Chapter 3755: Returned in Kind (Part 2) Quylla recognized many familiar faces among them. The adults who, in their younger days, had ignored her and her pleas had aged badly. Their children, who had mocked and tormented her, now adults, turned their heads around in shame. There were even a few of her fellow orphans, and they all still carried the effects of prolonged malnourishment on one or more limbs. Quylla, instead, looked like a queen. Her hairdo was perfect, her dress immaculate, and one of her jewels would have been enough to buy dozens of villages like Cerea. "I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I enrolled in the White Griffon Academy the same year as another commoner, Lith of Lutia, who’s better known as the Supreme Magus Lith Verhen. "I haven’t become as famous as him, but I’ve come a long way from the starving orphan you all knew." She waved at her dress and mage robe. "Yet the biggest difference between me and Lith is another. "This is how the village of Lutia looked in the year of our enrollment." A clap of Quylla’s hands conjured the hologram of a small village with few houses and no paved road. The people of Cerea looked at the shabby houses and weathered faces of the people of Lutia in confusion, having no idea what point Quylla was trying to prove. "This is that very same village today." Another clap, and the hologram of the medium-sized city of Lutia replaced the images of the shabby village. The hologram was centered on the city block formed by the buildings that once had been the entire village, so that the people of Cerea could recognize them from the previous hologram. Now the city extended as far as the eye could see, almost reaching the nearest cultivated fields to Cerea. The streets bustled with activity, the people smiled as they worked, and more importantly, Lutia thrived. "The biggest difference between Lith and me is that he had a family in Lutia. People he loved and cared for." Quylla said. "His presence alone brought Lutia fame, money, and attention. "In eight years, his small village grew in size until it became a city, and now Lutia has its own Warp Gate and branch of the Mage Association. In case you are wondering why Cerea is still a mudhole, you only have to look yourselves in the mirror to look the answer in the eyes. "I hated this place and I still hate it. I hated you all and I still do. So, when the Royals offered me rewards, I kept them to myself. When the noble Ernas family adopted me, I never mentioned Cerea. "When I became Assistant Professor and then a Great Mage, I could have done wonders for this place, but I chose not to. Because my greatest hope was to watch you all live and die in misery like the filthy bastards you are." "What about Duke Igha?" Coryn, one of her fellow orphans, asked. "He was the one who had the villagers build your house. He was the one who recommended you for the academy." "That parasite?" Quylla scoffed. "He dropped me at the White Griffon with no warning or backing. I wouldn’t have survived the first year if I hadn’t met people willing to look after me and become my family. "I returned his favor in kind. I paid him back for the house and dropped his name at the Headmaster once, just like Igha did for me. How is your leg, Coryn?" Quylla asked, noticing his limp. "It’s nothing much. I can manage." He replied with a shrug. "Oh, no you don’t." Quylla used her Injection spell to flood his body with nutrients and activated her tier five Body Sculpting spell, Silver Hand. After working on fallen life forces, healing a slightly deformed body was as easy as drawing a straight line. Before Coryn could understand what was happening, his underdeveloped muscles and misshapen leg had gained a few kilos of healthy flesh and bones. "I can’t give you a second growth spurt, but from now on, you can live a normal life." Coryn was still shorter than Quylla, but his body was now well proportioned. "I suggest you leave this place and never come back." "Can you give me a ride?" He asked. "I can do better. I can give you a job." Quylla replied. "Is this why you have come back?" An old villager asked. "To rub your success in our faces?" There were plenty of sick people in the village, but Quylla hadn’t moved to heal anyone after Coryn. Seeing her flaunting her powers and performing miracles was a slap in their faces that they couldn’t take in silence. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞 "If that were my intention, I would have already reduced this dump to rubble." She conjured a giant fireball above the village that everyone mistook for a second sun. "I know Marchioness Brinja Distar personally, and I have the power of the Ernas House behind me. "I’m a Great Mage. All it takes me to slaughter people like you and get away with it is one call. Also, I would have come here much sooner. I never returned to this place because I was ashamed of myself. "Because I wanted to pretend this part of my life never happened and leave the past behind. Yet now that I’m about to become a mother, I can’t allow more children to suffer knowing what they are going through. "If I did, I would be no better than people like you." Then, Quylla beckoned to the children living with Belam. "Follow me. I’m going to bring you to a place where you can eat every day, sleep in a warm bed, and won’t have to work until you come of age." "Really?" The young girl’s face lit up in a smile, until she remembered about her tormentor. She turned around to look at Belam in fear, and with her, the rest of the orphans. The village head was still sitting in a stinking pool of her own making, her face pale, and her eyes filled with tears. The invincible, cruel monster that had haunted the orphans’ nightmares for years was gone, replaced by a mean, terrified old lady. "Really." Quylla offered another piece of jam bread, and what was left of the orphans’ fear evaporated like snow under the sun. A few bolted outside the house to collect their prize, but most ran back inside. They went down in the basement to pick up the children who were too small, weak, or ill to move on their own. Orion stood there as a dozen malnourished, sickly children gathered around his daughter and shared the bread she offered them. He didn’t move, not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t. He was boiling with rage, and even though Grimlock was no Ragnarök, he could swear he heard the blade begging him to unsheathe it and paint the village red. Quylla healed the lesser ailments without putting strain on the already debilitated small bodies, ensuring the orphans would be conscious and lucid. She wanted them to hear what she had to say and remember it. "I’m not Quylla of Cerea anymore. I’m Quylla Ernas of the Ernas Region." she said.