William fastened the small leather bag with the groceries to the side of the cart, carefully arranging the bundle with the book around his waist and the packages with the food.
Next to him, Lia was watching everything carefully, wearing a light dress that swayed in the afternoon breeze.
"Are you ready, miss?" William asked with a gentle smile.
Lia nodded with an excited sparkle in her eyes. "We're taking the Hansel and Gretel book to the other children, aren't we, Grandpa?"
William smiled and replied. "Exactly! And also enough food for them to have at least one meal for the next few days."
The road to the orphanage was short, but as they got closer, Lia began to notice that the houses on that side of town were different. These houses were small, simpler, with cracked walls and few flowers in the windows.
The children running through the streets had dirty, torn clothes and bare feet.
She remained quiet for a few minutes, watching from the side of the cart.
William noticed the silence and said gently: "Not everyone is lucky enough to have a clean house, food every day and books to read."
Lia lowered her eyes. "It's sad."
Although they were Raphael's servants, they represented House Von Kaelen, so compared to other commoners, everyone's clothes were impeccable and their meals were plentiful.
Even before coming to Valenford, Lia had left the mansion from time to time, but never in the direction of the city's slums, making this her first contact with real poverty.
The orphanage itself was a worn stone building, with simple wooden windows and a small dirt courtyard. A tired-looking woman stood at the front, trying to get three boys to stop throwing dirt at each other. When she saw the wagon approaching, she straightened up in surprise.
"William?" she asked, her eyes widening. "And... is that your granddaughter?"
"Yes, Mira. That's Lia."
Lia nodded shyly.
William got down from the cart and began unloading the parcels. "Young Master Raphael asked me to deliver some supplies and a special gift."
"Sup... Supplies?" Mira asked, walking quickly over to him.
Opening the packages, Mira saw fresh bread, bags of rice, beans, salted meat, vegetables and even some simple sweets. Her eyes filled with tears, but she controlled herself.
"That's... a lot. You didn't need..."
"Actually, we did." William said, with a firm but gentle tone. "When Raphael heard about the children's situation, the first order he gave me was to get his supplies and help the children. And besides, he wants to test something."
He took the copy of [Hansel and Gretel] out of the basket and handed it to her.
"He's writing books, and this one... was an absolute hit with Lia." He looked at his granddaughter and smiled. "Today we want to see how other children react."
Mira held the book as if it were made of gold and asked incredulously. "Do you want to do a reading with them?"
William nodded and smiled. "If possible."
Mira nodded, still visibly surprised. "Of course. The children... well, they've never seen a book before... let alone something so beautiful... was this really made by the Lord Baron?"
William was proud of her astonishment and confirmed it. "Yes, I saw him draw and write every page of it with my own eyes."
Which amazed Mira even more.
Soon, some children began to come out of the orphanage, curious about the movement. Three of them, with dirty faces and wide smiles, ran up to Lia.
"Who are you? What's that book?" one girl asked.
"I'm Lia." She replied, shrugging her shoulders. "I've already read that book."
Hearing that Lia had already read it, the children became curious and the girl asked. "What's that book?"
Lia explained. "A story about two children lost in the forest who find a candy house..."
"SWEET HOUSE?" everyone shouted at the same time, as if that was the most magical thing in the world.
William laughed.
Mira called all the children to sit on the floor of the main hall, where they normally ate. With the newly arrived food still being unloaded, some of the older children helped, but the majority crowded around William, who opened the book on his lap, with Lia sitting next to him.
"Hello children, I'm William, the butler of Baron Raphael Von Kaelen, the new master of the city. Today I've come at his request, with supplies and a story he wrote himself... I hope you like it." He said warmly.
Being a commoner, and a grandfather, it was much easier for William to relate to these children than other people.
"All right, let's get started." He said, lifting the book and showing the cover to the children. "This book is called [Hansel and Gretel], the little black-haired boy is Hansel and the little blonde girl is Gretel."
Silence took over as the children marveled at the beautiful drawing.
As the children settled down on the floor of the orphanage hall, some sitting cross-legged, others lying on their sides, trying to catch a glimpse of the book in William's hands, the old butler adjusted his glasses on the tip of his nose and carefully turned to the first page.
"Once upon a time..." William began in a quiet voice. "A poor woodcutter who lived with his two children, Hansel and Gretel, and his wife."
The children were already quiet. Some exchanged glances, others just listened with their eyes fixed on the page.
"The family was very poor... so poor that there often wasn't enough food for everyone, but they lived a happy life. One night, the children's mother contracted an illness and there was no healer to help, so the poor woman died, leaving the family very sad and desolate."
After reading this, William turned the book over to the children and showed them the two images, on one side, the loving and happy family, on the other side, the sad grieving family beside the bed.
This completely attracted the children's attention, making the image they saw become the real person they could imagine.
Continuing, William read: "To help with the sadness, the father found a new wife, who became the children's stepmother. Unfortunately, the mistress wasn't so good and didn't like either the children or the hunger she felt at having to share the little food they had with them, so one day she looked at her husband and said: 'If we carry on like this, we're all going to die. We need to leave the children in the forest, or we'll all perish.
Some of the younger children cringed.
"They're just like us!" one little girl whispered.
"Yes," William said, looking up tenderly. "They've been through hard things too."
Mira, standing next to him, frowned. She hadn't expected the baron to write something like this. A story that put starving, commoner children as the protagonists.
William turned the page, revealing the beautiful illustration of the children secretly listening to their stepmother's plan.
"But Hansel was clever..." William continued. "He remembered his mother's teachings not to get lost in the forest and that night, he sneaked out and picked up little white stones, sparkling in the moonlight, and put them in his pocket."
As he said this, he showed the image of the pebbles, making some of the children lean closer.
"The next day, the parents took Hansel and Gretel into the forest. But Hansel kept dropping the pebbles along the way... so, at night, the moonlight reflected off the pebbles and guided them back home."
A low chorus of 'wows' went up.
"But the stepmother didn't give up. Days later, when the food ran out again, she took them back to the forest... but this time, Hansel only managed to get bread. And bread, as we know, is food that birds also eat..."
"It's very wasteful to throw bread on the ground..." One of the older boys commented indignantly, eliciting a few giggles.
"The birds ate the bread and unfortunately, this time, the two siblings got lost. They walked, hungry and afraid, until they found something unbelievable: a house made of sweets!" William said slowly, playing the role of storyteller that he used to play with Lia.
As he showed the illustration, one little girl literally salivated. William watched out of the corner of his eye as Mira quietly got emotional.
"It's not real, silly!" Lia commented, but even she looked at the drawing with a twinkle in her eye.
"The roof was made of cake, the windows of sugar, the walls of cookies... Hansel tore off a piece. Gretel too... But then the owner of the house appeared! An old lady with small eyes, a kind smile and green skin."
William paused here, looking around. "Or... at least she seemed kind."
Some of the children were already huddling together, commenting on the familiarity of the green skin with the goblins they'd heard of.
"The old woman took Hansel to a cage, and made Gretel cook for him. 'I want him to get fat, so I can eat him!' she said." William narrated.
The children swallowed.
Then he continued. "But Gretel... Gretel was brave. She realized the witch was blind, so she tricked her every day by giving Hansel a chicken bone to pretend it was his finger, so the witch would think he was always thin."
William turned the page with a bit of drama, revealing the large oven in the drawing.
"After a month, the witch lost patience and decided to fire up the oven to roast Hansel and eat him like that... but she got distracted... and that's when Gretel acted! When the witch opened the oven, Gretel pushed her into it with all her might!" He narrated while showing the page with the image so that the children could understand what he was talking about.
"Go, Gretel!" one of the children shouted.
"She won!" said another.
The hall filled with applause and shouts of victory. Even Mira clapped her hands, laughing with pride.
William continued calmly, but feeling deep down how special that moment was for the children.
"After that, Gretel freed Hansel and together they found a chest full of hidden gold coins that the witch had stolen. So they took the gold and went on their way... until they met their father again, who wept with joy when he saw his children again. The stepmother was no longer there."
William closed the book slowly.
"And so Hansel and Gretel lived with their father, with enough gold to never go hungry again."
A deep silence formed.
"They've gone home..." whispered a little girl, her eyes shining.
"Are we going too?" another child asked in an almost inaudible voice.
Lia looked at that child and swallowed. Her eyes watered, but she quickly wiped them with the sleeve of her dress, she didn't want to cry in front of everyone.
She whispered to William: "They really liked it, didn't they?"
He nodded, his voice calm. "They did. Very much."
After the reading, the children gathered around the book, asking Lia, who was holding the book, to turn the pages while they pointed to the drawings, repeating the characters' lines and commenting on what was happening.
Seeing that everything was fine, William moved away a little and went over to Mira. "Raphael wants to use stories like this to bring a little joy... and perhaps plant something more lasting in the minds of these children."
Mira was still emotional. "This book... it's magical. They've never reacted like this to anything."
William nodded. "He's still going to write others, and when he does, I want you to use this group as a thermometer. A child's sincerity will be a great way to determine whether the books are good or not."
Mira smiled, looking at the book fondly. "Okay, you can count on me."
The sun was already beginning to lower in the sky when they said goodbye.
The children waved with dirty hands, some holding the leftover loaves of bread they had started to distribute.
In the cart, as they walked home, Lia was still looking back, her little face serious, but with a certain sparkle in her eyes.
"Grandpa..." she whispered. "I want to come back here again and help them... can I?"
He bent down, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Of course you can."
"I didn't know there were children who lived like this." She said quietly. "But it's good that the Young Master's book has made them happier..."
Because for the first time in a long time, William felt that the Young Master he served was really trying to do something good, which motivated the old butler to help Raphael even more.
-
Meanwhile, Raphael, who was reading a book alone in the garden of the mansion, was surprised to feel his Mana growing again!
Closing his eyes and feeling that change, Raphael was able to quantify how his Mana had improved by around 40%!
'Why did my Mana grow like that again?!' Raphael asked himself in confusion. Even if the change was good, not knowing why was driving him crazy.
It was only when William returned with the copy of [Hansel and Gretel] that a possibility arose in his mind.
To confirm this, Raphael approached the old butler and asked with a smile. "William, how was the reading session at the orphanage?"
Smiling, William replied with even more respect than he normally had. "It was amazing, Young Master, the children loved the story, after seeing their reaction, I'm sure the story will be very successful in the future!"
Raphael was pleased to hear this. "And how many children were there in the orphanage when you did the reading?"
Surprised by Raphael's question, William had to think for a few seconds, only to be interrupted by Lia, in a proud voice. "There were 39 children!"
Hearing Lia's exclamation, Raphael looked at the proud little girl and smiled, nodding. "Thank you very much, Lia."
Seeing Raphael speak to her for the first time, with that beautiful, delicate face, Lia froze and didn't know how to react.
Realizing his granddaughter's state, William said goodbye politely and walked away, leaving Raphael to think alone.
'This is starting to make sense... when William and Lia read the book, I received an increase of more or less 2% of my total Mana, and today when they read the book to 39 children from the orphanage, as well as Mira, my Mana increased by around 40%... this can't just be a coincidence!' Raphael thought excitedly.
'Maybe the more people who read or listen to the stories in the books I copy with the grimoire, the more Mana I'll get in the future?' Raphael wondered excitedly. 'I think I can do more tests for that in the next few days...'
--- Nunu Note ---
Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter Instantly!