Chapter 11: Welcome Home

Chapter Eleven

Orion’s plan had been to get home as soon as possible, and that was exactly what he had intended to do. After leaving the Dungeon Market, he had immediately taken a detour toward the outskirts of Mole City, where his home was located.

His plan had been simple: get home before nightfall, avoid getting scolded, and go to sleep peacefully. Unfortunately... who would have known that he would encounter a powerful Level 2 beast roaming around?

As a good hero of justice, Orion obviously couldn’t allow such a dangerous creature to continue wandering around. After all, the relationship between beasts and humans was hostile at best.

If a weak human were unlucky enough to encounter that three-horned bull, their fate would almost certainly be sealed. Therefore... as the good hero that Orion was, he had no choice but to eliminate the dangerous beast.

No. It definitely wasn’t because he wanted to experience that familiar rush of excitement he always felt whenever he battled an opponent. Not at all.

He was doing it for the sake of the world. At least, that was what Orion convinced himself of as he engaged the beast.

And once the battle began... he completely lost himself in the thrill. The clash. The danger. The excitement.

Everything was so enjoyable that time seemed to fly by. Before he knew it, the sun had disappeared from the sky, and his original plan of getting home early to avoid being scolded had vanished from his mind entirely.

Orion shook his head. What was done was done. There was no point worrying about it now; he would simply have to deal with the consequences later.

For now, his attention shifted toward the System screen floating before him. A new notification had appeared the moment the three-horned bull had fallen:

[Ding! You have slain a Level 2 Beast: Three-Horned Bull.]

[0.1 EXP has been received.]

Orion stared at the notification. The amount of EXP was as lackluster as always, but Orion had long since gotten used to it.

Besides... the fact that he had received any EXP at all was already enough to excite him. A small smile appeared on his face.

Then his gaze shifted toward the corpse of the three-horned bull. The beast’s hide and fur would fetch a decent sum, but more importantly... its Beast Core.

Orion quickly carved out the Beast Core and stored it carefully before lifting the massive corpse. With the corpse over his shoulder, Orion continued toward home.

Soon, a large building appeared in the distance. It was considerably bigger than the surrounding structures.

The lights were still on, and Orion could even see people moving around inside. It was almost as if nobody had gone to sleep yet.

Orion sighed. Just as I thought... they had been waiting for him. He found a suitable place in the courtyard and dropped the three-horned bull’s corpse there.

Afterward, he cleaned himself up as much as possible before walking toward the entrance. He raised his hand.

Knock. Knock.

Two seconds later... the door opened. A little boy who looked to be around five years old stood behind it.

The moment he saw Orion, his eyes immediately lit up. "Big Brother!"

"Hey, Jimmy." Orion smiled. "I’m home."

Jimmy’s face immediately brightened. The little boy rushed forward and jumped straight into Orion’s embrace.

Orion caught him effortlessly. And that was when the rest of the children appeared.

"Big Brother!"

"Big Brother is back!"

They rushed toward him from every direction. Some hugged his legs. Others grabbed his clothes. One even jumped onto his back.

Before Orion knew it, he was completely surrounded. It took quite some time before he was finally able to pull the children off him.

Just as he had expected... none of them had gone to sleep. They had all been waiting for him to come home.

Seeing the huge, happy smiles on their faces, Orion couldn’t help but feel a mixture of guilt and warmth. He had kept them waiting again, yet seeing them rush toward him like this made his heart feel incredibly warm.

They cuddled against him, ruffled his hair, and happily surrounded him as though he had been gone for months rather than a single day.

For a moment, the peaceful atmosphere was almost perfect.

Then... a girl’s crying voice shattered it. Orion already knew who it was without even needing to turn around.

Still, he turned. A young girl with beautiful pink hair was walking toward him while crying.

"Big Brother!" Her little face was covered in tears. "You’re late again!"

"Lily missed you!" She ran toward him and threw herself into his embrace.

Orion caught her gently. "Big Brother missed Lily too."

He patted her smooth pink hair. Lily buried her face against his chest and continued crying.

"Hmph." A young boy with red hair standing nearby crossed his arms. He was slightly older than Lily, around nine years old.

"You are always crying like a little baby." He glanced at Lily. "You should grow up already."

Lily immediately lifted her tearful face. "Why do you always cry when Big Brother doesn’t come home early?" the boy continued.

"It’s not like he wasn’t going to come home again." He paused. "Even if he didn’t come home..." He shrugged. "Who cares?"

"Who cares?" A voice suddenly came from beside him. It was Noah, the blue-haired boy.

He pointed toward Jack, the red-haired boy, with a mischievous grin. "Said by the one who was glued to the window, waiting for Big Brother to come home."

Jack’s face instantly flushed red. "I was not!"

"Yes, you were," Noah replied without hesitation. "I saw you."

"You’re lying!"

"I’m not lying."

"You are!"

"You were literally standing there the whole time," Noah insisted.

Jack’s expression became even more embarrassed as the other children started laughing. Orion could already see where this was heading.

"Alright, alright..." He stepped between them and ruffled both their hair. "No more battles tonight, you two."

Jack muttered under his breath, "You’re lucky Big Brother stepped in... otherwise, I’d have kicked your ass."

Noah completely ignored him. Instead, he looked up at Orion with his sharp blue eyes.

"Big Brother... why are you late again?"

Orion’s eyes twitched at the question. He immediately tried to divert the conversation, but Noah was far too smart for his age.

No matter how cleverly Orion tried to change the subject, the blue-haired boy kept pressing him until, eventually, Orion was forced to spill the beans.

After spending some time playing with the kids, Orion finally sat down to eat. Apparently, as always, Lily and Dame had to feed him themselves, while the rest of the children gathered around and watched.

Only after they were satisfied did Orion finally get a chance to finish his meal in peace. But that wasn’t the end of his duties for the night.

After dinner came story time. The children’s favorite story was always the story of the hero.

With their eyes shining brightly, they gathered around Orion and listened attentively as he began telling them another tale about the legendary hero.

Apparently, the story for that night was about how the hero had slain the mighty Three-Horned Ancient Demon beneath the moonlight.

Orion somehow managed to tell the story with such confidence and excitement that one would think he had actually been there.

Of course... he had. The story was about him and the three bull horned beast afterall. Or rather the overly exaggerated version of it .

Before long, the children began falling asleep one after another. Soon, only Jack and Noah, the oldest among the kids, remained awake.

And Lily was still clinging tightly to Orion. She held onto him as if she were afraid that the moment she let go, he would suddenly vanish.

"You two, go to bed," Orion said softly.

Jack continued staring at him for a moment. It was as if he wanted to say something.

But in the end, he said nothing and quietly went to bed. Noah, however, remained where he was.

The blue-haired boy looked Orion up and down suspiciously, as if he were trying to spot something unusual on him.

After a few seconds, he finally shook his head. "Big Brother... Mum has been worried. You should check on her before you go to bed," Noah said.

With that, he turned around and went to sleep.

The moment Orion heard the word Mum, his heart thumped slightly. It wasn’t because his mother was strict or cruel.

Quite the opposite. She was kind. In fact, she was the best human being Orion had ever come to know.

It was simply that he had undoubtedly made her worried once again... and that was the last thing Orion wanted.

A few minutes later, the clingy Lily was finally put to sleep by Orion. Only after making sure she was comfortable did he quietly leave the room.

However, instead of going straight to his own room, Orion made a detour. He headed toward their mother’s room.

The moment he opened the door... a freezing cold rushed forward and washed over him. Orion’s gaze immediately changed.

His eyes moved deeper into the room. On the bed lay a young girl with snow-white hair.

Her small body trembled faintly beneath the covers, and her beautiful eyes were filled with unbearable pain.

Beside the bed sat a middle-aged woman who looked to be in her early thirties. Her dark hair was scattered messily around her face as she desperately tended to the little girl.

She dipped a cloth into a basin of hot water and squeezed it before carefully placing it against the girl’s forehead.

The warmth chased away some of the freezing cold, but only for a moment. The cloth instantly turned cold.

The woman removed it, dipped it into the hot water again, squeezed it, and placed it back onto the girl’s forehead.

Again. And again. She continued repeating the process without rest, desperately trying to suppress the overwhelming cold radiating from the girl’s body.

Eventually, the girl’s condition began to stabilize. As the pain gradually faded from her face, her pale irises slowly shifted toward the doorway.

She looked toward Orion, who stood silently by the door. The moment she saw his face... a warm yet incredibly weak smile appeared on her lips.

"Big Brother... welcome home," Iris whispered.

Then her eyes closed. The overwhelming pain she had endured to suppress herself had finally pushed her into unconsciousness.

Orion’s happy mood vanished instantly. His hands clenched into fists.

He walked into the room and quietly locked the door behind him before sitting down on the edge of the bed beside the little girl.

His hand moved gently, caressing her skin. Cold. Her skin was so cold that if one didn’t know any better, they would have assumed she was already a corpse.

"Orion... you are home," the middle-aged woman said. A brief smile appeared on her face. "Welcome home."

Her gaze soon turned wistful as she continued trying to suppress the girl’s overwhelming cold.

"You know... she held on and stayed awake just to see your face before she went to sleep."

Orion silently nodded. He knew. The weak, warm smile that had appeared on Iris’s face despite the unbearable pain she was suffering had said everything.

Seeing her in so much pain every single time made Orion’s stomach twist painfully.

What Iris suffered from was not something simple. She had undergone an early awakening and possessed an extremely powerful Ice Talent.

But just like in most cases of early awakening, the awakened energy was far too much for her still-developing body to handle.

Her body simply wasn’t ready for the power growing within it. Because of that, Iris had to constantly fight against her own awakening, desperately suppressing the ever-growing frost abilities with nothing but her willpower.

And every moment she spent suppressing that power came with unbearable agony. Pain that never truly disappeared.

Pain that could only be endured. Because if Iris ever failed to suppress the growing frost within her... the consequences would be fatal.

The uncontrollable ice energy would eventually overwhelm her body, and the resulting backlash could cut her life short.