After a night of deep sleep and dreams that felt too real to be excused as fabricated thoughts that his tired mind had pieced together after his fight, the ten year-old boy was stirred awake by a cautious finger repeatedly tapping against the tip of his nose. "Guh…?! What the hell is- Oh," the boy muttered with a perplexed and annoyed tone in his groggy voice, as he found himself looking up into a curious pair of large apricot-colored eyes that belonged to the red-headed child kneeling down beside his head.
"Good morning, "Goblin Slayer"! Mother Mary told me to get you up out of bed; so that's what I came here to do!" The chipper six-year old announced with a bombastic smile across her soft-pink lips, while beginning to suddenly rub her small fingers across the confused and tired boy's face.
Frowning and feeling grump, the boy narrowed his eyes as he watched as she gazed intriguingly down on him with a sense of curiosity and wonderment on her face. "What are you even- k-knock it out already!" The agitated boy snapped with a flustered look on his face, as he brushed the girl's small hand away from, before immediately sitting up from the bedding he had been laying on.
Pouting her bottom lip out with an amused look in her eye, the red-headed girl chuckled to herself as she scooted herself closer toward the boy, so that she was kneeling down directly beside him on his right-side. "You're kind of a grumpy kid, ain't ya? That's okay, I think I would be in a bad mood too if I smelt as badly as you did, haha!" The girl giggled, as she pinched her nose shut playfully to gesture to how badly the boy stunk from the previous night.
Before the boy could think of a comeback, it was then that he was reminded of the fact that his mind had an unexpected stowaway within it. "Normally, a child as free-spoken as her should be reminded what her place is with a swift, but fair, smack on the rear… However, I don't think such a disciplinary action would be appropriate if you were the one to deliver it… That, and she very much has a valid point: you are in need of a bath, child," the white-haired knight spoke within his consciousness; causing the boy to suddenly become self conscious of how filthy he was.
'Wait?! I'm STILL wearing these crappy clothes?! Ugh, I feel disgusting right now…!' The boy thought to himself with a distraught expression forming on his blushing face, as one purposeful whiff of his bloodied and compost-covered shirt caused his eyes to begin watering up slightly. "Aw man, this sucks… Wait, hold on a sec…" The boy muttered quietly to the girl beside him, as he shifted his gaze from the green blanket that had been covering his lower body, before beginning to take notice of the large room that he had awoken in.
Cramped with similar beddings that took were placed neatly around the crowded bunk beds that were placed in rows within the large room he was in, the only indications that the boy had to know that he was safe were the religious artwork placed onto the white-painted walls he was surrounded by, along with various furniture that was meant to be a resting area over by a dedicated corner of the room he was in.
With his surroundings brightly illuminated from the white-light radiating from the small glass-blown lanterns strung up together across the ceiling above— a unique phenomena and decoration that the boy had never seen before in his life— he was able to recognize some of the more catatonic children as those who hr had rescued the night prior. "… Hey kid, uhh… What, umm… What is this place?" The boy asked curiously, while trying his best to reaccounts the moments from last night, before he had passed out from exhaustion.
Giving the boy a double take, as if though she wasn't sure whether or not he was joking with her not, the six year-old girl blinked a few times at him before smiling once again. "Hehe! Oh, wow…! You sound like you've never been to an orphanage before; must be nice, huh?!" The amused girl with red hair asked, which caught the already confused boy off guard.
'Crap… She's making it seem like I'm an awful person,' the boy thought to himself with a single sweat drop appearing on the side of his sore cheek, as he lowered the tops of his eyelids while turning to face back towards the young girl. "T-That's not what I meant…! Besides, my parents are gone too, so it's not like all that much different from anyone else here," the boy argued in a quiet voice, while the six year-old continued to grin happily at him.
"Pffftt! Yeah, okay; sure! Let's go with that, haha! Cause every kid in this joint defeated an army of goblins on their own too; totally relatable, hehe!" The girl snickered sarcastically while shaking her head to herself, appearing as though she was trying to calm herself down. "Hehe, ahhhh… Anyway "Stinky", let's get you up and at 'em'! Imma take you to the church's bathhouse, and let you wash all that crap off of ya, mmkay?" The girl said enthusiastically, as she stood up from the floor and while fixing the knee-high skirt of her beige-colored casual dress, before extending her hand down to offer it to the mildly embarrassed boy.
Unable to argue with the young girl, the young boy begrudgingly took her hand before being caught off guard by how strong the six year-old was for a child her size. Up on his feet within less than a second, the boy turned his head one more time away from the girl to scan his surroundings, before looking back at her with a pair of concerned eyes. "Thanks for the help, uhhh…?"
"Scarlet! Scarlet LeFay!" The red-headed girl introduced herself with a playful bow, as she lifted the sides of her skirt while kneeling down momentarily. "How about you, "Goblin Slayer"? What's your actual name, huh?" Scarlet asked, while receiving a questioning glance from the boy, as he turned his head forward to meet her smiling face once more.
'… That's the second time she's called me that name. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it,' the boy thought to himself and his servant.
"It's a fitting name, "Goblin Slayer"; one that's accurate, might I add," the white-haired servant mused with an approving tone in her voice, while the red-haired girl stared expectantly at her master. "I take it it's your first meaningful title, so my advice to you child is for you to wear it like a badge of honor; after all, there's a lot of power behind a name that's given to you."
'Uh… Okay? If you say so,' Goblin Slayer replied back to his servant within the sanctity of his mind( shaking his head softly, as if to gesture to the confused girl standing before him that he had been lost in thought. "Sorry about that, Scarlet, I was just, uh… Thinking about stuff, that was all," Goblin Slayer apologized with a soft smile across his lips, and watched with relief as the girl's smile returned.
"Yeah, I figured as much, hehe…! I mean… Just look around us, Goblin Slayer: the kids from your village were miserable and weird since they got here," Scarlet mused with an uncomfortable tone in her voice; unable to really grasp the situation thoroughly, but the look on her face made it clear enough that she understood that something horrible took place in the neighboring village.
"Y-Yeah, it was, uh… It was pretty bad, actually…" Goblin Slayer muttered back agreeingly, as he felt his stomach turning with dread and disgust; shivering at the mental glimpse he took of all the vile acts he caught the goblins doing with the children, before he could rescue them from their attackers.
"But anyway… My name is "Ren Ashta", and my sister's name is "Vivian Ashta", but she goes by "Vivi" for short… Do you think you can help me find her, after I get washed up, Scarlet? You seem pretty familiar with this place," Goblin Slayer mused, after having politely asked Scarlet his question.
Instead of giving him an immediate response, the red haired child grabbed him by the hand; giving it a reassuring squeeze, before walking through the aisles of bunk-beds and floor-laid bedding, to where the stairs that would lead them upstairs were located on the opposite side of the large-crowded room. "Heh! Yeah, of course; I'll help you find her later, for sure!" Scarlet replied happily, as she and Goblin Slayer got up to the top-step of the stairs; walking into a medium-sized room that was decorated to be a reading area that led into the church's white-painted hallway.
Escorted through the halls of the chapel, Goblin Slayer had passed through the busy kitchen within the back of the holy building; getting a glimpse at all the nuns and clerics preparing ingredients for what smelt like beef stew. With his stomach growling, Goblin Slayer did his best to ignore his hunger pains while being led through the main worshiping area by Scarlet, who took him out through the church's front courtyard and around the large white-painted building, until they were in the grassy back area of the chapel.
Walking along the stone pathway toward the several rectangular buildings that were lined up behind the rather impressive village church, Goblin Slayer was explained which buildings were which, before being taken into the children's bathhouse; located directly behind the women's. Before stepping through the heavy-duty wooden door into the windowless white bathhouse, Goblin Slayer managed to realize that the church was built on a medium sized hill that overlooked the entirety of the homes within the walled-off village; including an area down by the river that cut through the village, that had many tent-houses erected near the waterway.
When asking about it, Scarlet told Goblin Slayer that the "tent-city" was where the teenage and adult women refugees from his village had been assigned to sleep; claiming that they were only meant to be temporary housing, until the church could help each and every family get back on their feet. Comforted by the thought of those who he once called his neighbors being taken care of by those who the red-headed girl made to sound benevolent, Goblin Slayer took a glance up at the beautiful blue sky and frowned to himself as he noticed the rising white-smoke from the far distance.
Together, Goblin Slayer and Scarlet were able to fill an empty and smooth wooden tub with enough hot water from the boiling iron vat of liquid that was being magically heated in the corner of the room by a light-purple flame. Handing the boy a wicker basket with a bar of soap, two body towels and a single body scrubber, Scarlet followed Goblin Slayer toward the edge of the bathtub before beginning to pull her raggedy dress off of her petite body; much to the boy's confusion and embarrassment.
Averting his eyes away from her bare chest, the boy's cheeks were immediately turning pink as he raised a hand up to block the corner of his peripheral vision from accidentally catching a peak at the young girl, as she tossed aside her beige-colored dress before beginning to slide her underwear down past her slim thighs. "I… I thought this bath was intended for me?" Goblin Slayer asked nervously, and let out an uncomfortable whine as soon as he heard Scaret's loosened panties fall to the linoleum floor.
Liberated from her clothes, Scarlet tilted her head with a confused smile on her face as she saw just how prudish the boy was being with her. "Yeah, it was! But I thought it would make sense if we could both get cleaned up before breakfast! Hope that isn't a problem; cause you're sure acting like it is…!" Scarlet said half-jokingly, while laughing to herself as she climbed up the step-stool that was placed beside the large tub of hot water, before easing herself inside. "Ahhhh…! Come on in; the water is fine!"
Reluctant to join the eager girl in the bath water, was thinking about making an excuse as to why he couldn't hop into the water with her, but it was then that his servant once again intruded his thoughts. "Why do you hesitate, child? You are an extension of me, and shouldn't feel intimidated by another child that's even smaller than you are… You had no problem running head-on into groups of disgusting goblins; I don't understand how this is a problem for you," the white-haired knight mused; making the boy feel all that much more self-conscious about the situation than he already was.
'It's weird, okay! This is WAY different from last night!' Goblin Slayer protested internally, while slowly lowering his hand from the side of his face. 'This might not be as bad as fighting a bunch of goblins, but like… I don't know! She's a girl, and I've never even seen a girl naked before— not even my own sister by accident— so…! Yeah…! It's weird,' Goblin Slayer repeated himself within his thoughts, as he continued to avoid looking at Scarlet while clumsily taking off his dirty garments of clothing as quickly as he could.
"You're overthinking this, child… Just get in the water and wash the filth off of your body. And remember to make do with the niceties; you cannot afford to burn your bridge with her," his servant reminded, after having become disinterested in her master's personal struggles.
'Uh… Yes, Dame Knight,' Goblin Slayer replied silently to his white-haired knight, before gathering up the courage to climb up the step stool. Sinking his exposed body into the pool of hot water, it took Goblin Slayer time to slowly adjust to the heat of the bathtub before finally letting out a sigh of contentment. "Ahhh… That's much better…" Goblin Slayer muttered with his eyelids closed softly, as he rested his back against the opposite side of the tub where Scarlet was seated.
Splashing around as she got up from her spot, Scarlet chuckled amusingly to herself as she wadded over to the center of the bathtub. "Hehe, hey Goblin Slayer, you forgot to bring the basket up here," the young girl announced to the relaxed boy, as she leaned over the edge of the wooden tub to pick the wicker basket up off of the floor; wiggling her hips to splash around more in the hot water, before pulling the wicker basket up and setting it on the edge of the wooden tub.
Frowning slightly with his brows furrowing downward, the boy opened one eyelid out of curiosity of why the girl was making so much noise in the water, before immediately shutting his eyelid closed; after accidentally getting an eyeful of her little round bottom as she turned around to make her way back to her spot with a bar of soap and a small pink-colored scrubber. "… I don't understand why you keep calling me that, Scarlet. I already told you my name, didn't I?" Goblin Slayer asked rhetorically, before begrudgingly leaning forward to begin getting the top of his head wet.
Shrugging her small shoulders while getting the luffa suddy, Scarlet continued to rub the bar of soap against the pink scrubbing fabric before leaning forward to hand the bar over to him. "Sorry about that, it's just that the name sounded really cool when I heard Mother Mary talking about you when she was with the others who work at the church," Scarlet explained after apologizing half-heartedly, while watching curiously with an intrigued look in her apricot-colored eyes as Goblin Slayer began to scrub his somewhat messy hair with the bar of soap.
Arching an eyebrow while still keeping his eyelids shut, Goblin Slayer submerged his head into the hot water before coming back up for air; his light-brown hair obscuring his eyes, as he let out a concerned sigh. "They were talking about me…? Is that…? Is that a bad thing?" He asked quietly in a low voice, to which Scarlet shook her head playfully at.
"No, not at all! Mother Mary was talking a bunch of good stuff about you; about how blessed and stuff everyone in your village were that you were there to save them," Scarlet replied enthusiastically, while softly scrubbing the luffa in circular motions against her flat chest; giggling to herself, as she felt her pink nipples hardening from the strange stimulation she was giving to herself. "You're practically a hero in Londobell! That's the name of our village, by the way; just so you're not confused, hehe!"
"Londobell…?" Goblin Slayer muttered to himself. And while the red-headed girl was absentmindedly playing with her body in the midst of scrubbing the grime off of her skin, her words made him once again think of the horrific sights he had encountered while ridding his village of their green-skinned raiders. "Anyway… I really don't know about all of that, Scarlet… I didn't really end up saving them in time to prevent the goblins from hurting them, so… Not sure if that makes me much of a hero."
Shaking her head lightly at the doubtful boy, Scarlet began scrubbing her head as she watched the frown grow across his soft lips. "You're being too grumpy with yourself…! Just because you didn't do as good as you wanted, doesn't make you any less of a hero in my book…" Scarlet reassured with a slightly smitten smile forming on her blushing cheeks, as she washed the back of her ears and neck. "And besides… From what I overheard last night while I was helping give out blankets to all of the refugees, the women who could talk normally were saying a bunch of good things about you!"
Being too mentally exhausted to argue against Scarlet's comforting words, Goblin Slayer took solace in her eye-witness account of what some survivors from his village had apparently said about him. 'At the end of the day, I guess going through all that terrible crap and being able to eventually recover from it is better than the alternative…' Goblin Slayer mused to himself, as he softly opened his eyelids; letting out a quiet sigh of relief, once he realized that he couldn't see Scarlet's bare body through the soapy surface of the water she was mostly submerged in. "Thanks… That actually kind of made me feel a little bit better."
Nodding her head with a sweet and excitable smile across her pink lips, Scarlet's hand breached out of the surface of hot water to give Goblin Slayer a small thumbs up. "Good! There's already enough sad kids here as it is, Goblin Slayer; no need for you to be one of them, hehe, eh…" The red-headed girl said half-jokingly; her smile diminishing a bit, as she and the boy sitting across from her both took a moment to read the room around them.
Tightening his frown after seeing most kids taking baths around him being either catatonic or sobbing to themselves quietly, Goblin Slayer exchanged uneasy glances with Scarlet before letting out an elongated sigh under his breath. "Yeah, no kidding…" The boy muttered quietly with a sympathetic look in his dusty-rose colored eyes. "It seems so miserable here… How are you so upbeat, compared to everyone else?"
Shrugging her shoulders again while her lips relaxed into a soft smile, Scarlet thought about her answer before finally knowing that to say. "I dunno; I never really thought about it before, but… I think knowing that this isn't forever, and that there's more outside of this orphanage really gives me something to look forward to when I grow up! Like, I really, REALLY want to join the "Adventurers' Guild" when I turn thirteen!" She said with an enthusiastic tone in her cute voice, as she watched curiously as Goblin Slayer began using the bar of soap to wash his body underneath the surface of the bubbly water.
Curious as to what she was talking about, Goblin Slayer raised an intrigued brow at her before asking her "What's the "Adventurers' Guild"?"
Letting out an over dramatic gasp, Scarlet's eyes shot wide open as she covered her gaped mouth with one hand, before slowly lowering it back underneath the water. "Are you being serious right now…?! How the heck haven't you heard of the Adventurers' Guild?! They're the guys who the King puts in charge of with giving out quests and rewards; and don't tell me you haven't at least heard of what an "adventurer" is…!"
"Uh, no; I know what an "adventurer" is… My best friend and I always pretend that we're adventurers whenever we play together. Or at least we used to; not so sure if she's ever going to move back to the frontier once her uncle finds out what happened to our village," Goblin Slayer spoke aloud to himself, more so than to Scarlet, while silently being thankful that his best friend hadn't been there during the goblin raid. "But to answer your question, ummm… I… I've never really left my village before, so aside from books I've never really known much outside of farm-life, so… I guess it never occured to me that being an adventurer was an actual job; sort of just thought they were all make-believe, and only existed in stories."
Blinking a few times at the boy across from her with a blank look on her face, Scarlet needed a few moments to try to understand Goblin Slayer's logic before finally opening her mouth to speak. "So, like… I'm guessing you believed in goblins before your village got raided by them, so… You're telling me that you were fine believing little green guys who stole and did bad stuff, but you never actually believed that people got paid to go out and slay monsters or bad guys…?" Scarlet asked with a dumbfounded expression, as Goblin Slayer softly shrugged his shoulders.
"I mean… Isn't that why knights and mercenaries exist? To protect the kingdom from threats like that?" Goblin Slayer argued without knowing just how naive he appeared to the younger girl, while silently thinking to himself 'Or at least that's how it's supposed to go… Those crappy guards who were supposed to be guarding the front gate sure did suck at protecting us.'
Taking in a deep and silent breath to fill her small lungs up to their max capacity, Scarlet began to go on a long winded tangent about how important the Adventurer's Guild was to helping the kingdom; stating how the brave adventurers were there to involve themselves in important matters in which the King couldn't spare his stretched-thin army to handle for themselves. Scarlet told Goblin Slayer about how her parents were both adventurers when they were alive, and about how important the guild was to her since her mother and father both sacrificed themselves to close a gate to Hell, back when such a portable had been opened up in the "Mythril Mountains", to the West of the kingdom's capital.
The bath water had gone lukewarm by the time Scarlet's lesson with who the Adventurers' Guild were had come to a closure, and luckily by then both children were properly bathed. It was only when he saw the girl pulling herself out of the wooden tub and an accidental glimpse of her small round cheeks did Goblin Slayer realize something concerning. "… Where are the towels at, Scarlet?" He asked with an embarrassed look coming over his flushed cheeks, as his body remained submerged underneath the surface of the somewhat cold water.
Unashamed of her naked body, but having long since picked up on the fact that Goblin Slayer wasn't used to being exposed in front of others, a mischievous grin grew across Scarlet's pink lips as she turned around to lean herself against the side of the wooden tub where he was still submerged in. "They're hanging outside on a clothesline, Goblin Slayer~…! If you come with me, I'll show you where to get one, hehe…~!" The girl teased with an amused look in her apricot-colored eyes, as her cheeks began to become rosy as she saw the color in Goblin Slayer's face intensify.
"Uh…?! C-Could you just, uh… Go get me one, and bring it back here for me please? I… I don't think it's appropriate for someone my age, if they were to walk around the church grounds without something covering them," Goblin Slayer said with an anxious look on his face, while feeling his racing heart sink into the bottom of chest as Scarlet shook her head at him in a silly manner.
"No sire, Bob! You've gotta get our towel just like the rest of us here!" Scarlet said with a sassy look on her face, as she pointed a finger towards the blushing boy.
Searching the room for something to cover himself in, it was then that Goblin Slayer noticed that every other child who was sharing the tub with someone else had their towels folded nearby them, on top of the step stools they used to get into the bath water in the first place. "… But everyone else brought a towel with them," Goblin Slayer pointed out nervously, which did nothing to sway Scarlet's insistence.
"Well you ain't one of them, pal! Now come on, you're gonna catch a cold sitting in there like that," Scarlet teased half-jokingly, and waited with an excited look in her amused eyes as Goblin Slayer begrudgingly stood up from the wooden tub; earning a snicker from her, due to him having a hard time getting out of the bath with how he was covering his genitals with both hands.
One walk of shame out of the bathhouse and a few various looks from some of the nuns ranging from shock to intrigument later, Goblin Slayer was brought over to an outdoor laundry area that wasn't too far from where the bathhouses were located. As soon as he finished drying himself, he immediately wrapped the towel around his lower half while waiting impatiently as Scarlet took her sweet time drying herself off; seemingly busting herself with trying to make conversation with him, while barely using the white towel to absorb the dripping water from her bare skin.
Despite having had a good laugh at Goblin Slayer's embarrassment, Scarlet decided to take it easy on the extremely blushing boy once she had her harmless fun at his expense. Wrapping the towel around her body to cover her flat chest and her hairless nether regions, Scarlet had Goblin Slayer follow her back into the church through its back entrance; taking him into a large storage room, before helping him with finding a set of clothes to wear from the donation boxes.
Finding himself a pair of dark-tan trousers, a white t-shirt with medium-length pale-blue sleeves and some underwear, Goblin Slayer made sure to put on a pair of wool socks before sliding his covered feet into a pair of leather boots; tying the laces of his footwear around his shins, before getting up from the wooden floorboards. 'Much better,' the boy thought to himself, as he began using his fingers to comb his wet strands of hair, while making sure to avert his gaze from the girl, until she had finished putting a new dress on her underwear-covered body.
Stretching her arms above her shoulders while smiling brightly, the six year-old girl stared at the dressed boy with an excited gaze in her apricot eyes. "Well, that was probably the most fun I've ever had bathing with someone! Usually the kids I try talking to either ignore me, or act kind of mean. So thanks for putting up with me, Goblin Slayer; you and I are totally gonna be friends now, right?!" Scarlet asked with sparkling glimmer in her hopeful eyes, while Goblin Slayer frowned slightly as his stomach growled quietly.
"What…? Oh, uh… Y-Yeah, that's fine," Goblin Slayer replied with a distracted tone, as he let out a quiet whimper from the hunger pains he was having. "Say, uh… You mentioned something about breakfast earlier, right? Do you think that uh… Maybe you could help me get something to eat, please?"
Nodding her head while winking playfully at the hungry boy, Scarlet walked over to Goblin Slayer before happily taking his hand into hers. "Don't think I forgot about getting you some grub, Goblin Slayer; I bet putting the hurt on all those gross goblins gave you quite the appetite, huh~?" The red-headed six year-old mused playfully, before beginning to once again talk Goblin Slayer's ear off as she led him through the hallways of the church, to where the large banquet area was.
Once inside the spacious room that looked to him to have once been used as a conference area, Goblin Slayer was gobsmacked at the sheer amount of sides that were being served along with the main course: beef stew. With the nuns being in charge of serving portions of food out to the refugees of his villages, along with the natives of Londobell who were all dressed nicely in their church attire, Goblin Slayer took the sight in before being pulled forward by Scarlet, who took him to where the start of the line was.
It was only once he was surrounded and placed into a position where he needed to speak to the curious villagers from Londobell did Goblin Slayer realize just how famous his heroic deeds had made him overnight. Being either constantly met with disbelief and awe from those who couldn't wrap their heads around how a ten year-old was able to seemingly single-handedly defeat an entire goblin raiding party on their own, the novelty of being a small-time celebrity wore off by the time he had finished walking through the serving line.
Beginning to feel claustrophobic from how many villagers were having their communion within the large banquet room, Goblin Slayer told Scarlet that he was going to eat his breakfast outside, to which she told him that she would be eating inside with her two best friends: "Marine" and "Yang". Seeing her two aforementioned friends waving for her at one of the many sofa within the lounging area of the banquet room— one of them being a blond tomboyish looking girl, while the brunette seemed to be more of a reserved and quiet girl— Goblin Slayer felt the need to make sure that Scarlet made it safely to where her friends were seated at, before excusing himself past all the adults who hadn't gotten a chance to look at the locally famous child.
The moment Goblin Slayer stepped out of the banquet room, and through the also crowded courtyard, he found himself feeling a weight lifting off of his chest; allowing him to take a deep and therapeutic breath of fresh air in, before finding a nice spot underneath a shaded tree to bring his plate of food over to.
Plopping down near the visible roots of the weeping willow and into a nice soft patch of grass, Goblin Slayer turned positioned himself so that his back was facing toward the direction of the hustling-and-bustling church; staring off down toward the blue river in the distance, where the many tents that were housing his surviving neighbors stood out amongst the beautiful cottages that weren't too far from where they were.
Alone with his own thoughts, Goblin Slayer kept his large plate on his lap while sitting crisscrossed; his frown disappearing the moment he heard a familiar hum coming from behind him. Feeling the air fleeing from his lungs, the boy remained breathless as he listened to the soft footsteps from behind him draw closer, until they came to a stop once they were right beside him. "… V-Vivi?!" Goblin Slayer finally spoke out in a hoarse whisper; filling his breath with the familiar scent of his older sister, as he looked up and over his shoulder to be met with the proudest look he had ever seen on her beautiful and warm face.
"Good morning, Ren; your new little friend told me that you would be out here…! Or, should I start calling you "Goblin Slayer" now too, hmm~?" Vivi asked with a playful tone in her voice, before letting out a soft gasp the moment she noticed the first of many tears beginning to leak out from the corners of her brother's cathartic eyes. Without even having to ask, Vivi could tell that the sight of her safe and well taken care of after the horrific night had triggered the ten year-old who had been trying to suppress the mental fatigue he had been carrying on his small shoulders.
Instead of making a fuse or being overly coddling toward him, Vivi instead made her lips curl back into a comforting smile before carefully taking a seat beside her quietly crying brother. Setting her plate and bowl on top of her lap— with the skirt of her dress protecting her skin from how warm the ceramic dishes were— Vivi wrapped her arm around her brother's back to slowly pull his upper body towards hers; leaning his head against her shoulder, before planting a loving kiss on the top of his head.