Micky decided to move out of his current place and move into someplace even bigger. He was now going to have a small retinue and needed the space. So for the third time he moved. He left Prin to handle those difficulties and put up the place for rent, since the old contract wouldn’t expire for some time. He could try to get out of it, but he wouldn’t be getting his money back. So might as well try to rent it out to some of his fellow adventurer class, now that they too needed some more permanent lodgings.

He picked out a furnished place with a small attachment for the maid and staff. This would be enough for himself and whatever little brats he was getting. It had apparently belonged to another lesser noble. But they had not paid up on some loans, lost all the remaining wealth they had in the ant hoard, and the loaner decided to cash in while the going was hot.

Micky didn’t really mind so much. And Prin could handle any trouble that the now homeless former noble could cause, he had nothing to his name afterall, not even title anymore.

Micky left all the work to his people and took Mrs. Doderson to the orphanage. He had heard about them, but the village council would offer up all the orphans or take them in on the council’s behalf. He had never seen an orphanage himself, and the village had had orphans, but they were always taken in. Even when an orphan came from another village or settlement it would be taken in by one house or another. So Micky couldn’t really wrap his head around a place for all the orphans to go. He didn’t even imagine that there was such a place until Yolanda had suggested it.

So when he came across the place and looked on the ruined shack he was wondering if he had come to the right place. Confirming with his maid that this was indeed the place. Micky entered inside and asked around. He told them that he was here to adopt and the man behind the counter took one look at the maid behind Micky and his eyes turned to coins. He knew that a noble was here to spend big. Micky got nervous.

His maid was fortunately intuitive enough to know what was going through his mind and whispered in his ear that people pay for orphans, this is not a charity. The orphans were expected to act cute enough to get adopted, or pay their debts to society, in particular the orphanage.

Micky at first seemed puzzled but then understood. It wasn’t like people were going to give up their own hard earned money to some orphans. They had to make money somewhere and a barren family or a noble would be a very good starting point. But if they couldn’t make it, then they would have to work in one of the shops around town.

Micky was placed in a waiting room while he… well waited. What he was waiting for he didn’t actually know, but again Mrs. Doderson told him that they would need to ‘prepare for someone of his status’. At which point Micky was again realizing he was ‘someone of status’, something he didn’t have in the village.

Micky sipped on the tea while he waited, all the while Mrs. Doderson passive aggressively guilt tripped him into better posture and manners. In situations like this, having the best manners would help him leverage his status in the upcoming negotiations. The better the manners the better the status. Micky took this all in, but still adjusted himself, stopped slouching, sipped his tea with the handle instead of wrapping his hands around the elvin cup. Apparently she knew how to handle miss behaving young masters, or in this case, just kids.

It was by the time the tea was getting cold that he was made aware that they were ready. It was a bit impromptu, and they didn’t know his exact reason for visiting. Micky kept up his poker face the whole time and didn’t let his lack of knowledge or embarrassment show.

In what was apparently a dorm room was a group of girls lined up. Micky hadn’t stated he wanted to see the girls but since they didn’t know the reason for his visit, work or play, they simply showed the best of both worlds. Besides, at this age range girls were stronger anyway.

Micky saw the girls and looked around, at the beginning was an ork girl, probably eight years old. It was hard to tell whether she was a boy or a girl, because she was purely muscular and had no chest, unlike Prin. Micky had raised an eyebrow at seeing the young ork, since he had never seen one, actually the only two he knew of, besides the few he had seen in the bars and pubs were Prin and her mother.

Seeing Micky look at the ork girl with a questioning glance the matron that had followed took the initiative to explain “I know that she doesn’t look like much, but she is indeed a girl, and the best worker we have! She can easily lift as much as a strong un-divined man.” She said, and Micky took that in.

“Of course none of these girls have been divined yet so that they can be free to take the slave class if you find yourself a slaver. Or receive a divination on your behalf, which you can control the outcome for.” Continued the matron. Micky was aghast at the though of turning a [Citizen] orphan into a slave for no reason. Those slavers were parasites! Why couldn’t they just get their slaves from the wars like any good natured person?

Micky continued on down the line, the girls would have varying degrees of different faces on. Some would turn away from his gaze, some would look on with hopeful gazes of their own, some would even stare at their feet with a penetrating gaze, like they could dig through the dirt with it.

His gaze continued on until the end of the line, like three prizes were three girls. The ‘best for last’ kind of deal. Two looked like graceful dolls, they were clearly elves and were dressed in what could be loosely termed elegant and cute dresses. It was also clear that they had been scrubbed the most when they had received their impromptu visit from a noble man.

The last one was a beastman girl. She was clearly a wolf girl with a wolf head and fur throughout her chest, her arms were bare and looked normal but her hands ended in claws. Her feet were that of a beasts’ but not quite, ending in a foot that was just enough to balance on, but neither man nor beast. She was curled up in the corner so Micky couldn’t see her, by now he was clear that there were things he hadn’t expected going on, and he was lost.

“These are the best of the orphanage. These two girls have been fully trained and know what to do with a man. We were honestly waiting for the monthly auction to show them, however we would never make more than your noble self would surely pay! The last one is a beast girl that is a mix between a spirit wolf that had a human form and a human. We thought her to be quite the novelty! So we brought her here, she was also trained to be obedient. Luckily she is a wolf and so she was very easy to train! We guarantee she will do well in whatever master desires.” Said the matron.

Micky by now knew why he felt so off, looking back over the orphans he could see red marks here or there that they were trying to hide. At this point his face had gone past rage, like it didn’t know what to put on. If he had known he would have thought that his face would have had an entire wardrobe of faces, but none of them were quite right to put on for this ball.

He walked over to a particular little girl, probably no older then ten. She had a red mark on her neck, just under the ‘dress’ she had on. It was clear they hadn’t bothered to give her the ‘good’ clothes to put on and impress him. She also had marks on her arms and hands that he couldn’t quite see from his previous angle.

As he marched up to her she screamed “No! You won’t take me! I’m not going to som sick perverted noble! I don’t care!” As she tried to run. But Micky was faster. How could someone with no divination possibly compete? He quickly grabbed onto the girl and lifted up her arm.

“Marry run! Don’t let them take you! Run and get out of here!” She said as she turned to bite Micky’s arm. The girl next to her turned shy and red, she took one look at the matron and knew she wouldn’t be able to even if she tried. This girl must be Marry then.

The other girls had varying degrees of interest at the young girl’s outbursts. She was clearly a leader of the young ‘girl gang’ side of the orphanage. Some girls looked excited, some girls looked excited at being picked by the ‘perverted noble’ and sneered at the young girl for throwing a tantrum. Some girls looked aghast, there were a lot of emotions, but nobody stepped in, they knew what would happen should they.

Lifting up the arm and showing it to the matron there were a large amount of welts, at varying degrees of healing. Micky just lifteed an eyebrow. “We are so sorry master! We shouldn’t have let that stock through! We could gift her to you!” Said the matron.

“Marry.” Said Micky. And the matron quickly had Marry join the other girl who was being corralled behind Micky. Micky then pointed to the two elvish girls.

“They are being sold at a gold a piece! If my lord wishes to buy them both we can even throw in the beast girl.” Said the matron.

“Ork.” Said Micky.

“What?” Said the matron.

“The ork girl as well.” Said Micky, in an even flat tone that he was just as surprised to have come out as was everyone else.

“Of, of course! Right away! Come on girls.... Would you like to buy the dresses as well?” Said the matron. Micky took one look, and though he knew that those dresses were just going to go on some other girl to be sold like meat, he shook his head, paid up and took his knew charges.

Micky looked at the girls in varying stages of being bratty children about to go off to die. How the hell did he get himself into this?... How the hell was he going to take care of this, he did not think taking on Mrs. Doderson full time was going to be enough… Then Micky looked back at the orphanage and thought that he might not have done enough for them in the first place.