The sounds of children screaming caught his attention and Rafael followed the sound until he found several men that were throwing rocks at a boy who had the ears of a dog and a girl who had what looked like the tail of a cat.
This was one of the things that helped the players understand that the people from this world look and have similar histories to the people from their world.
There were still things that reminded them that this was not their world.
The kids noticed Rafael approaching but he signaled to them not to react to his presence as the men raised their hands to throw more rocks at them.
One by one each man let out a scream of pain after Rafael broke the hands that they were using to stone the kids to death.
All of the men turned and looked at him with hate-filled eyes, that quickly widened with fear when they saw who he was.
"Leave." was the only thing that he said to them before he walked up to the kids who were now covered in bruises and whose blood was now covering their faces.
Rafael wished that he could use a crystal or give the kids a potion, but he had seen the effects that those things had on people who were from outside of Aincrad.
"Come with me." he says to the kids as he offers them his hand.
He watches as the boy grabs one of the girl's hands and then uses his free hand to grab onto Rafael's hand, Rafael leads the kids to the mansion before he opens the large wooden door.
Rafael can't help but smile when he hears the kids let out a small gasp when they see the inside of the mansion.
The mansion was designed to make people gasp there wasn't a single spot that didn't have a design or figure drawn on it.
The smooth white walls of the mansion had paintings that he had bought hanging from them, Each painting showed a kingdom or a place that he had never visited or planned to ever visit.
There was a pair of stairs that were made of white stone whose edges and hand guard rails had polished wood covering them.
The ceiling was made out of a mixture of thick wood and stone, while the polished marble floor acted as a mirror that seemed to bring the many figures, paintings, and colors that covered the inside of the mansion to life.
"Welcome back sir." a man who had somehow become his butler says to him, but the man quickly ignores his presence and begins to clean the blood of the children's faces.
"Make sure that they aren't seriously hurt, and then give them something to eat, a change of clothes, and a hot meal." Rafael says to the man who glares at him.
'I would have done it without you ordering me to, did you kill the ones responsible?' the man asks him.
"No." Rafael answers his butler who shakes his head at him.
Rafael watches as the man takes both of the kid's hands and leads them deeper into the mansion.
For a long moment, Rafael doesn't move he just looks in the direction that the kids and his butler left.
He ignores the small puddle of blood that the kids left behind before the sound of footsteps reaches his ears and forces him to remember where he is.
The sweet smell of flowers and honey begins to overpower the scent of the blood and Rafael can't help but smile when he recognizes the scent.
"Asuna you're here again! Where's Yui, I want to see how big that girl has gotten!" he loudly yet joyfully asks as he turns in the direction that he hears the footsteps coming from.
Unfortunately, he finds himself looking at several women including Asuna who all had what one could only describe as strained smiles on their faces.
The women's ages are from twelve to twenty-five and they are all the daughters of someone important who asked him to take care of them while the situation outside of Aincrad calmed.
Needless to say, when you put places that shouldn't be together with each other it causes a lot of problems, and because of that the world outside of Aincrad is being fought over by everyone.
"We need to talk." Asuna says to him before she wordlessly tells the rest of the women to leave.
Rafael watches as the group leaves before he and Asuna are the only ones standing in the hall.
"I don't know how to say this, but we are all worried about you." Asuna says to him with a worried expression on her face.
"What do you mean?" Rafael asks her.
"Kirito told me that you haven't stopped visiting the orphanage since you came back from the last war, and I spoke with of your servants and the women that you took in they all told me the same thing," she says to him before looking at him with pain-filled eyes.
'Rafael it wasn't your fault, those men died because they wanted to follow you and the others into those wars." she says to him.
'You're wrong it was my fault." he says to her with a low voice that is filled with regret and defeat.
"I gave the orders and I was the one that led the charge every time. I'm the one responsible for their deaths." He says to her.
"Cut the crap!" Asuna yells at him.
"You think that you were the only one who saw people die and ordered entire groups of men to give their lives for them!" Asuna says to him before Rafael feels her fist hit his face with enough force that he is sent flying to the wall.
"Heathcliff says that the Army will return the lands that its members stole from your side of the mountain and Kirito says that you need to stop blaming yourself." she says to him before she walks towards him and grabs him by the chest and pulls him to his feet.
'I won't have my daughter see you like this. You are her uncle, even if you are not related by blood. That is what you have become, you are a member of our family so talk to us." Asuna says to him.
"Kirito is right who doesn't like a girl that can kick his ass." Rafael says to Asuna who smirks at him.
"I need you to wake up and get your head straight because you are late and you know how they hate to wait," Asuna says to him before she leads him to the meeting room.
