It was supposed to be a quick job, in and out, no problems. Accidentally freeing a high profile prisoner on her way out and subsequently discovering an evil scheme, was not part of the plan.
Suddenly, it's her own face that Kaia finds on the front o...
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My disguise had worked even better than I'd thought. As soon as they heard the name of my supposed brother, they led me into the headmaster's office straight away. The headmaster turned out to be short balding man in his fifties. The size of his belt made me question how he could look this pompous when most of the kids seemed to be underfed. Then again, they obviously didn't care.
I had to conceal my disgust at the lavishly decorated office and his leering eyes that kept scanning me up in down in what was apparently supposed to be a friendly matter. After listening to my request, he promptly offered to measure my mana purity in order to verify my claims. As if there hadn't been vast differences in mana purity between siblings before.
They must have gotten so confident in their ploy that they didn't expect anyone to have any suspicions about them. Or maybe their confidence strewed from the power of their business partner.
Cane.
I clenched my fists under the table as I thought of him and his oh so generous donation to this orphanage.
People usually mustered up the superficial compassion necessary. The kids had to have a roof over their heads, otherwise it wouldn't look good. But most of them preferred not to look at the misery too closely. If I hadn't had Kieran growing up, I might have ended up in a similar position.
Of course, the headmaster was ecstatic when he got the results of the measurements, and quickly ordered tea and snacks to discuss the follow up procedure. His disgusting face was the last thing I saw before the spiked tea did its work and everything went black.
The next thing I knew, I was in an underground chamber somewhere underneath the orphanage. Nine other kids were lying next to me on the cold floor. Most of them were awake, their eyes fearful. There was a silent threat in the air. Nobody made any sounds aside from the occasionally shuffling around.
After several minutes had passed, the door opened, and a masked man stepped through. We were all wearing mana suppressing chains. He connected them roughly, nearly kicking a kid that didn't get up fast enough.
Our group was led through endless dark tunnels. At some point a distinct smell started to dominate the air around us, and the flow of water could be heard.
The sewers...
The masked man stepped down a small latter onto a narrow sidewalk. Next to it, dark, stinky water was streaming down the corridor.
Ugh.
I didn't have any hands free to cover my nose and I couldn't use magic, so I simply tried to breathe as little as possible, but I was still hard pressed not to gag.
The blonde kid behind me was not so fortunate. I could hear him gagging when the smell got particularly bad.
Hot anger rushed through me as a masked, bulky man from the back end moved forward and kicked him back into line. His skinny body staggered badly. When he nearly fell down again after a few steps, I stepped back and grasped the edge of his shirt, somehow managing to get a hold of him. Barely.
