Delayed Transfer

Mark, the twins, and Liriel soon arrived at a manor consisting of a three-story building. The huge house looked serviceable enough but there were signs of neglect, which was probably normal since the house did look very old.

The courtyard was huge and children were playing in it. Based on a quick count, there were eight children ranging from three years old to ten years old. Mark didn’t see the four kids he saw while he was roaming the forest beside the circus.

When the children saw Mark, the twins, and Liriel, the kids went directly to them while some of them ran towards the house probably to tell them that a visitor had come in.

“Hello, mister. Who are you?” One of the kids asked.

“Are you leaving your kids in the orphanage?” Another kid asked.

Mark felt a bit alarmed when he heard one of the orphanage kids ask that question since he thought that it might hurt the twins and Liriel but the twins just laughed.

“No, silly. Mark is our brother and we’re visiting you guys,” Isaac said.

“We’re from the circus and we’re here to give you food!” Aaron added.

“And also to invite you to become our crewma…..uumph,” Isaac said but was interrupted by Mark who put his hands on the kid’s mouth.

“You can’t spring it out like that! You need to befriend them first,” Mark whispered to Isaac and the twins nodded their realization.

The orphans looked at them suspiciously which made Mark almost laugh out loud. Soon an old woman and a woman in her early twenties came out of the house. When they arrived at the gate where Mark, the twins, and Liriel were waiting, he immediately introduced himself.

“Mello, Madam, Miss, my name is Mark and these are my siblings Isaac, Aaron, and Liriel. I came from the circus. While I was roaming around in the forest beside the circus I noticed a few children looking for herbs so I came here together with my siblings to check if we can help out in the form of a donation.”

The two women who were looking at him seriously at first smiled when they heard that Mark came with good intentions.

“Thank you, Sir Mark. We definitely could use some help. Please come in. My name is Mary and this is Madam Lucy,” The young woman said.

“Kids, say hello to Miss Luch and Miss Mary,” Mark said to the twins and Liriel and the twins said hello as well.

What was surprising was, that Liriel said hello as well then they followed the women inside the house and were led to the living room.

“Would you like to have some water? I’m sorry, right now that’s the only thing that we could offer you,” Miss Mary said to them.

The orphans didn’t follow them inside the living room but almost all of them were watching from the doorway or the window.

“Mark, I’m hungry. Can we eat snacks now? We can invite the beautiful lady and the grandmother to eat with us,” Isaac whispered but since it was very loud, the two orphanage caretakers heard them which made the two women laugh.

“Is it okay for me to serve snacks for my siblings and to you and the other children as well? I promised my brothers and sister that once we arrived here we can eat snacks and share them with you as well,” Mark asked the ladies and Miss Mary and Miss Lucy just nodded.

Mark began replicating boxes of donuts of different flavors. Each box contained a dozen donuts so after he thought that there were enough for all of them to eat at least three donuts each, he stopped. He also replicated liters of fruit juices but stopped when Isaac loudly said that he wanted soda so he replicated liters of soda and plastic cups so everyone could drink them. He also made sure to conjure lots of napkins that everyone could use to hold the donuts then inform Miss Lucy what the donuts were.

When everything was ready, Mark waited for what Miss Lucy and Miss Mary would do. Suddenly Miss Mary clapped her hands loudly surprising the twins and Liriel. The kids that they were looking after ran inside the living room so fast that it seemed like they appeared as if they were conjured by magic. Then they lined themselves which showed how the two ladies disciplined the kids well.

There were actually sixteen children all in all ranging from three years old to ten years old and the young ones were being looked after by the oldest children.

“Children, Sir Mark, and his siblings gave us some delicious bread for our snack today. There would be three breads for each child but I’ll only give you two now and one after dinner tonight. You can have up to two glasses of drinks that Sir Mark also brought, all right!”

After all of the donuts were distributed, everyone enjoyed the snacks, and as usual, the kids kept exclaiming that donuts were the food of the gods since it was the most delicious thing they had ever eaten in their lives. Even Miss Mary and Miss Lucy enjoyed the donuts very much.

The twins and Liriel integrated themselves with the orphans seamlessly and remembered that his siblings were all orphans as well. Mark then remembered that he was an orphan too.

Mark and the two ladies listen to the twins telling their stories to the other kids. How their parents were killed by very powerful ancient beholder monsters, that Mark took them in as his brothers, and that an evil wizard kidnaped Liriel, and when the wizard was killed, Mark took Liriel in as his sibling as well.

After telling that gloomy past story, the twins then told the other children their experiences in the circus and Mark was happy to hear that all of them were truly happy ones. The orphans hung on the twins’ every word up until the twins started talking about the Star Wars movie. Every child there started to get confused. Even the two lady caretakers were looking at the twins with confusion on their faces.

“Miss Lucy, Miss Mary please don’t mind my siblings talk. They’re just talking about the Star Wars movies which were unique shows that our circus presents and they are especially enamored about the characters inside the unique shows and kept playing as those characters. They already recruited all the circus children to their games and all the children that we came in contact with, they would try to recruit as their playmates.”

“It’s nice of you to take them in when their parents died,” Miss Mary said.

“I was the one who killed the ancient beholders so it felt like my responsibility to make sure that the twins were taken care of and I do have the means to take them in. Besides, we have a lot of people in our circus family and all of us are helping each other to take care of everyone. It’s the same with Liriel. The wizard who was holding on to Liriel targeted me for my wealth and he was killed by the members of the circus who ensured our safety. After investigation, we were sure that Liriel is not related to that wizard but we have no way of pinpointing her family so I decided to take her in as well.”

Mark saw that the two lady caretakers of the orphanage were looking at him favorably and he felt a bit embarrassed so he continued eating his donuts.