The Extra's Return

"Urk!"

On the bed in one of the Mesties' inn rooms, the sound of Jeanne moaning in pain could be heard. She formed a circular position unconsciously on the bed.

Her hands hugged her body unintentionally. Her embrace grew stronger along with the dream that occurred in her subconscious.

"So-Sorry..."

She was delirious. She uttered an apology in an earnest tone.

Judging from the way she said the apology, it was clear that she felt very guilty. Who she was apologizing to, you wouldn't know because you can't dive into her head.

What kind of horrible past might she have? Only she herself knows.

After a while, her expression became calm again. Her previously furrowed brows had returned to their original shape. The wrinkles on her forehead had disappeared.

And not long after, she immediately woke up.

"Haaa… Haaa…"

After she was able to open her eyes, she raised her body slowly. She took a breath for a moment. Her breathing still felt very heavy. She had to hold her head to calm the dizziness in her head.

Then, she remembered the reason why she felt dizzy.

'Was it just a nightmare?

A dark past. A past filled with bitter memories and so many regrets that she had about the past.

It was as if she had just dreamed of that past. The dream felt very vivid. She felt as if she had just come from that dark past.

Actually, she had often had nightmares, however, the dreams that used to haunt her would not be as severe as what had just happened.

Unfortunately, once she woke up, she unconsciously forgot about the past.

Dissociative Amnesia.

It was a symptom of memory loss that she had. Therefore, she immediately forgot about the painful past. In order for one to live on and look forward to the future, sometimes it was unconsciously done.

Before she was trapped in her thoughts, she managed to regain her senses. The first thing she noticed was to look at her surroundings.

Coming from the open window, rays of morning light came through the room.

When she was looking at it, she immediately realized that she had lost consciousness for quite a while.

Then she continued to look around the room with her eyes.

'An inn room? How can I be here? And where is this?'

As she looked up and down then right and left, she realized that she was not alone.

"Oh, big sister, are you awake?"

By her bedside, the children of the orphanage were already crowding around.

Some of them were holding cloths for compressing, some were holding bowls of food, and some were just standing around like fools.

And when they realized that Jeanne was awake, they immediately hugged Jeanne simultaneously.

"Eh? You guys... are you okay?"

"Yes, it's all thanks to you, Big Sister."

"G-Glad you're safe."

Ensuring the safety of the children was the most important thing to Jeanne now. Despite her shocked and happy expression, she hugged all the children back. She was already like a mother cat when nursing baby kittens.

After a while, they just let go of each other.

Unable to help it, Jeanne shed tears of joy. She patted the children's shoulders and ruffled the hair on their heads.

"By the way, can you guys tell me about what has happened and where this place is?"

She asked while wiping away a few tears on the tips of her eyelids, she smiled at the children.

After she went completely berserk, she couldn't remember what had happened. Hence she asked.

Suddenly, the children's faces lit up. Their eyes shone with excitement. They seemed impatient for their turn to tell the story.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! I saw how Big Sister defeated those bastards. Uwaaa that was so cool. Pow! Pow! Pow!"

"Yes, that was really cool. Especially when Big Sister attacked them using the shield. Muwahh! Hahaha."

The children began to imitate what Jeanne had done. They began to run around in circles in the room. Their noisy voices filled the small inn room.

Soon, they stopped and murmured.

"Oh, but, when big sister entered the orphanage, we didn't know what happened."

"Hmm? Can you guys explain it?"

"That..."

"Let me tell you about it."

Colby, who was standing at the back, began to move forward and took over the children's part. He began to tell Jeanne what had happened better.

First, he told her about the Mana explosion that destroyed the orphanage.

But he didn't know that Jeanne was the cause of the Mana explosion. So, he only told her that she was trapped inside the orphanage during the Mana explosion, then Mesties entered the orphanage to save her.

"When we went inside the orphanage to see what happened, we saw..."

"What did you see?"

Colby tried to tell the story casually, however, the other children started covering their mouths as if they wanted to laugh.

Seeing the children's strange reactions, Jeanne felt that there must be something they were hiding. She held both of Colby's shoulders and looked at Colby with narrowed eyes.

"O-Okey. I'll tell you. I saw you cuddling with Big Brother Mesties."

"Uh, Big Brother Mesties? Cuddling?"

Jeanne's brain started to vaporize.

"It's okay, Big Sister Jeanne. I will support your relationship."

"Stop talking nonsense!"

Pow!

Jeanne hit Colby on the head in annoyance. Of course, it was only a soft blow. Even so, a large bump still appeared on top of Colby's head due to Jeanne's fiery punch.

"Hurry up and continue."

"O-Okay."

Holding his head, Colby recounted that Mesties brought everyone into his inn, gave them money, and allowed them to stay at the inn.

"So, this place is Mesties' inn? Is that why you all call him big brother?"

Nod! Nod!

And that was the end of Colby's story.

Among all the things that Colby and the other children had told, there was not a single thing about the identity of the perpetrator who attacked the orphanage, or the reason why the orphanage was attacked.

She didn't even have time to think about that because she was too happy that most of the children were able to survive unharmed.

In her subconscious, she thought that the slave trader and his men were the bad guys who attacked the orphanage for trivial reasons.

"Do you know where the nanny is?"

"We don't know. She left just before the criminals came. Strangely, the criminals had asked about the nanny too."

She pondered for a while but did not draw any conclusions from Colby's words.

"Then, do you know where the Mesties are?"

"He said that he would be gone for a while. We don't know where he is at the moment. I think he'll be here soon."

Her face was downcast. She clenched her teeth and thought. She had to meet Mesties to talk about some things.

After she heard from Colby that the orphanage had been destroyed, she realized that another disaster awaited them. Without a place to take shelter, their future looked very bleak.

It was a miracle that Mesties let the children stay at the inn for free. Even gave them money.

However, Jeanne felt bad if she had to continue to trouble the Mesties.

On the other hand, there was no way she was going to let the children live on the side of the road without a place to shelter from the rain and heat.

Indeed, the children still looked very energetic. However, she knew that they were trying hard to hide the sadness in their hearts.

Especially Colby.

Colby's eyes kept falling on the person who was currently still asleep on the bed next to the bed where Jeanne was.

He only said that Nina had been injured and Mesties had treated her, so Nina's condition could be confirmed to be fine.

At the thought that a child had been seriously injured, Jeanne felt even more guilty.

Colby didn't say it clearly, but Jeanne managed to catch the strange expression on Colby's face.

The possibility that Nina had been injured to the point of endangering her life was very high.

Although Nina was currently breathing regularly, she was still unconscious. If it was only a minor injury, she would have regained consciousness.

Some children were still taking turns taking care of Nina.

Perhaps it was because a lot of blood had been spilled or other reasons, so Nina had not opened her eyes.

Although it was very faint, Jeanne managed to hear Colby's mutterings that he wanted to become stronger in order to protect the people he loved.

'I also need to be stronger to...???'

The moment she heard Colby's mutterings, she suddenly got the motivation to become stronger. However, she felt strange because she did not know why she felt so motivated. Her dissociative dementia prevented her from getting the reason why she was motivated.

Puw!

Finally, she slapped her cheek to keep her mind from going too far.

Suddenly, a voice interrupted her thoughts.

The children in the inn room were also confused.

The disturbing sound came from the lower floor of the inn.

"Le-Let me go! Get your hands off my body! Let me go. I still haven't used all that money. Shit!"

As a result, she ran to see what was happening.