Before I kick the bucket, I’d like to at least see the Saintess have a child.”

“W-we’re not even married yet, and you’re talking about children.” Iris stole a glance in my direction and gave an awkward cough. Then she tiptoed over to Father Antonio and whispered in his ear. “Um, how many kids do you think we should have?”

“If possible, I’d say three,” he replied.

Iris gulped and clenched her fists. “T-three?”

Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that, I thought.

“Anyway, has anything unusual been happening at the orphanage lately?” I asked.

Father Antonio’s expression suddenly darkened. “Hmm. Unusual…”

I tilted my head, surprised. What I had been expecting was a lighthearted “Of course not, haha!” kind of response.

“Is something going on at the orphanage?” I asked.

“Not directly at the orphanage, but some troubling incidents have occurred in the Ant Nest recently.”

Iris looked surprised, her eyes widening. She was clearly hearing this for the first time too. “Troubling incidents? What kind of incidents?”

“Well…” Father Antonio furrowed his wrinkled brow as he continued, “Recently, there have been harassment incidents targeting blonde women near the slums.”

“Harassment?”

“According to the victims, someone suddenly attacked them from behind and cut off part of their hair.”

“They cut their hair?”

“They also said the perpetrator sniffed it before cutting it.”

Iris replied, “Ew.”

This went beyond disturbing; it was outright creepy.

Father Antonio let out a deep sigh before continuing, “The troubling part is that one of the victims was a hero. And a rather strong one at that.”

“A hero was targeted? Then, the attacker must be a hero too?”

“Most likely, yes.”

Unless one was a demon who received the blessing of the Demon God or part of a magically armed military unit, only heroes could take on other heroes.

“It is indeed an unsettling case.”

“So far, none of the children have been targeted, but it’s still worrisome.”

There were quite a few blonde girls within the orphanage as well.

“Has the Valhalla City Guard taken action?”

Father Antonio shook his head with a bitter expression. “Well, since it happened within the Ant Nest, and there were no direct casualties, just some hair cut off, they haven’t done much. Still, the case was so creepy that several heroes, including Power Man, tried to investigate, but they either got overpowered or lost the trail.”

“So, the perpetrator is pretty strong.”

Antonio nodded solemnly and sighed again. “Yes.”

Iris said with a deep sigh, “Why would the Seven Gods grant a soul stigmata to someone so shameless?”

“Couldn’t it be a demon?” I asked.

“According to the victims, there was no dark mana involved. And if it were a demon, it wouldn’t have stopped at just cutting hair.”

“That’s true.” I nodded slightly and narrowed my eyes.

A hero attacking blonde women and cutting their hair, whether there were fatalities or not, was an undeniably disturbing case. But what made it even more disturbing for me was that I had never heard of anything like this in my previous life. Even if it had taken place outside the academy, something this creepy would’ve made the rounds as a rumor, at the very least.

Honestly, in terms of shock factor, it was worse than a murder case. A perverted hero attacking blonde women and cutting their hair. It was exactly the kind of story gossipmongers would love.

The fact that this didn’t happen in my past life meant this could be one of the deviations to the future. I had no idea why such a change had happened, but it was definitely something worth investigating.

“You said the perpetrator is targeting blonde women?” I asked.

“Yes. Specifically, beautiful young ones.”

“Beautiful blonde women.”

Now that I thought about it, the only blonde woman I really knew was Rosanna Helios. But it was not like I could call Rosanna over here. As I pondered this, an idea suddenly popped into my head.

Wait a minute. Isn’t there a lovely, kind of, blonde flower blooming right next to me?

Jules caught my gaze. “Huh?”

He gave me a look that said, “No way. You can’t be serious.”

I said, “Jules.”

“Dale, you’re not… right?”

“Hahaha.”

“D-don’t laugh!!”

I grabbed Jules’s shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. “Didn’t you say earlier we’re friends?”

And friends help each other out in times of trouble, don’t they? I said internally.

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