I was accidentally injured by God and I just want to be an ordinary person

"It's Zain! Open the door quickly."

A girl's voice, sounding about the same age as Ella's, came from inside the door. With a creak, the narrow wooden door was opened. Since Ella and Lotte were standing by the wall a little further away, the girl who opened the door did not notice Ella and Lotte.

The boy happily raised the bucket in his hand to the girl from the Divine Tribe.

"Look, this is a treasure that can only be bought with three gold coins. Let's share it among us."

"Three gold coins!? How did you get them, Zain-san? That's enough to live on for two months."

"Don't worry about it, or you'll get dried up in the sun."

"Okay, okay."

After saying this, Zain walked in at the girl's invitation.

Instead of following immediately, Ella looked at Lotte who was also standing by the wall.

"Is there no such thing as an orphanage in this world?"

"Orphanage? Miss Ella, what is that?"

Lotte blinked in confusion.

"It's a place dedicated to raising children abandoned by their parents."

"Is that so... I've read in books before that the Gods and Elves have similar facilities, but they only raise gifted children. Such facilities must be very expensive, right? Are they common in Miss Ella's world?"

"It depends on the country, but it's probably a very common thing now. Even people with disabilities will be adopted."

"...Miss Ella lives in a beautiful world."

Lotte's eyes were full of anticipation, but this made Ella feel a little embarrassed.

"It's not such a beautiful place... It's very monotonous. There are no other humanoid races besides humans. Although there are no monsters to threaten humans, humans themselves are also fighting against each other. There is no difference."

"If possible, I'd like to visit Miss Ella's world."

"Eh? Really? I'll take it seriously, you know? Even if it's just asking Luo—the One and Only God, I'll try, you know?"

"Yeah, of course."

The lavender twintails behind her bounced, and Lotte nodded seriously.

At the same time, the sound of children's laughter could be heard from the house.

"Wait, Al, you've had too much to drink!"

"Didn't we say that each person takes a sip? I only took one sip."

"That's a foul. You drank everyone else's share!"

"But Zain, is this really a drink that cost three gold coins? Why isn't it sweet at all? I must have been tricked. There's no sugar in it, right?"

"This is a demon... This is something a noble gave me. I even went to a shop that only nobles can enter. It can't be fake. How could it not even contain sugar?"

"Amiya, it's my turn now, don't drink it all!"

"Did you leave any for Zain? This is what Zain brought back."

"It's nothing, it's nothing. You should thank the two nobles—hmm? Where are the nobles?"

Zain's puzzled voice came from the house. Ella nodded to Luti, and Luti put Hela into the dimensional backpack.

"My Lord Demon, you are here."

Zain ran out of the door and looked around, quickly coming to Ella, with no other emotion in his eyes except happiness.

"Everyone should be less afraid of you now. Please come over here."

"Um."

Nodding to Zain, Ella prepared herself mentally and approached the wooden door with Lotte. She took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Eleven children were sitting or standing in a space of less than 20 square meters. The oldest looked about the same age as Ella, while the youngest was less than seven years old. The woman named Lisa who opened the door for Zain even lost an eye.

The room was filled with the unpleasant smell of sweat and dampness. Coupled with the scorching summer sun, the room was extremely stuffy, just like being in a steamer. There was almost no decent furniture to be seen, and the only wooden bed was tattered. Perhaps because a meal had been cooked not long ago, the simple stove built with rubble by the wall was smoking, and the entire wall was stained black due to long-term smoke.

Except for Lisa, no one else noticed that there were two more guests in the room. Ella could even see the children scrambling to grab the bucket and sticking their heads in to lick it.

Following Ella, Zain walked into the room and introduced Lisa.

"These are the two nobles."

"Brother Zain, bring the noble here..."

Lisa's eyes were full of blame, and she seemed to hate the nobles. Perhaps something happened in the past that made her feel disgusted with the nobles, Ella thought. As for the nobles Ella saw in the Kingdom of Baris, most of them were disgusting people who liked to abuse others.

"It's alright. These two nobles are trustworthy people."

"but……"

"Let me introduce myself first. I'm Elelaya from the demon clan, and this is Lotte from the human clan. I'd like to hear about you both. If possible, I'd like to take you away from here today."

"leave?"

"Shut up, what are you little brats doing?!"

Just as Ella was about to explain, a few unlucky uninvited guests walked in and blocked most of the sunlight from entering the house.

Chapter 20: Accidentally, they are all very good guys

Ella couldn't help but frown at the sudden sound and turned her head.

What came into view was a group of rough men with bulging chests, strong arms, and bare upper bodies.

Seeing Ella turn around, the leading man raised an eyebrow.

"What? You're a noble, so you'd actually come to a place like this? How rare."

"What can I do for you?"

Standing in front of the violent man, Ella instinctively took out the Pestle of Heaven's Punishment from the storage, and Lotte also looked alert.

The man glanced at the children in the room, then turned his gaze to Ella.

"I just heard a lot of noise here and came to check it out. Also, it's time to pay back the protection money I'm owed."

Having said that, the leading man fixed his gaze on Zain, the boy behind Ella.

"Daru, I said I would pay it back, but it will take a few days!"

"I've heard you say this several times."

"But this time it's real!"

Zain's tone was filled with anxiety.

Hearing the sensitive word "protection fee", Ella turned her head. Based on her knowledge, the so-called protection fee was probably just a disguised form of extortion.

"Protection money? What's that?"

"D-Darru-sama is the one who maintains the rules here. Every month we have to pay him three silver coins as protection money..."

"My Lord, if it weren't for me, they would have been abducted by slave traders operating in secret. I'm just collecting a reasonable reward."

The bald man named Daru crossed his arms across his chest, looking very helpless.

"Although I've been through the same phase as them, I'm no philanthropist. If you want protection, you have to pay the corresponding silver coins. Honestly, three silver coins is just a price I give them out of pity. If it were someone else, they would have to pay at least five silver coins."

In fact, Daru did not lie. In addition to the slave traders, some bastards living nearby also liked to target Lisa and others - using them as tools to vent their desires, or directly kidnapping and selling them, or just beating them up because they were in a bad mood. There were countless reasons, and because they had no ability to fight back, they could only be the bullied party forever.

From Zain's lowered head, Ella knew that what Daru said was true.

[I didn't expect that he was unexpectedly a good person...]

Sighing inwardly, Ella turned to Daru.

"How much silver do they owe you?"

"Including this month's share, I'm already down almost a gold coin. Seriously, I wonder how many people would want to live in this room. I'm so kind to rent it to them at a low price."

Hearing Daru's words, the other men following behind also showed helpless expressions. Most of these people were orphans who grew up in hardships, so it was understandable that they would express sympathy for Zain and others. Although they were not yet at the stage of giving them food and clothes, they would not argue with the leader about this obviously disadvantageous deal.

"One gold coin, right?"

Ella took a gold coin from Lotte and handed it to Daru, and Zain shouted hurriedly.

"My Lord, how can I allow you to pay for it!"

"It's okay. I want to take you to a better place. One gold coin is just—no, you can pay me back later by working."

Although one gold coin was not a problem for Ella, saying this would give Zain a target, and he had no intention of actually accepting the gold coin.

A look of hesitation appeared in the boy Zain's eyes. He was very clear about the importance of this gold coin. If he didn't pay it off, Daru would probably kick them out. Without the protection of a shelter, all these children would be kidnapped in just one night.

After figuring this out, Zain nodded vigorously.

"Work...work. Okay, I promise."

"As expected of a noble, you are truly generous. However, I have never seen you before. Are you not a noble from the capital?"

While weighing the gold coins, Daru spoke to Ella casually.

"So it's not."

"Hmm? So you just became a noble? No, I'm more curious about where you plan to take them. Of course, I have no intention of stopping you. Although this maid doesn't seem very powerful, if I do anything, she'll be defeated immediately. What a terrifying atmosphere."

Daru looked at Ruthie who was standing half a step in front of Ella. Although Ruthie had no weapon in her hands and lacked muscles, Daru's long combat experience told him that if the opponent was not absolutely sure of defeating him, she would not stand in front of him so fearlessly. More importantly, he could not find any flaws in the maid at all. It felt like he was facing a city wall.

"Where did you take it to...? Are you curious?"

As for my current thoughts, of course I want to bring these children to the royal city first, and then make subsequent arrangements. However, revealing the identity of the Demon King in front of the children may scare them, so I deliberately asked.

Daru stroked his bald head and smiled a smile that was completely inconsistent with his muscular body.

"I'm just asking as your former protector. I don't mean to bother you."

"Is that so... You'll know soon enough."

"Soon? Why do you say that?"

"Because some changes will happen in the future, maybe Daru, you won't be able to collect protection money the way you do now."

Because she had violated the other party's interests, Ella carefully observed Daru's expression.

The breath in his body stagnated, Daru frowned and then slowly relaxed.

"A change is certainly welcome. I've long been tired of this unmotivated life. But is what the noble lord said true? Is Acting Demon Lord Dean finally going to take care of this place?"

"Um."

"Is that so... Then we need to collect the overdue protection money as soon as possible—and we need to collect a little more to ensure our future living expenses. It would be even better if we could infiltrate a group of experienced adventurers."

"If you wish, I can arrange a job similar to your current one for you."

Ella was referring to the jobs of being a guard or even the director of an orphanage.

"No, I don't need that. I still want to experience an exciting life. If possible, I hope the nobles can leave the opportunity to these guys."

Daru turned slightly to the side, revealing several equally sturdy men behind him. To reassure Ella, Daru pounded his chest.

"I guarantee that they are all trustworthy people. My men, Daru, will never do anything sneaky."

"Yeah, I'll remember that."

"Then I hope that what the noble sir said can be realized soon. Zain, you must repay the noble sir's kindness well."

"Of course! It's Daru, don't die."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Without answering Zain's somewhat concerned words, Daru turned and left the room with a laugh.

Chapter 21 Solution

"Well then, let's get ready and go."

After watching Daru leave, Ella turned around and looked at all the children huddled in the corner—all staring at her with fear in their eyes.

"What's wrong?"