For the time being, no one came to look after the children who had enjoyed two days of regular meals. The innkeeper had also shut up shop and left for fear of getting into trouble, while the children instinctively hid in inconspicuous corners, especially the orphans, hoping to avoid attracting the adults' attention.
The most disappointed was the boy who had come out of the Underground Palace. He was now homeless, and the two injured brothers had secretly taken him to where they were staying. After Players had entered the inn several times from the water shop, people nearby who realized Xu Huo might have left had already been loitering in the area.
Though the boy was male, his beauty and vulnerability made him a target. Without protection, he wouldn't survive long in the slums.
So, after a day of agonizing over it, he persuaded the brothers to escape the slums with him.
"I have all my limbs, I'm healthy, and I can work. Someone out there is bound to take me in," the boy said.
The two children were afraid, but the idea of escaping was too tempting to resist. And since the older brother's leg had nearly healed, they agreed to the boy's proposal. The three set out quietly before dawn.
Xu Huo had taken them along the way out twice before, and children who had come to the inn from elsewhere had casually told them about some narrow paths adults rarely used. The three pieced the scattered trails together and mapped out a route out.
The route was much harder to traverse than the "main road" in the middle, climbing up and down, but the three had set off full of hope and had successfully left the water shop's territory.
For the past two days, the water