Chapter 144: I Raised a Tiger Cub! (2)

Louis cast an indifferent gaze over the corpses of the slain orcs before casually waving his hand.

Gulp.

A short vacuuming sound echoed as black space materialized and swallowed up the orc bodies whole. With the mess now tidied away, Louis turned his attention to the fallen family lying nearby.

Even at the entrance, they didn’t bother with basic armaments.

The Greenwoods Mountain Range was known for housing various humanoid races and hidden treasures, but it also teemed with diverse monsters. The deeper regions were particularly inhospitable to ordinary beings. While the foothills near human paths offered relatively safe passage compared to the rest of the mountains, they still posed greater risks than other areas.

However, this family had ventured into the foothills of the mountains without proper weaponry or protection. To monsters, unarmed humans were nothing more than easy prey.

Louis approached them. Unlike the man who lay motionless with his eyes closed, the middle-aged woman was still alive. She gazed at Louis through half-open eyelids.

“T-that… child…”

It was clear she wanted to entrust something to him—their daughter. Holding her breath, Louis waited for her next words.

“You’re asking me to take care of your child?” he asked gently.

The woman nodded slightly.

In her arms lay a red-haired girl unconscious from fright; she appeared to be only six or seven years old. Louis carefully lifted the child out of the mother’s embrace.

As he gazed into the dying woman’s eyes, Louis spoke up.

“I’m not in a position to take care of anyone right now, so I can’t promise anything definite.”

”…”

The mother’s gaze pleaded with him even more desperately than before.

Louis sighed at her reaction.

“But until this child is old enough to fend for herself, I’ll help out occasionally.”

“Ohhh…”

“What’s her name?” Louis asked softly.

The woman mustered all her strength to reply:

“L-Li-a.” It was barely audible as she exhaled one last time.

Her lips curved into a contented smile as she breathed no more.

Louis could only stare blankly at the deceased woman.

Just then, Fin, who had been perched on his shoulder, chimed in.

“What do you plan to do about it?”

After narrowly escaping Valentina, Louis found himself unexpectedly saddled with a human infant.

He scratched his cheek as he gazed at the child cradled in his arms.

“Well, I already said I’d help, so what else can I do?”

“You’re going to raise it?”

“Are you crazy? Why would I raise this kid? Raising those twins was more than enough trouble for me. It’s hard enough taking care of myself, let alone anyone else.”

“So then…?”

“There’s a village nearby, right? We should leave it there.”

“Oh!”

“If we offer some gold, someone will surely take charge of it. And since they’re close by, we can check on them occasionally. Honestly, isn’t that good enough for a stranger we just met today?”

Had Louis not seen the orphaned child, he might have left without a second thought. But now that he knew about it, leaving the poor thing behind felt wrong. That’s why Louis planned to find an adequate guardian for the child in the nearby village before departing.

“Well then, let’s head to the nearest village…”

It wouldn’t be a bad choice since Louis had been planning on visiting one anyway.

Just as he was about to take off,

Hmm?

Louis turned his gaze toward something.

“What is it?”

“A human.” He sensed someone approaching nearby.

“It seems we weren’t the only ones who heard those screams,” Louis muttered with a smirk as he watched over the sleeping child.

I guess you would’ve died even if I hadn’t found you.

Judging by their speed, they’d arrive within seconds. Moreover, the energy he detected was slightly stronger than that of ordinary people—in other words, individuals trained in elemental powers. They could easily handle a few orcs.

As Louis chuckled, humans appeared just as he predicted.

Crunch-crunch.

Three men emerged from the nearby bushes. Judging by their various weapons, bows, and animal hides, they appeared to be hunters from a local village. Their eyes widened slightly at the sight of the dead couple.

The hastily arrived men quickly examined the wounds on the deceased pair.

”…Looks like they fell to some monsters.”

“I’ve never seen faces like these around here before.”

“It seems quite a few people have fled from the territory two days away due to recent unrest. I heard a couple even made it to the neighboring village.”

Tsk tsk.

After discussing among themselves, one of them turned to Louis with a question.

“What happened here?”

Louis hesitated briefly before responding.

“We were attacked by orcs.”

“But where did the orcs go?”

“I’m not sure. They suddenly ran off, didn’t they?”

Louis chose to play along rather than claim he had dealt with them himself.

The hunters looked at him quizzically.

“The orcs ran away?”

“Yes.”

They stroked their chins thoughtfully before their expressions hardened.

“This is dangerous…”

“If the orcs fled… there must be something even more formidable nearby.”

“Could it be a wouw or a troll that came down this far?”

“More importantly, we should move quickly. If these apex predators really descended upon us, staying here would be highly risky.”

Having made up their minds, they turned to Louis.

“You bring your sister along with you.”

“Huh?” Louis flinched, his face showing bewilderment.

What’s going on? This isn’t right…

He had simply wanted them to take care of the child while he dealt with things himself. But somehow, the situation had taken an unexpected turn.

While Louis stood bewildered, the bearded man who seemed to be leading the hunters gave instructions:

“You two, handle the deceased.”

“Huh? Boss!”

“They’re just children. We should at least give them a proper burial.”

“Ugh… understood.” The hunter heaved a long sigh as he hoisted the bodies onto his shoulders.

Louis’s eyes gleamed with intrigue upon witnessing this act.

Hmm?

Monsters were highly sensitive to blood odors. Carrying such bloody remains through these woods was incredibly risky. Yet, seeing how they willingly took on this danger for their young ones’ funeral rites made Louis reconsider his initial impression of them.

“What are you waiting for?! Hurry up and follow us!” The bearded man gestured impatiently towards Louis.

He pondered over what to do next.

What should I do now…?

The situation had taken an unexpected turn, but…

“Well, I was going there anyway.”

With that thought, Louis joined the hunters, cradling the red-haired child in his arms.

Two hours later…

Thump-thump.

Louis sat in a chair, staring blankly at the door.

No… Why hasn’t he come back yet when he said it would only be a moment?!

The hunter’s village was about an hour away from where the orc attack had occurred. It was small, with around twenty houses packed closely together. Upon their arrival, the hunter had immediately led Louis to his home before rushing out again. He’d mentioned having urgent business to attend to, leaving Louis stranded in this unfamiliar dwelling.

“Fin.”

“Yes!”

“Go tell mother I’m here.”

“Right away!”

Ever since Louis’s runaway incident, he made sure to always inform Fin of his whereabouts whenever he left for extended periods.

Otherwise, there would be another commotion at home.

It had been some time since Fin left.

Louis gazed down at the sleeping child.

This child…

A peculiar emotion filled Louis’s eyes as he looked at her.

Suddenly…

“Mmmngh…”

The red-haired girl lying on the bed slowly opened her eyes.

Their gazes met.

”…”

”…”

They stared wordlessly at each other.

The first one to speak was the child.

”…Who are you?”

In response, Louis let out a small sigh.

Indeed… Who am I?

Who am I, where is this place…

How did I end up like this?

With no prior experience in childcare, Louis found himself unexpectedly thrust into the role of guardian for this little girl. He gently stroked her hair and asked,

“Are you Lia?”

”…Yes.”

“I’m…uh…I guess you could call me a handsome older brother who happened to pass by,” Louis introduced himself.

Click.

At that moment, the door finally opened, and the house’s owner appeared.

“My apologies. The meeting ran longer than expected.” It seemed they had been discussing why a top predator would venture down from the mountains toward their village—unaware that this terrifying creature was now sitting right in front of them.

As soon as he entered, Lia instinctively hid behind Louis at the sight of the bearded man. Her cautious demeanor was evident even to onlookers.

Louis found it slightly amusing.

When did she ever see anyone like him before?

However, knowing how children cling to familiar faces for comfort, Louis let her stay close without trying to pull her away.

Meanwhile, the bearded man seemed to take Lia’s reaction for granted and didn’t say much. Instead, he pulled up a chair in front of Louis and asked:

“I’m Jack.”

“Louis,” Louis replied.

“Hmm… So what do you plan on doing now?”

“Well…” Louis trailed off.

His indifferent tone surprised Jack.

At this point, Louis clarified his misunderstanding: “I’m not really involved with this child.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Just as I said. I am neither her family nor anything else.”

“B-but then why were you together earlier?”

“For similar reasons as yours. I heard screams and went there. It’s just that I arrived before you.”

“T-that so… I thought you were siblings…”

“How can you say they’re related?”

There was clearly no physical resemblance between Louis and the red-haired child. Nevertheless, Jack had assumed they were siblings due to the girl’s unconstrained behavior around Louis.

“Anyway, since that’s how it is, I’ll be taking my leave now. You’ve already claimed this one, so please take responsibility for her.”

His words could have been seen as heartless. However, Jack couldn’t bring himself to take Louis. He couldn’t ask such a young-looking boy to shoulder the burden of care.

Yet there was someone else willing to step up and claim Louis.

“Big brother…”

Two small, delicate hands clasped Louis’s hand. He looked down at the little redheaded girl gazing up at him.

“Big brother… Can we not go?”

The child’s voice was filled with desperation and sorrow.

Seeing that Louis didn’t pull his hand away from the boy, Jack sighed before speaking again. “I’ll take care of him as you said, but he seems so dependent on you now. Could you stay for a few more days at least until she gets used to it?”

Louis silently gazed down at the kid in response to Jack’s request.

Haah…

He inwardly sighed deeply.

If someone else had tried to grab him forcefully like this, he would’ve shaken them off without hesitation. But those innocent eyes…

His resolve began to crumble despite himself.

And then…

This little one… I can’t help feeling strangely attached.

At first, there hadn’t been any particular feelings toward Lia, but over time, something inexplicably stirred within him.

For some time now, Louis had been experiencing an oddly bothersome feeling.

There’s something there, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.

His intuition was speaking to him.

Something existed between this child and himself.

Because of that, he found himself torn between leaving or staying behind.

In mere seconds—perhaps even less than half a minute—he agonized over his decision countless times.

At last, he made up his mind.

I’ll keep an eye on things for a bit.

He figured it would be better to ascertain the nature of this mysterious sensation rather than depart with lingering unease.

Louis scratched his cheek as he replied.

“Well…I could stay for a few days.”

The boy’s face lit up at these words.

On that day, Louis couldn’t have foreseen how the bond he had just formed would shape their destinies moving forward.