“Lord Josh?”
“Uh, High Priest?”
Josh snapped out of his daze and finally realized he had been spacing out for quite a while.
Standing before him was a little girl with white hair—she and a group of street children had somehow found their way here. After drinking a bowl of holy water, she was now staring at him intently.
Gwen stood in front of Josh and pointed to the street children beside her.
“Hello, High Priest. I’m Gwen. This is White, this is Book, this is Hall, and this is Ellie.” The street children stood obediently in a row as Gwen introduced them one by one.
“We hope to join the Hidden Cult. We can do odd jobs, we don’t eat much, and we can help you gather information in Blood Harbor. People don’t hold their tongues around children.”
After she finished, she looked at Josh with anticipation, and the other children also put on their most well-behaved expressions.
These street kids were between seven or eight years old at the youngest and around eleven or twelve at the oldest. It was a mystery how they had survived in Blood Harbor, where cultists lurked everywhere.
Children made ideal sacrifices. Who knew how many child corpses were buried beneath the altars desecrated by cultists?Josh hesitated.
They weren’t real cultists with extraordinary powers. They could barely protect themselves in a place like Blood Harbor. Adding a group of children to the mix would only make survival harder.
But if he simply drove them out, there was no guarantee these kids would last long out there.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then let out a sigh.
At worst, it would only mean making a few more pots of porridge.
“You… need to pass a few tests. I’ll assign you a few rooms to stay in, and there will be work for you to do.”
“Then we—?”
“You can also join in the prayers and receive holy water from now on.”
The white-haired little girl swallowed hard and broke into a joyful smile. The children behind her cheered—the hot and delicious rice porridge had hooked them the first time they tasted it.
As for the tasks this High Priest mentioned—if these kids had managed to survive in Blood Harbor, they clearly had some skills. Gathering information was something they excelled at.
“High Priest, what would you like us to do?”
Josh hesitated for a moment, then pulled a few portraits from his pocket. “Keep an eye on these people’s movements. If anything seems suspicious, report it to me. Try not to get caught. If you do, just say you work for me. They shouldn’t give you too much trouble.”
Gwen looked at the portraits and suddenly asked, “They’re from Castel Island?”
Josh was surprised. “You know them?”
“Of course I do—when they arrived, they attracted a lot of attention. Plenty of people have their eyes on them.”
Josh gave Gwen a thorough once-over. These street kids might be more useful than he had thought.
After receiving their assignment from Josh, the children went to the rooms that had been allocated to them.
It was a somewhat dilapidated house, not far from the hiding place of the Steam and Deep Sea Hermit Order—it was within their territory.
Nowadays, Blood Harbor was filled with vacant houses. Once a bustling port, it had fallen into decline. The prince, in preparation for war with the Empire, had raised taxes again. Life had become increasingly difficult for the people still living here.
Even without cultists, Blood Harbor would never be what it once was.
The children gathered around Gwen, their faces brimming with excitement and admiration. “Gwen, you’re amazing! You actually convinced them!”
“Yeah! Their rice porridge is sooo good!”
“What rice porridge? That’s holy water!”
“How come you’re calling porridge holy water too?”
“If it can save your life, then it’s holy water.”
Gwen looked at the noisy group of kids and couldn’t help but smile.
She finally had some real friends now—friends she could touch, friends who existed in reality, not just the ones she imagined in her mind.
Back when she was lying in that basement waiting to die, she had thought her fate was to perish alone.
But then, a voice had suddenly appeared in her mind. Those friends that existed only in the Mind Link helped her survive.
Wild vegetables didn’t taste good—no matter how full they made her, they still left her stomach burning. Her body repeatedly reminded her that this wasn’t food fit to be eaten.
But at least, it had allowed her to survive.
There was barely any food to be found in the village. It had been plowed over by war and soldiers time and again, leaving behind only ruins and rubble.
Gwen stood at the village entrance, looking at the place where she had grown up—yet now, she could hardly recognize it. Then, she turned and walked away.
She was still too young to remember the village’s name, or even her parents’ names. Their faces had already become a blur. She had been separated from them for far too long.
She left the village, wearing her favorite yellow dress.
Now, she had no parents, no hometown, no place to return to, and no one waiting for her.
She could only keep moving forward.
But Gwen wasn’t sad. She still had many friends—imaginary friends. She had always loved imagining things. Those imaginary friends had accompanied her through many difficult times.
Of course, there were also the friends from the Link, the ones she could only occasionally connect with.
There was the always-reliable Sister Scepter, the talkative Brother Fries, the quiet Captain, and oh—recently, a new addition—the Writer. They were all Gwen’s friends, irreplaceable ones, her anchors.
Thinking of them, Gwen couldn’t help but smile faintly.
These friends couldn’t be with her day and night, but whenever she needed help, they always managed to come up with strange and clever solutions.
She liked these friends very much. Every single one of them.
She didn’t know when the Link would reconnect again. It had been a long time since she’d talked to her friends. She really wanted to tell them that she had met many new people in the real world, had drunk delicious porridge, and encountered many, many interesting things.
She had traveled to many cities, walked countless roads, and seen all sorts of marvels.
Now she had arrived at Blood Harbor, where she had witnessed a strange cult.
It was her first time seeing the Steam and Deep Sea Hermit Order. Hmm, such a long name.
Gwen smacked her lips. The rice porridge was still warm in her belly. If she could have porridge every day, then staying in Blood Harbor didn’t sound so bad.
To settle down—this was the first time Gwen had ever had such a thought. She had wandered all the way here from the Northlands and had never once considered stopping.
Blood Harbor was a good place. A bit chaotic, sure, but full of kind people and warm porridge.
“Forget it, no need to think so much. Since I’ve had High Priest Josh’s porridge, I’ll just help him with some things.” Gwen muttered softly to herself. Then, she stood up and, smiling, said aloud:
“My friends, come out now. I have something to ask of you again~”
In her eyes, tiny specks of deep blue light flickered.