Chapter 44: Chapter 43 Naughty Child

Chris stood calmly with his hands clasped behind his back in the open space outside the orphanage, looking toward the group of children who had come out to play.

He seemed out of place, his eyes looking too much like those of a grown adult, as if he were a staff member there to look after the children.

“Hey, isn’t there anyone for you to play with?”

A girl with light green short hair and a crutch came over, slightly older than Chris, her pale and chubby face all smiles.

Her right leg had a congenital severe deformation, the cause of which was extremely strange, such that even Irene could not cure it.

Chris simply looked over at her with his hands behind his back, without speaking.

“My name is Vanessa. I came here because my parents abandoned me. Hello.”

Vanessa introduced herself enthusiastically, not showing any sadness even when mentioning her abandonment.

Suddenly, she noticed Chris’s clothes were completely different from theirs, with an entirely different look and texture, probably worlds apart in price, and laughed:

“You don’t seem to be from here! I might have misunderstood, but you can play with us if you want!”

Chris shook his head in refusal, and Vanessa was puzzled as to why he just wouldn’t speak.

Suddenly, a little chubby kid came running over with a few other children and surrounded Chris, the chubby kid shouting angrily.

“You pushed me from behind last time! Don’t think I won’t dare to hit you just because you are the director’s brother!”

Chris silently, with his hands still behind his back, hopped back rhythmically and deftly dodged all attacks, then quite naturally stuck out his foot,

and with a yelp, the chubby kid tripped and fell face-first into the ground.

Vanessa quickly intervened, frowning and shouting, “Stop, no fighting! Why did you push him from behind before?”

She wanted to hear the explanation from the director’s brother. The director was the kindest person in the world, and surely her brother had a reason for pushing someone.

Chris said a word after a long silence.

“Interesting.”

Vanessa was furious, seizing Chris’s collar filled with a sense of justice.

“Then you apologize! In my eyes, Hospital Director Irene is like a sister to me, so you’re like a little brother, which means I have to take responsibility for you. You must apologize!”

Chris didn’t like being touched by anyone other than Irene, and he glanced coldly at Vanessa, but she wasn’t at all afraid of him and was determined that he should apologize.

For some reason, a complicated emotion rose in Chris’s heart, not just anger, and he suddenly pushed her down and turned to run away.

“Ah!”

Vanessa hadn’t expected such an outcome and fell to the ground in a sorry state, sweating coldly from pain.

Chris, hearing the noise, stopped a short distance away and turned back to glance at her, hesitating, but when he saw the chubby kid and others starting to throw stones, he swiftly turned and ran off again.

The children were all angry, hurriedly helping Vanessa get up, as they all liked Vanessa, who always helped others and was forever optimistic.

“That’s terrible; that boy is awful. I can’t believe the director has such a horrible brother!”

“Yes, he’s dreadful. He actually pushed Vanessa over.”

After the children helped Vanessa up, her face still breaking out in cold sweat, she shook her head and said:

“Next time I see him, as his sister, I will thoroughly teach him a lesson.”

She paused and then smiled, “Sister Irene always said that every child can be taught well, that there’s hope for any child, and I believe that in my heart too.”

A few children who had stolen things in the past bowed their heads, unable to forget Irene’s teachings, believing they could all grow up to be useful people.

Vanessa, full of aspirations for the future, murmured to herself as she looked at her deformed and unsightly right leg, smilingly saying:

“My leg is bad, so I want to learn to read and do math to be able to repay Sister Irene and the Fischer family when I grow up.”

“Good people should receive good fortunes.”

That evening, Vanessa, as usual, came to the hospital director’s room of the orphanage, where Irene calmly used her healing power to ease Vanessa’s pain.

Vanessa’s deformed right leg was the result of a curse placed on her parents or ancestors or a deal made with a mystical being. Therefore, it was fundamentally the influence of extraordinary power and not a disease that could be healed.

All Irene could do was alleviate the pain. Now, Vanessa was sitting on her lap, serenely feeling that verdant power that was like a breath of spring.

Even though she couldn’t be cured and become normal, Vanessa felt profoundly grateful to Hospital Director Irene from the bottom of her heart.

“Did you meet Chris today?”

Irene had long been using the “Secret Ear Technique” to create several ring-like patterns around the orphanage, which she used to eavesdrop on events there, and she basically had a good grasp of the daily happenings.

“Yes, I did.”

Vanessa was initially keen to report on Chris but quickly felt it might not be right and hesitated.

Irene wanted to know if Vanessa would lie to her. Smiling and caressing the girl, she asked, “Tell me then, what happened between you two?”

After thinking for a bit, Vanessa nodded and said, “Okay.”

She recounted the events truthfully but still hoped that Irene wouldn’t blame Chris, feeling that Chris too could reform.

Irene had noticed that Chris was becoming increasingly strange-tempered of late, but she could never quite manage her brother, unlike how she maintained her seriousness with the children of the orphanage.

Vanessa was a very special girl, not merely because of her physically disabled form.

It was extremely rare, but Vanessa possessed undeveloped spellcasting talent with potential that was considered above average.

The world of spellcasting contained wild and varied types, but ninety-nine percent of spellcasters had talents that fell into one of the eight main categories.

They were “Element,” “protect,” “prophecy,” “alchemy,” “Summoning,” “undead,” “Transformation,” and “Mental.” One could only learn spells corresponding to the category of their spellcasting talent.

Her spellcasting talent category was “Summoning.”

However, for the time being, the Fischer family lacked the tradition of summoning spellcasters, and they also didn’t think it was good to train a spellcaster who could not be controlled too early.

Irene thought it wise to first build a closer relationship with Vanessa and cultivate her character.

After observing for a while, she found that, despite her tragic fate, Vanessa had a remarkably cheerful and sunny disposition. However, the little girl also had one big flaw.

That was, her sense of justice was too strong, and she was too dismissive of her own safety.

Once Irene left Daybreak Orphanage and returned home, she went down to the basement, where Byrne and Chris were already waiting for her.

Tonight they were about to conduct a new ceremony to sacrifice a mysterious rare artifact given by an out-of-town merchant to the great Lord of the Lost.

The merchant had once been cured of an illness by Irene. At the time, he had been short of funds and was unable to repay her, but had recently kept his promise by acquiring the mysterious rare artifact to repay his debt.

Irene glanced at Chris, who, as usual, appeared calm.

She nodded her head and said, “Let us begin the ceremony and offer our sacrifice.”

The offering prepared by the Fischer family that night was a collectible class mysterious rare artifact shaped like an exceedingly dark bracelet, set with irregular, scattered diamonds.

“Blade Bangle,” it contained extremely peculiar powers. Whoever wore the bangle on the right hand could transform anything they touched into various weapons at will.

However, all the transformed weapons were ordinary, without extraordinary power. Thus, at best, it was only a collectible class mysterious rare artifact.

Karl sensed the aura of spiritual power and slowly absorbed it into his soul, gradually assimilating it. During the whole process, the second seal became increasingly loose.

Ultimately, the mysterious rare artifact acted as the final straw. After complete absorption, he clearly felt the second seal within the depths of his soul shatter completely!

Brand new memories began to surge from the deepest parts of his soul, instantly unlocking a starkly different set of possibilities for Karl!