小嫂子的味道

The people present here were of all sorts of ages. Children, adults, old people, everyone. 

"You'll find your parents here, and if you don't then you can check in the dining hall that's a few steps to the left in this row," the woman with me said. 

"I see," I replied and after that, she went back. 

I stepped inside the hall and began to look for my parents, however, it was not an easy thing to do. The hall was simply too big. There were at least a few hundred people present here, and that was not all.

There were five more refugee camps just like this one. If Anya hadn't told me which one our parents were in I'd probably have even more trouble finding them. 

Still, I continued to walk forward as I looked at each bed, searching for my parents. I crossed half of the hallway but still didn't find them, but after taking a few more steps I finally caught sight of them. 

Their beds were side by side and right now both of them were sitting on a single bed, talking to each other about something. 

'Finally,' I thought to myself, letting out a breath. 

I didn't know what it was, but I felt relieved. As if a great burden had been lifted off my chest. 

From the moment I learned that this world was based on loli_pop's novel and my parents were going to die, my biggest concern had been to save their lives. When the calamity started I tried to do that and failed. However, I tried again and finally, I had done it.

Right now my parents were safe, away from the dangers of the world. 

I almost smiled, or more like I was going to smile. But the muscles of my face had been trained so much to keep a poker face that I could not do it. I'm sure Req would have teased me for it if she was able to talk. 

With a sense of relief, I walked toward my parents. For some reason the distance between us felt longer than it was, hence I didn't know when but I increased my pace. Soon before I knew it I was running. 

I halted a few steps before their beds, breathing from my mouth as my hair fell over my face with sweat above my eyes.

"Mother, father!" I said. 

They looked at me, their faces stunned in surprise. And then that surprising expression turned into a gentle, warm smile. 

"You finally made it back," father said, making a fist and stretching out his arm toward me. 

"Of course I did. I made a promise, after all," I replied, making a fist and clashing it with his. It was like the type of high-five teenage students used to do and it felt silly coming from an adult like him, but at the moment I couldn't care less about that. 

***

After that, I spent a good deal of time talking with them and discussing things. Mother broke down in tears soon after she saw me, saying how worried she was and how angry she was at me for doing such reckless things. 

She pulled in a gentle embrace as she cried. It felt nice…to be held by someone. It felt good to be held…by a parent.

And that nice feeling ended up increasing my fears, the fear of losing all this. The fear of losing them. The war with demons had just started, after all. But that's what I was here for, to prevent that from happening.

When she finally calmed down we were able to have a talk. Anya had already informed them of my arrival during the time I was out cold in the infirmary. 

However, that did not help in lessening their worries. She told me how father had started crying when Anya found them, and hearing that now he suddenly got flustered. 

There were lots of other things we talked about, I explained my situation to them and how I was living in the academy, about the Hero program as well. But we talked about little, insignificant things too—such as my mother mentioning how I'd gotten skinnier. 

With that said though, as we were talking I was constantly feeling the many stares. The stares of jealousy, sadness, envy, and such negative emotions. 

Of course, these stares were not coming from demons or monsters but from the people present in the hall. The people who had lost their family members and would never be able to meet and talk with them like we were doing right now. 

That was the last push that made me finalize my decision. 

"Mother, father, I'm going to get out of here. As soon as possible," I said. 

"Hmmm? What do you mean 'get us out'?" father asked. 

"This is not a good place to live, you don't even have any privacy either. Plus the atmosphere here is always filled with negative emotions, it's not good for your mental state," I said. 

'And there is no guarantee that one of these people won't have a mental breakdown and start killing everyone, losing control over themselves,' I thought to myself but avoided saying it out loud. 

"I'll buy you a house," I stated.

"Buy us a house? You do know that we're short on money, right? How will you do that?" mother asked. 

"We were only given one-third of the total money we had in our bank accounts," father mentioned. 

I knew about this already. All of the people were given one-third of the money they had in their bank accounts. This was done because when the calamity hit, along with the banks the money itself was destroyed too. 

Therefore the one-third part given to the people came directly from the funds of the government. However, they did not have enough money to give it out for free, hence the one-third tactic. 

"What we have right now is nowhere near enough to buy a house," he said. 

"I know that. I'll do whatever it takes, but I WILL get you out of here as soon as humanly possible and get you to a nice house where both of you can live comfortably," I said. 

I was serious about it.