Deep inside the cave, Ben found some big mounds that he assumed were the graves of the people that had been killed by the demons. He dug into one of them and he was correct. There were corpses of adult and children buried there.
"It seems there are a lot of victims here. Maybe the demon worshipers have been operating longer than I thought." Ben said.
Ben decided to leave the job of disposing of these corpses to the knights or mages of this country. He will focus on rescuing the survivors and returning to town. So he and Bella went to where the kids were.
When Ben arrived, he spotted 5 dying demon worshipers on the floor. His clones must've been the ones responsible for this while Bella focused on protecting the children with her barrier. Ben cut the tendons of the dying demon worshipers allowing them to live.
The Council will need some of them alive for interrogation. But they might try to escape, so Ben cut their tendons to prevent that from happening. They might die before the Rune Knights show up, but that's not his problem, at least he tried to keep them alive.
He arrived at Bella's location and found 18 children there. There were no adults there even though he found the corpses of adults before. It seems the adults were killed first for whatever reason the demon their worshipers thought of.
He sent his clones out to explore the cave to make sure that they've found all the survivors and taken care of all the enemies. Ben and Bella lead the children out of the cave while the clones explore every inch of the cave.
After arriving outside, Ben inspected all of their bodies. He needed to make sure that none of them were affected by the Etherious' Curses. Who knows what the demons or their worshipers did to these kids.
His hunch was right, the demon worshipers have done something. They planted the same spell in the kid's bodies. The spell's function is to hurt the kid's bodies so that they will be obedient. It didn't break even though the spell's caster had died, so Ben broke the spell himself.
Sometime later, Ben's clones returned with 9 more kids and 5 adult females who had been placed somewhere else. The women's eyes are empty and they only had a big piece of cloth courtesy of his clones, so they must've been naked before. He didn't need to ask to know what happened to these women.
"Are you done?" Ben asked.
"Yes, all survivors have been saved. Some remaining demon worshipers have been taken care of." A clone said.
Ben nodded before one of his clones approached him and whispered something into his ear. They've found a large stash of treasure in a room and they secured all the treasure. There were 7 books of Zeref there, which surprised Ben.
"We'll keep the books. As for the treasures, let's give them to the victims. But we can't do that right away because other people might take them." Ben suggested.
"Then, let's ask for our acquaintance in the Council to take care of this for us." The clone said.
"Oh, Geld, huh? I haven't seen that guy since he was transferred to the Magic Council HQ. Alright, one of you go there and explain the situation. He's the person I trust the most in the Council." Ben said.
The clones nod before one of them removed the books and gave them to Ben. They left immediately after Ben stored the books away. The clones won't disappear even if they are far away from Ben now as long as something didn't destroy them.
But there was no reason to worry about that because they would use a teleportation door to get to the HQ instantly. Ben has a personal residence there as a Wizard Saint and he also installed a teleportation door in the house. So he can safely send his clones to the Magic Council HQ.
After taking care of that, Ben led the survivors to the nearest town. It wasn't possible for his car to accommodate all of them though, so he made a simple crate using something he learned recently. He used Arc of Embodiment, the magic used by Rustyrose.
After Ben annihilated the remnants of Grimoire Heart, he found all of their magic books. Arc of Embodiment was the one that intrigued him the most because he is a craftsman. This magic can make crafting a lot easier for him. But he didn't have time to read it back then, so he only learned it recently.
He can only make simple objects for now, but the things he made are very detailed and strong. The problem with the magic is that the items created by it will disappear after losing all the magic power used to make it. It's magic, not a real item, so it depends on the user's magic.
Ben will need to research it further, but the magic was good enough for now. He just needed to take the survivors to a town, so his newly learned magic will be enough for now. The town was rather close, so it wouldn't take too long to get there.
They arrived in the closest town after an hour of moving at a slow speed. Ben revealed his identity to the guards and asked them to call the authorities. He needed to make sure the victims were treated properly before completing the job.
After everything was taken care of, Ben and Bella return home. The authorities here will take care of the aftermath, so he doesn't need to worry about that. He's also sure that Geld will take care of the treasures for the victims. There was no need to worry about that because Geld knows full well what would happen if he did something funny behind Ben's back.
After he arrived back home, Ben took a shower before immediately going to bed. Mira knew something was bothering him so she asks him about it. He told her everything and she didn't interrupt him.
"I can't stand it when children are involved with bad stuff. The problem is I can't control my emotions. I let my rage take over, that's not like me at all." Ben said while lying on Mira's lap.
"Yeah, you are someone that won't let your emotions overwhelm your mind. But that's not something strange and it's not the first time you did it. You are still human, Ben, so you have emotions and sometimes those emotions will get the better of you. Also, if you're getting too emotional on that job because they're children, maybe it's because you'll be a father soon, and you've taken care of Wendy since she was a child. That's why you have a lot of sympathy for children because you see your sister and child in them. It is not a bad thing, but you should try to hold back. You might hurt those you want to protect if you give into that rage." Mira said while rubbing Ben's hair.
"So it's not a bad thing, but I need to learn how to hold it back, huh? I'll try, I don't want to be seen as a monster if those I wish to protect see me in that state." Ben replied.
"Alright, you can do that tomorrow. Let's sleep for now, the little guy misses his daddy, you know." Mira said as she rubbed her bulging stomach.
Ben smiled.
"Well, I also miss my little man so much." He said.
"Little man? How do you know it's a boy?" Mira asked while tilting her head.
"I don't know. I just hope it's a boy." Ben said.
"Humph, then I want a girl, it will be a baby girl." Mira said.
"What? We have too many girls in our family, so we need another boy." Ben said.
"Too many? There are only 5 of us. Me, Lisanna, Wendy, Bella and Carla. That's not too many." Mira pointed out.
"But the only men in the house are me and Elfman." Ben said.
"You both are strong men, so that's not a problem. We are just weak, kind girls, so we need quantity." Mira said.
"I agree with the kind part, but the weak part sounds wrong." Ben remarked.
"Compared to you, everyone else is weak, so it's true." Mira noted.
"...Let's just sleep." Ben ended the pointless argument.
Both of them have different hopes for their baby, but those are just hopes. They need to wait 8 more months to find the answer.