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nThe night sky was cloudy, sad and overly quiet without the sounds of night creatures.

n~Drrrrrrrrrr~

nThe heavy rain poured down hard on the forest, as it made the land muddy, wet and slippery.

nThe night that was already filled with gloom, suddenly became tense as 3 men currently scrambled through the forests, as if running away from some impending danger.

nThe men with all their might, while trying their best to conserve their energy as well.

nJosh carefully ran, avoiding all the slippery spots on the forest floors deep in thought.

nHe was presently running through the thick forest regions alongside 2 other soldiers.

nAnd where were they?

nIn Deiferus, of course.

nThings should've gone by smoothly. But there was a sudden glitch that left them in deep sh**.

nF***!

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nJosh was out here on a mission, collecting all the thrown and abandoned babies dumped here.

nHe and his team worked alongside some of Henry's most trusted men to scramble and find all the children they could.

nThe scene was not pretty.

nThey found babies already half-eaten, babies whose bodies were badly injured, and even several bones lying about the place.

nSome parts of the lakes they saw were all red.

nProbably, the babies that got dumped into the water were chewed to death by the creatures in the water.

nIt was just too cruel.

nThe forest region around the village was a famous one because it was one of the designated regions where babies were allowed to get dumped.

nNo matter where one was within Deiferus, they could only throw their babies in only 6 Forest regions spread across the Empire.

nAnd there were specific dates when babies got thrown, which was once at the end of every season.

nIt was believed that those were the times when the gates of hell would welcome these children back to where they belonged.

nAfter all, disfigured and weak babies were the sign of evil.

nThere was just a lot of mumbo jumbo involved in these things that made him roll his eyes heavenward in disbelief.

nAnd even though Henry had just taken over, the rules and policy changes hadn't reached all places within Deiferus... Not to talk of the fact that the councils are opposing him for stopping the practice of throwing or killing babies.

nThat said, a large number of babies are still getting dumped at the middle or end of each season.

nDuring Winter, Babies are dumped on March 1~5th.

nDuring Spring, they're dumped on June 1~5th.

nIn Summer, it's September 1~5th.

nAnd in Fall, it's December 1~5th.

nThey usually keep the babies somewhere and feed them well, while transporting them to the designated forest regions that would send them straight back to hell.

nEven if the babies didn't die, it's believed that they must still lead a life of suffering to pay for their sins.

nThat's why many who escape the forest still end up as slaves and so on.

nFor many, that's what they deserve for being born weak or disfigured.

nBut now that Henry took over, they had to stop the practice of throwing babies away.

nOf course, the news hadn't reached all places within Deiferus yet.

nSo that's where they stepped in.

nHenry, alongside Landon, requested that they collect these Babies.

nHenry had already stayed in an orphanage, thanks to the aid of some Baymardians who went to Deiferus as an internship to manage and aid in running the orphanages.

nThey also proposed that the orphanage should try growing food to cut down costs.

nBut they shouldn't be cruel or too demanding of others.

nThey now taught the Deifers how to manage things, care for the children, and so on.

nMany in Baymard also donated to this new orphanage as a charity, which greatly pleased Henry.

nIn fact, Deiferus wasn't the only place that started making orphanages. All other empires did so, taking in abandoned babies and children below a certain age here and there.

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nAnd so, Josh, his men, and Henry's men worked hard finding these lost babies in the woods.

nToday was the 8th of December, and funny enough, the mission was already completed, and the babies were now on their way to the Deiferus' Capital.

nAnd while everyone left, Josh and 4 other soldiers stayed behind.

nWhy? Because they had another mission to complete here.

nAs planned, they had to go undercover and closely watch a few council members in the neighbouring city.

nAnd so, they turned in all their Baymardian gadgets and weapons, wore farmer outfits, a good quality see-through raincoat, rubber farmer boots from Baymard and started farming.

nThey were the items that were already commonly used by many.

nOf course, while undercover, they couldn't carry Baymard gadgets.

nWhat if they got caught?

nThe only time they were allowed to do so, is if they were in a swift mission that involved them killing their targets immediately.

nBut they were here to go undercover and investigate till January 25th.

nSo they had to be as bland as possible.

nNow, they weren't soldiers... but farmers!

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nVery quickly, they found an improvised Inn that allowed them to stay if they could take care of horses in the stables.

nWhen the inn meant staying, they didn't say that they would allow them to sleep on a bed.

nNope!

nThe inn owner emptied one of the stable stalls, asked them to sleep there and keep watch at the horses throughout the night.

nThey were also in charge of removing horse dung, feeding the horses and so on.

nAt first, Josh wanted to work as a farmer.

nBut this arrangement was also good.

nThey also worked alongside a few arrogant stable boys

/men.

nAnother thing to know about their work is that they typically slept after 2 A.M.

nSome customers who were drinking late into the night, would then take their horses to ride back home.

nWhether they got back safely or not was none of their business.

nThe inn owner just wanted them awake to hand over the horses.

nAnyway, Josh wasn't complaining about this setup.

nIt worked just well for him.

nAt night, 3 of them went out to investigate, while 2 stayed behind to keep a lookout at things in the inn.

nThat's how they had been doing for the last two days.

nBut today, things seemed to go completely wrong.

nDammit!

nWhat now?

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