When Sian was about to talk with the 3 guys, Illianna interrupted. "You've made quite a mess."

"Mess?" Sian asked confused.

Illianna looked from side to side and pointed to the debris scattered around the house. "I remember well when you stormed the mansion, and you paralyzed my father's guards with the pressure of your magic power. Considering they were much stronger than those 3, why didn't you do the same instead of breaking the wall?"

“I did.” Sian replied.

"Then, why did you break the wall?" Illianna pointed upward before continuing. "And to make it even worse, even the roof looks out of place."

After a brief silence, Sian replied. “I got a little excited...”

"Excited?" She asked in a disbelieving tone. "In this situation?"

Sian cleared his throat and replied awkwardly as he looked away from Ophilia's gaze. "It's not that I wasn't worried, but well, it's been a while since I've hit someone and I wanted to take the opportunity to relieve some stress."

"Are you having abstinence from hitting people?" Illianna asked.

“Maybe…”

After a moment of an awkward silence, Sian felt stares had turned to him, so he put his hand on his neck and through the huge hole in the roof, he looked up at the blue sky. "The weather is nice today, don't you think the same?"

"Sometimes I feel you are beyond comprehension." She shook her head in disapproval. "If you had acted like a normal person and walked through the door, you could have avoided a loss."

"It’s all right." Sian shrugged. "We can simply demolish everything and build another one quickly."

Immediately after his words, Tina grabbed his shirt and looked at him anxiously. "I don't want the house Daddy built to be destroyed!"

"Well, I guess that's okay, we don't really need to demolish the house." Placing his hand on Illianna's shoulder, he said. "My dear friend here can leave everything as it was."

Ignoring Illianna's protesting look, he turned to the 3 guys. "Err... What are you guys' names again?"

“Barloc.”

“Taron.”

“Castor.”

The one in the middle, the one on the left and the one on the right answered respectively.

"Alright, since you have acknowledged your mistakes, I will not get rid of you guys." Saying this, he looked at them menacingly. "But for making Tina cry, you guys are going to work on my construction indefinitely, starting from now, any objections?"

Without any sign of hesitation, they accepted immediately.

"But before I forget, I have a few conditions." Faced with those words, the 3 of them swallowed dryly.

"Wh-What would those conditions be?" Trembling slightly, Barloc asked.

"Considering you and your goons have a prejudice against beastkins, I need to take the necessary care to protect my family." Sian gestured with his hand, making them look at Emily and Ophilia. "And to ensure their safety, your words alone will not be enough, do you understand what I mean?"

Those words made the three of them feel obviously tense, but it was understandable, after all, Sian was implying that they should become slaves.

Before a response could come from the three, Ophilia intervened. "Is this really necessary?"

"Of course it is." Sian turned to her. "All care is little when it comes to people like them."

"But they seem to be sorry, they even came to apologize." Ophilia cast a pitying glance at them. "I don't think they'll do anything bad."

"Exactly, they just seem sorry." Moving closer to her, he placed his hands on her shoulder. "I know you are a kind woman, but you must understand that not everyone deserves that kindness. If it wasn't for their fear of dying, they would still be acting the same way as when we saw them that day."

Despite wanting to stay firm, after they looked at each other for a while, Ophilia's gentle, sweet face made Sian give in. "All right, I'll give them a chance."

"Ma'am, thank you for giving us a chance." Visibly more relaxed, the middle guy said, but in just a few seconds, the countenances of all three changed. As if something frightened them, they leaned their heads against the ground. "But we must do this to pay for our sins!"

"Why did their faces changed suddenly?" Ophilia looked confused.

Smiling at her, Sian said. "They probably truly regretted seeing that the person wronged by them was trying to help."

After completing the contract, Sian tried to get more information and find out if they had lied, but it was all real. Since there was no use for them at the moment, he made them go wait for him at the construction site, and told Illianna to repair the huge hole in the house.

Turning to Francionia, she was hugging Tina from behind with her arms going down her shoulders. Sian looked closely at the mother and daughter together, and although Francionia was very thin, the resemblance between the two was enormous. Because of this, he became even more determined to find out if she was the Fran he knew.

Taking a deep breath, he came face to face with her, but while his heart was beating full throttle, his mouth didn't move. It was as if the words were stuck in his throat.

"You fell in love with my mom?" Tina said suddenly and opened her arms, as if to stop his way. "You can't, mom already has dad! Even if it takes a while, he will surely come back one day!"

"You sure can make absurd assumptions out of nothing, huh? Where did this come from?" Although unexpected, Tina's words served to help Sian calm down.

Pointing at him, Tina was about to speak when she had her mouth covered by Francionia. "Dear, you must not be disrespectful to those who helped you, okay? Now thank him along with Mommy."

After saying thank you with Tina, she continued. "We don't have anything of value, but if you need it, I can help as much as I can."

"In that case, I'd like you to answer a few questions for me." staring at her, he continued. "Tell me about your childhood."

"Childhood?" Francionia looked confused.

"Yeah, things like where you were born, where you lived, your friends from back then and stuff like that." Sian said.

As if terrible memories had been brought up, she lowered her head, looking downcast. "I don't think there was anything interesting about my childhood that you might like."

Sensing that her reaction resembled his when he remembered the past, he gripped her shoulders anxiously. "Don't worry, I'd be happy to hear about your past! Anything will do!"

Pushing Sian's belly with both arms, Tina's gaze seemed to say something like, 'Don't get close to my mom!'

"You seem to have your reasons, don't you?" Stroking Tina's head, she looked down and after a brief moment, she seemed to have made up her mind about something. "I was born in the kingdom of Hosnein, in the city of Sunno... I had a lot of fun moments there..."

Her words made Sian's heart pulse even stronger, for Sunno was the same city where he grew up.

Without having the slightest idea of the mess that had formed in Sian's mind, Francionia continued slowly. "I spent practically my entire childhood in an orphanage in that city."

While the hands holding Francionia's shoulders were shaking almost imperceptibly, Sian's heart seemed to be almost coming out of his throat. But seeing that she still kept talking, he tried to endure his anxiety as much as he could.

"I knew a lot of children, so I guess saying a bunch of common names wouldn't be of much use. There was a woman who took care of us, and we all loved her." Directing her gaze to Ophilia, she continued. "If you ignore the difference in race, her appearance was pretty much the same as your wif-"

Before she could finish speaking, Sian dragged her into his arms, and ignoring Tina who was between the two of them, he hugged her tightly.

Everyone present was surprised. Even Illianna stopped the repair she was doing on the house and stood watching the situation.

"So you were alive!" Sian said in a trembling voice. "All this time I thought you were dead..."

Barely recovering from her surprise, Francionia asked bewilderedly. "You- Did you know me?!"

“Yes!” He replied. "It's me, Sian!"

"Little Sian?!" Although she showed a cheerful expression, she soon suppressed it. "No, there's no way you can be him!"

"It's really me! Several things have happened, and I've changed a lot, but I'm still me!" Seeing that Francionia still seemed to doubt, he continued. "Maria, Tod, Bazo, you and me, we were inseparable, remember?"

After a quick initial shock, Francionia trembled and said in a crying voice. "I thought everyone had died... I heard one of the duke's guards say that all the children from the orphanage would be taken there and used in experiments..."

"But we weren't taken, we escaped!" He replied.

Hugging Sian back tightly, tears streamed down Francionia's face.

After so many years of not seeing each other, they sure had a lot of things to talk about. But right now, Sian couldn't utter a single word. Probably being in a similar state as him, Francionia also remained silent while crying weakly. Ignoring the others in the room, all they both did was continue hugging.

Lazy_Acorn

Writing this chapter was harder than I thought it would be. I had to rewrite the second half of the chapter 4 times before I came up with something even remotely satisfactory.

I hope you have enjoyed the chapter.