1370 The Orphanage

“An Orphanage?” Alex asked. “What are we doing here?”

“I’m just meeting up with the kids,” Talia said. “I come here every now and then when I have the time, so in a way, it’s kind of a hobby of mine, I suppose.”

“I see, let’s enter then,” Alex said and walked into the old orphanage with Talia. 

As soon as they entered, the people inside greeted Talia. She seemed to come here enough times for people to recognize her.

“Sister Talia!” a few of the kids ran toward her in a jubilant manner. 

“Oh wow, look at you all. You’ve grown so big,” Talia said. “Just a little bit older and you guys can join the sects too. Which sect do you want to join?”

“The Cloud Iron sect.”

“We want to follow you, sister Talia.”

The kids answered. 

From what Alex could tell, the kids were mortals with absolutely no cultivation base at all. “Why aren’t they cultivating? Do the people here not teach them?” he asked the girl.

“No, the kids are sent to various sects when they reach 15 years of age, in which case they are taught there. Most sects want the kids they get to not have already started cultivating just in case there is a talent amongst them that could be ruined by having them cultivated by someone who’s obviously not very experienced,” the girl said.

Alex looked around the orphanage, seeing the many people that worked in it. Most of them were barely in True realms as anyone stronger than that would not waste their time in an orphanage.

“And you come here once a year you say?” Alex asked.

“I try to,” Talia said. “Whenever I decide to come to the Endless Shadow Abyss’s opening, I visit this place. I usually get around 1 week of time which I can spend with these kids, and I do that.”

Alex gave that some thought. “I see,” he said. “May I ask why you started this?”

Talia paused for a bit, hesitating to answer his question instinctively. “It’s…” she forced herself to speak. “It’s because I am an orphan as well and used to work in one even after I left.”

“Oh,” Alex was a little surprised. 

“Yes,” the girl said. “It might make you think less of me, but I don’t wish to lie to you about who I am just so I can appear better in your mental image of myself.”

Alex chuckled a bit. “I do not know why you would think that I would think less of someone for helping others,” he said.

“I thought you wouldn’t like the part that I was an orphan,” she said. “Most people think that orphans don’t have manners or any sort of knowledge just because they lost their parents at a young age.”

Alex got a little serious after hearing that. “I come from a farm in such a corner of our world that I had to be homeschooled just because the school was too far away,” he said. “Just because I was lacking some knowledge about this world, people assumed I was dumb in general. I’m sure even my own master was frustrated by what I did.”

“Of course, I wasn’t dumb. Just lacking a bit of knowledge and experience, which my master helped me get. Once I did that, I improved a lot.”

“I’m still far from better, but if you compare the current me to the one that had just started cultivating, you will find that were are miles apart.”

“What I’m trying to say is, I don’t judge people where they come from, only where they are,” he said. “And where I see you right now is someone at the top, looking out for the young and helpless ones far below them, just so they could have a little easier time climbing to where you are.”

“You are humble and kind, and nothing can take that away from you, especially not the fact that you are an orphan,” Alex said. “I hope you can remember that and hold your head high the next time you talk about this conversation.”

Talia’s face showed a small sign of shock before her face glowed up with a bright smile. “Thank you, your majesty,” she said. Despite the hours-long talk they had, this was the first time she felt seen and heard by him.”

Alex smiled beneath the mask as well. “So, how does this work exactly?” he asked. “Do you just talk to them, or do you help them with something else as well?” 

“Well… I just do what they ask me to do,” Talia said, which usually ends up being playing some sort of games or telling them stories about my hunts, the sorts like that.”

“Oh,” Alex said. “That sounds fun.”

“Doesn’t it?” Talia said. “Let me gather up the kids, you can tell them a story.”

She quickly left, leaving Alex alone to himself for the moment.

He watched her walk away and couldn’t help but feel some sort of guilt… as well as a sense of loss over knowing that Talia could not ever be the queen.

She was certainly an incredible woman, and would perhaps even be a great queen. Of course, he didn’t feel anything more than just a bit of fancy toward her attitude toward the people, which was why he thought so.

It would take a lot more than just that to make him fall for her, which he already knew was impossible. Still, he wouldn’t mind taking her to the Southern Continent with him, just because of how she was.

A group of young children all walked out of the various room, gathering behind the orphanage.

Talia came a moment later and called him over. He quickly followed her outside where the kids were expectantly waiting for the two of them to start with a story.

Seeing Alex arrive, most of them looked at him in surprise as he still hadn’t taken off the mask. Some of the kids were worried and only didn’t freak out because Talia vouched for him.

There were about a hundred different kids in front of him, each of which ranged from 8 to 12 years old. He didn’t see anyone that was younger or older.

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“Alright, who here wants to hear about all the amazing places that exist outside of the Eastern Continent?” he asked, suddenly getting a few curious looks and raised hands.

Seeing that enough of them were interested, he started. “To begin with, let me tell you about this amazing place that exists in the Southern Continent, known as the Sundering Sanctum.”

“It is located in a place called the Sundering City, also known as the First Shadow…”

He told the kids what it was and what its purpose was. He didn’t tell them what it was like to be inside or what he had experienced.

Hearing about something that they did not know about, made the kids feel way more excited to learn about what Alex was telling them, and he could see that.

So, Alex continued for a long time, waiting for Talia to come back.