Arsh turned to the children. Some of them were still crying in fear.
"Hey, hey, look at me. I'm okay, you see? Now everyone hold each other's hands and don't let go, okay?"
After moving through the corridors and taking a few turns, they came across a staircase. When they climbed it, Arsh saw a door and two men standing beside it. There was no time to react; they noticed each other right away.
Arsh moved instantly and jumped from the stair railings. In just 20 seconds, the two men were lying unconscious on the floor. As he was pulling the men out of the door, he saw the crests on their collars. They were probably hotel employees. That's why it was easy to take them out.
While pulling one of the men aside, he saw a couple of the older kids trying to pull the other man. He helped them, and they quickly cleared the doorway.
There was loud music coming from behind the door. Arsh took a deep breath and held the handle. Even though he knew it was relatively safe, he wasn't sure what was waiting for him, and it made him nervous.
When he opened the door, the intense light suddenly made him squint. As he slowly took a few steps inside, the children quietly followed him from behind.
He realized they were in an area reserved for staff, tucked into the corner of a large hall. It was located behind the bar section. That's why, even though he could see people sitting on couches, drinking, chatting, and dancing, no one had noticed them yet.
If he wanted to follow the golden thread and get out, he had to cross the hall and reach the door on the other side. Even on his own, with the clothes he was wearing, doing that without drawing attention would have been unlikely, but with dozens of children behind him, it was impossible.
He let out a deep breath. He glanced at the crowd in the hall, then at the children behind him.
"Now, children, you're going to keep following me. Don't get distracted, don't pay attention to anyone. We just need to walk toward that door. Can you see it?"
The children nodded together in unison.
"Now, let's move along the wall toward there." Arsh said.
They began to leave the corner they were hiding in, following Arsh.
Soon, everyone in the hall was staring at Arsh and the dozens of children. The music and the chatter came to a stop. But they kept calmly walking along the wall toward the door.
They continued walking for a while under the puzzled stares of the people around them. But soon, the waiters began to rush toward them. They stopped beside Arsh, assuming he was the only adult among them. Yet they had no idea what to do or what to say. They simply stared at them in shock.
One of them scratched his head while looking at the door where his coworker had gone to inform the manager. They knew how to handle different situations and different kinds of customers. Dealing with an unwanted guest was usually easy. But they had no idea what to do when they saw a bunch of children in the middle of a party.
While he was thinking about it, the door opened and he saw the manager's bald head.
"Do you mind stepping back? We're trying to get out of here." Arsh said in Symranese, using the politest tone he could muster.
"Ah… can you wait a moment, please? Our manager is here."
The bald, chubby man was trying to walk fast not running in front of the guests. At the same time, he was trying to show that everything was fine and under control with reassuring smiles toward the guests around him.
When one of the waiters burst into his room and told him that the hall was filled with native children, he already had an idea of where they had come from. Even though he didn't know all the details, he had received a request from the army to assign the hotel's storage area to a man named Paul Smith. And they had given him their word that there would never be a problem.
"What is going on here? What are you doing here? How did you enter our hotel without permission?" he tried to keep his voice under control as he confronted Arsh. Somehow, he needed to make this man look like the one responsible for this disruption in front of the guests and handle the situation before it escalated.
"Are you the manager of this hotel? Then I am sure you know what is going on here. A man is responsible for what happens in his own house."
Arsh's voice, unlike the manager's, was loud and clear.
"You are coming to my hotel with a bunch of beggars and trying to give me a lecture."
Arsh was sure the man knew what was going on here. There was fear in his eyes. If they were just a group of beggars who had broken into the hotel, there would be anger and maybe worry because of the situation in his eyes, not fear.
At Arsh's words, the manager, forgetting how he should appear in front of the guests, shouted, showing them that they were nothing more than beggars barging into the hotel. Even though this could damage the hotel's reputation, protecting himself was more important. It was better than aiding child kidnappers.
Although he couldn't see Arsh's expression, he was sure he was a native. Dealing with a native would be easy.
"Call the hotel guards and take this man and these children to the storage. I'm going to call the city guards." he said to the waiters beside him.
"Then go ahead and call the city guards first. That is also what I am going to do anyway, and I am going to explain to them what is happening here."
If the manager called the city guards, they would definitely take the children back. They never allowed a Kurshanese city guard to come here. That's why Arsh had to keep everything in front of the guests. If there were more witnesses, Juan could hold on somehow until help arrived.
Soon, a man from among the guests stood up and approached Arsh and the manager.
"I'm curious about what's going on here, Mr. Bennes. Could you give me an explanation?"
"Ah… Mr. Tiffany, sorry for the disruption. I really didn't want something like this to happen during your event. My hotel will compensate you for the inconvenience we've caused. Please, don't worry about it."
"Mr. Bennes, I am asking you to explain the situation, not to compensate me."
"Ah… the situation, you see, these beggars…" The manager's tone clearly revealed that he was intimidated by this man.
"Let me explain." Arsh interrupted the manager.
"You..."
"Please, I am listening." said Mr. Tiffany.
"These children were kidnapped from the city, poor areas, and villages of Kurshan. These children were bought by a guest staying at this hotel. They were all locked up in a dark room in the hotel's basement. From what I understand, the manager was already aware of this. I'm just doing what I have to do and trying to rescue them."
After giving the hotel manager a stern look, Mr. Tiffany turned back to Arsh.
"So, what do you plan to do now? How are you going to get the children out of here, and how will you help them?"
"Please call the Kurshanese city guards. They will help the children. Some of the children belong to natives in the city, even the city guards' families. So they won't let anyone touch them… And who are you?"
"I am The Senator's advisor and solicitor, Matthew Tiffany. I will help you. Is there anything else you need?"
He was someone higher up, so it was no surprise the manager was afraid of him. But the man looked kind. Arsh knew that he shouldn't trust him, but he thought there would be no problem if he called the native police. But things should be made more guarantee.
"That photographer. I want him to take a photo of the children. This incident needs to be in tomorrow's newspaper. Can you arrange this?"
"That is easy. I will deal with this. I won't ask you who you are."
"Thank you. But can I trust you fully?"
The man laughed. "You are right. But don't worry. Most of the time I can be a dirty solicitor. But not toward children and not in front of my own children."
He looked back while saying this. In the direction he was looking, there was a beautiful woman and two beautiful children: a boy around five and a girl around ten.
Arsh nodded. Matthew Tiffany sent his men to call the Kurshan city guards. After that, he didn't leave Arsh's side, and didn't let the manager go anywhere. He smiled at the children.
"Can you ask them if they are hungry?"
Arsh asked them in their native language. They all nodded, and some of them started crying again.
"Manager, tell the waiters to prepare plates."
"But Mr. Tiffany."
"Mr. Bennes, if I were you, I would be fast." He looked kinda scary.
Soon the children sat on the floor, eating food from a plate in their lap. They were children and forgot the scary things that had happened to them as they ate something good.
Arsh was watching them with a smile, thinking that soon everything would be alright. He didn't know what happened to Juan and the others. He focused on them and tried to find where they were. He saw golden threads, some of them far away, some of them close.
'I can assume they are alive.' he thought.
"You should also eat something." said Matthew Tiffany.
"I don't feel that relaxed to eat something in that kind of situation."
"Okay, you are right. I can't make you trust me. But everything will be alright in the morning. My advice is that you should hide before the guards arrive. There will definitely be Symranian city guards, and even though you didn't do anything bad, I can't guarantee you'll be safe once your identity is found."
He was right. He was also thinking about that, but he didn't want to leave the children.
A little girl came up to Arsh and grabbed his pinky finger.
Arsh knelt down and looked at the girl. "Is something wrong?"
The girl took a piece of bread and pressed it into Arsh's mouth, over the mask. "Do you want me to eat this?"
The girl nodded.
"Okay."
Arsh lifted his mask slightly and took a bite.
It wasn't bread. It was something sweet with an aroma he never tasted before.
"Hmm... This is so tasty. Thank you so much."
He patted the child's head. He watched the little girl until she returned to the others.
"Will they be able to find their families?"
"Not all of them, I believe. Some of them are homeless children. You can tell just by looking at them," said Matthew Tiffany.
Arsh had also realized it when watching them.
Matthew kept talking.
"Don't worry. There is a place for children like them. I will make sure of their situation."
In that moment, he felt a familiar sensation and heard a voice: "You can trust him." One of the golden threads coming from his hands wrapped around his body and moved away. 'He is scary, that is a really scary ability.' he thought.
He tried to keep a calm expression on his face. He pretended to be thinking about what Matthew said.
"Okay, I will trust you."
"I am glad to hear that... You changed your mind quickly. But now it is time for you to go."