Hugh took them through the city towards the Northeast district. They were quite a sight: three children dashing about with a rat on one of their shoulders. Yet thanks to Hugh’s non-verbal directions and the children’s own experience in blending into the background, they managed to cross through several districts towards the Gawain mansion.

As they approached the mansion, he caught the two Reptillians talking to one another.

“Isn’t this the districts with all the rich jerks…?”

“Maybe the rat is one of them?”

He let them speculate. The sister Orc was too intent on getting help for her brother to join in the conversation.

As they approached the mansion, Hugh was surprised to see that all the lights of the mansion were on. Was something going on? At any rate, he encouraged the children to knock on the door.

Immediately it opened to reveal a breathless Ruth. Hugh could see that Sarah and Billy were nearby.

Her eyes looked confused at the sight of three children, but narrowed down to Hugh who sat on the sister Orc’s shoulder.

“Hugh…?”

He nodded. Ruth held out a hand for him to jump on, which he did. Then he gestured greatly towards the children.

Ruth bent down so she was at the same height as the children. “I am Ruth Gawain. May I ask for your names?”

The children introduced themselves. The sister Orc was Ginny, and the Reptillians were Gani and Bayani (twins).

Ginny then proceeded to tell the whole story. They were orphans living under the roof of a kindly Sea Elf matron named Liliana. However, it became difficult to upkeep the well-being of five children and an adult, so Liliana borrowed money from a man who lived nearby. At first he was kindly - “But he smelled like bad business!” - and one day he suddenly turned on them. He forced drugs into Liliana’s body, rendering her incapable of fighting back. Then he made the children steal money from the streets.

“But then this rat saved my brother!”

Recounting the story up to what happened, Ruth nodded towards Sarah and Billy in the background, then turned her smile towards the children. “All right, you three stay here at the mansion with Sarah. That’s the nice maid over there. Billy and I will go to your house with Hugh and make sure your mother and brother are all right,” Ruth let Hugh jump onto her shoulder (Sarah made a face at that) and they were on their way.

As Ruth, Billy and Hugh made their way, Billy looked astounded at the rat. “Is that really you, Hugh?” He nodded. “Amazing, so that’s the magic of shapeshifting…I’m more surprised that the missus managed to recognise you.”

“I merely followed my intuition.”

At any rate, when they reached the house, several Adventurer’s Guild members were there waiting for them.

“Miss Gawain,” a senior member bowed to Ruth. “We’ve secured the culprit and the two victims inside. We’ve sent the matron and one of the children to the hospital.”

“Very good, your quick work is appreciated as always captain.”

The man nodded politely. “What shall we do with the Goliath child?”

“I will bring him to my mansion. The other children are there waiting for them.”

Hugh jumped off Ruth’s shoulder to approach the Goliath child. He was sniffling a little, so Hugh hopped onto his hand and let the child pat him.

After that, Ruth took some time to tidy up the matter - making sure the culprit was behind bars - while the five children stayed at the Gawain mansion. That however is not yet the conclusion.

A few days passed. After regaining his energy, Hugh transformed back to his normal humanoid self. This was of great interest to the children, who immediately requested him to change into various animals.

Thankfully, Ruth stepped in.

“Matty, Ginny, Gani, Bayani and Indra.” The children immediately gave her their attention. “You have a decision to make.”

“Your mother Liliana will be in the hospital for a long while to treat the effects of the drug. Until then, where will you stay?”

“Can’t we stay here with Hugh?” They clung onto him to emphasise their point.

Ruth kneeled down to their level, but her face was serious.

“I don’t take on freeloaders. If you want to stay here, you have to help in some way.”

The children looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Matty joked, “Well I guess you don’t need us to go stealing stuff.” That made the other children glare at him, and Ginny elbowed him in the side.

“Well if you want to stay here…” Ruth paused, then smiled. “You’ll have to help Sarah keep this place clean.

As you can see, Gawain mansion is a little too big for only four of us to keep clean. So if you want to stay here, you have to listen to what Sarah says to do. Do you want that?”

The children immediately chimed in their approval.

“You also have to go to school.”

That made them grumble in protest.

“It’s important that you learn things now. Then when you grow up, you can help your mother by doing jobs around the city.”

“But I heard school is boring,” Gani said.

“And scary,” Bayani chimed in.

Ruth shook her head. “Not this school. I know because I’m in charge of it.”

“Wow, does that mean we get to study in Janiga Academy!?” Ginny was immediately ecstatic.

“Yes. I’ve already done your admission forms, so all that’s left is to get the headmaster’s signature and you’ll be in class next Monday.”

“That’s so cool!” Ginny proceeded to tell the other children what she heard about Janiga Academy’s Primary School section.

“All right, now you have to go find Sarah and ask her what needs to be done. Can you do that?” they nodded and immediately went to search for Sarah.

That left Hugh and Ruth alone together.

That actually was the first time they were alone with each other. Hugh felt very awkward and wondered what to say.

“Hugh.” “Ruth-”

Both of them paused, then chuckled at the very awkward atmosphere.

“Hugh, I am truly sorry. Especially about the way Sarah treated you.”

“Oh, uh… that’s okay-”

“No, it’s not okay. As I mentioned to you before, an aide is not a servant. Sarah was harbouring some misconceptions about what an aide does. I understand if you’re not interested in the position now, with what you experienced.”

She gave him an opportunity to leave, but that wasn’t what Hugh wanted at all.

“…you said that an aide is a friend. And yeah, Sarah wasn’t the friendliest, but she did show me around the mansion in a way. I’m not making excuses for her behaviour, and… I want to stay here. I mean,” he laughed. “We just became friends and already you want me to leave? That’s kinda cold.”

From his laugh she knew he was being kind. “Thank you.”

He waved it off. “But I’m still not so sure about what an aide actually does, so I guess we have to talk about it.”

“Actually I’m not too sure either,” Hugh’s brows raised at that. “All the Gawains and their aides have different relationships with each other, but one thing in common is that they all start out as friends.”

“Huh, is that so…” Hugh nodded. “Okay, I’ll become the bestest of friends to you Ruth! That’s my job as your aide.”

Ruth chuckled. “Looking forward to it too, Hugh my friend.”